Parents Does Everyone Get a Trophy?

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lilmisssunshine

Proud Parent
My son is only on the pre-team and we've only been doing gymnastics for about 3 months. Today, I guess the coach was trying to give the kids a pep talk and, according to my son, "they can get a trophy in 7 months at the competition". (Their first competition will be in December.)
For some reason, I thought that it was just the top kids getting a medal in gymnastics, but was I wrong? Will all participants get a trophy?
If it matters, this is Level 4 boys and we're in upstate NY.
 
Many meets at the lower levels everyone gets a medal, for all around. Trophies umm can only speak to girls. Some meets they just do medals not trophies.
 
Speaking to girls gym also, sorry. Non sanctioned meets tend to place everyone, so everyone gets a medal, ribbon or trophy (depending on what the host gym goes with). Most I've noticed do ribbons for events and trophies for AA. Sanctioned meets typically place top 50% of the age group per event. Not sure how this compares to boys.
 
Boys' side here... We are not in your region, so I can't speak locally. But, this is how things play out here...

Level 4 means ribbons. Lots and lots of ribbons. Blue, Red, or White depending on score. And a participation item of some sort (anything from a magnet to a frisbee.) Very little podium / placement. Typically (at least where we are) trophies go to teams, not individuals. The idea (I think) is to keep the boys excited enough that they keep going until they start to do placements and podium in level 5. There are a couple of parents on CB in your region that may be able to offer more insight.

Level 4 is a big transition. You may encounter one meet that's all about "1st Place..!",but the next meet will be all about "Yay Everyone!" Just roll with it.

{P.S.: Keep in mind, that if you are comparing boys/girls in lower compulsories. Boys 4 ~= Girls 3 ; Boys 5 ~= Girls 4. Very roughly.}
 
I have a boy and girls; but am a different region. Here girls and boys are pretty similar and level 4 is about the same as the others. Here, most meets do 50% or 50%+1 for placement. Some do 40%. The only boys' meet that normally goes out all the way for AA is state, state is a participation medal for the AA bottom 50% and places for the top 50%, for events it is 50% that place. I know that we are different, level 4 does not tend to get ribbons and there are definitely boys who walk away with no medals.

As for trophies, a few meets per year will do a trophy for top 3 places AA (I can think of one boys meet and 2 girls meets that do this). Other than that, it is medals for individuals and trophy for team, again out 50%. (No trophy for the kids.) Some meets do a banner instead of trophy for team.
 
Awesome! This is so good to know. This whole gymnastics thing has all come at us pretty quickly and I don't know what to expect. My son is quite competitive, and I've been somewhat worried thinking about him competing and wondering if maybe I should not allow him to compete or something if he wasn't really able to place. I know he'd be really down on himself if he wasn't the winner.

However, he's done BMX racing and got a trophy for that in a situation where everyone got a trophy (He actually did well in one meet, but came in dead last in the one that really counted.) and his face just lit up and I know that he has no idea he didn't actually win. LOL.

I'll definitely talk to the coach for further clarification, but I'm feeling so much better about future competitions.
 
In or area, there were ribbons for event scores and an all around medal for everyone at level 4. There were trophies for team places, usually top 3 teams.

Level 5 and above, medals are awarded for all around and events, usually either the top 10 places or 50% of each age group. Again trophies for top teams.
 
For L4 boys, it depends on the meet. Most meets, however, do not give trophies to all participants, even at L4. If awards go all the way out, it's more likely medals or ribbons. Again on the boys' side, trophies are pretty few and far between and if given, are generally limited to top three; I'd say the norm is medals with a few meets that do ribbons for lower placements.
 
For L4 boys, it depends on the meet. Most meets, however, do not give trophies to all participants, even at L4. If awards go all the way out, it's more likely medals or ribbons. Again on the boys' side, trophies are pretty few and far between and if given, are generally limited to top three; I'd say the norm is medals with a few meets that do ribbons for lower placements.

My son may also not be differentiating between "medal" and "trophy", or the coach may have been stressing the need for all of them to work hard so that the *team* could bring home a trophy. It's a very good idea for me to check in with the coach.
 
We're in your region (7), and my son did level 4 last year (my youngest will be doing it this year). I think for pretty much all the meets it was medals for the kids that placed (number of placements depended on number of boys competing) on the individual events, then trophies for 1st, 2nd, 3rd all around and medals for those that placed, and participation ribbons for all kids (some meets recognized all kids by name, some just handed them out to the kids as they were sitting waiting at awards). I think trophies and banners for the team competitions. States was a little different (we are not in your state though). In states, the kids that placed got medals or ribbons, then all kids got ribbons that were blue, white or red depending on their score.

I think our gym gives small participation trophies to all kids at the end of the year.
 
Also in R7 and our L4 meets did not give out any ribbons. There were medals for the top scoring boys (50% out was the most I ever saw, and in one case only the top 10 out of 60+ boys got awards), including at States, with a trophy for first place only. One meet did give out a participation medal, but it was just in the gift bag and not "awarded".

My son did not get a medal at his first meet and was devastated. I wish I had prepared him better for that possibility. He went on to have a fantastic season after that, and I think it was a very good lesson for him to learn not to expect medals, but that was still a tough day for him.
 
WOW. Ou level 4s only got ribbons for their scores. They might have gotten participation medals as well, but I can' remember back that far! I do remember the ribbons....even at state.
 
Our region did ribbons for scores at level 4. A few meets had medals. Usually all the way out and top groups got gold middle group silver lower scoring kids bronze. My oldest was almost 11 and his level 4 awards never ended up on the wall. His level 5 and 7 ones did - but my little one who did level 4 at 6 still is proud of those medals. He's just "getting " it fully at age 10. Luckily he tended to medal in 2-3 things at most meets as a first year level 6 this year so some "real" success.

For boys level 4 is very basic and just keeping them interested enough to keep working is the overall goal. I like the boys compulsory system much more than girls (having a level 8 but and girl ). Much less pressure for perfection on the boys Andorra room for them to take their time.
 
Plus with six events, there's more opportunity for everyone to have one good one, and almost everyone has a few bad ones, so placements tend to spread out more across the team at the lower levels. :) I love meets where every boy gets at least something!
 
Old 4, they placed all the way out, so they got medals for everything. DD got a couple of trophies, one for highest L4 AA at the meet, one was a snow globe that was more of a meet gift. I think they all got little plastic participation trophies at states.

New 4 they started only awarding 50% or so. Meets sometimes gave out top 3 trophies - she got 2, plus one participation at states.

New 5, same award out stats, a few top 3 trophies, she got 1 and another participation @states.
 
I found the rules for awards on our state's men's gymnastics website, so NY may have something similar. The rules apply to all state qualifying meets, so any out of state meets of course would have different rules. The year my son did L4 medals were 50% +1 for AA only, and nothing for events. They also gave out ribbons at each event, but they were not part of the award ceremony.
 

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