Anon SoCal combining optionals and compulsory state meet seasons into Mega State Meet… fallout?

[Anonymous (a15f)]

I feel like with the USAG season changing to just having one giant Level 3-10 state meet in the spring this year that we will have some interesting turnout situations arise. All the top gymnasts in SoCal usually compete 4 or 5 states in the fall and then jump to Level 6 or 7 in the spring. If you look at the top 5-10 or so in each age group that’s usually the path. Now with no “glory” to be had at a state meet in the fall to cap off a compulsory season, will the pool of Level 6 gymnasts be enormous this Spring?

I’m predicting very low level 5 turnout and low scoring state champs in both level 4 and 5 this spring.

Level 6 and 7 turnout will be very large and gymnast scoring will be all over the place with so many gymnasts pushing into optionals early.

 

[gymgal]

interesting. Have they said why they decided to make this change?

 

[Anonymous (81b8)]

Is the meet season for compulsory changing to align with optional? In my state, optional and compulsory compete the same season and have the same state meet. It works perfectly fine. But if it were compulsory in the fall, optional in the spring, and then state meet in April, I can see how that could be an issue.

 

[Anonymous (a15f)]

Is the meet season for compulsory changing to align with optional? In my state, optional and compulsory compete the same season and have the same state meet. It works perfectly fine. But if it were compulsory in the fall, optional in the spring, and then state meet in April, I can see how that could be an issue.

Yeah, they just announced the change a little over a month ago. So I'd imagine it uprooted a lot of gyms plans for their compulsory program. I know our gym treats the spring compulsory season normally as a warm up to the fall season. And then gymnasts routinely compete level 5 in the fall and jump to 6 in the spring.

interesting. Have they said why they decided to make this change?

It seems to be financial reasons, especially since the change was made with no lead in time. They had trouble finding a host for last fall's SoCal state meet. And I'd say SoCal has had a 30-40% drop in compulsory gymnasts post-pandemic and hasn't fully recovered. Doing one big 3-10 state meet in the Spring is a cost savings thing.

 

[Anonymous (a15f)]

Is the meet season for compulsory changing to align with optional? In my state, optional and compulsory compete the same season and have the same state meet. It works perfectly fine. But if it were compulsory in the fall, optional in the spring, and then state meet in April, I can see how that could be an issue.

Yeah, it was always traditionally compulsories in the fall with state meet in November. (Except in 2021 post-pandemic when they did have a Spring State compulsory meet.. but very low turn out year in general).

This year is very odd now because there are still a bunch of compulsory meets on the schedule for level 2-5, but most gyms aren't doing many of them and just training up the strong 4s and 5s to compete 6 in Spring of 2024. Not much point in polishing level 4 and 5 routines in small local meets when you could be training for level 6 in January instead.

 

[JBS]

I'm not really sure why there would even be a fall season if the State meet is in the spring?

 

[Anonymous (1674)]

Texas has compulsory in the fall, but after covid our gym and a couple others decided to just skip it and have our compulsories do invitational meets in January with our optionals. Kinda stinks they don’t get a chance at state meets, but our gym doesn’t seem to care much about the early levels.

 

[Anonymous (a15f)]

I'm not really sure why there would even be a fall season if the State meet is in the spring?

Yeah, it will be very interesting to see turn out at the local meets this fall for compulsory season with no Fall State meet. There are currently 13 compulsory meets on the fall schedule, but I'm pretty sure at least one major gym cancelled hosting their usual fall compulsory meet and are just focusing on getting their competitive level 4s and 5s ready for optionals in Spring.

One major downside to having large Level 2-10 meets in the spring is so many more meets will be scheduled on Friday and possibly Monday's to accommodate. (Only so many judges will be available).

We already had to pull our gymnast out of school on like three Friday's last year for optional meets. Making room for Levels 2-5 time slots this fall will make matters worse potentially and involve more meet sessions on Friday.

With gymnasts going to gym 20-25 hours a week already to train... forcing us to pull our kids out of school so many Friday's a year is problematic. MAYBE, they can afford to rent out larger facilities now though and squeeze more sessions into Saturday and Sunday!? One can only hope!

 

[Anonymous (a15f)]

Texas has compulsory in the fall, but after covid our gym and a couple others decided to just skip it and have our compulsories do invitational meets in January with our optionals. Kinda stinks they don’t get a chance at state meets, but our gym doesn’t seem to care much about the early levels.

Yeah, I find it interesting gyms that "don't care" about the early levels. I always thought it was easier to turn a profit on the compulsory program vs. optional programs... especially level 8-10? (Less expensive coaching demands). I would think attracting a large compulsory and rec program basically subsidizes the elite and high level optional team costs?

 

[Anonymous (5771)]

I feel like with the USAG season changing to just having one giant Level 3-10 state meet in the spring this year that we will have some interesting turnout situations arise. All the top gymnasts in SoCal usually compete 4 or 5 states in the fall and then jump to Level 6 or 7 in the spring. If you look at the top 5-10 or so in each age group that’s usually the path. Now with no “glory” to be had at a state meet in the fall to cap off a compulsory season, will the pool of Level 6 gymnasts be enormous this Spring?

I’m predicting very low level 5 turnout and low scoring state champs in both level 4 and 5 this spring.

Level 6 and 7 turnout will be very large and gymnast scoring will be all over the place with so many gymnasts pushing into optionals early.

It’s a state decision. USAG doesn’t tell states when they must hold state meets. Onky optional meets, level 9-10 that have progression to Nationals have set time periods for state meets and regionals. our state still has USAG meets in the fall, levels1-5 and Bronze.

 

[Anonymous (1674)]

I find it interesting gyms that "don't care" about the early levels. I always thought it was easier to turn a profit on the compulsory program vs. optional programs... especially level 8-10? (Less expensive coaching demands). I would think attracting a large compulsory and rec program basically subsidizes the elite and high level optional team costs?

Maybe “don’t care” was the wrong way to phrase it, more so they aren’t worried about winning and scoring high at compulsories, although that does happen, and that the focus is on building good basics and foundation for upper level optionals vs spending months perfecting compulsory routines.

 

[LadyJ]

One major downside to having large Level 2-10 meets in the spring is so many more meets will be scheduled on Friday and possibly Monday's to accommodate. (Only so many judges will be available).

This was my first thought as well. I always hope they will put the lower levels on the weekdays, but it never seems to work out that way.

On a related note, I think the November Judges Cup where they are offering Optionals start value, composition and general feedback is a great idea. I haven't seen that before, and i don't even know if my gym is going, but I sure hope so.

 

[Anonymous (8895)]

We’re in a state that moved fall compulsories to the spring.

Re: missing school- for gyms that compete level 2, it hits the hardest. Since they only need 1 judge they’re always at the beginning or end of the meet. But most big meets put them in Session 1 on a Friday. My daughter missed 3 Fridays that school year for local meets alone. I think another day was missed for a big out of state invitational, too. It is probably better than older girls missing so much school, but the Fridays were inevitably combined with winter Monday holidays so it made that school year feel disjointed.

 

[Anonymous (3adc)]

Ohio moved to the single season several years back. There are still meets in the fall ... some are limited to compulsories and others are for both compulsories and optionals.
Some gyms take advantage of early meets for optionals, especially if they have a lot of girls who also compete for their high school teams. They can qualify for State before having to stop competing for their club so they can compete for their high school.