Parents Total let down...

[dancingimmie]

A little back story...
My dd moved up after one meet this season. She did one meet as a 4 in December and now is set to compete lvl 5 BUT apparently the meets are full and won't move her. She was initially registered as a lvl 4. What to hell? I'm sorry, I get that their are rules but my kid has killed herself to do this move up and now I'm told it's a definite no for the meet two weeks away and a most likely no for the meet this weekend.

This is going to kill her. I don't know how to break it to her, she's going to be crushed. It's one thing to not compete because you're not ready, I get that. She's more then ready.

How do I tell my just turned 9 yr old she might have to go but not compete? And it's not because she doesn't have the skills...

 

[3rd_time_around]

This doesn't make sense. If she's already in the meet, they can just put her in the level 5. There are always scratches, too.

 

[skschlag]

It isn't as easy as you think. They have the sessions set/awards ordered. And from what I understand, rules about how many in a session for girls. It seems like just one, but they could be getting similar requests from many gyms.

Can she do level 4 since she is already registered? I know it stinks, but unfortunately, especially if it is a bigger meet, or close to the date for the meet, it happens

 

[Tigtimes]

It is hard to move compulsory in a bigger meet. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be a scratch or two. You tell your kid the truth. If she is still allowed to work level 5 skills than no big deal. If she is ready to move out of 5 for next season she can do a score out meet. It is only a big deal if you make it one.

 

[Tigtimes]

And you let her compete 4 where she is already registered. Better to compete something than nothing at all.

 

[GymDad9.9]

It is hard to move compulsory in a bigger meet. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be a scratch or two. You tell your kid the truth. If she is still allowed to work level 5 skills than no big deal. If she is ready to move out of 5 for next season she can do a score out meet. It is only a big deal if you make it one.

We're headed to a big meet this weekend and kids are moving levels in compulsory and there were no issues. Might be meet specific.

 

[GymDad9.9]

OP...I would sit down with the individual who is responsible for making these types of changes and have them walk you through the process of why this is not possible. Kids move through compulsories during the season with enough frequency that shutting them out sounds pretty draconian.

 

[IreneKa]

OP...I would sit down with the individual who is responsible for making these types of changes and have them walk you through the process of why this is not possible. Kids move through compulsories during the season with enough frequency that shutting them out sounds pretty draconian.

The person responsible for these changes is the meet director of any given meet. I doubt you can sit down with them.
A lot is going into organizing a meet, and it's not that easy making changes at the last minute.

 

[GymDad9.9]

The person responsible for these changes is the meet director of any given meet. I doubt you can sit down with them.
A lot is going into organizing a meet, and it's not that easy making changes at the last minute.

I meant there is someone at the OP's gym who is handling it from the gym's end. My gym has a team coordinator who does the entries, changes, etc. for our gym. I understand the Meet Director is the ultimate authority and that contacting the Meet Director is typically a bad idea.

 

[dancingimmie]

I can't help but feel like the gym really dropped the ball. My dd has been working her little butt off to be ready for this meet. She's been competing by herself since lvl 3 (long story) and this was going to be her first time going to a competition with a team.
I knew about being on stand by for one meet but the one this weekend was suppose to be all set. It's not like it's been some sort of secret that she was moving up. This should have been taken care of a month ago.
Could she just compete lvl 4? Sure but she hasn't practiced the routines in over a month. Her coaches are going to be pissed, they have been working just as hard as she has.

 

[gymdog]

The coaches need to ask for her to be entered as a 5 in the 4 session where she's holding a spot. She will not receive awards (one all around medal), but can receive sanctioned scores. There shouldn't be an issue with this at most meets.

 

[dancingimmie]

Thanks gymdog. I'll ask about that today.

 

[MeetDirector]

The coaches need to ask for her to be entered as a 5 in the 4 session where she's holding a spot. She will not receive awards (one all around medal), but can receive sanctioned scores. There shouldn't be an issue with this at most meets.

@gymdog is correct - this is called competing out of session. The Rules and Policy specifically allow this primarily for mobility purposes. She will not get any individual awards, nor will her scores count for team scores. It is done frequently and is a simple matter to change her level within that session in the scoring software. The change should be brought to the attention of the judges so that they don't judge her as a Lvl 4.

