Reflections on State Meet

[Sterlingdad]

I took my daughter to the state meet this weekend. It was a disaster. We got up early and drove 4 hours to be there on time. All the other girls were on time as well. The only one who wasn't was the coach. Warm-up started at 11:30am, with introductions at noon and events beginning right after. The girls have been told numerous times not to begin warming up without their coach present, so they were afraid to start stretching. The coach arrived after noon. A parent had to go to the coach meeting and get the info, and a coach from another team organized my daughter's group for the presentation. Needless to say, they weren't ready to compete and the meet was a mess. Little girls have enough to worry about without having to wonder if they'll be disqualified for having no coach. And even level 5's need a lot of warm-up.

I notice other coaches having the girls stretch or work on parts of routines every spare minute they're not competing. Their warm-up times on the apparati seem to be used efficiently. My daughter was upset because she only got to try two kips before she had to compete on bars. She just wasn't ready.

I guess I'm not sure how angry to be. This isn't typical, is it? It's not the first meet where this has happened. The coach stated she thought the start time was later, so it wasn't due to an unforeseeable situation.

The good news is that for as bad as it went overall, my daughter got a 7th place medal on one event, which made her happy. At 8, she had no pretensions of being any better yesterday, luckily. It's hard when she was much better last year before we moved here.

Anyone else have frustrations? There's not much to be done but leave the gym, which we were planning to do anyway for financial reasons, but this kind of cemented things for us.

[ZJsMom]

I would be furious. That's really inexcusable--especially for states. It's the biggest meet of the season and the coach couldn't be bothered to double check the start time?

[melmonette]

Congratulations on your daughter's 7th place finish in one of her events That is awesome.
I can't believe the coach. I mean come on... This is her job... those girls depend on her. I can't believe she didn't know the start time. Wow..... I would be more than irate...
I am sorry that happened to your daughter and the other girls

[bogwoppit]

Your DD did a great job under the circumstances, she must feel very proud.

I know it is very tough not to have good choices in gyms, especially when your daughter loves it so much.

The coach has a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, it is her job to be there and she has the responsibility of making sure her gymnasts are able to be their best at any meet and especially States.

Only once did our coach not make it, her car got broken into and the windows smashed, it was -30 and 6 am in the morning. She called ahead to a parent and had a coach from another club warm up the girls(not a problem at all) and arrived just in time with the floor music (which she had fortunately taken inside with her, unlike all her other stuff that got stolen).

There is always a way for a coach to make things right, no excuse for not calling, even in a terrible emergency.

[medic3188]

our coach was late for a meet this season. It was so stressful for my dd.

[gymmomntc2e6]

I would be furious !!! How is it possible for the coach to not know the start time if ALL the team members did? Is it not her job? At least an emergency would let there be some 'reasonable' explination. Not knowing the start time of the state meet is.... I can't even think of a word for it.

Good luck at your new gym, and KUDOS to your daughter an the medal.

[fruitcake]

Ohh--I know who your dd is! We hosted the state meet and someone told our head coach that there was a girl with no coach. Our head coach tried to get the girl to head out to warmup--offered to watch her, help her. The girl said no because the coach would be mad. I know coach had her go sit by the head table to keep an eye on her til coach came--I never saw what happened after that. What an awful way to start off your state meet!

[gym law mom]

I would be more than upset with the coach. How could she confuse times? As for your question about not having the girls all together, this is normal for state meets. Usually they do try and keep all the girls from the same gym in the same rotation, so coaches aren't bouncing back and forth between events trying to get kids ready, however the actual order the girls compete in is done by a draw. So, you might see 2 girls from your gym going right after each other then have to wait for another who is later in the group. Many times they split the group up in 1/2 and the 1st half warms up while the 2nd 1/2 sit. This should have at least been explained to the girls so they understood what was happening before they even got to the meet.

We went through the coaches coming late to my gymmie's L5 state meet. They did get hung up by bad weather(should have left a little earlier) and I could see how stressed the girls looked waiting. Another coach who knew our coaches came over and got them going with his girls for open stretch and the coaches got in about 5 minutes later. Boy did they give the "glare" to their coaches!!