Lowest Score ever?!

[cocosmom]

you could also look at it like this...those gymnasts could have been very ready and very capable but a routine can go horribly wrong so fast! If your coming away with scores that low, you have probably fallen and missed elements. I give them lots of credit for having the courage and integrity to actually finish the routine!

 

[GymMom68]

A '1' is more than a fall or a few missed elements. As far as I'm concerned there is absolutely no reason for that, and the coach should be mortified.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

You know, some coaches don't stake their sense of pride in their kids on scores. I would hope that parents don't, either.

More in-depth response comming later perhaps, pending third-party review.

 

[JBS]

My lowest score was a 2.8 on pommel horse.... ha ha...good memories.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Ok, time for a more complete response to GymMom68.

First of all, if you are neither a judge, coach, or gymnast, you are in no position to make that call.

Second of all, sometimes a kid has a bad day. I've seen kids capable of excellent routines have really off days, which can happen for any number of reasons. We had one girl at our gym a few years ago was doing absolutely flawless beam routines the week before a meet. At the meet, she fell SIX times. She busted out laughing after the sixth one, and completely trashed what was left of her routine. She had a bad day, but no harm done (I don't remember her score).

Third of all, some judges are very tough. Look at the code of points sometime, and especially look at bars. Keep in mind that many experienced judges are so good at watching these routines that they might as well be watching them in slow-mo. Combine an off-day with a tough judge in a bad mood, and sub-5 scores can happen.

Fourth of all, some kids do completely different routines in meets than they do in practice. Some do better, some do worse. And some will do much better at one meet and completely terrible at the next.

In the (about) two and a half years I've been coaching girls, the lowest score I can positively remember any of my girls getting at a meet is a 6.2. I'm sure there are judges in this state that would have given that particular routine a MUCH lower score. Was it because this girl didn't have any business at the level she was at? No. It was becasue she was having an exceptionally bad day.

In the four years I've been coaching boys, I've seen a number of 1.0 scores. Heck, I got several myself when I was competing. And the judges aren't ALLOWED to give you less than a 1.0, so those may well have been negative scores on paper.

Low scores happen. Life goes on.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

As a former gymnast and current coach/judge I do not agree with giving such low scores. Yes it was a bad routine, yes you need to make a difference between performances but a score that low is not achieving anything positive.

I think the two lowest scores I have handed out was a 5.0 (actually 4.7) to a gymnast who did not complete half of her core elements. she had forgotten her floor and was crying, even with a six or a three it would not have altered her ranking. The other was a 6.2 under the new code, the kid fell 5 times (5 x .8 deduction) plus lost core skill value as a consequence of the falls (1.0).

As for getting a 1.9 on bar, certainly possible if you take every single little deduction possible.

Vault, I feel some of our judges invent deductions because it is not possible to follow the rules and hand out some of the scores i have seen.

Not that I'm a fan, but Mary Lou got a 1.00 in her first competition

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Kids are not "damaged" by recieving low scores. They shouldn't be, anyway; if they are, it suggests to me that their coaches and/or parents are putting to much importance on scores and too much pressure on the kid.

If I or one of the kids I coach does a routine wortthy of a 1.0, I wanna see a 1.0 on the scoreboard. I don't want to get a score I didn't earn.

This is why I, along with most if not all male gymnasts and boys' coaches in NC, have the utmost respect for Robert Bordreaux and others like him. Whatever points he gives you, you can be darn sure you earned. Getting a 9.6 from a generous judge who rarely gives anything lower than an 8 is nice and all, but getting a 5 from a judge who's giving everybody else 1's is something you can truly take pride in.

 

[gracefulone]

1's and 4's? Seriously if kids are getting scores like that, they obviously have no business doing that level. What is the point of that? Other than embarrassing the kids I have no idea why the coaches would put the kids through that. I can't imagine it's all that fun to go to a meet and get a 1 or a 4. If my kid was getting a 1 or a 4, I'd change gyms, the coaches clearly don't have a clue.

The girls I knew who got a 1.9 had broken her arm, and has since struggled with bars. She was scoring 9's on all other events. The hardest judge in the state was on bars as well, so that did not help the situation.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

Kids are not "damaged" by recieving low scores. They shouldn't be, anyway; if they are, it suggests to me that their coaches and/or parents are putting to much importance on scores and too much pressure on the kid.

I agree completely w/ Geoffrey Taucer. I am a parent fairly new to competitive gymnastics and my dd is only L3 right now. But we tell her to do her best and have fun. We tell her not to worry if she gets a "perfect 9" (she and one of her L# teammates were so excited when they got their first 9.0's - they earned them in the same meet - they told their coach they got 'perfect 9's' their coach was so proud of them. But she is also proud when they try their best. Isn't that what it should be about?

the lowest I have seen from one of our L3 girls is a 2.9 on bars. She is really struggling w/ them. But she is working VERY hard and at the last meet was up to a 5.4. Everyone was proud of her and told her so.

my dd's lowest score so far (has only done 3 meets) was a 7.4 on bars. That was in her first meet. She has brought that up to a 7.6 in the last 2 meets - she still needs a spot on her mill circle or would be higher. She LOVES bars.

