My Gymnast's first competition!

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marie83

Coach
Judge
Hey all,

Our regional grades competition is this weekend. On Saturday my gymnasts have their very first competition. They have to compete the usual vault, bars, beam and floor but also an extra piece of apparatus called range and conditioning. They must score 10 out of a possible 13.5 of range and conditioning to pass the grade. The pass mark is 50 and if they exceed 60 they get a distinction.

I have 5 gymnasts in grade 14 and another coach has 3 in the same grade. The older, more experienced girls are on Sunday.

Please can you send good luck to all the girls, particularly those in their first competition. They are as prepared as they could be its just down to nerves now!

Thanks!
Marie
 
Sending your girls some good luck from Canada, hopefully they have a good time and pass the grade. Maybe the first timers will be helped by the girls who have competed before.
 
Thank you! I'm sure they'll be fine! They are pretty confident in the gym, so it will be interesting to see how that transfers to the competition. Its harsh as here they only get one competition a year at each grade. They don't have to 'pass' to move up to the next grade, but they do if they want the certificate, and boy do they love certificates! I think I get more nervous that they do and I'm supposed to be the cool, calm and collected, experienced coach! hehe
 
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Wow, one competition a year, I thought it was bad here as they only do three comps. In the US some of the girls do over 10 meets a year. Though if you only have one meet I can see how you are able to uptrain skills.

I totally get the nerves thing, they also don't know all that you do, therefore less stress.

We have a comp on the same day, my daughters are both one after the other, our last meet of the year. Then it's on to the fun training.
 
good luck to all your gymnasts! I've never heard of a competition like that before. Hope you and all your gymnasts have fun!
 
Wow, one competition a year, I thought it was bad here as they only do three comps. In the US some of the girls do over 10 meets a year. Though if you only have one meet I can see how you are able to uptrain skills.

Yeah, it is quite frustrating for them being in 'competition sqauad' and only doing a maximum of 4 competitions per year at this age - Grades in March/April, Levels Teams in September, County Champs in October and Levels individual in November. As they get older they will get more opportunities, but unless they go the National grades route and make National finals, there is only ever 1 grades competition each year!

Like you say, it does mean that we get to uptrain skills, even if we have to sacrifice competition experience.
 
yay they all passed and even got 1 distinction!

E - 60.4
A - 58.75
S - 58.25
LS - 57.1
C - 57.050
R - 56.6
LT - 56.55
LM - 52.75

Really pleased with the girls, they did a great job. A couple of falls on beam - that roll back claimed 2 victims! It was pure nerves though. There was some tough competition. The winner scored 64.25, with a 13 on beam!!! Amazing! There were 74 competitors in the 'in age' group and 57 in the 'out of age' group.
 
Really good marks well done. 64.25 that is some mark! Bet shes going on to comp 4
 
Really good marks well done. 64.25 that is some mark! Bet shes going on to comp 4

Yep I should think so! I want some of mine to try for it - purely because I think the compulsory grades have a much better skill progression pathway than the club/regional grades, but we'll see. It will mean a lot of hard work and commitment for me and the gymnasts - I'm up for it, but not sure they are! hehe.
 
Congratulations to all of your girls!

I don't understand what you are talking about (sorry :(), but I do know how great it is to see all of the girls succeed and their hard work pay off!
 
Well Done to all the girls Marie! It sounds like another very high standard grades comp in the Midlands, and your girls have done brilliantly :)
 
Congratulations to all of your girls!

I don't understand what you are talking about (sorry :(), but I do know how great it is to see all of the girls succeed and their hard work pay off!

Thank you, It is indeed great to see the girl's hard work pay off!

The Competition system in Great Britain is VERY different to in the US - there are various grades which the gymnasts can do - Regional, National and Compulsory. Mine have just done Regional grade 14 which is the only grades competition they are allowed to do at the moment as theyare too young to do any other. Next year they can either do Regional grade 13, or compulsory grade 4. Completely worlds apart in terms of difficulty:

Grade 13 - Roundoff, tick tock, full spin on floor, Forward roll on beam, Pull over and baby giant on bars, flat back on vault.

Grade 4 - Kip, cast handstand, back hip circle, squat on, long hang kip, sole circle dismount for bars, backward walkover on beam, Handspring at 110cm on vault, roundoff 3 bhs, handspring to one foot immediate handspring to 2 feet on floor.

Just some of the skills they'll have to learn. They also have to do straddle press to handstand in their range and conditioning routine.

Grade 4 is the beginning of the elite path here, so my gymnasts have a lot of work to do if we do decide to go for it, especially for their range and conditioning.

Hope that helps and that you know a bit more about what we're talking about now!
 

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