WAG Grouping at meets

[roll123]

I was wondering how the put the sessions together at a meet. Is it done strictly by numbers of gymnasts or do they try to group the top scoring gyms with each other (I am referring when there are more than 1 session for level).

 

[GymMomXcel]

I'm not sure.. As a novice gym mom myself, I always thought it was just split up by age (when birthday falls, etc.) when they had to split things up.. No matter the gym or where they typically place.

 

[roll123]

I was referring to the group of gyms you compete against. Like : Level 3 "Session A; xxx gym, yyygym, rrrgym" "Session B; zzz gym, ppp gym". How do they put the gyms in to the groups that will compete against each other?

 

[Gym Beam]

Waiting for Meet Director to reply, as I would love to know the answer to this.

 

[happychaos]

Our meets always have all the gyms entered at a specific level competing against each other. The larger the meet, the smaller the age groupings, and the more sessions per level. For example, if there are 12 gyms in a meet, with a total of 180 level 4 gymnasts, there would be 3 sessions just devoted to L4, with about 60 gymnasts in each session. The groupings could be like this...session 1- 8 and 9 year olds, session 2- 10 year olds, session 3- 11 and 12+.

The team award would be given in the last session of each level. The only time I have seen this work differently is for the big out-of state meets like circle of stars, or for level 2, when the girls are not divided by age.

I'm really curious now.....isn't this how it's done everywhere?????

 

[GymBee97]

I know at our gym they try to have no more than a specific number at any session of a meet and a specific number per rotation group. Not sure what those numbers are but I think in our gym its like no more than 60 per session Which would give 15 gymnasts per rotation. Our gym likes to keep the gymnasts from the same gym in the same rotation if they can so the coaches don't have to split up.

In the end it will depend on who signs up and how many gymnast at each level sign up. that's why they don't know which sessions you will be in until all the applications are in.

 

[roll123]

Ours are grouped by teams. For example
Level 3
Session A 10:00
Top Gun gym
AAX gym
Jones gymnastics

Session B 2:00
Franks Tumbletown
Cartwheels Gymnastics
Superstars training center

 

[GymBee97]

Yes ours are grouped by teams to but those groupings will depend on the numbers those teams bring.

 

[roll123]

So do you think they try to put the upper level teams in a group together or is totally by numbers?

 

[krisnkids]

At our old gym it was by distance; ie we would try to avoid giving the 8am old level 4 slot to gyms that were 2 hours away. Courtesy to parents and coaches. Also by numbers, to have a smooth running meet you need to have even numbers of kids on each event. Also by age; if you have 6 year olds, 8 year olds, 10 year olds and 12 year olds on the same event at the same time it's going to be a pain when you get to bars.

 

[LizzieLac]

Many factors...

• teams that have to travel far may not be forced to be the first session at 8 am.
• need to make sessions somewhat equal in number so that the sessions conclude in 2.5 hours or whatever is allotted.
• needing to make the whole meet fit into 2 or 3 days , or whatever is planned

I think those are the overriding factors. We have a friendlt rivalry with a gym about 45-60 minutes from us. Our owner and their owner are actually frinds. We each host a meet and I think that often they try to put the two clubs in the same sessions for the added drama.

 

[wallinbl]

It's different at every meet we go to. Some keep teams together in one session as much as possible. Some keep kids of the same age together in one session. Some do team awards per session, some only do team awards after the last session of that level completes.

 

[GymBee97]

Yup it really depends on the host club and how they want to do it. There are some USAG rules for running a meet etc but I have seen so many different ways they divide up the kids.

My DD if they do age can be her real age or the next age depending on what birth date they use to determine age too.

 

[MeetDirector]

Well, you asked so here is my secret: I put the clubs on a dart board and fire away. Ok, not true; there is a bit of science and of course the ever present rules an a bit of randomness.

USAG rules limit the number of athletes at a specific level in a given session; more gymnasts allowed at the lower compulsory levels. I try to keep my sessions as level-pure as I can; if I have to mix levels it will be with nearby levels (3 & 4's for example). Never ever will I mix compulsories with optionals; it makes it impossible on the judges.

Now, building a session and grouping for award purposes are similar but not the same. For award purposes, I take all of the girls at a given age and see what makes sense; I usually shoot for 12-14 in an award group. I then divide the girls in a particular age by the target number; for example, if there 36 10-yr olds I will break them into 3 groups of 12 (10A, 10B, 10C).

Once I have all of my age groupings I then start slotting the groups into sessions; I try to keep all of one age in the same session up to the maximum number for that level. Nowhere has what club an athlete is from entered into this; the only time that would play in is if I am trying to accommodate traveling clubs.

Hope this helps; there is a lot more to it than this, but this is the short version. Now, this doesn't happen overnight; for a small meet it can be a few days and for a big meet a couple of weeks. So just because entries have closed for a meet doesn't mean the schedule will be ready the next day; give the meet director a couple of weeks.

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

Very interesting.... So on a bit of a tangent / hijack..... DD will compete in the US once this winter, likely as a L8. She is 9, and will compete against 9 and 10 year olds at home. Is it likely to be the same there, or are the ages more spread out in the optional levels? It is a big meet I believe.

(Trying to figure out if she would then compete with other girls from the gym she trains with who are 11, 12, 13.....)

Thanks.

 

[MeetDirector]

OK, so competition age determination is a whole other subject. You guessed it, USAG has rules for that as well. For an invitational meet, meet directors usually specify what date will be used for age determination. It can be the date of the meet or if the meet is a qualifier for the state championships it can be the stae meet date or the date established by the state committee for the given level. It can be confusing; ask the coach and he or she can inquire of the meet director. Please leave all communication with the meet director to the coach; it is not appropriate for parents to be contacting the host club.

 

[Bajanswife]

Very interesting.... So on a bit of a tangent / hijack..... DD will compete in the US once this winter, likely as a L8. She is 9, and will compete against 9 and 10 year olds at home. Is it likely to be the same there, or are the ages more spread out in the optional levels? It is a big meet I believe.

(Trying to figure out if she would then compete with other girls from the gym she trains with who are 11, 12, 13.....)

Thanks.

At a big meet she would more likely be competing against girls close to her own age; at a smaller meet there may not be enough level 8s to split them up into too many age groups. 9 is probably on the lower end of the age range for L8, so typically she may find 10 and 11 year olds in her awards group. But it really depends on the meet and the other entries they have received.

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

Please leave all communication with the meet director to the coach; it is not appropriate for parents to be contacting the host club.

Not to worry, I would NEVER call them. I am a meet director here and cannot imagine having direct contact with parents from other gyms in addition to everything else required

Appreciate your responses

 

[gymmomtoo]

Just looked at Chicago Style--for one session of level 8 and they grouped 12 & under in one age level. I think that would be fairly typical.

 

[saddlupasb]

Speaking of Chicago Style, I always thought they did their age groups by the divide into thirds/quarters method by birthday. Apparently that isn't true because for level 4 last year they had a couple of age groups with 60+ kids and then one with 20 or so and one in the teens. They gave 50% awards so 33 kids were getting medals. That's just goofy.