- Jan 17, 2008
- 1,325
- 6
I am actually unfamiliar with which states belong to which regions (Anyone wanna fill me in?). I competed so long ago... These things get blurry. I have realized that everybody in their region thinks their region is the toughest. I will say, though, that I grew up competing in Minnesota and about 3/4 of the way through my gymnastics career I moved to Wisconsin and competed here. Minnesota judges were, literally, one point stricter in about every event. I was used to getting low-mid 8s (at the time, quite a few years ago) and winning every meet - states included - by a wide margin, and when I moved to WI or when I competed here for a travel meet, I was getting 9s easily, even on events where I didn't feel I had done my best. So I do think there is some variation as far as toughness of judging goes - whether or not that has anything to do with region, I do not know. It could just have been a coincidence.
Ugh, I have one specific memory though that really sticks out at me from those tough MN judges. I did a great floor routine, one of my best I had though at the time, and the judge gives me an 8.5. So my coach is really angry and he storms up to the judges table (which, as you guys know, is highly frowned upon), asking why I didn't score higher, and the judge tells him, "I've seen her compete before and she has done better." She judged me based on what she had seen before and not what I had just done.
We are in MN too.. this has happened to one of Beetle's teammates. She is a tremendous floor worker, Got a low score for her. HC Asked the judge what she was missing, said "she didn't seem as 'into it' today... She has done better"