Parents She qualified!

[MaryA]

Kathy qualified for Level 5 States! Scoring was a bit tough, especially on floor, but she pulled off a 33.885 (needed a 33). This was the highest score on her team and only one other girl qualified (it would have been nice to see more gymnasts from her team qualify). I will try to post some video at some point when it's not almost 2am (gotta love evening meets that are 3 hours away...). I did have to share this story though...

A dad of a gymnast from another team was sitting next to us. At the end of the meet it came up in conversation that his 8-year-old daughter did not qualify for States. AND HER TEAM PRACTICES 25 HOURS A WEEK!!!! Even if she was scoring 39.95AA, I would still think that 25 hours for an 8-year-old level 5 is completely absurd. My appologies if anyone reading this falls into this category, but geez... I know I complain that Kathy's team needs more hours in the gym, but I was thinking like maybe 10-12 hours would be nice.

Anyway, thanks for all of the good luck fairies and squat-on fairies and cartwheel-on-beam fairies that people sent our way. I'm sending them back now. States isn't until the 1st weekend in April, and really, it's not like she's going to place anyway (she didn't place tonight, and competition will only be stiffer at States... and her team only practices 6-8 hours a week). It's just so darned exciting that she's getting to go!

 

[MdGymMom01]

Congrats to Kathy!!!! It just goes to show you that more hours does NOT necessarily mean better. My dd's team practice about 10 hrs a week (2 days a week) and they are scoring pretty well also. So, I think that is AWESOME that Kathy can do so well on minimal hours in the gym. It also gives her more free time during the week to do other things--which only make for a happier, more well-rounded kid in my opinion .

 

[bogwoppit]

Excellent news for Kathy. Lovely that all her work has paid off this way!

 

[NGL780309]

Congrats to her! That's a big deal and it's so impressive that she does so well without doing too many hours.

 

[mariposa]

Congrats to her!! Qualifying for States is a big accomplishment. Hope she goes and has a great meet!

 

[gymmomof1]

Yay for Kathy. I hope that she has a wonderful time at states and that all her hard work this season payed off !! It is exciting and an accomplishment to make it and she should feel good about it

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

I am so glad that she qualified!! What a relief for her!! She must be on cloud 9. Luckily in our state it only takes a 31AA to qualify so all of the girls on our team were able to qualify!! If it were 33 there would be a couple that would not! My DD only practices 9 hours a week. There is an additional practice on Sundays that is optional that would make a total of 12 hours but at the moment she is happy and doing fine with 9. There are a few girls at our gym that go literally 6 days a week. They came to our gym this past summer and one of the coaches followed shortly after. This coach formed her own training session with only the girls that came from that gym. And a couple of them also do private lessons with the owners of the gym. THese girls are 8 and 9 years old and they are putting in 15 hours regular practice plus a 1 hour private so 16 hours. They are certainly not outscoring the rest of the team and I think it is just setting them up to get burnt out!! It just goes to show that more hours does not equal better gymnastics!! Congrats to Kathy!!

 

[littlegirlsdream]

congrats! How awesome for your daughter. Extra hours doesn't always equal beter gymn. It depends on how the time is utilized. That being said my lvl five is seven years old and does fourteen hours. Any less and she would be bouncing off the furniture

 

[lhmom]

That's fantastic news!! Congrats to Kathy for having a solid meet and qualifying for states!! And personally, if my daughter's gym was doing 25 hrs. for level 5, she wouldn't be there. She'll be 8 if she competes level 5 and they go 12 hours a week (only 3 hours more than she is doing now). Good luck to Kathy at States!!!

 

[UnoMas]

Congrats congrats congrats to Kathy! She has really accomplished a lot this season. Don't count her out on placements at states. You never know when she is going to hit all four events and surprise you! She's on a roll and I bet she will improve some more before state meet!

Our state qualifying score for L4/L5 is only 28AA...so all of the L4 and L5 teams qualified (with my younger DD being the last one to do it, ). That is something that only a few from her team qualified. It would be more fun if everyone could go.

As far as the 25 hours...we have a couple girls on our team who train TOPs and are L5 (soon to be L6) that are in for more than 25 hrs per week. These girls are 9 and 10 years old. I think it is toooooo much and I dread having to face that decision if my DD ever gets to optionals (that is when she would have a huge jump in hours, she goes 15 now). Anyway, these 2 girls are scoring 37's at every meet. I have to wonder though if it is worth it to spend every waking moment outside of school at the gym. I just think it is too much for level 5. I must admit my DD is not in that "select" group where we'd have to deal with that. LOL.

GOOD LUCK TO KATHY (and team) AT STATES!!!!

 

[gym law mom]

Such good news. Kathy has really hung in there all season and has just kept improving. Tell her to have a blast at states, get the official t-shirt etc. Too bad its just her and 1 other girl.
Doing insane hours in ther gym(the kid that did 25) doesn't guarantee you'll go to states. Poor kid may have been too tired at the end of a competitive season to really give it her best.

 

[MaryA]

congrats! How awesome for your daughter. Extra hours doesn't always equal beter gymn. It depends on how the time is utilized. That being said my lvl five is seven years old and does fourteen hours. Any less and she would be bouncing off the furniture

Yes, Kathy had last Friday off from gym because of the coaches being away at a high school meet. That meant she had 4 days with no gym and was climbing the walls by the time Tuesday finally rolled around. I have said many times that, if Kathy didn't have gym, she would have been diagnosed as ADHD by now...

 

[Optionals United]

Congrats!! That is very exciting for you and her. Now she can relax and can finish her sesson off with a good state meet. That just goes to thow that you have to spend lots of hours to get good results.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

Great job! So happy for her!

 

[Deanna]

WTG Kathy. Congrats on making states. That has too be a wonderful feeling. As far as hours. Our one and only L10 (there are only 5 L10s in our state..last i knew), only practices 16 hrs a week (and she got a full ride scholarship because of gymnastics)..they have a cap off at 20hrs. NO ONE of any level practices more than 20hrs a week. Every gym, every parent, every child is different..but thats how ours rolls.

 

[Megley]

Woohoo! Congratulations to Kathy! Super exciting for her. Wishing her an awesome state meet!

 

[pixie flips]

Way to go Kathy! Congrats on a qualifying
And good luck at state!!

As to judging at sectionals it seems our judges try to put
everyone through since the entry fee at state goes to them, ha!

I honestly can't think of a girl that didn't qualify. None from our gym.
Possibly if a girl fell off beam, fell off bars and had a weak vault it might happen.

 

[lilgymmie7]

Yay for your DD!! What an awesome accomplishment! Tell her to breathe and to have loads of fun!!

 

[MaryA]

Way to go Kathy! Congrats on a qualifying
As to judging at sectionals it seems our judges try to put
everyone through since the entry fee at state goes to them, ha!
QUOTE]

At the end of awards, they had everyone who qualified for States stand up. I'd say it was maybe 2/3 of the group? A majority, but certainly not everybody by any stretch of the imagination. Out of my DD's team, 5 out of 8 made it to Sectionals, and 2 of those 5 made it to States, but they're all 1st year level 5's from a YMCA team, so I'm sure that other team's percentages were much higher than ours.

 

[Dezi]

Congrats to her! Fingers crossed for a great state meet!