Parents Competition line up

[krisnkids]

Do you compete as a team at State? We are all separated out by age groups, so only a few girls are actually in the same session. My DD is the youngest in her level by 2 years, so I already know she'll be competing alone. Rather lonely...

I had to laugh, my older gymmie was the same, always the youngest and would often be in a session by herself with her coach. While other girls dreaded this my dd thrived on it. She always got her best scores when she was 1 on 1 with her coach.

 

[Seeker]

Yeah, my DD has competed more alone with her coach than not. It is fine, but also not the same as being with a team. She generally winds up having to go first on every event and then there's just a lot of standing around. I think that there are benefits to both, but she's getting to the age where she would rather have teammates with her.

 

[gracyomalley]

Ask the coach - there's got to be a format at the gym for communication - set up meeting, email, whatever. I agree the beam order in general seems to have to do with kids nerves and getting a consistent performer (not necessarily highest scorer, but most likely to stick) up first (often DD coach sandwiches the more wobbly girls in between the 2 strongest - but sometimes, especially in compulsories, it was "who wants to go first?")...in floor its similar with more of a "build to strongest gymnast" ...bars and vault are based upon settings here...but in any case, it sounds to me that communication is the issue, not really order on events.

 

[Rumjello]

I appreciate the responses. It gives me different perspectives to look at. I think I worry too much. My daughter is a strong competitor. She loves it and is very athletic. Instead of focusing on the scores, I should be focusing on her skills which she has! God love our little girls! This is really a tough sport! And I commend them all!

 

[Rumjello]

Aye, I believe that is true. Lack of communication is probably the culprit here.

 

[wnl256]

Do you compete as a team at State? We are all separated out by age groups, so only a few girls are actually in the same session. My DD is the youngest in her level by 2 years, so I already know she'll be competing alone. Rather lonely...

When our DD went to state for levels 3 and 4, they competed as individuals separated in to age groups and across multiple sessions. There may have been team awards (based on the top 3 or 4 individual scores) but I don't remember for certain. However, level 5 was different. The girls still competed individually, and the team scores were still calculated as they typically are (top 3 or 4 scores on each apparatus). But the top 8 teams by team score came back Sunday evening and competed as teams in a "finals" session. 6 athletes on each apparatus (chosen by the coaches), top 4 scores counted. It was a whole lotta fun for the girls and for the spectators. They used to do that for level 6 too, but now that all the levels have changed around I don't know what they are going to do.

 

[twinmomma]

Our team competes all together regardless of age group. They are separated often into two or three age groupings, but it doesn't seem to affect our line up. What drives me crazy is it seems there's no consistency to our line up even in the same meet. On bars, the order will be ABC and then on Beam it will be BCA, and then ABC again on floor. I can't figure it out.

 

[wallinbl]

Our team competes all together regardless of age group. They are separated often into two or three age groupings, but it doesn't seem to affect our line up. What drives me crazy is it seems there's no consistency to our line up even in the same meet. On bars, the order will be ABC and then on Beam it will be BCA, and then ABC again on floor. I can't figure it out.

In state, it tends to be that the order is fixed, and only the starting person changes from event to event (VT: ABCDEFGH, UB: CDEFGHAB, etc). Out of state meets seem to be open to the coach's whims each time. I find the former preferable, as you know when your kid is about to be up (they'll usually hand out sheets with the order printed on them).

 

[krisnkids]

Our team competes all together regardless of age group. They are separated often into two or three age groupings, but it doesn't seem to affect our line up. What drives me crazy is it seems there's no consistency to our line up even in the same meet. On bars, the order will be ABC and then on Beam it will be BCA, and then ABC again on floor. I can't figure it out.

In California all the meets that I went to the order of go was set going into the competition, I particularly loved it when the rotation schedule was posted in the meet book. It made bathroom breaks a lot easier. When I got to Kentucky I was thrown off a little when I I didn't see a rotation schedule in the meet book and then really floored when I realized that the coaches determined the order of go.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

I can respond as a coach to this. You guys are looking WAY to hard into this. You need to ask yourself why a coach would put up a weak kid first on beam who always falls... what benefit would this give the rest of the girls, (who when they see someone fall they tend to do the same). I always put up a steady person first, (if we even have a choice, as some meets have a fixed order that changes at each event). And no the scores do not go up in each rotation from 1st kid to last. The only kid that tends to suffer are the kids who are first at 8am on the first event. And even in that case, if its a good judge it wont matter. When we go to vault, we vault in table height order, when we go to bars I want someone solid first, but we will also compete in bar setting order. And floor it's "anyone want to start us off"? me me me

 

[profmom]

CoachP, you forget to account for the boredom of meets for the parents after a few years. For me, trying to figure out the principle that dictates the lineup is sort of like doing a crossword puzzle. It kills time, especially when I have a boy doing warmup compete format.