You never know why a gymnast has a bad day - not feeling well, can't get their head in the game, didn't sleep well, nerves - whatever. They need to be supported not put down. I think this is a great thread because you can tell the gymnasts are having fun with it and NOT hung up on the scores they rec'd. obviously they all know anyone can have an event go wrong and tank on it. What matters is that they know it was a bad day or bad event and go on.

I don't think we should be pointing fingers - I for one know I could not even do a pull over on bars so I would be overjoyed with a 1.0 !!!!!!!

 

[melmonette]

My lowest score when I was competing was a 3.2 on unevens at my first meet ever in the 7th grade. I didn't fall but I didn't have a lot of skills required for high school gymnastics competition... NO kip and lacked continuous connection skills and just difficulty in general. Anyway, I went on to attacking bars the rest of my high school gymnastics competition career and uneven became my best event and I went to the State gymnastics meet in Minnesota(highly competitive high school gymnastics). I was lucky just to get on Varsity on my high school team my last 3 years as we had 4 level 9-10s or Class I gymnasts as they were called when I was in school on our team and varsity only had 5 spots and we had 30 girls on our high school team between JV and Varsity.

Anyway, my daughter's lowest score so far(only 2nd year level 4) was 6.3 on beam(only 1 fall but wobbled everywhere) in her first meet ever as a level 4. She went on to get a 9.5 at her first meet as a 2nd year level 4 which is still her best score on beam to date.
I have seen low 4s and 5s at our last home meet for some of the 4s and 5s. I was mortified what a girl had to do to get a low 4.

 

[bogwoppit]

Little Bog got a 0.0 (on 13) at her last meet on vault. She ran hard, hit the board and then did the "superman" for both attempts. She was very mad, even at 8 she knows that a 0 sucks. But, as GT says it was a bad day, first event, first girl up and usually she is our strongest vaulter.

At the same meet we had a judge who has judged at the Olympics on the bars. the scores were all very low, but they did make sense, the 1st place was two points lower than usual. The parents were more upset than the girls.

Bigger Bog received a 3.5 on bars at her first meet, she fell on her usually awesome squat on 3 times, in the end the coach hissed at her"climb up".

This is why I have encouraged my girls to set goals for meets that are not about judging or scores, that way they are in control and are not at the mercy of the judge or their team mates acheivments. This really takes the emphasis of scores for me and my girls.

 

[coachamyamerican]

I'm not talking about the kids, I'm tallking about the coaches. It's wrong to send kids out there to get those kinds of scores and I see too much of that kind of stuff at meets. A '1' at level 6 bars? Come on, that's just plain ridiculous, she obviously had no business doing level 6 if she's getting a 1 on bars. I'd take a stab that she probably had no business doing level 5 bars, much less level 6.

And I'm sure it wan't any fun sitting there during awards watching all the kids get medals and knowing darn well you're not even in the hunt.

Obviously your child has never struggled at any event at any time!
I have a girl that got a 7.8 on floor and won bars with a 9.85. Are you seriously telling me to not let her compete at all since she cant win floor??

(granted now she is scoring much better on floor but come on)

I hate to be so negative but have you ever had an off day? How about your kid?
If she or he got a low score is it now the coaches fault?

Not to mention... Have you read this thread? All of these gymnasts now laugh at this... I beg to differ with your opinion on the "coaches not knowing what they are doing"
Bad scores, bad meets, losing every once in awhile... that is part of growing in the sport and becoming a better athlete... not to mention a better person!

Good for all of you gymnasts! Share your glory as well as your defeat!

I just hope your daughter NEVER scores lower than YOUR expectations.

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Yes Its definitely good that we can laugh about it now.
My first meet as a level 7 I fell 3 times and got a 6.8. I was so mad at myself then but now I can laugh about it.

 

[MoonKid]

My very first meet I got 0 on vault. Like a week before the meet I had decided I was scared of vault so my coach stood in and touched me just a tiny bit on both vaults, but the judges saw and gave me 0. I was kinda mad at my coach at the time and sad because I didn't get a ribbon but other than that I didn't care.

 

[DEMom]

My DD lowest scores on bars was a 6.1 in lvl 5. She jumped to the high bar and felt like she didn't have a good grip so she didn't do the kip. Her bars coach was not there and she didn't trust the fill-in coach to catch her if she fell.

But I have a another story. Just this season, one of our level 7 girls did her vault and her score flashed up - 4.25! What was that?? (This was a girl that scores low 9's) We quickly looked in the program and saw that was her competing number not her score. She saw it and started getting really upset. We couldn't get her attention- you can't talk to kids on the floor - It took a few minutes for the coach to tell her it was a mistake!

 

[GymMom68]

There's a big difference between a 7.8 and a '1'. If a level 6 gymnast is seriously getting a 1 on bars, she has no business doing level 6, it's just that simple. Just because you can throw a back tuck doesn't automatically mean you should be doing level 6, if you don't have the skills, you don't have the skills, period.

