Home gym advantage or disadvantage?

Blackie6 · 01-06-2008, 10:18 PM

My dd had her last meet today before states. It was in our gym and I thought she would do better being that the meet was in her house.

I was wrong, it was not a great meet at all. On bars, which is usually her best she fell off on the mill circle for a 6.8 & the beam was so close to the audience it was uncomfortable for me to sit that close to her while she did her routine so I got up and moved off to the back. It didn't help and she fell off that too & ended up with a 7.4. But she did do better the further she got away from the crowd and did a 9.4 on vault! She tied with an older and the highest score producer on our team. When they flashed the score I heard people saying "who got THAT?" so I was pretty proud in spite of the other scores. Floor was a little better at a 7.75

Because it was the last meet the judges were told to really score hard so we already forwarned about not having high scores today, but I still thought because she would in in her own gym on her own bars, beam, ect it would be home gym advantage. Wrong. Maybe even the extra family members that came to watch because it was so close to home might have caused some distraction.

When you have meets at your gym do you feel you have the advantage or disadvantage?

melmonette · 01-07-2008, 01:59 PM

Congratulations on your daughter's last meet even if she had a couple of falls

Awesome vault score

See in Kansas, you can't have the State meets at anyone's home gym. It doesn't matter what gym hosts it, it has to be in a public gym with rented equipment.
However, my daughter did better last year at away meets than at home meets except one meet that is. This year both our meets so far have been at home but our next two are away and I am nervous about them because of the equipment. Last year vault caused issues with the girls because of the mats they used were so differrent than our gyms that all the girls were complaining how much it hurt to land on them compared to our own gym. This affected the teams vaulting scores and all the gymnasts scored lower than usual in all our away meets on vault. It didn't seem to effect beam, floor or bars though.

Blackie6 · 01-07-2008, 04:09 PM

Melmonette,

Our States is hosted by a gym but no it won't be in their gym, it is held at another facility. And like you mentioned I am finding out that some of those meets held in bigger venues (not in gyms) don't have the same kinds of mats and springboards. We attended a huge meet in NY and our team did horrible on vault. All our girls were falling off the bars there too, but my DD managed to stick it and got her first individual medal there. The mat was a blow-up kind and the springboards had no spring to them. It was sort of funny watching all the coaches trying all of them to see which was the best of the worst, LOL

I don't know, maybe in their own gym they feel more like it's a practice or more distracted by all the people they know watching them and working the meets? It was just a very weird day. I can't wait until States is done though, I like just good ol practice days.

gym law mom · 01-07-2008, 05:05 PM

Blackie--I think there are pros/cons to a home meet. On the plus side the girls know the equipment---how the floor feels, springboards etc. At our former gym the last practice before the home meet, the girls would do routines on the beams and bars that were going to be used in the meet.

The downside is sometimes they just get too excited since this is their chance to shine in front of the other team girls, parents/friends etc. Most gyms do talk up the home meet to the girls---they like for their teams to place well at their own meet. Sometimes some of the kids just get worn out before they even compete. I know with our compulsory meet this fall we had to kick the L5 and 6 girls out as we were setting up. They all wanted to stay and help or just hang out. Their coaches sent them all home with orders to do hair and go to bed!

Blackie6 · 01-07-2008, 07:33 PM

LOL, about making them go home. You are so right! I went back last night to help clean-up and my dd did better "playing" while cleaning up than in the actual meet. The girl that used to fall on her head doing ROBHS...remember me post about that? Not anymore, she was a flippin fool. She also helps me set up alot, so I'll be sure to remember that for next year. Thankfully this meet wasn't an invitational, it's called a ready set go meet. After each rotation the judges talk to the gymnasts and tell them what they can do to improve scores. Good time for new gymnast, or new levels, no individual medals and no team award.

Maybe when she gets older and can figure out how to handle the nerves with the close up crowd, "home" may work better.

melmonette · 06:05 AM

Sorry Blackie, I thought you said that your home meet was States... I guess I oversighted that this was the last meet BEFORE states... LOL.... Totally my fault for not reading correctly.

Yes we had those blow up mats too at 2 of our meets and the girls did awful on them. Maybe those big huge mats are just too hard to transfer so on those meets with rented equipment that is all you can get is those blow up things. I just don't know.