WAG Regional scoring variability

[CuriousCate]

So after reading the Level 4 mobility score post, I was wondering what regions folks feel have "easier" vs. "harder" scoring. I wonder how broad the scoring variability is, especially given the nationally set mobility scores... I feel like I read a post about that on here before but couldn't find it with searching.

I'm region 8 but have only been in this region. I assume that it is relatively mid-line scoring as the girls from our gym seem to score in the same range when they travel to other regions for meets, but who knows!

 

[e'smum]

i'm in region 6. most meets in our home state - MA. have been to meets in NYC and NJ. have found them about the same as far as scoring. last weekend our team (not us) went to CA for a meet. i thought that perhaps they had easier scoring b/c they get such high scores vs. in our region (ie - about 2 points higher). in MA, getting a 36+ is really good but a 36+ in CA is like a 34 here. lol. but nope, scoring for our girls was the same as here. they scored about the same. maybe a tad bit higher but that could be because it was their 3rd meet and they did better or maybe easier scoring (i noticed it on vault for my dd's team). but not enough to make a huge difference.
so now i know. scoring is basically the same on both coasts. lol

 

[Sasha]

i'm in region 6. most meets in our home state - MA. have been to meets in NYC and NJ. have found them about the same as far as scoring. last weekend our team (not us) went to CA for a meet. i thought that perhaps they had easier scoring b/c they get such high scores vs. in our region (ie - about 2 points higher). in MA, getting a 36+ is really good but a 36+ in CA is like a 34 here. lol. but nope, scoring for our girls was the same as here. they scored about the same. maybe a tad bit higher but that could be because it was their 3rd meet and they did better or maybe easier scoring (i noticed it on vault for my dd's team). but not enough to make a huge difference.
so now i know. scoring is basically the same on both coasts. lol

Northern or Southern CA? Two different "States" as far as USAG boundaries go, and I've heard others post impressions that they differ. Just curious which you experienced.

 

[e'smum]

Northern or Southern CA? Two different "States" as far as USAG boundaries go, and I've heard others post impressions that they differ. Just curious which you experienced.

San Diego so No Cal???

we did not go. we were just there last summer for vacation so i couldn't justify going to the exact same area in CA twice in a 5 month time frame.

but most of the other girls went and the scoring was about the same. maybe a couple of tenths higher. and that could be that this was meet 3 and they are doing a little better or it could be scoring. but the only place i saw a big difference was vault. i think it was more generous compared to their scores here the two prior meets but that could be those particular judges because it wasn't the overall meet scoring. and that happens here too where you get judges more giving on a particular event.

 

[sce]

San Diego so No Cal???

we did not go. we were just there last summer for vacation so i couldn't justify going to the exact same area in CA twice in a 5 month time frame.

but most of the other girls went and the scoring was about the same. maybe a couple of tenths higher. and that could be that this was meet 3 and they are doing a little better or it could be scoring. but the only place i saw a big difference was vault. i think it was more generous compared to their scores here the two prior meets but that could be those particular judges because it wasn't the overall meet scoring. and that happens here too where you get judges more giving on a particular event.

San Diego is Southern California. You can’t get further south than that and stay in the US. I don’t know about SoCal scoring but in NorCal scoring is tough. Sure lots of girls score in the 36s and some even above, but they perform nearly flawlessly to get those scores. Both areas are also highly populated so you will see more of any score than you might from a smaller area. I wonder percentage wise if the higher scores are still more common? I will say though that when I see peope post videos of their kids and the corresponding scores, those same routines would have scored way lower at a meet in NorCal.

 

[Flicfliclay]

San Diego is Southern California. You can’t get further south than that and stay in the US. I don’t know about SoCal scoring but in NorCal scoring is tough. Sure lots of girls score in the 36s and some even above, but they perform nearly flawlessly to get those scores. Both areas are also highly populated so you will see more of any score than you might from a smaller area. I wonder percentage wise if the higher scores are still more common? I will say though that when I see peope post videos of their kids and the corresponding scores, those same routines would have scored way lower at a meet in NorCal.

I have to agree with you.We too are Region 1 which includes N Cal, S Cal, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.. We watch some videos of other regions and see the corresponding scores and think WOW there's no way in heck that would score like that here! Its crazy! I wonder why it varies so much? It really should not, but with out a doubt it does! I wonder if that becomes relevant come Easterns and Westerns ? I would love to see some stats on that!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

The easiest way to see how gymnasts scores compare.... Is to look where they come together to compete.

Nationals, Easterns/Westerns and larger invitationals where there are many areas participating.

