State meet this weekend... and

[gymmomfothree]

I am so excited and nervous at the same time.

She looks good and has had three other level 4 meets.... Her 1st two meets were great... scores improved at each meet. But her last meet .. she fell off the beam on her heel snap.. and bursted into tears... of course, she got back up on the beam and completed her routine... but crying... it just broke my heart.

I was proud of her for getting back up and finishing... but man... it was hard seeing her so disappointed...

Of course, my little 8 year old has not figured out how to not let a disappointment affect the rest of her events...

So I am nervous for her... but I am working very hard not to show it...

So here we go...

[midwestgymmom]

Good luck to her and just think how gymnastics will make her strong enough to persevere when things are tough and you want to stop and cry but you know you can finish. Thats the main thing.

[melmonette]

Good luck this weekend. I bet you will all come back beaming with happiness Have lots of fun

[Granny Smith]

Good luck this weekend!

What I tell my dd (who is now 11 and a level 7) is if you fall off of beam, take a deep breath and then get up and finish - doing the best that you can. She can still finish pretty high in AA even with a fall. My dd learned that she could still finish pretty high AA with a fall this yr.

Good luck and fingers crossed for a great meet!

[hunde2]

We have good coaches in our gym that not only prepare the kids physically for the meet but also mentally.It is not always about the winning(it is nice though and raises the kids selfestem).It is important that you know you tried your hardest.They also stress that having fun is also important.Praise her after the meet no matter what outcome and tell her how proud you are.
Good Luck

[gym law mom]

Have a great time at states. It is hard to see the girls cry during a meet. I was scoring at our recent meet and had a few come to sit and wait next to me for their ribbons(Level 4) and they were sobbing over doing bad vaults. I wanted to pick them up and hold them! Had to tell 1 that the judges take the best score of the 2(she had balked on her 2nd vault)---that seemed to brighten her up a little.

I've also told my gymie to take a nice deep breath before remounting whatever she fell off of---so did the coaches. Finally, to put falls in perspective I told her every girl who has ever done gymnastics has fallen. You can tell her that her fav(whoever it might be) has fallen more than once and its not so much the fall, but what you do after the fall that matters. The best thing is just get back up and do the rest of the routine as well as she can. I've seen some really good routines that had a fall in them and the rest of the routine was so good, you almost forget the girl fell.

She should be proud(as should you) that she gets to go to states---have a fun time and let us know how it went.

[mariposamama]

tell her good luck for this weekend. GLM had an excellent post. falls suck, but they happen to every gymnast. i would have been so proud she finished. that has to be hard.

[nettyinpa]

gymmomofthree ~ How did dd's meet go this weekend?