- Jul 22, 2010
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DD competed in States this weekend and was the only one from her age group from her gym. I know, it happens, everyone does it, etc. Within this one meet of 75-ish 11-year-olds, awards were broken up into 3 age groups (11a, 11b, and 11c). My question is, they break them up by age so that State Champions can be determined, but is the fact that my daughter is State Champion on Beam in the 11A age group (which she is, by the way ) really any more meaningful than if she just competed against all the other 11-year-olds who happened to be in her session, rather than those who happened to have a birthday in the same 4-month window as her?
DD had a fine time at States with her one coach, and did very well, but she was in a group with a bunch of other "single" gymnasts, and for bars and especially for vault, EVERYTHING needed to be changed before each practice turn. Adjust the spring board. Put the big foamy thing around the spring board. Put out the mat that shows you where to start your jump. Adjust the height of the vault. Girl vaults. Re-adjust the spring board. Take the big foamy thing off from around the spring board. Remove the mat that shows you where to start your vault. Adust the height of the vault. Next girl vaults. Repeat. The result was that these girls ended up only getting 2-3 practice runs, while the girls who were all there from the same gym at least had all the same "stuff" set up, even if the vault height needed to be adjusted (which it often didn't), got a lot more practice turns. And the number of coaches clustered around the vault waiting to do all the switching around for their one lone gymnast was comical. Not to mention that DD would have just like to be with her teammates and I would have liked to be with her teammates parents. At the compulsary levels, shouldn't it still be mostly about fun and teamwork and stuff like that?
I know, it is what it is. DD had a great time and did a great job. No real complaints. And I know this is how it is done at the upper levels to determine who goes to regionals, nationals, etc. But at the levels where that's not an issue, and where there are still enough kids in each level that even each age group needs to be broken down into micro-age-groups, why not just let them all go as a team? I wouldn't be any less proud of DD if she was State Beam Champion out of the 11-year-olds at the 9am Sunday meet than I am of her being State Beam Champion of the 11A age group, and they're both fairly random ways of dividing the kids up. You could say that, if they weren't divided by age, it would be less fair because some gyms would be competing against "stronger" gyms than others. But that's how it works out when you divide them by age too. Some well-known gyms in our state push kids through the early levels as fast as possible, so they have a ton of 8-9 year olds, while others like to keep girls at each level for more than one year, so they may have more 11-12 year olds.
OK, I'm done with my vent now. Thanks for listening!
DD had a fine time at States with her one coach, and did very well, but she was in a group with a bunch of other "single" gymnasts, and for bars and especially for vault, EVERYTHING needed to be changed before each practice turn. Adjust the spring board. Put the big foamy thing around the spring board. Put out the mat that shows you where to start your jump. Adjust the height of the vault. Girl vaults. Re-adjust the spring board. Take the big foamy thing off from around the spring board. Remove the mat that shows you where to start your vault. Adust the height of the vault. Next girl vaults. Repeat. The result was that these girls ended up only getting 2-3 practice runs, while the girls who were all there from the same gym at least had all the same "stuff" set up, even if the vault height needed to be adjusted (which it often didn't), got a lot more practice turns. And the number of coaches clustered around the vault waiting to do all the switching around for their one lone gymnast was comical. Not to mention that DD would have just like to be with her teammates and I would have liked to be with her teammates parents. At the compulsary levels, shouldn't it still be mostly about fun and teamwork and stuff like that?
I know, it is what it is. DD had a great time and did a great job. No real complaints. And I know this is how it is done at the upper levels to determine who goes to regionals, nationals, etc. But at the levels where that's not an issue, and where there are still enough kids in each level that even each age group needs to be broken down into micro-age-groups, why not just let them all go as a team? I wouldn't be any less proud of DD if she was State Beam Champion out of the 11-year-olds at the 9am Sunday meet than I am of her being State Beam Champion of the 11A age group, and they're both fairly random ways of dividing the kids up. You could say that, if they weren't divided by age, it would be less fair because some gyms would be competing against "stronger" gyms than others. But that's how it works out when you divide them by age too. Some well-known gyms in our state push kids through the early levels as fast as possible, so they have a ton of 8-9 year olds, while others like to keep girls at each level for more than one year, so they may have more 11-12 year olds.
OK, I'm done with my vent now. Thanks for listening!