Parents Meet Report: Gatlinburg Classic

[Midget's Dad]

This was a meet of highs and lows for us. I think because Midget is a little worn after the much extended meet season. She and one other girl were the only ones from compulsories to compete in this meet but it was a bit of a last minute addition.

No camera issues this time around so yay. Also did get to sit next to Mary Lou Retton who was there cheering on three of her daughters. She has a 5, 8, and 9 and I got to see her 8 compete on floor and she was excellent!

First up was vault, one of our highs considering it is usually such a low. Midget had a great first vault and then she really cranked it for the second one and had an even better one. 8.5! After a season of 6's and 7's that was awesome!

Bars next. She was pretty solid but she came around too fast on her Mill and just barely got herself stopped in time, but then over-corrected and fell backwards. Still she scored a 7.9.

Beam, our strongest event. She looked good as always I thought. Not a single wobble throughout the routine. A few polish mistakes and got an 8.625? Oh well.

Finally to floor. I thought she looked the best she ever has until she got stuck on her backward roll and fell. So she did it again and got it. Not sure if they gave her an added element deduction but it is the only thing that makes sense with her score, 7.4.

I think she was embarrassed about messing up a backward roll because this was the first time she has ever started crying at a meet. Got her calmed down and headed to awards.

Awards kind of upset me, but I will explain in a second.

Midget got 4th on Beam, and 6th on Bars. 8th all-around. No place in vault or floor and I have yet to see the full scoring breakdowns.

Now to why I was bothered. Lots of girls did not make it to the meet due to the weather in the southeast. So they decided to combine age groups. So they made the youngest group 5 to 8 year olds. In my mind there is a HUGE difference between even a 7 year old and an 8 year old, at the younger ages they change so quickly. And it showed, the top places went to 8 year olds every single event.

But, it is what it is. I am and always will be proud of Midget. And I certainly did not let her know how I felt.

And now we are done! On to level 4!! And yes, she knows now.


PS Video to follow hopefully later today.

 

[mariposa]

Congrats to Midget on her last level 3 meet!! Sounds like it had its ups and downs. We just had one of those. That darn mill circle...I still hold my breath when Abby does it. I know it won't get any better at level 5, with the squat on/jump to HB to worry about, but I will be glad to be done with it. Beam judges must've been tough, it happens. If it was across the board, then it is okay. And floor, it happens, glad she got through it without too many tears.

That is a bummer about awards. 5-8 is an unfair age group. Here they seem to be using less and less the age groups by number, but doing it by sheer numbers. Just breaking them down into equal age groups. Not sure which is best.

Congrats to Midget on moving to level 4! I am sure it will be a lot of fun for her.

 

[taximom]

Wow! What a vault! Congrats to Midget! I agree with you in regards to age groups there is a big difference bertween 5-8 year olds. I can't imagine it is all that rewarding to be the 8 year who placed ahead of younger athletes either. I'm proud of Midget too! I'll check out the video later!

 

[UnoMas]

Good luck to her in level 4!!!! She is going to be great and have an awesome time!

And yes, not cool about the age groups. Ahhh...but what can you do? Not much, except look forward to L4 with all the new fun stuff to learn!

 

[iggy1988]

Great job Midge!! Welcome to Level 4. That will be fun for her... When does the level 4 season start for her? Does she have to wait until Septemberish....?

I also very much dislike when they lump all the ages together...

Sean

 

[Midget's Dad]

Great job Midge!! Welcome to Level 4. That will be fun for her... When does the level 4 season start for her? Does she have to wait until Septemberish....?

I also very much dislike when they lump all the ages together...

Sean

Yep, September or so. Really depends on which meets they choose to start with. States are in December so hopefully we get in a few months of meets prior to that.

 

[Mariainlv]

Nice meet Midge! Onward to Level 4

 

[Megley]

Yay for Midget improving her vault scores so much! That is terrific! Sorry to hear about the mishap on floor. Sometimes things like that happen. I'm glad that she felt okay about it later. Onward to Level 4 - very exciting!

Meg

 

[cathiann]

Cngrats to her on a great end to her level 3 season! I'm sure she's do great in level 4 next year. And, yes, that age grouping for level 3 seems awfully large--that's like doing 7-11 yrs old in level 5!

 

[Claire]

Congratulations to your daughter! I'm glad you made it safely out of Gatlinburg.

My daughter didn't compete at Gatlinburg Classic, but our team did. Apparently, our L5s were in the same rotation as Mary Lou Retton's daughter. They didn't know it at the time, though. One of the moms thought she saw her, but just figured she was just someone who looked like her. I'm sure that Mary Lou appreciated the anonimity. Did you recognize her right away?

 

[Midget's Dad]

My wife did. She had watched something with her on it earlier in the week. She did sign a few autographs but she asked people to let her enjoy her girls and everyone was very good about it that I saw.

 

[kristilyn73]

Way to go Midget! Sounds like she is ready for L4! What a pain in the behind about the awards being grouped like that..

Super cool to hear about Mary Lou! Sounds like she is just another gym parent like the rest of us.. maybe she is a Chalk Bucket member and we just don't know it!

 

[thnkGd4kds]

Sounds like a good meet for Midget, despite scores and a little mishap on the floor! Unfortunately, those up and down meets happen, but Midget obviously pulled through, and it's all a learning experience.

How cool about Mary Lou Retton and her daughters! That'd be a neat experience of its own . . .

 

[Juju's Mom]

Way to go Midget! Great job despite the floor boo boo. I'm afraid that the floor was not too kind to Juju either.

We had the opposite scenario for awards. They realized they had way too many girls in each age group and the awards was broken into more groups then they had listed in the program.

You must have been near a set of our parents because one of our L8 families was near Mary Lou too.

I hate that we did not get to see each other. If we come back next year, we may stay at the host hotel so we can come watch some of the other sessions.