"Toughest" Region?

[kristilyn73]

I am actually unfamiliar with which states belong to which regions (Anyone wanna fill me in?). I competed so long ago... These things get blurry. I have realized that everybody in their region thinks their region is the toughest. I will say, though, that I grew up competing in Minnesota and about 3/4 of the way through my gymnastics career I moved to Wisconsin and competed here. Minnesota judges were, literally, one point stricter in about every event. I was used to getting low-mid 8s (at the time, quite a few years ago) and winning every meet - states included - by a wide margin, and when I moved to WI or when I competed here for a travel meet, I was getting 9s easily, even on events where I didn't feel I had done my best. So I do think there is some variation as far as toughness of judging goes - whether or not that has anything to do with region, I do not know. It could just have been a coincidence.

Ugh, I have one specific memory though that really sticks out at me from those tough MN judges. I did a great floor routine, one of my best I had though at the time, and the judge gives me an 8.5. So my coach is really angry and he storms up to the judges table (which, as you guys know, is highly frowned upon), asking why I didn't score higher, and the judge tells him, "I've seen her compete before and she has done better." She judged me based on what she had seen before and not what I had just done.

We are in MN too.. this has happened to one of Beetle's teammates. She is a tremendous floor worker, Got a low score for her. HC Asked the judge what she was missing, said "she didn't seem as 'into it' today... She has done better"

 

[JustaCoach]

IGC is very organized, although not USAG, but organized none the less and there are quite a few gyms in NJ that do it and it seems to be the trend as it seems each year that a few more gyms pick up the program. It basically offers the same thing as Prep Opt (at least it sounds like it does from the description I hear from folks, not being exposed to it personally.) I wouldn't doubt it if you continue to see this trend at least in NJ.

I'm not going to say that IGC is a bad program but IGC in our area is ran by someone not so great. The rules are different every week pretty much. There's too much of a grey fuzzt line with what you can and cant do in that program in our area. It's ashame because I hear good things about it else where.

 

[pixie flips]

Pixie has only had one meet out of state. But that meet she scored a 38.6. One of her highest AA scores last season! I do think that there is something to the regions having stronger/weaker states.

That same meet all of our girls scored really well and they got 1st place team. The coach told one of the other moms that our state has stronger gymnasts and when our girls go to this meet they always clean house.

This season I've been told (still haven't gotten a meet schedule) that they will have two out of state meets in two different states. So, it will be interesting to see the difference in this other state!

 

[bribri514]

I also think it's interesting that a lot of girls travel to out of state meets at the compulsory levels. I think that's really cool and gives girls a great chance for competition. I didn't travel out of state until optionals, and that really just was for regionals and higher meets. I guess that's because it takes hours to drive just to another state and once we got there it'd be hours to the closest city, which was generally much much smaller than the biggest city in our state. It'd be great if everyone got the chance to compete against other states early on in an affordable non-time consuming way, but I guess USAG can't change geography lol!

 

[pixie flips]

It is great that they get the opportunity to go to OoS meets. We're conveniently located in a corner that boarders 3 other states. It's actually closer to these out of state meets than some of the in state meets.

 

[emacmommy]

So, in this world of computer media... what about a virtual gymnastics league? And no, I don't mean like fantasy football. Something where someone people set up internet shared videos to judge... So hard to keep "honest" but could be fun, or at least informative.

Things that make you go hmmmmm. The thoughts are flowing... anybody familiar with the Kinect for xBox coming out? My brother worked out some of the bugs on the Kinect for Microsoft. Oh.... I'm gonna have to give him a call. This rubs me a little wrong, as I am a social person and believe in human interaction, but what if you could have a virtual/impartial computer judge? Ah, the technology is out there... enough to even recognize facial expressions and interpret mood and feelings. Wonder if you could teach a computer to recognize artistry?