WAG Meets - the good, bad and ugly

[z2akids]

I get the impression that a couple of posts are inquiring about how new I am and questioning my qualifications to find fault with meets.

DD just completed her second USAG season and we were a part of the gym for almost a year before her first meet. So, I have a little experience attending meets and have volunteered now at 6 meets sponsored by our gym, including chairing a couple of committees for the last two large meets (our large meet runs 14 sessions). So, yes, I am relatively new, but I would not consider myself brand new to gymnastics. I have also been heavily involved in volunteer fundraising for nearly 15 years (I have been the chairperson for a decade of a silent auction that brings in $25k annually to my children's school in one night). I know that running a large event is difficult and that volunteers do the best they can. But, that doesn't mean that we as parents and spectators should simply put up with those annoyances. Poorly run meets will either change or disappear
As parents push HC's to attend different meets.

Anyway, some of the meets do only place out 5 or 6 for events and then do the "participant ribbons as a group for the lower AA). Love these. Makes awards go quickly, gives more meaning when you get an award and it's less embarrassing to those who did not place well.

I am not quite sure I understand the invitation to leave gymnastics for soccer. I have an older child who has been involved in soccer. It has its own issues. Feel good medals for one thing.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Wait, what? "Free" leotards or t-shirts at the meets your kids go to? This is the norm? My dd had one meet last year where they got a t-shirt. And I think another meet had a lunch bag. That's about it as far as meet prizes. Is that more common with the optional level meets? As for awards, most of the ones she went to only called the top 10 or so. And it was almost always each event and each age group within the event. So floor child a, floor child b, floor jr a, etc). It's interesting hearing how different everyone's experiences are.

 

[gymdog]

Around here there are almost always 2 flights with 10-12 gymnasts per event. Even if a gym is split into a group if 12 and a group of 3, the group of is filed out with a smaller gym to get to 10-12. Sure, they can't always work it out to put those 2 groups in separate flights on the same equipment. But, I always feel so bad for those 3. In separate flights, they would have more if their team able to cheer for then, etc.

Oh, I agree. I hate when it happens to my team when we're right on the cusp of filling out the flight but they go with smaller flights. But I understand now after hearing from the meet directors what they have to do. They want the meet to run smoothly so when not all flights can be exactly the same size they sometimes have to start them in different areas. Also sometimes there is more than one gym broken into different flights and then they can accommodate all of them. We have some gyms so big here they have to be split into 3 flights.

 

[ZJsMom]

How would a mistake like that happen twice? It's not that difficult to read off the top 7 names....

You would think so. One year, when my ds was in level 8, for the level 8s (this was the first year 8s could qualify to Nationals), they told the guys in the older age groups they qualified to Nationals, when it's only the younger group that's eligible. Then for the level 10 session, they didn't announce who qualified and the kids and parents were all confused and stressed trying to figure out who qualified. The second time it happened, they were supposed to do a certain number of qualifiers for one level and a different number for the next level, but it was done backwards.

 

[z2akids]

I understand that most meets are put on by booster clubs and it's a hard task, so generally I can roll with whatever happens. BUT at Regionals, for the love of pete, be sure you're right when you announce who's qualified for Nationals. I've been to two Regionals at this point where mistakes were made. Who gets what ribbon or medal at an invitational is really no big deal, qualifying to Nationals IS.

How horrible. That is beyond an irritation.

 

[duyetanh]

Not much irritates me...just glad to get to watch my kid compete and have fun...what gym has done for her in terms of confidence in herself has been amazing. Plus I did competitive swimming for 16 years, 8 at a national level. Talk about meet craziness. We have it easy as gym parents... I don't know how my mom did it, honestly.

 

[profmom]

You would think so. One year, when my ds was in level 8, for the level 8s (this was the first year 8s could qualify to Nationals), they told the guys in the older age groups they qualified to Nationals, when it's only the younger group that's eligible. Then for the level 10 session, they didn't announce who qualified and the kids and parents were all confused and stressed trying to figure out who qualified. The second time it happened, they were supposed to do a certain number of qualifiers for one level and a different number for the next level, but it was done backwards.

That is truly incredible. Our regional meet had some mess ups with scores and medals at awards even beyond the pbars thing, but what you describe is really beyond the pale. Those poor L8 guys who thought they were going! And the other guys too! Geez!!!

 

[Along4theRide]

This past weekend at a meet, the host gym had a small army of young girls, each giving metals to a certain place. That went fairly smoothly. But the woman announcing the names was seated across the gym and directly behind the podium... And NO other adult was helping the girls find the correct positions. There were a number of confused girls who weren't sure which place they got. And one instance where there was a tie for first and the second name was drowned out by applause for the first. The announcer, sitting across the gym, was completely unaware of all confusion and plowed on. Made for some strange salutes, to say the least.

 

[profmom]

I guess it's just gym norms, but our coaches make decisions about meets. I can't imagine what kind of eye rolling we'd get if we said we parents didn't want to go to some meet because we had to pay $3 instead of $1 for a bottle of water or we didn't like what was in the gift bags.

