Emily's 4th Level 4 meet KC-Coed Invitational

[melmonette]

Emily had some tough competition again. I don't know what is with the 8 year old groups at meets but boy they just throw up the highest scores of all the age groups in every meet. First of all... there was 4 teams at this meet however, there was 30 8 year olds among the 4 teams. This meet didn't break them up into 8a(younger) or 8b(older) groups today... They just made all 30 girls gut it out together. Oh and just to show how big it was there was only (10) 10 year olds and like (15) 9 year olds, and the other groups were anywhere from 1-12ish girls in the age groups.
Okay Emily started off with beam, first rotation and first competitor on beam for this session. She had a big wobble on her first 1/2 turn and seemed a little shakey a few other times, but she got an 8.8 which is her lowest beam score of the year so far. However, this beam judge was not nice to anyone so I wasn't too concerned after I saw other scores. She barely gave anyone above a 9.0. In her team of 30 level 4s... Only 4 had 9.0 and one a 9.25(she normally scores 9.5 in every meet). Then the next highest score for her team was 8.8 which was Emily and two other of her team mates.
Okay now onto Floor EX... This time she went last in the rotation, had a great routine and a 9.15 which was .05 lower than last meet and only one in her rotation to get a 9 at all.
Next was vault... She finally did it, she broke the 9s... with a 9.1. I was elated. Again judge was tough so Emily did great with a tough judge. Highest vault score of the meet was a 9.35.
finally we finished with bars... a great beautiful routine and a 9.1 score which I thought should have been higher. Even watching the video back... I think she was definitely underscored on bars.
Emily finished with a 36.15 in this meet.
So places....
Same team took pretty much 1-3 all out scoring Emily in every event by .1 or .2
Emily 9.1 Vault for 6th place
9.1 Bars for 5th place (fyi... 9.1 would have been 1st place in all other age groups)
8.8 Beam for 5th place again 8.8 was second in most age groups
9.15 Floor Ex 5th place again and again 9.15 was 2nd or 3rd in all other age groups.
36.15 All Around and 4th place. and this score would have been either 1st or 2nd in the other age groups.
It just amazes me how in every meet the 8 year olds just always have the toughest competition in every meet. I am just glad Emily has been so consistant this year.
She was the only 8 year old for our team to make the podium and we have (6) 8 year olds on our team.
The good thing about this meet though is they give a great goodie bag and everyone gets a medal in the All Around awards so no one goes home empty handed.

Oh and our team after our great Diamond meet last week, scored 110.85 down almost 2 points which I think was all judging. We took 2nd place to the team that had the 3 8 year olds that beat the pants off everyone else in the meet. Thank goodness that team is a Missouri team and we won't have them at our states, lol.
We have beat all the Kansas teams so far this year which if we keep it up, we can win state

I have her videos up at youtube except for the awards ceremony because I didn't have time to upload it yet and will tomorrow sometime....

Vault
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaLuZY2PCR8

Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mYv9U8wtws

Beam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhOWJXB0ZNo

Floor EX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDBtsnmwqA

[Aussie_coach]

Congratulations to your daughter, it sounds like she did really well and is competing level 4 very well. Our level 4's would love to have a competition with only 30 competitiors but that is not s reality for them. In Australia the kids are only divided into two age groups in level 4, under 10 and open. It means they sometimes compete against up to 150 girls in one event. It's crazy.

[xstitchcarina]

She did really well, especially with the tough judging. Well done.

[GymKitty]

Congratulations Emily! She did very well, even with the tough judges. I enjoyed watching her videos, she's a cutie. Thanks for sharing. When is her next meet?

[bogwoppit]

She looks so great. You are right about bars, she has the same long lines as the lovely Nastia Liukin, once she gets away from the level 4 routine she'll really get to shine (I know she has her kip already). Loved her floor too!

She did a great job, she must be very proud of herself.

By the way, nice hair!!!

[mariposamama]

great job emily!

[melmonette]

Thank you everyone
Bogwoppit... Yes Emily has grown quite a few inches this year but what I noticed the most is that it has actually made her a much more graceful gymnast. She seems to tower over the other 8 year olds at every meet and looks so much older and mature too. I don't know what it is but her bars just keep getting prettier and prettier to me and same with beam(well when she isn't wobbling all over the place) She does some of the prettiest beam routines in practice. I wish nerves wouldn't strike so much in competion. Her spit leaps and jumps on floor are really starting to take off too and she is really working on her switch leaps anytime she can which is in the house non stop, lol. Yes I think once we get past stride circles and shoot throughs to never be seen again.. She will shine on bars.
Some days her kips are strong enough to go right into her front hips but some days they are not so good, lol, kwim. Oh and she has some work to do on her squat on, jump to the high bar, we have some fear issues there but we are working on it.

[melmonette]

I got her awards video up at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qimRX2Eyy7U

You can see all her competition. This meet went out 50% in awards for each age group in individual events and 100% for the all around. All medals. The girls love this meet so much.

[bogwoppit]

It's funny really, here in Quebec a kip isn't really essential until about the equivalent of level 7, before that it is a bonus or not even required. However the squat on and jump to the high bar is part of even recreational and development routines. So my little DD has that nailed for years, but the kip, well that's a whole other tale, she'll work on it at the end of the season, but she won't really need it next year, it'll be a .3 bonus on each bar if she gets it.

I am sure she'll get her squat on in time, she seems very determined.

[Monkeygirlsmom]

Great job to your dd!! she did a nice ob it was nice seeing those videos! I cant wait to get some of my girls!! to show you all