I'm just curious to hear your experiences with the difference between watching the complusory levels vs optionals. I'm really looking forward to getting to hear a little more variety in music but I think it will be harder for me to tell if a routine was good. I'm terrible at judging how her score will be now when all the girls do the same thing, I would imagine that it only gets harder when the routines are more diverse.
For Parents Complusory vs Optionals as a Parent
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Honestly, I don't think it's too much different until you get to L9 and really L10. Of course, you get a variety of music, although some floor music seems more popular than others with several repeats in one meet. You will see an occasional athlete that throws a bigger skill than what you might normally see at that level but otherwise, you generally know if a routine was good or not. Poor form, missed toe points, wobbles, falls, extra steps, etc all will rapidly tell you what to expect.
When you start watching L10 it gets a little different, because routine construction can vary more between athletes and a large chunk of L10's do not have enough difficulty to have a 10 Start value in their routine (or some have a higher difficulty that start from a 10.1) so even if you see what looks like a great routine, you might see a lower score than expected because they started from a 9.8 or 9.7. That's when you start learning more about what is an E or D skill, etc. On reflection, things really didn't start feeling "different" until L8. The intensity starts feeling higher, you start seeing girls that are starting to look and act like grown women or college athletes.
When you start watching L10 it gets a little different, because routine construction can vary more between athletes and a large chunk of L10's do not have enough difficulty to have a 10 Start value in their routine (or some have a higher difficulty that start from a 10.1) so even if you see what looks like a great routine, you might see a lower score than expected because they started from a 9.8 or 9.7. That's when you start learning more about what is an E or D skill, etc. On reflection, things really didn't start feeling "different" until L8. The intensity starts feeling higher, you start seeing girls that are starting to look and act like grown women or college athletes.
The main difference for me is that as the levels went up, the fewer events I was able to even watch without wanting to throw up. Now, at level 10, there aren't any events left that I can even watch live. lol. I'm a nervous mom and I just can't handle it. But when I do watch others at the meets (I just hide in the bathroom when my daughter is performing) I think it's pretty easy still to tell the difference between a good routine and a not so good one. I do agree with @gym_dad32608 about the start values and bonuses in level 9/10 making things a little confusing though. I remember a couple of meets last year where one of my daughter's teammates had what I thought was a very nice, clean routine (usually on bars or beam) and would score around a 9.0. Talking to my daughter later, I'd find out that she missed a connection or left out a skill or something like that. And I remember one routine someone did on floor that I thought looked really nice and it scored a mid 8. The parents were all confused, but it turned out she didn't completely rotate her Rudi and didn't get credit for it which lowered her start value, etc.
The thing that through me off the most at first was I assumed that the harder the skill the higher routine would score, but if the skill isn't appropriate for that level it might not help the score and the basic but clean routine could score the highest.
For L6-8, If you learn the basic requirements for each level, you will gradually be able to gauge the quality of the routines. Most routines you will see will have very similar skills. Occasionally you will see a different skill but you will quickly learn the few skills that fill each requirement. L9/10 are completely different due to their start values, connections requirements/bonuses, etc.
For me L7/8 were the golden years to watch because the skills weren't too scary and I never worried about injury during warmup or competition. The routines showed the athletes personality but weren't necessarily maxing out on difficulty.
You will find your knowledge expands as your DD moves up levels. Look out for beam connections/series credit - that got me the entire time!
You will find your knowledge expands as your DD moves up levels. Look out for beam connections/series credit - that got me the entire time!
Optionals are so much fun to watch. It isn’t just the variety of music, it’s the variety of choreography (some gyms have a distinctive style) and, right from level seven, the variety of skills on display.
Here we switch to D and E scores at level seven, so it is always interesting to see how each gym squeezes as much as it can out of the code within the rules. For example, at the last competition we went to, there was pretty much a D score on every increment between 3.8 and 1.3 on beam, so you can imagine a fair bit of variety within the performances (in fairness, a 1.3 in level seven would suggest missing required elements).
What that means is that without at least a broad understanding of the code and the required elements, you can’t always pick the rank girls will end up in.