I think my priorities align pretty well with the coaches. So safety for athletes and coaches, efficiency in the way the session is run (taking into account that some gyms may be sending a lot of athletes with a small number of coaches or only one), and accuracy in the results. I also think things tend to go better for everyone if a meet treats coaches well by not having sessions get bogged down so they don't get a break in between (efficiency) and if the meet has decent hospitality for the coaches so they aren't starving or feeling awful from eating big fluffy pretzels and hot dogs for three days.

The kind of stuff ZJsMom is talking about should not happen, nor should meets be installing equipment wrong, not using sufficient matting, or setting up vault tracks in dangerous places (I've seen those one too). Those kinds of things, plus routinely running hours over, are the sorts of things that should cause an invitational to lose gyms. Not much you can do if they do it at regionals, though!

 

[raenndrops]

I think my priorities align pretty well with the coaches. So safety for athletes and coaches, efficiency in the way the session is run (taking into account that some gyms may be sending a lot of athletes with a small number of coaches or only one), and accuracy in the results.

Ok, we had one meet that we were reluctant to go to for a couple of years because it had ended up running WAAAAAAAAY behind, but we took a chance last season and went twice. Both times, it went fine... so we went back this season. Our Level 3 team was announced in 1st place (strange since both powerhouse teams were there too, but I hadn't stayed for team results since I had to get back to the gym for the next session... I WOULD have been able to stay if they hadn't had issues with the age group awards - never call your groups 8-9 Child A, 8-9 Child B, 10-11 Child A, 10-11 Child B, etc. It just leads to confusion because of the use of CHILD for all age groups instead of Child, Junior, Senior). When it was time for the next session awards, I had more time, so I stayed for L4 team awards. Our L4 took 2nd place, with a 246.950. It turns out that L3's announced score was 350.800 (For some reason, they were adding ALL of the scores instead of just top 3). Now, I know that the people announcing the awards have nothing to do with these things, but I figured that if I asked them, they could pass it on before the next session (and maybe correct it). The people DOING awards were high school seniors, L8 and L9 - so they SHOULD have known better, but we were told it was "the XX Gym way." An adult involved DID come in while I was talking to the girls and she was like "and how do you know we aren't doing it right" ... so I explained that a PERFECT team score would be 120.000 and 2nd place was announced at over twice that. She said she would look into it.
Our HC was not at the meet, but I had been texting her some of the results along the way. She agreed there was a problem and would talk to the head of the district after the meet.
They did NOT correct the team scoring for the rest of the meet and HC had to announce the CORRECT places at practice Monday. The L3 girls weren't happy to find out they didn't even make top 3.

 

[mimi]

My dd loves the meet t-shirts and I do buy them at most meets. She wears them to death and for my own sanity I like to see a variety so we have accumulated quite a collection. My biggest beef with the t-shirts is how long it takes to get one! At most of our meets this season they only had two people working the table, one to wait on people and one person to do all the screen printing. I don't like the buy it beforehand because it is just another thing to haul around and keep track of during the meet but the line after the meet is crazy. Bringing more people to take orders would speed the process up considerably. I mean at $40 a t-shirt don't they have enough margin to bring enough staff?

 

[profmom]

Those are all GREAT points, well said. I definitely second the comment about announcing 1st place first, not exciting at all. I'll add that it's no fun when they don't say the score either.

. . . until the day you watch your daughter's lovely sweetheart of a (slightly older) teammate want to sink through the floor in embarrassment when they announce her 9th place medal on L8 bars with a 7.2 score and drag her up to be "recognized." Though I am guessing that the 10th place girl who scored in the 6s felt worse.

 

[cbifoja]

I also don't like the little girls handing out medals. At our state meet, they had three girls up on the stage standing under the "good picture focal point" behind the podium.

Now since the girls were lined up behind the stage and brought up with medals already around their necks, please tell me what purpose these girls served? To many parents (including me!), it felt like they just wanted to be the center of attention and be looked at!

So now, all of my state meet photos have my DD on the podium in front of a lovely display....and three random little girls in the background. Eventually, one of the moms told the girls to move out of the pictures.

 

[lhmom]

At our state meet, they had three girls up on the stage standing under the "good picture focal point" behind the podium.
Now since the girls were lined up behind the stage and brought up with medals already around their necks, please tell me what purpose these girls served? To many parents (including me!), it felt like they just wanted to be the center of attention and be looked at!

Maybe they were there to photobomb?

 

[raenndrops]

. . . until the day you watch your daughter's lovely sweetheart of a (slightly older) teammate want to sink through the floor in embarrassment when they announce her 9th place medal on L8 bars with a 7.2 score and drag her up to be "recognized." Though I am guessing that the 10th place girl who scored in the 6s felt worse.

