Wow. Very powerful article. I agree with crazy pushy parents. However, for normal non-crazy parents, it's hard to really know what's going on. We are asked to drop off our kids at the gym, and stay the heck away and not watch. It's very different from all the other sports that my other kids...
I think Top 3 or Top 20%, whichever is higher, is a good approach. For the typical 15 to 20 kids per age group, that will be Top 3 to 4 getting awards. 80 kids in one age group would be Top 16. That's a lot better than awarding 40 kids.
Yeah, I'm learning that. That is why I'm in this forum. Haven't participated much, but learning a lot. I've always been frustrated with the awards ceremonies, and my wife always asks me why can't they just award the top 3. But we've kept it to ourselves and just assumed that this is how...
Good point. No, I haven't had the chance to look behind the scene. I have volunteered as a timer and I see the judges keep a handwritten record of all their scores. I didn't know all these scores are manually verified all the time. I've never seen the final scores in meetscoreonline...
Was citing baseball bec some previous posters mentioned that other sports, specifically baseball, also does awards every weekend. I wanted to share that the awards in baseball isn't that time consuming, doesn't impact all of the participants and their families, and only awards the top 2 teams...
Glad my wife and I weren't the only ones thinking this. We were shocked by the first award session we've been to. It's not uncommon for the award ceremony to last almost as long as the meet (had to wait 30 min or even an hour from when the last girl finished their routine to when the...
But why not just find meets in places with more temperate climate? I wish our gym did this. I travel a lot for work and I avoid travelling to and through Chicago in the winter.
We were at Chicago Style a couple of weekends ago. It was a well run event. However, this is our first "fly-away" meet and I don't get why, if we have to spend money for a plane ticket and a hotel and miss a few days of school, why can't we go to somewhere warm with nice weather and not worry...
Our coaches don't stay for the awards, regardless of whether they are working the next session or not. I initially wondered about this but after experiencing my first award ceremony, I don't blame them one bit and would do the same thing. It's very easy for them to know the result without...
Why doesn't USAG implement a private database like what was described for England? I used to work for a background check company and there are a lot of precedent and established best practice from other industries for setting up private databases, along with the appeals processes that comes...
I looked up the requirements for Xcel Gold and they do not require competition experience prior to competing gold. Based on my deciphering of the Xcel Gold routine requirements, I think the gymnasts are required to land on their feet for vault. Our girls are still not ready for this. They...
I did learn and grow to enjoy the awards ceremonies that are well run. The number of awards given was something I still have to get used to coming from other sports (like baseball and basketball) where only the top 2 teams were given awards, and the fact that my only exposure to gymnastics...
BTW, another thing that surprised me a lot in our first few meets is how tedious and time consuming the awards ceremonies are! There was one meet where the awards ceremonies was longer than the meet itself. I was surprised also by how many awards were given out for each apparatus, for AA, and...
Lol. I always try to be careful when I post but I guess I still gave too much info there... But it's good to hear that you know our gym as I am really curious what your perspectives (and other's perspectives) are.
Yes, there are 3 levels of pre-team. We didn't know what we got ourselves into...
I agree. I figure it's going to be tougher if and when we move to JO Level 5. I know our gym's level 5 also got first place in states, but I also heard from them that they did not get much competition during spring as most of the gyms competed in fall. There is some talk that we may switch to...
We just got done with our first season with our 8 year old daughter in Xcel Silver. Wanted to share my thoughts and experience. This is a long post as I have a tendency to be comprehensive.
We started our gymnastics journey 3 years ago. In Feb of 2013, my wife brought my 5 yr old daughter to...
It's interesting how it contrasts with my son's basketball and baseball practice where the coach not only prefers us to be there during the practice but wants us involved in running the drills on the baseball field or basketball court. I'm sure this will change as my son gets older, especially...
After years of baseball and basketball with my son, it's quite frustrating trying to figure out what's happening in gymnastics and whether my DD is doing well or not. With baseball, either you get a hit and a run in or not, or whether you catch the ball and get the out or not. I have no clue...
We are new to competitive gymnastics. My 8 year old DD started competing Xcel Silver this January after several years in pre-team. Now that we have 3 meets under our belt, I'm wondering if and how much you can compare the scores from one meet to another. From what I've read, the advice is to...