not sure about the future???

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Another perspective

I have to offer a perspective based on my own gym's policies. We "compete" levels 2 + 3 at "fun meets" which ask for a basic admission cost plus whatever the parents are already paying for the rec classes. Any gymnast in the rec classes can "compete" at these meets - the judging is very informal, no places are given, and several years ago when I did one, the "judges" wrote down nice comments on your "scorecard" like "Awesome dive roll!" and "Great pointed toes!" for each event. The travel may be up to two hours drive depending on where you live, but participation in these meets is completely optional if you live far away from one, but want to attend another that is closer.

Apparently the OP's daughter is in an actual scheduled team program that is more serious than the fun meets I've been to, and hence the pressure and money issue is greater. However, at these fun meets, the girls can have little idea what to expect or what routine they should do, as they rarely do routines in practice, which is a limited amount of time anyway. If her DD's tuition wasn't as much and her class not as serious, I would say that this is a completely normal experience for L3.

As it is, I wouldn't stress out about the "poor preparation" of the coaches unless the team places a lot of emphasis on success at meets at L3. It could be that the coaches don't feel it's important to spend a lot of time on L3 routines and are working on skills and conditioning that will make the girls successful gymnasts later on. Although that does make me wonder why you're spending so much money to compete...so I'd talk to the coaches to clear up expectations about meets and routines, etc.

 

[scarecrow66]

I agree that winning isn't everything, but I don't agree that she should have been embarrassed by not being properly prepared. She totally did not know her floor routine.....she only learned it the week prior. That, to me, is just wrong. I don't care that she didn't get any medals, I care that my daughter had to go through the pain of something that could have been avoided. Know what I mean?

 

[scarecrow66]

Thanks to all who answered my question. To clear up some misconceptions: my daughter is actually very lean (one poster thought maybe her upper body strength difficulties was due perhaps to her needing to lose weight) so that is not the issue. She also has no medical issues, she is very healthy. She participates in TOPs to facilitate gaining upper body strength; it is just something she has to work on. She was in L2 for 2 years, but only participated in about 6 meets at that level. The gym changed ownership last year, so the meets she participated in were this past fall season, in L2. She did fine, really no problems, certainly not as badly as this past meet. When I said we spent $500, that included meet fees, coaches fees, hotel room, food, etc. If you just count meet fees, coaches fees I suppose it is less, but I total up everything. She loves gymnastics and I DON'T want to pull her out, that is not my intent. I want what is best for her in the long run. I have a call in to the gym to speak with the owner so that I can schedule a meeting b/c I do want to speak to them and the coach to find out what happened at the meet. My daughter wasn't the only one with poor scores. But thanks everyone for your kind words.....

 

[cher062]

at L 3 I think its not necessary to do big travel meets at all. $500 on a meet etc isn't something I would have done at L3 (I'm assuming L3 USAG). I think L4 - 6 maybe one or two "travel" meets like about 2 hours away where you could drive or stay in a hotel if you wanted is enough. I think at the optional levels however L7 and up a few "bigger" travel meets where you do need to stay because of the distance isn't bad.

I would just talk to the coach calmly and voice your concerns.

With that said your DD could have been nervous too with this as her first L3 meet. Yes she competed last year as a L2 but any time I see the girls move up they always get messed up at the first few meets at a new level. Be your DD's biggest fan. Find something that you loved, great team spirit, great arms, pointed toes etc. Encourage without judging. A few bad meets are going to happen. As far as a month of practice well I guess that depends on the gymnast. I've seen girls that is more than enough time to get it and others that need all year. Even though you don't think she did well the experience of being at the meet and Part of the team I think is more than worth it. It can be hard to be the kid on the team left behind at the gym.

 

[flip out]

Poor you and your DD! That sounds like an awful experience. I would have to say that it was irresponsible of the coaching staff to allow her to compete when she was not ready. For me, I would have been furious that so much cash was involved...traveling for a level 3 experience with hotel costs...little kids? Seems ridiculous.

Give her LOTS of time to learn stuff...she doesn't need to be a high achiever to love the sport. Just be sure that she is ready to compete when a meet is being planned. She needs to feel successful!! She deserves that and so do you!

BEST OF LUCK!

 

[gymjoy]

I feel for your dd and for you. What a horrible experience that could have, and should have, been avoided. And your dd is old enough to understand that - which makes it worse. No child should be placed in a position that will publicly embarrass them. The coaches should be ashamed of themselves.

You mentioned you have a meeting with the owner and coach to talk about this. I think they owe you and your dd, as well as all the other girls, an explanation and an apology!