Now, to those of you that say switching sessions should be an easy thing, this is not always true for a meet with sessions bumping up against the gymnast limits. Yes, there are limits, by rule, as to how many gymnasts can be in a session given the "style" of meet being conducted. Violating the limit is a sanction violation and the meet director can be fined by USAG. yes, there will most likely be scratches, but those don't typically occur until the day of the meet at the coach's meeting. Trying to put a girl in the session after someone else has scratched is a challenge at the very last minute and a lot of meet directors won't do it.

Good luck to the OP's daughter.

 

[profmom]

Seconding Meet Director, as someone who's helped to manage scoring and scratches. Sometimes this is easily managed but not always. A lot goes in behind the scenes in order to make a meet run successfully and within the rules, and it can be tough to make everything work with large compulsory sessions.

I understand it's frustrating to her, but in the grand scheme of things, it will be OK. She'll get to L5 one way or another! Check to see what she prefers. I'm sure she could run through the L4 routines a couple of times and be fine competing L4 if her last go with those routines was in December. My son completely changed his FX ten minutes before he competed it on Saturday, and one of his teammates, who'd been planning to scratch an event, warmed up OK and decided to go ahead and do it with a routine that he and the coach made up on the fly. Gymnasts have very good physical memories -- don't underestimate that!

 

[dancingimmie]

Thank you everyone for your input. I really appreciate the advise. Today is the only day I can pop in and talk with the team coordinator to discuss her options. Hopefully she'll have some good news for me.
I spoke with one of my dd's coaches and he's pretty upset too. He said moving her to 5 after one meet has been the plan since the summer. Maybe the answer is to compete out of session...
I'll keep you all posted.

 

[e'smum]

we did this with 2 of our gymnasts last year. they missed the summer mobility meet so competed as a 5 in the first meet and then didn't compete in the next 2 meets so they could get their level 6 routines set and then went on to compete 6 the remainder of the year. there could very well be scratches but sometimes you don't know that until right before the meet begins. at one of our meets this year a team just didn't show up at all. they were on the sheet given out when we got there but the entire team wasn't there. weird.
your coaches should have enough time for meets later on to get her into the lvl 5 rotation. hopefully! they should have just signed her up as a level 5 for these meets if this was the plan all along.

 

[dancingimmie]

we did this with 2 of our gymnasts last year. they missed the summer mobility meet so competed as a 5 in the first meet and then didn't compete in the next 2 meets so they could get their level 6 routines set and then went on to compete 6 the remainder of the year. there could very well be scratches but sometimes you don't know that until right before the meet begins. at one of our meets this year a team just didn't show up at all. they were on the sheet given out when we got there but the entire team wasn't there. weird.
your coaches should have enough time for meets later on to get her into the lvl 5 rotation. hopefully! they should have just signed her up as a level 5 for these meets if this was the plan all along.

Unfortunately we only have three meets left. If she's left out of two that stinks. The third meet she should be fine to compete lvl 5 but it's past the deadline for states so she'll miss states too. It just sucks.
I met with the team coordinator last night and she didn't put the request in to change her level until last week. That's why we are in this situation. It should have been done over a month ago.

 

[duyetanh]

Unfortunately we only have three meets left. If she's left out of two that stinks. The third meet she should be fine to compete lvl 5 but it's past the deadline for states so she'll miss states too. It just sucks.
I met with the team coordinator last night and she didn't put the request in to change her level until last week. That's why we are in this situation. It should have been done over a month ago.

Um...oops...so who dropped the ball?

 

[GymDad9.9]

Unfortunately we only have three meets left. If she's left out of two that stinks. The third meet she should be fine to compete lvl 5 but it's past the deadline for states so she'll miss states too. It just sucks.
I met with the team coordinator last night and she didn't put the request in to change her level until last week. That's why we are in this situation. It should have been done over a month ago.

That really really stinks.

 

[e'smum]

Unfortunately we only have three meets left. If she's left out of two that stinks. The third meet she should be fine to compete lvl 5 but it's past the deadline for states so she'll miss states too. It just sucks.
I met with the team coordinator last night and she didn't put the request in to change her level until last week. That's why we are in this situation. It should have been done over a month ago.

that does suck! and it's their fault so quite honestly, if she is only able to compete one meet to qualify for level 5 states, then they need to find her a qualifier meet to go to. hopefully they can get her in to two of them (regular meets) but she will still need to meet the qualifying score on both. which may not be an issue but you won't know until she does her first level 5 meet. usually qualifier meets pop up towards the end of meet season before states. our gym held one last year and it was a low key, very small, meet for the level 4s and a couple of 5s just held at our gym. your coaches should be able to find one or two in your area.