Gyms seem, to have different philosophies. Some are ‘go big’ others are ‘go clean’ (the ones that win everything do both). So on bars, you’ll get the girls who just compete one item that ‘moves through handstand’ but connect everything they do really smoothly, and their routines will look quick and simple, and then you’ll get girls who do a giant, a clearhip to handstand and a cast to handstand, and they look amazing from the stands but they’ve given the judges a lot more to work with….
But it’s so fun to watch. So much more fun than the compulsory levels.
Here we switch to D and E scores at level seven, so it is always interesting to see how each gym squeezes as much as it can out of the code within the rules. For example, at the last competition we went to, there was pretty much a D score on every increment between 3.8 and 1.3 on beam, so you can imagine a fair bit of variety within the performances (in fairness, a 1.3 in level seven would suggest missing required elements).
What that means is that without at least a broad understanding of the code and the required elements, you can’t always pick the rank girls will end up in.
Gyms seem, to have different philosophies. Some are ‘go big’ others are ‘go clean’ (the ones that win everything do both). So on bars, you’ll get the girls who just compete one item that ‘moves through handstand’ but connect everything they do really smoothly, and their routines will look quick and simple, and then you’ll get girls who do a giant, a clearhip to handstand and a cast to handstand, and they look amazing from the stands but they’ve given the judges a lot more to work with….
But it’s so fun to watch. So much more fun than the compulsory levels.
In optionals it becomes about just let them get through a clean routine and no injuries.
I find it’s actually easier to see who had the best routine since the details aren’t scored the same as compulsor. A twist is a twist on the floor, a BHS-BHS on beam is what it is. The detail in between doesn’t mean as much as in compulsory where the whole routine matters.
Its always been and will always be. A “lesser” skill executed well will score better then a more “difficult“ skill performed badly. Form matters.
And A skills are awarded the same points as are Bs, Cs etc…. It doesn’t matter if you feel your kids B is harder then a different B.
L8 and up you deal with up to level stuff. That is what it is as well. My kids 1st yr L8 much was not up to level, she was coming back from an injury and mental stuff, her, coach, parents we all knew the scores would reflect it. Now she is not ready for 9 but adding Cs to her L8. I think it’s great she can add skills as she gets them.
Regarding the music, you’ll still end up at sessions where, optionals are mixed with compulsory so you still deal with music. And personally even my kids music gets old. She hates change. She has had 2 pieces in 5 years, it gets old.
She finally wants a change this year and she is thinking of going back to her old piece, please Star Wars save me.
I find it’s actually easier to see who had the best routine since the details aren’t scored the same as compulsor. A twist is a twist on the floor, a BHS-BHS on beam is what it is. The detail in between doesn’t mean as much as in compulsory where the whole routine matters.
Its always been and will always be. A “lesser” skill executed well will score better then a more “difficult“ skill performed badly. Form matters.
And A skills are awarded the same points as are Bs, Cs etc…. It doesn’t matter if you feel your kids B is harder then a different B.
L8 and up you deal with up to level stuff. That is what it is as well. My kids 1st yr L8 much was not up to level, she was coming back from an injury and mental stuff, her, coach, parents we all knew the scores would reflect it. Now she is not ready for 9 but adding Cs to her L8. I think it’s great she can add skills as she gets them.
Regarding the music, you’ll still end up at sessions where, optionals are mixed with compulsory so you still deal with music. And personally even my kids music gets old. She hates change. She has had 2 pieces in 5 years, it gets old.
She finally wants a change this year and she is thinking of going back to her old piece, please Star Wars save me.
Years ago, one of my team's L7s over-rotated her tuck jump 3/4 on beam. The tuck 3/4 was an allowable C dance skill ... but she did a tuck jump 1/1 ~ a D skill. Unallowed, so 0.50 off her SV and since the jump was supposed to be her 2nd B skill, she also lost 0.3 for the missing B. So, she had a SV of 9.2. Other than the jump, she was pretty solid. If it had been out of a 10, she would have easily scored in the low-mid 9s.
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