I think the top 3 scores need to be announced... and, if not awarding all the way out, the last awarded place score (we do top 12... with 30 girls in the age group one year, some of the little ones were getting all excited because this was the FIRST meet they had with so many in the age group... their name hadn't been called yet, so they expected the podium, they were CRUSHED when they didn't place. If the announcer had just announced the 12th place score, it wouldn't have been as hard on them.)

 

[gymdog]

Ok, we had one meet that we were reluctant to go to for a couple of years because it had ended up running WAAAAAAAAY behind, but we took a chance last season and went twice. Both times, it went fine... so we went back this season. Our Level 3 team was announced in 1st place (strange since both powerhouse teams were there too, but I hadn't stayed for team results since I had to get back to the gym for the next session... I WOULD have been able to stay if they hadn't had issues with the age group awards - never call your groups 8-9 Child A, 8-9 Child B, 10-11 Child A, 10-11 Child B, etc. It just leads to confusion because of the use of CHILD for all age groups instead of Child, Junior, Senior). When it was time for the next session awards, I had more time, so I stayed for L4 team awards. Our L4 took 2nd place, with a 246.950. It turns out that L3's announced score was 350.800 (For some reason, they were adding ALL of the scores instead of just top 3). Now, I know that the people announcing the awards have nothing to do with these things, but I figured that if I asked them, they could pass it on before the next session (and maybe correct it). The people DOING awards were high school seniors, L8 and L9 - so they SHOULD have known better, but we were told it was "the XX Gym way." An adult involved DID come in while I was talking to the girls and she was like "and how do you know we aren't doing it right" ... so I explained that a PERFECT team score would be 120.000 and 2nd place was announced at over twice that. She said she would look into it.
Our HC was not at the meet, but I had been texting her some of the results along the way. She agreed there was a problem and would talk to the head of the district after the meet.
They did NOT correct the team scoring for the rest of the meet and HC had to announce the CORRECT places at practice Monday. The L3 girls weren't happy to find out they didn't even make top 3.

This happens a surprising amount. If you aren't careful, pro score (and probably other systems) can be set to adding all the scores instead of top 3, even if you know what you're doing, if you don't refresh or something it can keep printing it like that. So if they're rushing the sheets out to the awards without checking, then this happens. Usually the awards person notices, but sometimes if it is a parent volunteer they might not notice.

I've also been to a meet where it was just announced incorrectly but the scores were right. Basically, the host team would have been first and I knew there was no way we beat them, but they announced the top 3 without the host team. I did say something because I knew it was wrong, but they just said thanks and it was okay. Maybe they just didn't want to give their team an award at their own meet but it doesn't usually work that way? I guess it was just a mistake and they were embarrassed to correct it, because when they posted the results online after the meet it was correct.

 

[gymdog]

. . . until the day you watch your daughter's lovely sweetheart of a (slightly older) teammate want to sink through the floor in embarrassment when they announce her 9th place medal on L8 bars with a 7.2 score and drag her up to be "recognized." Though I am guessing that the 10th place girl who scored in the 6s felt worse.

They definitely need to cool it on level 9/10 awards because I've literally seen meets where they call everyone up for everything because "it's only a few girls anyway." And by everyone for everything, I mean EVERYONE. So if you've ever been to a level 9/10 you'll clearly see what the problem with this is because at a random invitational at that level there are quite a few people who don't compete all around. So literally they are awarding places for events people did not compete, and calling up with an 18.6 all around...no. Just no.

 

[twinmomma]

My biggest beef is someone needs to make a unilateral decision to call the kids names out for awards as "First Name, Last INITIAL, Gym name". I can't tell you how many times an announcer stumbled through awards (usually some poor parent roped into it) in the last two years. One gym did the First Name, Last Initial, Gym name and it went SO much smoother. Sure there are hard to pronounce first names, but they are much fewer and further between than last names that are hard to pronounce.

Some meets we get t's, a few (VERY FEW) we get leos. Generally it's a tshirt coupon for the basic meet tshirt if it's anything. By far though, my second biggest issue is seating. If your gym doesn't have safe seating for the amount of parents the size of the session will bring in (and aunts/uncles/brothers/sisters/etc...) then find an alternate venue or join with a larger gym to host the meet there.

 

[twinmomma]

Oh, and seating for awards. If you're forcing us all to move for awards, don't try and shove an entire gym full of people into a small classroom for awards.

 

[MILgymFAM]

Oh, and seating for awards. If you're forcing us all to move for awards, don't try and shove an entire gym full of people into a small classroom for awards.

A few weeks ago my DD had a meet in a college gym. The awards were the worst run I have seen. They were held in the wrestling room off the gym. Every single athlete and parent had to remove their shoes and leave them outside in order to not damage the wrestling mats. Then they messed up age groups, giving girls awards for the wrong age, and some girls got no awards even though their scores merited it. Then, they stopped 3/4 through awards to give out the goodie bags to the girls, which caused a mass exodus of all people who's groups had finished awards. By the time my DD got her first place medals, in the last age group, everyone was gone except her competitors. We have states in the same place, hosted by the same gym, this weekend, so at least I know what I am in for!