Parents Competing to Compete

[mommyof1]

I tend to wonder if rumors about other teams are present at every gym. I can understand how these rumors start.

Here's one way it could happen: My daughter once came home and said her coach told the team, "We are competing against Powerhouse Gym this weekend. Powerhouse Gym will not bring any gymnast to the meet unless she points her toes." My guess is that Powerhouse Gym probably has high standards for allowing girls to compete, and this comment was intended to motivate my daughter and her teammates to point their toes, but this type of comment could easily snowball into a crazy rumor if slightly misrepeated by a child or parent.

 

[aerials]

Interesting. I hadn't noticed that. Granted, our gym has large enough teams that (for compulsories anyway) we fall into the National group. We would definitely be more competitive in the American group than against the Buckeyes, CGAs and Perfections, etc. of Ohio. But, I had no idea that some teams kept gymnasts at home to avoid having to compete against those powerhouses. I would never want our gymnasts to stay at home in order to be more competitive as a team.

It's not the Buckeyes/CGA/etc... that are doing this. They don't need to. It's other lesser known large gyms that do this. I was talking to a dad poolside the night before our state meet and he explained how his daughters gym does this. And this is only in compulsory meets, their optional teams are not that large.

 

[z2akids]

It's not the Buckeyes/CGA/etc... that are doing this. They don't need to. It's other lesser known large gyms that do this. I was talking to a dad poolside the night before our state meet and he explained how his daughters gym does this. And this is only in compulsory meets, their optional teams are not that large.

I must have been confusing. What I meant was that DD's team would likely be much more successful in the American division. But, keeping girls who qualified at home would go against her gym's philosophy.

I have read on here about gyms having higher scores to go to states than the usag qualifying score. Wonder if thst is a method (at least in a state like ohio) of keeping a team smaller

 

[aerials]

Using a higher than the usag qualifying score is a method but not the reason. One gym changes the state qualifying score each year to ensure that their team is a certain size.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

There are some gyms here that do that for the state meet. Ohio state meets split into two groups, American and National with the latter being the bigger teams. Some of the bigger teams artificially keep their teams low for state so tha they have a better chance of winning the team placement. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of the two different divisions.

I find this to be enormously sad. These gyms couldn't give two hoots about the children under their care. Any child who qualifies deserves to go. Hopefully the parents take their business elsewhere, and then the gym will actually have the right size team to be in the small division. It's a good business strategy to accept more team tuition from more kids than are actually going to compete, but a terrible one from an ethics standpoint.

 

[blueredzone]

I find this to be enormously sad. These gyms couldn't give two hoots about the children under their care. Any child who qualifies deserves to go. Hopefully the parents take their business elsewhere, and then the gym will actually have the right size team to be in the small division. It's a good business strategy to accept more team tuition from more kids than are actually going to compete, but a terrible one from an ethics standpoint.

Well said. I can't believe this would actually be a practice. I get they maybe trying to make it more of a competitive atmosphere. There are ways to get that without not letting kids go to the meets.

Here to go to state you have to qualify with a 32AA twice. (which most every gymnast gets) Its the 37's that are hard to get.

 

[OzZee]

Here (Australia) team competitions are a set number (6) with the top 3 scores counting.
We don't have very many team competitions. (State and national clubs being the main ones I can think of. ) So yes clubs with more than 6 in the level will have to choose a team .
(Some levels/comps you can enter more than 1 team, others you can't.)
I've seen the team be chosen through an in house 'competition.'

 

[JessSyd]

Here (Australia) team competitions are a set number (6) with the top 3 scores counting.
We don't have very many team competitions. (State and national clubs being the main ones I can think of. ) So yes clubs with more than 6 in the level will have to choose a team .

My daughter's club does this. All the girls get to compete at the individual competitions, which make up most of the competition season. But for the one or two club (team) competitions, we have more girls than the club is allowed to enter. An in house competition is seen as the fairest way of choosing girls for these competitions. Girls who miss out are sometimes disappointed,but not devastated. Nobody seems to really mind as everyone is aware it is a matter of numbers and not the club's choice.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

Here (Australia) team competitions are a set number (6) with the top 3 scores counting.
We don't have very many team competitions. (State and national clubs being the main ones I can think of. ) So yes clubs with more than 6 in the level will have to choose a team .
(Some levels/comps you can enter more than 1 team, others you can't.)
I've seen the team be chosen through an in house 'competition.'

This is completely different from a gym just leaving qualified athletes home for no reason other than they have an image they want to portray (eg we only have gymnasts that score 36s). A 32 or 34 scorer at a certain level is a competent gymnast at that level, and if the state didn't have room or didn't want that many athletes at the competition, they would simply raise the qualifying score. Jeez there has to be someone in the bottom half. Not everyone is a state champ. There is value in competing because you earned it by being competent in a certain level. It is not a question of cost, as the parents foot the bill for the meet fees and the cost of coaching.

 

[duyetanh]

Geez. My kid would have never gone to state. And while her aa score still was, ahem, not worth typing in here, she actually won an event there. That's wild.

 

[CCGymbug]

If it makes anyone feel better my DD AA score so far this season 34.9....right and always in the middle. And I must say she is pretty good. Just not as good as Some others.