raenndrops
Coach
Really long Brag with backstory type flashbacks 
Ok, I just have to announce it to the world... This is in a YMCA program that allows you to move up to team if you have 75% of your skills. We do compete USAG routines, but only go against of the YMCAs. Many of our girls are really good, but because of "Mandate" scores set by our Zone, girls don't get to excel at a level for more than 1 season.
1. We have a girl (age 12) that competed a partial season (Jan-Mar) of Level 4 at age 9, then took a year + off and came back to compete at age 11 (Dec-mar) and is in her 3rd season of Level 4, having competed every meet so far. Well... we had a meet this past Saturday. During her floor routine, she ACTUALLY got her KICKOVER! This is the first time she has ever done it in competition and I have never seen a successful one in practice that was not spotted or off a panel mat. The ENTIRE team broke out into cheers for her. She also got a 9.00 on vault AND qualified for YMCA Nationals!
2. Some background for #2 first.
My df (dear friend that might as well be a daughter) is also Level 4 (age 8) and youngest L4 on team. This is her 2nd year at L4, but she took some time off and didn't come back to team until December. We didn't even know she would be competing this meet due to some family drama (found out Friday @ 3:30 that they would allow her to miss her UPWARD basketball game to compete at the meet- the grandparents are all for the basketball and even though there were only 4 meets for her to compete in and 8 bball games, they had originally said that she could not miss a single game... luckily, this was the only one that overlapped). Well, at the previous meet (a home meet), she had eaten breakfast before leaving my house, ate another breakfast when we got to the gym, and ate half a powerbar at the beginning of floor warmups. My sister texted to see if they wanted anything from McDonalds. Df wanted a hashbrown. When it arrived, I had a coach take it over to her because she was "starving." They were warming up vault at the time. She had 1 vault left and the first was very piked. She asked if she could eat her hashbrown first, but was told she had to do a good vault to get it. She proceeded to do her best vault ever - then ran over to the bench to eat her hashbrown.
Fast forward to this past Saturday.
I had been in negotiations with her on the size of McDonalds shake she would get on the way home (small or medium)... Right before vault, she went right by me on her way to the bathroom and I told her that if she did a great vault, I would get her a Large. She had a great vault warm up... and then she did her competition vaults... 8.90 (Personal Record). Her coach called it a hashbrown vault and as of practice last night, her nickname is Hashbrown ... She also had a "No Fall" beam routine (other than her dismount- but that is an improvement from the 4 falls in her first meet of the season). Bars, Beam, and Vault were all Personal Records!
3. We had a total of 6 L4 girls qualify for Nationals this meet!
4. We had 11 L4 gymnasts make Mandate Scores and 1 L5 made a Mandate score. 2 of the mandate scores were made by girls who had been on the "Non-Compete" Team in December. Our Non-compete team is for girls who have advanced enough to not be Level 3, but do not want to compete. They are actually in the gym LESS than the Rec Level 3 class. One had moved to team the night of the team Christmas party (Dec. 17) and the other one moved up to team on Jan. 7 - just to "try out" competing to see if she liked it (Our first day back from Christmas Break). Both competed Jan. 12 in their first meet. Saturday was their 2nd meet.
Ok, I just have to announce it to the world... This is in a YMCA program that allows you to move up to team if you have 75% of your skills. We do compete USAG routines, but only go against of the YMCAs. Many of our girls are really good, but because of "Mandate" scores set by our Zone, girls don't get to excel at a level for more than 1 season.
1. We have a girl (age 12) that competed a partial season (Jan-Mar) of Level 4 at age 9, then took a year + off and came back to compete at age 11 (Dec-mar) and is in her 3rd season of Level 4, having competed every meet so far. Well... we had a meet this past Saturday. During her floor routine, she ACTUALLY got her KICKOVER! This is the first time she has ever done it in competition and I have never seen a successful one in practice that was not spotted or off a panel mat. The ENTIRE team broke out into cheers for her. She also got a 9.00 on vault AND qualified for YMCA Nationals!
2. Some background for #2 first.
My df (dear friend that might as well be a daughter) is also Level 4 (age 8) and youngest L4 on team. This is her 2nd year at L4, but she took some time off and didn't come back to team until December. We didn't even know she would be competing this meet due to some family drama (found out Friday @ 3:30 that they would allow her to miss her UPWARD basketball game to compete at the meet- the grandparents are all for the basketball and even though there were only 4 meets for her to compete in and 8 bball games, they had originally said that she could not miss a single game... luckily, this was the only one that overlapped). Well, at the previous meet (a home meet), she had eaten breakfast before leaving my house, ate another breakfast when we got to the gym, and ate half a powerbar at the beginning of floor warmups. My sister texted to see if they wanted anything from McDonalds. Df wanted a hashbrown. When it arrived, I had a coach take it over to her because she was "starving." They were warming up vault at the time. She had 1 vault left and the first was very piked. She asked if she could eat her hashbrown first, but was told she had to do a good vault to get it. She proceeded to do her best vault ever - then ran over to the bench to eat her hashbrown.
Fast forward to this past Saturday.
I had been in negotiations with her on the size of McDonalds shake she would get on the way home (small or medium)... Right before vault, she went right by me on her way to the bathroom and I told her that if she did a great vault, I would get her a Large. She had a great vault warm up... and then she did her competition vaults... 8.90 (Personal Record). Her coach called it a hashbrown vault and as of practice last night, her nickname is Hashbrown
... She also had a "No Fall" beam routine (other than her dismount- but that is an improvement from the 4 falls in her first meet of the season). Bars, Beam, and Vault were all Personal Records!3. We had a total of 6 L4 girls qualify for Nationals this meet!
4. We had 11 L4 gymnasts make Mandate Scores and 1 L5 made a Mandate score. 2 of the mandate scores were made by girls who had been on the "Non-Compete" Team in December. Our Non-compete team is for girls who have advanced enough to not be Level 3, but do not want to compete. They are actually in the gym LESS than the Rec Level 3 class. One had moved to team the night of the team Christmas party (Dec. 17) and the other one moved up to team on Jan. 7 - just to "try out" competing to see if she liked it (Our first day back from Christmas Break). Both competed Jan. 12 in their first meet. Saturday was their 2nd meet.