MY big issue is that too many parents just worry about the number that follows their daughter's name, they don't care how good or bad they do, They don't care that their daughter is failing miserably in that level as long as they can say 'My daughter's a ___ (whatever level)." There are more important things to worry about. Do you really think it's fun for a child to see a '1', somehow I doubt it. And a 1 is a little more than a bad day. If you're getting a 1, you aren't doing the basic skills for that event. To look at it any other way is just silly.

 

[NYgymfan]

I'm not a gymnast or a judge, so I don't know all the intricate details about scoring gymnastics. But I am an athlete, and two things that really bother me are biased refs and parents who think that their kids are absolutely perfect at everything to the point that they start arguing with the coaches and causing trouble within the team.

The whole point of scoring anything is to create an objective measure that can be used to differentiate how different people/teams perform at a certain task. The system won't work if judges/refs start subjectively and selectively enforcing rules that everyone agreed to abide by beforehand. That means that if the gymnast earns the deductions, those points need to be deducted in order to maintain fairness. Judges should not be overlooking things just because they think the gymnast may feel bad if she gets a low score. There are many things that can cause someone to have a bad day and perform worse then they normally perform at any sport or activity. When you get the low score, there is an incentive to work harder next time to improve. If judges gave a high score even for bad routines, then why would anyone try harder to improve if they know they can get good scores without trying?

I think its great for parents to be supportive of their kids in sports, school, and pretty much anything their kids are involved in. And there are some times when parents certainly ought to question the coaches. When I was younger my mom told off one of my soccer coaches who was extermely blatently playing the favoritism game...and I quit the team as a result. But there is a very fine line between being suportive/questioning things that are obviously wrong, and being overly involved and demanding to the point that it sucks all the fun out of the sport for the kids. Sports are by nature competative, and everyone can't be the best. If a parent sees their kid struggling, then working with their kid to help them improve, and maybe even talking to the coach to ask what they can do to help their kid improve is a far more productive solution then yelling and accusing the coach of doing a bad job, fighting with other parents, demanding that the coaches give their kid more playing time, and so on. The kids get embarrassed and often feel undue pressure when stuff like that happens. It takes the fun out of sports for the kids and the coaches (many of whom are volunteers), and its very counter productive. Besides, at the end of the day the kids are going to have a bigger sense of accomplishment knowing that they did better because they worked to improve, and not just because their parents argued with a judge or coach.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

There's a big difference between a 7.8 and a '1'. If a level 6 gymnast is seriously getting a 1 on bars, she has no business doing level 6, it's just that simple. Just because you can throw a back tuck doesn't automatically mean you should be doing level 6, if you don't have the skills, you don't have the skills, period.

MY big issue is that too many parents just worry about the number that follows their daughter's name, they don't care how good or bad they do, They don't care that their daughter is failing miserably in that level as long as they can say 'My daughter's a ___ (whatever level)." There are more important things to worry about.

Do you honestly consider scores to be the only relevant measure of success? Would you, in all seriousness, pull your kid out and take her to another gym because of a low score?

The truth is, kids look to their parents and coaches to figure out the importance of scores. If we act like it's the end of the world if they get a low score, then yes it can be a blow to their self-confidence when it happens. But if their parents are unconditionally supportive and encouraging (as they should be) and their coaches have a good and positive attitude, most kids will just shrug it off. Perhaps not all kids, but most.

In short, I'm glad I'm not your kid.

 

[GymMom68]

Do you honestly consider scores to be the only relevant measure of success? Would you, in all seriousness, pull your kid out and take her to another gym because of a low score?

The truth is, kids look to their parents and coaches to figure out the importance of scores. If we act like it's the end of the world if they get a low score, then yes it can be a blow to their self-confidence when it happens. But if their parents are unconditionally supportive and encouraging (as they should be) and their coaches have a good and positive attitude, most kids will just shrug it off. Perhaps not all kids, but most.

In short, I'm glad I'm not your kid.

I would definitely not pull my kid out because of a low score, I think my point is being misunderstood. I think too often parents put TOO much pressure on their kids to move up too fast. I think parents put too much pressure on the coaches to move their kids up. I can't imagine it's all that fun for a kid to be doing a level they shouldn't be doing just because the parents want to see a higher number level next to their kids name. I truly think it's unfair.

I have actually watched an entire team of little girls trying to do level 5 and had no business doing it, they were forgetting all their routines, walking off the floor crying, it was sad, it was actually one of the saddest things I've witnessed at a gymnastics meet.

I would never want my daughter to move up just to move up. I want her to have fun and do well so she can feel good about what she does. I don't care if she wins, I want to her to enjoy herself, if she does well, that's just frosting on the cupcake.

Would I pull my daughter from her gym because of a low score? Never in a million year, but I would pull her from a gym that is moving her based on nothing. If she has the skills, have at it, move her up, hopefully she'll have just as much fun in the level, but if she's going to horrible, what exactly is the point of her moving up, other than to just say my daughter is a level ____ now.

So don't think I'm a horrible Mother because I won't beat up on tbe coaches to move her up, she'll move up if/when she's ready.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Ok, I think I understand what you're saying now.

You're right that it's a bad idea to move a kid up just to move them up. However, I stand by my point that a low score does not automatically mean they are not ready for the level they're at.