 

[profmom]

There is enough data out there to design a good study. The things I'd want to look at would be the following, using athletes with multiple scores during one season at a level for athlete-to-athlete as well as larger scale level-to-level score comparisons:

• Small meets in-region with that region's large meets to get a sense of whether there's a statistically significant difference between small and large meets
• Large meets in adjacent regions to see if there's any statistically significant difference in scores
• Large meets in non-adjacent regions
• Scores at regional competitions compared both to large meets within the region (allowing athlete matching) and cross-regional championship comparisons

With this done, one could then look at easterns/westerns/L10 nationals/boys' nationals to see what you get and how scores within a region tend to compare to national scores. You could also get a sense this way if the truism that nationals always scores lower is actually true. I'd be curious to know whether region to region scoring variation is greater than that between small meets and large meets. My guess is that the small/large distinction is more salient.

 

[e'smum]

San Diego is Southern California. You can’t get further south than that and stay in the US. I don’t know about SoCal scoring but in NorCal scoring is tough. Sure lots of girls score in the 36s and some even above, but they perform nearly flawlessly to get those scores. Both areas are also highly populated so you will see more of any score than you might from a smaller area. I wonder percentage wise if the higher scores are still more common? I will say though that when I see peope post videos of their kids and the corresponding scores, those same routines would have scored way lower at a meet in NorCal.

i mean southern. lol. not sure why i said No
and yes, the girls there (from what i hear) were fantastic. a couple of parents said we were out of our league at that competition b/c the girls were so good.

 

[e'smum]

I have to agree with you.We too are Region 1 which includes N Cal, S Cal, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.. We watch some videos of other regions and see the corresponding scores and think WOW there's no way in heck that would score like that here! Its crazy! I wonder why it varies so much? It really should not, but with out a doubt it does! I wonder if that becomes relevant come Easterns and Westerns ? I would love to see some stats on that!

i'm on the gymnastics mom FB page (not the crazy one) and they will post videos and say the score and i also think that some of those routines wouldn't score that high in our state.

 

[Flicfliclay]

i'm on the gymnastics mom FB page (not the crazy one) and they will post videos and say the score and i also think that some of those routines wouldn't score that high in our state.

LOL not the crazy one! that made me laugh. I think also people need to understand that scores are only relevent to that meet. Some meets you see high scores and some you don't see anything over a 9.3..

 

[e'smum]

LOL not the crazy one! that made me laugh. I think also people need to understand that scores are only relevent to that meet. Some meets you see high scores and some you don't see anything over a 9.3..

oh absolutely. at one of dd's meets last year almost every girl got in the 9s for vault, including mine. yet she didn't touch the podium b/c she was lower 9s. only mid to upper 9s got medals.

it's like that with xcel. lots of 9s in those meets (typically) but you have to have a really strong 9 to medal.

 

[wallflower]

My DD has competed in many different states, and regions and I’ve seen no difference beyond the normal variation you get at meets. At some meets you will have a particular event judged very strict and another event being loose with the scoring. It has never mattered where we are, it has all seemed like normal judging variations to me. I live in a supposedly high scoring state, but my DD has had her personal bests in almost every level outside of our state and region. She got her highest scores at JO Nationals on a few events for routines that weren’t really all that great. I’ve also had friends come from another region to our region and despite what they had heard, they got scores pretty close to the ones they got at home.

When you have been around long enough you know which scores were complete gifts (and you accept them happily) and when the judging is taking max deductions. We went to NoCal once and I thought the scoring was lower/tighter for the mediocre routines on beam and bars, but they were just as willing to award a high score to a great routine. My kid had 2 personal bests there.

So as much as you read it, I’ve personally found it to not be true at all.

 

[Natasha]

Due to the variance in judges, meets, states, regions, years, I think it is very difficult to have any reliable data for this. Any anecdotal reporting is just that and variance can be that particular meet, but does not give statistical evidence.
For example, just in our state, at state meet last year, the compulsory vault judges gave much higher scores than ever given in previous years or at invitationals. Almost every girl was over a 9 at all levels and I think 1/2 were at a 9.5 or higher. However, the L6 and L7 girls (from the same state but competing on a different weekend with different judges) the vault scores were substantially lower, with less than 10% over 9.5. (So when you look at scores, but do not take into account judging differences, you would conclude in error that L4 and L5 girls are much better vaulters than the L6 and L7 girls all doing the same vault.) And when compared with vault scores for the previous year for compulsories, it was an average of .5-.7 higher, this significantly raised the AA scores- so just looking at the AA data, it appeared that our whole state made incredible progress with compulsory gymnasts in just one year.
So if you were to try to look at if we are an easy or hard scoring state--- it would depend on which year you looked at and which level.

 

[profmom]

Eh, there is plenty of data. Someone would just have to take all that data and design a study along the lines I've suggested or something better, and then run the numbers for a variety of hypotheses. Any individual experience, even from a parent with a kid who's been to dozens of meets, is really just spitballing.