Coaches Non-sanctioned meet...ugh

[CreateMagic]

Background: In my little gym, our level 2 and 3's compete three times a year--a December in-house fun meet, then usually one outside meet in Feb and one in March or April. We just like the kids to get the experience, its not the focus of our program. Last year, I think we only did one the in-house and then one the first week in April because of the ice storm...but I digress.

Anyway, the first meet was Saturday. First off, I must say, my girls rocked. Top spots, all age groups, both levels (even the little tiny five-year-old in the 6-7 age group! She took third!). It was a great learning experience for them, and their parents. It was a small gym, and wow, it was packed. So for these young kids to get out there and perform in front of all those people is an accomplishment in itself.

My issue though, is that the scoring was wonky, and the "judges" weren't actually judges. The vault judge, after our rotation, came up to me and said "was that ok? I'm not really a judge, just a coach here. Did those scores seem right?" SERIOUSLY?? Then on bars, an absolutely beautiful bar routine scored an 8.3, and a girl with questionable form and 2 falls scored an 8.4. This wasn't a gym difference or favoritism issue--both are from my gym. I was confused, the kids were confused, and the parents were confused. Needless to say, we won't be back to that meet. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this?

I just needed to brag and vent. Thanks

 

[gymdog]

This is how unsanctioned local meets work where I'm from, basically. Having "judged" them, it can be hard. I'm not sure that complete inconsistencies like what you describe makes sense, but it's hard to stay consistent for a bunch of reasons. First we're told you can't go lower than an 8. Fine, but it kind of limits any kind of formal "judging" system you could get going there. Also, there's no requirement to perform the USAG routines of any level at ours. So you have some gyms doing USAG L3, 4, some gyms doing the skills but to their own routine, etc. So that makes it hard to rank. And with a lot of kids, many doing routines that with falls add up to less than 8.0, it's just kind of hard to keep track of what scores you previously gave. I admit it becomes somewhat random/arbitrary under these conditions. We TRIED to keep the scores relatively in range, but with no formal judging conditions it gets a bit crazy. All the kids receive a medal at ours. I think if you want to do actual placements, you need to set some (albeit flexible) conditions out. I could probably just about accurately judge/rank USAG L2-4, even if I had to box the scores, if everyone did those routines. So it would have to be like, if you do this, start from a 9, more difficult from a 10, take just 2 tenths for a fall, etc.

If they could give any scores and everyone was doing the same routines, I wouldn't expect judging perfection certainly but I would think even as a coach or whatever, you could roughly accurately rank the routines, and not have a clean routine with no falls scoring lower than a less clean one with 2 falls.

 

[CreateMagic]

This was USAG routines, all the same. It was very frustrating for all involved. I definitely understand what you are saying though, gymdog.