Gymmonkeymomma
Proud Parent
We had our 1st USAIGC meet last night. The session before us ran late, so we didn't get in on time and first event didn't start till after 7pm. Plus we had 24 girls entered, 20 competing with 2 coaches...which should have been fine except they were trying to rush things along and we had half squad move ahead to the next event w/o a coach!
So...big DD as you know has had a rough month. She sprained her ankle the day before Level 8 sectional and had to scratch. They petitioned her into states but never got a response, so no competition. Last Monday she slammed her arm so hard into a beam that it was swollen and she missed 2 days of practice. In addition, they only had ONE age group for Gold - 11 and up so her entire team was competing against each other. First event - beam, she looked good till she fell on her roundoff, 8.6. FX - only the 3rd time competing her new routine, 9.0 (6th place). Vault - half/half 8.2 (scoring very low, our girls who normally score high 8's and 9's were only scoring low=to mid 8's. DD got 8.2. Bars - we had our new coach there so I was excited to see if that would make a difference. She has been working with him on bars. She did her entire routine - handstand pirouette, giants, I was so proud!! She only scored 7.50 - most of the deductions were from her giants, I think - legs apart, back arched...however still an improvement from previous scores So she ended up with a respectable score of 33.3 which qualifies her for States. Now..here's when the problems started.....
Little Monkey is a 2nd yr Level 5, which in our gym translate to Bronze level for USAIGC. This is her 3rd yr competing bronze and she is an event specialist for Silver on floor. This meet, the age group was 6 to 10, DD is 8. She started on vault which is not her strong event b/c of her size and (lack of) weight. However, with new coach, she has been steadily improving - 8.75 (3rd place). Onto bars, for this she doesn't need a bar change (thank GOD) so she only does kip cast, free hip, back hip, kip cast, sole circle dismount. They even took out her flyaway (not sure why she did it all last yr). 9.0 - first place!!! Onto beam. Now b/c of the size of the squad they were split into 2 halves. First half competed and IMHO the judge was very generous with the bronze group (we were sitting right at the end of the beam so I noticed the routines/scoring the most). Anyway, DD does a very solid routine and they put up her score ... she got 9.7 :shocked: I nearly fell off my chair and of course her teammates were going nuts too! Onto floor, first time new routine, she did first the Bronze requirements - 9.0 and at the end of the rotation, did it with the silver requirements, 8.65. SIlver age group was 8 to 13 so all of the silver team (our level 7's) were in this age group along w/DD. For floor bronze level, she placed 1st. Her AA for bronze was 36.45 - first place. Her beam score was the highest in the entire session and her AA was 2nd highest. The announcer made a big deal about the beam. She was so excited!!!
By the time Little Monkey finished her first Fx routine, big DD was visibly upset. My friend was calling me from the other side of the gym to tell me "to be nice" to her. Big DD works really hard but she does not have the same drive and determination as Little Monkey. Also, she's coming off injuries and before that had strep so she has not been working out as hard over the past 2 months. AND her skills are so much harder.... all that taken into consideration, she had a very good meet. But of course she doesn't want to hear that, she is focusing on the fact that her little sister is getting SO MUCH attention = and now at 10:30 pm and starving, she was having a major meltdown!! I hate drama. My kids know I hate drama. She doesn't dare say anything to me but the fact that now the entire gold team (and parents) is coddling her is enough to drive me insane!!! The HC and I both saw this coming when the little one first started competing. His fear was that one day they would be the same USAG level and that would just send Big DD over the edge. I think that was partly the reason for keeping LM at L5 this year, to give big DD that much more time to score out of L8. So as much as I try to encourage her and be supportive, she's always been the type of kid for whom things came easy (school, gym, cheering, swimming, etc). Now that she actually has to WORK at something, it is getting her down, and having her sister being the star is not helping matters. I have tried to teach her that you should be happy for others who do well, and not be jealous, but it doesn't seem to be working. Now what? Do I resort to bribery????
Any advice?
Sorry this was so long. Video's in a day or 2....
So...big DD as you know has had a rough month. She sprained her ankle the day before Level 8 sectional and had to scratch. They petitioned her into states but never got a response, so no competition. Last Monday she slammed her arm so hard into a beam that it was swollen and she missed 2 days of practice. In addition, they only had ONE age group for Gold - 11 and up so her entire team was competing against each other. First event - beam, she looked good till she fell on her roundoff, 8.6. FX - only the 3rd time competing her new routine, 9.0 (6th place). Vault - half/half 8.2 (scoring very low, our girls who normally score high 8's and 9's were only scoring low=to mid 8's. DD got 8.2. Bars - we had our new coach there so I was excited to see if that would make a difference. She has been working with him on bars. She did her entire routine - handstand pirouette, giants, I was so proud!! She only scored 7.50 - most of the deductions were from her giants, I think - legs apart, back arched...however still an improvement from previous scores So she ended up with a respectable score of 33.3 which qualifies her for States. Now..here's when the problems started.....
Little Monkey is a 2nd yr Level 5, which in our gym translate to Bronze level for USAIGC. This is her 3rd yr competing bronze and she is an event specialist for Silver on floor. This meet, the age group was 6 to 10, DD is 8. She started on vault which is not her strong event b/c of her size and (lack of) weight. However, with new coach, she has been steadily improving - 8.75 (3rd place). Onto bars, for this she doesn't need a bar change (thank GOD) so she only does kip cast, free hip, back hip, kip cast, sole circle dismount. They even took out her flyaway (not sure why she did it all last yr). 9.0 - first place!!! Onto beam. Now b/c of the size of the squad they were split into 2 halves. First half competed and IMHO the judge was very generous with the bronze group (we were sitting right at the end of the beam so I noticed the routines/scoring the most). Anyway, DD does a very solid routine and they put up her score ... she got 9.7 :shocked: I nearly fell off my chair and of course her teammates were going nuts too! Onto floor, first time new routine, she did first the Bronze requirements - 9.0 and at the end of the rotation, did it with the silver requirements, 8.65. SIlver age group was 8 to 13 so all of the silver team (our level 7's) were in this age group along w/DD. For floor bronze level, she placed 1st. Her AA for bronze was 36.45 - first place. Her beam score was the highest in the entire session and her AA was 2nd highest. The announcer made a big deal about the beam. She was so excited!!!
By the time Little Monkey finished her first Fx routine, big DD was visibly upset. My friend was calling me from the other side of the gym to tell me "to be nice" to her. Big DD works really hard but she does not have the same drive and determination as Little Monkey. Also, she's coming off injuries and before that had strep so she has not been working out as hard over the past 2 months. AND her skills are so much harder.... all that taken into consideration, she had a very good meet. But of course she doesn't want to hear that, she is focusing on the fact that her little sister is getting SO MUCH attention = and now at 10:30 pm and starving, she was having a major meltdown!! I hate drama. My kids know I hate drama. She doesn't dare say anything to me but the fact that now the entire gold team (and parents) is coddling her is enough to drive me insane!!! The HC and I both saw this coming when the little one first started competing. His fear was that one day they would be the same USAG level and that would just send Big DD over the edge. I think that was partly the reason for keeping LM at L5 this year, to give big DD that much more time to score out of L8. So as much as I try to encourage her and be supportive, she's always been the type of kid for whom things came easy (school, gym, cheering, swimming, etc). Now that she actually has to WORK at something, it is getting her down, and having her sister being the star is not helping matters. I have tried to teach her that you should be happy for others who do well, and not be jealous, but it doesn't seem to be working. Now what? Do I resort to bribery????
Any advice?
Sorry this was so long. Video's in a day or 2....