Cheating?

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

gymfan4ever95

Coach
Gymnast
I was just wondering how many people cheat from other gym's on conditioning, workout, flexibility, or anything at gymnastics. I know that at my gym i feel like everyone else cheats on everything (they don't sweat and manage to get everything done super fast!) while i am over there trying to breath during conditioning!
 
as a mom from my observation I think all the gymnasts "cheat" at some point doing only 8 of something when they were supposed to do 10 etc. I think it is very normal too. Just keep in mind that "cheating" just means that you don't have all the conditioning you need and your progress will be slower than someone doing everything correctly.

I know in the heat like we have been having they all cheat because its just too hot.
 
I don't intentionally cheat, but I will lose track of what number I'm on, so I will just stop when everyone else stops (I'm not sure if that counts or not, so). But I think that for me, cheat is also when you take a lot of breaks during your conditioning (as in, if you are doing a set of fifteen push-ups, you don't just do them all, you put your knees down or stretch your arms at, like, 5, then 10, then 13, then you finish) So I will do that if I'm really tired or hot, but it's not because I don't want to condition, I just don't have the energy/ (mental revelation here) don't push myself as hard as when we're doing an event. Sorry for the length.
 
They are only hurting themselves when they cheat. I can understand loosing count, it happens, it happened to me when I was a gymnast as well. But I had a girl who we knew was cheating on everything. After a while, we started counting when she did her conditioning and we caught her everytime. She kept dening it and her mom said that we were lying. We eventually got smart, pulled out a video camera and actually got her on tape when she didn't know we were watching. Naturally, mom still defended her even with proof. By then we had had enough and asked them to leave the gym. There were other issues with this gymnast, but the lying and cheating were still a part of our decission to ask them to leave.

But in the your situation, the only thing you can tell yourself is that when they are having issues with a skill and the issue is stregnth, you did your conditioning, they didn't so its really their fault.
 
At our gym there are the cheaters and the non-cheaters. There are a certain kids that cheat constantly and constantly in trouble for cheating.
 
Cheating was a major problem in one of my groups, but it wasn't like it was any big secret. All the cheating was completely open among the gymnasts. Coaches could more or less figure it out too, but not each specific instance. I'm amazed some of my teammates (who I love dearly) were ever able to progress. I'm almost not exaggerating when I say some of them may have never completed an exercise from the time we were 13 to 15. I actually just edited out some of our jokes about it because this could be serious identifying information for me. Heh.

In my opinion, taping in secret, etc, seems to be going really far (as well, taping a minor without permission or knowledge is not something I'd think would ever be advisable from a business standpoint). If it's that big a deal the owner needs to step in sooner and ask them to leave the program.
 
Some of the kids whom I currently coach are egregious cheaters. Usually I abide by the "it's your problem if you can't progress" theory, but when they are cheating so obviously that I can pick them out of a crowd of 30 kids, I have no problem calling them out and making them start over. My group tends to work pretty hard, although (not surprisingly), the ones who complain that they aren't strong enough to do X are the ones who stop in the middle or skip things.
 
When we did conditioning in a large group, the coaches would randomly pick girls to keep count for (just a couple). If those girls were caught noticeably cheating, we'd all have to start over. It definitely encouraged everyone to be honest because you didn't know if you'd be the one who ended up affecting the entire team.
 
Honestly I don't think any of the gymnasts "cheat" with the intent hey I'm going to do less if I can get away with it. I think its more like everyone else is done so they just stop and move on or they loose count and just move on, or they just do it without counting and stop when others move on.
 
On the flip side, I recently found out that an athlete that I used to coach (she was 8/9 at the time) would do extra conditioning if she was finished a certain task before the other girls so that I wouldn't think she was cheating.
 
Honestly I don't think any of the gymnasts "cheat" with the intent hey I'm going to do less if I can get away with it. I think its more like everyone else is done so they just stop and move on or they loose count and just move on, or they just do it without counting and stop when others move on.

Oh, yes they do. I have coached for 6 years and have done gymnastics for 15 years. Trust me when I say that a LARGE number of gymnasts willingly and knowingly cheat.
 
