Parents Meets from a Parents point of view

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Having recently got back from older dd's first meet it has given me a lot to think about..

Background story

Dd's first meet was quite a big one coming from someone who has not been to a competition outside her own gym before (oldest dd hasn't competed in any meet before this one), the meet was 6 hours away by road and 21 clubs from around the country including Ireland and Wales and Jersey attending with 200 gymnasts taking part competing Special Olympic routines in Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Women's Artistic Floor, Beam and Vault and Men's Artistic Floor, P Bars and Vault with medals given out to 1st 2nd and 3rd in each level and age category split in Under 8's, Under 12's, Under 16's, Under 21's and Over 21's.

Having time to reflect on the experience I have come to realize how much I enjoyed it, from watching the competitors to enjoying the atmosphere and meeting people from different clubs, I was surprised to find out friendly other teams were despite being at a competition. I am finding myself thinking about the weekend a lot - is that normal or am I just nuts and as time goes by will I be thinking "Oh no not another meet". Maybe its because it was dd's first meet and the first time with been away for the weekend that doesn't involve going on holiday. I can honestly say I cannot wait until the next one and I am looking forward to see how dd progresses through gymnastics as this is all new to her as she only started gymnastics in August. I recorded dd's routines and I am amazed at what she has done and achieved especially as she got medals on all her Artistic Apparatus, I find myself watching her video's a lot - not to find fault in what she did and look for improvements but just to marvel at her at be proud at what she achieved and seeing the look of happiness on her face as she performed.

Am I the only one to feel this way or will you all shake your head and laugh at me thing how naive I am.

I would love to here about your experiences of attending meets, it doesn't matter if it is your first meet or your 50th meet - I would still love to her your experiences. Until my oldest dd started training for the meet and the meet itself I never realized how much it drew me in and how much of my thoughts it has occupied - I must sound nuts lol.
 
DD has been in 5 invitational meets over the last 18 months or so, and never to a formal meet where she actually gets scores. That starts in a month or so.

The meets She's competed at have been fun. Parents from other teams commenting politely to parents from other teams when they see their children do nicely. But all little kids (for here anyways, the 7 and 8 year olds ARE the little kids). Very friendly, very nice.

I have been to qualifier meets, etc. where the "big girls" (as my daughter puts it) compete...... Some of that casualness and friendliness is gone (but not all). It gets, well, competitive. Some of the politeness seems more veiled.

But I thoroughly enjoy watching gymnastics! whether she is competing or not. I AM looking forward to her meets this year. But I also expect I might get a little sick of them. Going from 5 meets over 18 months to at least one a month for the next 6 or 7 might wear on me. And it might be mores stress than I would like ;)

I am so glad you are enjoying your experience with your daughter.
 
I hate them. LOL, can't think of really any bit of it I enjoy. How boring it is depends on who is there to chat to.
Do sort of enjoy rhythmic and liked watching acro at nationals but artistic I just find boring (or upsetting if I actually watch carefully as I start to feel for all the kids if they have a fall or something - lol, not that I even know if it's normal for them or not).
I have been to a special olympics rhythmic comp and there was a really nice atmosphere.

Hope you continue to love going to the comps - makes things easier, lol.
 
I don't think your nuts. I can't wait for meet season to start!! This is our fourth year and I still love going to the meets, and I imagine for as long as she is doing this sport, I always will. And it's what I'll miss most when she's done...
 
This will be my older dd's 7th year competing. I am very excited for meet season. The kids work so hard you want to see them compete. My younger dd will start competing this year and I am very excited about that too, although compulsories in general are not nearly as much fun to watch as optionals. It helps that there are new routines and music, it won't feel so much like I am repeating. Now by the 1oth meet of the season you are just ready for it to be done so they can move on and start uptraining. But for now I love it!
 
Special olympics meets really are special. Way more fun than regular meets. You get the feeling everyone is just so pleased to be there, and everyone is cheering for everyone else, as it's such a huge achievement to be even doing gymnastics.

I went to worlds years ago and loved it. I was a young teenager - at the social we all got asked to dance by so many boys we had an amazing time :). The social pressures are completely different, no one is odd or too cool for school.

I think you might find regular meets a whole different ball game as there's much more focus on scores and placings, rather than just enjoying being there.
 