Some questions for you. How many levels compete for your gym? How do they preform at meet - fair, good,really well? In those 2 years at L2 did they coaches up-train the girls to get them ready for L3? Are the coaches active and encouraging during practice and during meets?

If your dd really loves gymnastics you might need a gym that cares for the sport and its gymnast more than the one you are at. I don't know where you are, or the availability of gyms, etc, but your story gives me flashbacks to my own dd's first season. She made it to states (L4) after the team only went to very small, poorly attended meets. I thought she might do okay - until I saw what the others gyms did during warm-ups!! I was so upset and angry with the coaches. I felt like they had been lying to us all season. My dd was going to go out there and look foolish. Heck, the whole team looked foolish. At least they had the benefit of knowing the routine, but everything else - UGH. The next week we went to a new gym. A gym were they had a plan, taught progressions, and cared (at the least) for there own reputation.

I know I sound harsh, but this makes me very angry. It should not have happened. I wish you and your dd the best.

 

[sheplaysinthechalk]

There were a few red flags in this post to me...

I think I'm pretty much in agreement with the other posters here......except...

There is no way in H*LL I would ever ever ever fork out 500 dollars on a meet knowing that my daughter wasn't ready. (guess i'm cheap too) And, frankly, knowing that she had just learned the routines 1 week prior would have been my first clue. My daughter is in love with gymnastics, and loves to compete - but I am her mother and I am ultimately in charge of which meets we sign up for. I am not paying a "coaches fee" or an "entry fee", spending 50 on gas and 100+ on a hotel knowing that my child doesn't have a prayer and might feel humiliated.

However, if I had been lead to believe that my daughter was ready and when we got there I found out that she was so unprepared, I would be livid ticked off.

Did the OP's mention if they are required to compete? I question what kind of gym would require competition of their unprepared gymnasts. To me, that's a joke, and my kid isn't going to be the butt of their joke. Know what I mean?

Did you say 2 years at L2? Seems like a long time to be doing cartwheels, headstands, back hip circles, tuck jumps, leg swings and forward rolls...Where is all of the up training? IMHO, 2 years is AMPLE time to move through level 2 and work on level 3 skills...(yes, I do realize that all gymnasts progress at different rates, but 2 years for the above mentioned skills??? AND AT A GYM THAT IS TRAINING TOPS??? come on.)

I'm probably not gonna make any friends with this next statement, but... I almost find it embarrassing that a gym that trains TOPs would compete girls that were so poorly prepared. I get that TOPs training is completely separate from level 3 compulsory, but still. I don't understand why some gyms don't just focus on TOPs skills, conditioning, and flex for the serious TOPs kids and quit worrying so much about competing level 2 and 3 with their TOPs kids. Their time could be better spent up training and on fundamentals...not compulsory level 3, hello.

Anyway, now that I've voiced what I probably should have left alone....if your daughter loves gymnastics then there is really no reason why she shouldn't continue to do it. Gymnastics is an awesome sport for all ages and all levels of talent. It's more than just flipping and spinning - gymnastics is full of life lessons.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

I remember Pickle's first L4 meet was a complete disaster. Most of the kids on her team came from a developmental program so this was their first competition ever. It's a meet our gym always does, and an important meet in our state, but it turned out to much earlier in the season that it typically had been, so our girls didn't even have their uniforms in yet. Several girls forgot their floor routines and Pickle fell off the beam three times and was in tears by the time we reached vault. As parents, we were all ready to quit the gym.

Flash forwared two months when we had our next meet (remember, the first one was a month earlier than usual for some reason) and almost all the girls had qualifying scores.

In some ways I wish we didn't have that first disasterous meet because it really did feel like a blow in confidence, but you have to start somewhere and it certainly made the girls work harder for the next meet.

And, I second the idea that a travel meet for the first L3 meet is crazy. Unless you live in a really rural area where you need to travel that far to get enough girls to participate, I would never do that. We had one travel meet all year for L4, and that was optional and towards the end of the season. And honestly, I think the reason we do that one is that the scores are really high at that meet (it's in another state) and so girls who are used to getting 35-36s will hit 37-38s which is very exciting for them. All of our other meets (except for states) have been less than 45 miles from our gym.

 

[All Chalked Up]

Maybe she could stick to rec gymnastics, training her regualr routines but not going to competitions, but only if she wants to. Try more upper body conditioning, or maybe it isn't for her. She could always try rythmic ot trampolining. Hope I helped!
_____________________________________________
"Will you do that twirly thing on the long high bar again?"

 

[All Chalked Up]

Or try Level 2 again!