And yes, I was extremely proud to be the first parent to figure it out the time they did it by age group and then alphabetical by last name but put the second year L5s after the first year L5s.

 

[skschlag]

CoachP, you forget to account for the boredom of meets for the parents after a few years. For me, trying to figure out the principle that dictates the lineup is sort of like doing a crossword puzzle. It kills time, especially when I have a boy doing warmup compete format.

And yes, I was extremely proud to be the first parent to figure it out the time they did it by age group and then alphabetical by last name but put the second year L5s after the first year L5s.

LOL! you need a book

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Hello all!
Just wanting to get some input here. DD on sanctioned competition team. DD has been made to go first on beam a few times. Though she is no Olympian, she is not horrible. She's had a solid beam routine this whole season and hasn't fallen off one time. There are a couple girls that score higher than her but she's around a 9.2 as an average. Why would her coach continue to make her go first? There are 4 other girls that go after her and fall repeatedly, or do not do a better beam routine. What is the reasoning behind this? I'm very frustrated by this and feel that it affects her AA score everytime.

they might be 'stacking' the line up. sometimes it works. in theory, you put up your best kid first. because she is consistent and never falls. this helps every kid after her. and if a team score is involved, it will help the team score. capiche? so it's actually a 'good' thing if that is what the coach is doing. they do it in college all the time and it has even been done with national teams competing internationally.

but there is no way to disprove that it works or doesn't. i can only tell you that i have been involved in this kind of process and it 'appears' to work.

 

[Rumjello]

It seems as if the judges hold out for the last girl for high scores. I have been paying attention to this. My daughter scores higher on the floor if she is 6th in line instead of 3rd. I have kept track of the line up. DD scores higher when she is towards the last of the line up. I really believe the coach manipulates the line up so that "the Chosen ONE" can score higher. Though, all our our girls have their strength and I feel that each deserve a fair shot at winning just as much as the favorite one does. I truly wish that there was a computer generated pick so that the coaches could not manipulate who goes first. That way, each girl is judged on her own ability and not riding on the coat tails of the other girls. Most of us parents are tired of our girls taking the "hit" on those scores. The favorite is really nothing special. Just her mom party's with the coaches so I guess that leaves the rest of us out of luck.

 

[Rumjello]

CoachP, you forget to account for the boredom of meets for the parents after a few years. For me, trying to figure out the principle that dictates the lineup is sort of like doing a crossword puzzle. It kills time, especially when I have a boy doing warmup compete format.

And yes, I was extremely proud to be the first parent to figure it out the time they did it by age group and then alphabetical by last name but put the second year L5s after the first year L5s.

Im glad you found this entertaining. This has cause quite a bit of stress in our gym and people are ready to pull their DD from the program due to blatant favoritism. If you don't have anything helpful to say, then, please, just move onto another thread. I'm not your entertainment.

 

[Bess]

Im glad you found this entertaining. This has cause quite a bit of stress in our gym and people are ready to pull their DD from the program due to blatant favoritism. If you don't have anything helpful to say, then, please, just move onto another thread. I'm not your entertainment.

Unless I am missing something profmom was speaking of her own situation in figuring out the line up. She was saying it was a puzzle for HER to figure out the line up for HER child's meet

 

[Rumjello]

Hmm my bad. I mistook this as making light of the situation.

 

[wnl256]

It seems as if the judges hold out for the last girl for high scores. I have been paying attention to this. My daughter scores higher on the floor if she is 6th in line instead of 3rd. I have kept track of the line up. DD scores higher when she is towards the last of the line up. I really believe the coach manipulates the line up so that "the Chosen ONE" can score higher.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying:

Correlation does not imply causation.

(click on the link if you don't know what that means).

Based on other posts I've seen you make, I'd say that your team, team parents, and your gym have issues that run much deeper than the competition lineup.

 

[Rumjello]

Now I have issues? Because I mistook what someone wrote on the internet? Really.

 

[wnl256]

Now I have issues? Because I mistook what someone wrote on the internet? Really.

I edited the message immediately after posting, so I consider that comment retracted. I hope that you will also.