Every meet is special for us and I thoroughly enjoy them all. That may be because we hardly get to go to any - we are the only team in our entire country! Every meet except for our own invitational involves airplane travel, so that helps build the excitement too. Our own meet is fun because we are hosting teams from other countries, and although it is a lot of work it is very rewarding.
 
I'm usually a ball of nerves, especially when she's up on the beam which I know makes HER nervous, but at the same time I love it! I don't think you're crazy at all. I love the atmosphere, I love watching gymnastics, and I also pour over her videos after the fact. I love watching old videos and seeing how far she's come!
 
Special olympics meets really are special. Way more fun than regular meets. You get the feeling everyone is just so pleased to be there, and everyone is cheering for everyone else, as it's such a huge achievement to be even doing gymnastics.

I think you have summed it up very well, but I still think some take it too serious and I did see something strange - one of the girls who dd competed against was over twice her height and looked around 18 and she was competing in the under 12 category (dd told me she was 11 and was nice to talk to), from what I saw of her routines it looked like she could compete them with too much ease and it looked way too easy for her and in my opinion she should have been competing the next level up for the under 12 category - but what do I know (shrugs shoulders), apart from that you are right everyone seemed to be really happy and really pleased for each other - a lot of them had Down's Syndrome and they were a very happy bunch and we couldn't help but get swept along with their happiness especially when one of them got a medal - the expression of joy on their faces just shone out.
 
I'm usually a ball of nerves, especially when she's up on the beam which I know makes HER nervous, but at the same time I love it! I don't think you're crazy at all. I love the atmosphere, I love watching gymnastics, and I also pour over her videos after the fact. I love watching old videos and seeing how far she's come!

I could have written this post!
 
You are definitely not alone! Actually, I too sometimes wonder if I'm nuts. LOL
This will be DD's second season competing, and I can't wait! I love the atmosphere, the excitement, yes it's nerve-racking to watch DD out there, but what a feeling of pride when she actually completes her routine cleanly! And then waiting for the placement, and then no better feeling in the world that watching her face light up when her name is mentioned for the 1 st or 2nd place.
And yes, I love watching the videos over and over again afterwards while impatiently waiting for the next meet. lol
Maybe we'll get sick of it eventually, but for now I'm enjoying the ride.
 
I have been to a few meets so far. I use to LOVE going to them. Very social, see people you haven't seen in a while, hang out with the other moms, cheer on your dd. I didn't feel a lot of stress when she was in level 5 or 6.
I can't say I am LOVING them anymore. Only because her 'stuff" is getting so difficult now and I get so stressed out for her and how she will do. I really try hard not to show my stress to her but I am sure on occasion it comes out. She has been fortunate to travel with a team on a few occasions where she travels and stays with them. I think its probably less stressful for her.
As for the parents then - fabulous - there was only one parent that was in my daughters group that was really competitive and said things that a parent should just not say - about my daughter or anyone else. Luckily we are not with them anymore.
As for parents now - I think on the most part they are good. There is always some cattiness. Like in any competitive sport - some people think their kids are better then they are and get mad when one kid gets something theirs doesn't. I love to go and watch, cheer them all on and take photos of the girls for our club.
I much prefer to watch practice and see her get new skills during the year then go to a meet. But I also can't not go to a meet either. So I can't win :)
 
You are not crazy. They drew me in like a cult.

First year I couldn't go to all of them - I worked Saturdays and LL wasn't old enough to compete till halfway through the season anyway. So they were kinda rare, new-to-me, foreign/exotic seeming.

Last year I just fell in love little by little. Nice group of parents. Got used to the strangeness & length of meets. Got caught up in the competitive atmosphere, lol. The weekends we didn't have meets, we sorta started missing them...

This year I look forward to it even more. Maybe even less nervous tension as LL works toward optional goals rather than winning meets or besting her previous scores.

Maybe I'll burn out in interest this season. Maybe you will. But so glad you loved your first one - sounded like an amazing intro to meets.
 
It sounds like a lovely meet and I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

We get to to see quite a lot of senior national and international level gymnastics and I love those events. The atmosphere is great and it's all very entertaining and of course I usually feel pretty detached from the whole thing.

I also enjoy watching friend's kids and club mates compete.