Honestly I don't think any of the gymnasts "cheat" with the intent hey I'm going to do less if I can get away with it. I think its more like everyone else is done so they just stop and move on or they loose count and just move on, or they just do it without counting and stop when others move on.

Well, I don't know that I always consider that cheating. If it was a constant thing, it would become a problem, but I've sometimes told girls to just move on if it was a slow day or if they are new to the group, etc. Not being able to is different.

In our case, most of the "slacking" was just because they didn't want to do it. I'm talking assignment is ten minutes of something, coach sets the timer and goes to make a call, some people proceed to get down for the next nine minutes. There was definitely no question, and like I said it was openly acknowledged. This was a level 9 and 10 group, and some of these girls kept up all through high school and onwards (though they started working harder when they decided to pursue NCAA. Probably one of the worst offenders was one of the last ones standing, though, and with no parental pressure).
 
I think i sometimes cheat my conditioning if my body isn't feeling good. But other than that, I know that when I cheat, i'm only hurting myself by not gaining that extra muscle or flexibility.
 
Some of the kids whom I currently coach are egregious cheaters. Usually I abide by the "it's your problem if you can't progress" theory, but when they are cheating so obviously that I can pick them out of a crowd of 30 kids, I have no problem calling them out and making them start over. My group tends to work pretty hard, although (not surprisingly), the ones who complain that they aren't strong enough to do X are the ones who stop in the middle or skip things.

I like that you make just those girl start over--sometimes when my daughter's group has a gymnast or two that cheats, they make the entire group start over. Neither fair, nor does it foster much team spirit!

My daughters have both complained about cheaters at times--I tell them what others have said here--it only hurts the gymnast who does it. Plus the coaches really do know who does it--and they don't look fondly on that gymnast!
 
As a mom who has observed conditioning only, I can tell you there are some kids who ALWAYS cheat and those who rarely do. I won't say never because I suspect they ALL cheat at some point!!

The coach my daughters have now makes them do their reps as a group... she will count and have them all go at the same time, kwim? I personally like that - everyone does all the conditioning together, everyone finishes together, nobody is accusing anyone of not doing all the reps, etc.

I was a national level swimmer and my coach was of the belief that if one person cheated, we all started over. And cheating could have been something as simple as not going all the way up in a situp. We did close to 2000 situps one morning as he proved his point to us all..... best way to handle it? Maybe not, I don't know.... but he certainly had our respect afterwards.
 
Cheating can be a big problem in the 9 - 12 year old range in compulsories. I am the "big sister" and always saying things (very nicely) like "I only counted three...maybe you should do two more just to be on the safe side?" or "You're done already? You sure you didn't lose count?" It can be frustrating when the other girls are not working as hard as I am, but I remind myself that it's not really my business unless we are under threat of extra strength.

I very rarely purposely cheat. I try to do my best every day, but sometimes I just feel like I can't push my body to the limit every day. Sometimes I literally CAN'T...i.e. doing a push-up-clap and falling on my face because my arms gave out. I try to give it my complete effort. If I don't, I feel guilty. I don't worry about if I'm getting stronger or not if I know I've done everything my coaches assigned.
 
I agree with everyone so far. I don't ever intentionally cheat, but some days i just really don't feel like doing it. If i have had a bad practice and my body feels like jello, some days i just can't make myself do it! I do sometimes stop when all my teammates have finished and i am almost done, but i don't do that a whole lot (i usuallly finish first).
 
i think many people loose count ( i know i do) so il ask whoever is next to me that seems to be at the same pace what number they are on and then start there. also i think that sometimes you just can not do it. sometimes it is physically impossible for you to finish the conditioning. i would love to say i never cheat... but i cant. sometimes i wont finish all our skin the cats or only do 5 out of 6 rope climbs.
 
I know a lot of the girls on my team cheat- even if it's just going super slow so theres n ot enough time to finish. A lot of the times I forget what number or set I'm on so I just stopp when everyone else is done. Some times if I feel like I'm going to pass out I move on to the next thing. I really try not to cheat but I give in every once in a while :(
 
i generally dnt cheat but sum times i 4get what number im on sumtimes and hav 2 make 1 up.
 

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

Back