I hate watching my dd compete. I get nervous for her, but I have to pretend that I'm not. She puts pressure on herself and I'm trying to play it all down and be cool but secretly worrying that she will feel disappointed or mess up badly and get upset. It's never happened yet, but maybe that's why I worry, because I'm not sure how she would feel if that happened. I also get upset for other kids when they fall or go wrong or cry :(

There are far too many parents who sit there and make mean comments about the other kids and moan about their coaches and other parents and all very loudly. It makes me cringe. The seating is always uncomfortable and you're often pretty squashed in. I've also seen coaches really shout at their gymnasts when they've messed up and I find that upsetting. I just want to go and give them a hug!

So yeah, I actually dread meets beforehand and then love them afterwards when we can go home and everyone's happy and I'm so proud of what dd achieved and can secretly sit and re-watch her routines and feel like showing them to the world (but don't!) and it's all done.
 
Love meets! I even like watching when my own daughter isn't competing. I really enjoy watching gymnastics. I've been going to meets for 13 years now (started with older DD) and still enjoy it.
 
I really do love watching gymnastics! I like the meets, but they are stressful for me. I just want all those girls to do well- they work so hard and it breaks my heart to see them upset if they make a mistake or whatever. It also hurts my heart when kids don't place in anything at a meet. Maybe it is because my gymmie is so young (7) that I just hate seeing these little girls with that "look" on their faces when they realize they didn't place. :( I was working a session at our gym's meet where I literally did not know any of the kids (there were none from our gym) and I STILL was so nervous for the girls! I think I am just a big old softie I guess. ;)
 
I have a love/hate relationship with meets. They are usually 2-4 hours away, so unless DD has an 8am start time, it is often hard to justify a hotel stay. Staying over can make the day of the meet less stressful, but then you also go back to work/school Monday morning feeling like "Weekend? What weekend?" Also, my DD always finishes the season really strong, so she gets moved up to the next level, but then is the last girl on her team to "get" her new sills, so heading into the season, I am never sure if she is going to manage to pull it all together. She is training level 8 now, and she does this EVERY SINGLE YEAR so you would think I would have learned to relax about it by now, but sadly, no. But then again, I'm not sure if meets are maybe more stressful once she starts doing well, because at the beginning of the season everyone's expectations are lower. At meets I get a "meet headache" that is with me all day, and I often can't eat which means I'm starving by the time it's all over.

And yet, I do love meet season. Doing her hair, spending time with her, her getting to show what she's been doing for the past 8 months ("no viewing policy"), hanging out with friends, dinner out after... DD is a real outdoorsy kid, and summer is Dad's season with her... bird watching, snorkeling vacations, trips to local creeks where they bring home buckets of creatures and create ecosystems for them in aquariums... But meet season is MY season. DH goes to about half the meets. He brings work to do in the car till the meet starts (I am always pretty obsessive about leaving extra travel time) and I often have to nudge him awake when it's DD's turn to compete. But I have never missed a meet, and I have certainly never fallen asleep in one!
 
The trajectory for us for DD:
(Old) L5, year one: what the heck is going on? Is that her score? OMG, she stayed on the beam!
(Old) L5, year two: wow, she looks a lot better! She did X that she could not do at all last year!
L6: Will she fall on her front tuck?
L7: Will she make her giant?
(This coming year at anticipated L7): How much will she ROCK bars today?

And for DS:
L4: Wow, I didn't believe it when the other parents told me that the warmups were THIS long. Will anyone stay on the mushroom?
L5: Will anyone stay on the mushroom?
(This coming year at anticipated L5 or L6): Will anyone stay on the mushroom?
L8-Olympics: Will anyone stay on the pommel horse?

Seriously, I enjoy going to meets and watching all of my DD's and DS's teammates. They all work sooo hard, and it's the best feeling in the world to see them doing well, especially when your metric for "well" is really going for it and achieving the things that are just barely in reach for them.
 
I don't think you are nuts at all! I love going to the meets, but it does seem to drag on just a bit by the end of the season. ;) Little Miss is my second child to do competitive gymnastics, the other competed for 3 years, but they never overlapped. This will be Little Miss's 3rd year competing. I am looking forward to her being an optional this year, with the different choreography and routines, versus the compulsory (those do get repetitive!)
 
I LOVE MEET SEASON!! LOL. My oldest started competing in Jan 2005, so I am going into my 10th year of going to meets and I still love the atmosphere, excitement. We watch other sessions if teammates are competing as well as our own. We have also started going to college meets as well, those are super fun to watch! I've even been known to attend meets without my gymmies!
 

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