Granny Smith
Proud Parent
Theme - We had our Up and our Downs and live to talk about them....
What an interesting meet. It was definitely far from the best. Of course she had an 8am report time, YUCK! We live about 40 minutes from where the
meet was so we left around 6:45am. Mom's night before ritual, very
restless sleep, up practically every hour, nerves are building....
I was pretty sure that she was going to flip her vault this meet
because she hadn't been practicing the twist at all and she landed 5
flips the day before at practice. The meet was Modified Capital
Cup, there were 18 girls in her age division.
Another thing that always seems to happen to our gym, we started on
beam, double YUCK! Funny how the host gym pulls the primo rotation
of starting on vault. We stayed for the next session too and again
the host gym had the primo rotation of starting on vault. Doesn't
seem like a random drawl at all, now does it (scratching my head,
sitting in my "thinker" pose.) Oh sorry Blackie, don't take this the wrong way,
just my sarcastic analization...
Beam -
Huh, I am watching my child warm up for beam and begin to realize
that they have put her last in the rotation. I continue to keep my
eye on her and see that she looks horrible. You could see the panic
in her eyes, I didn't get it. She looked like she was a deer in
headlights - definitely not in it. After she came off one of the
warm ups up on beam, HC even gave her the snaps in the face, like
what's the deal, get in the game. She looked absolutely horrified.
Based on how this was going thus far, I wasn't expecting much. Well, it
was finally her turn and up she goes. She
gets through the BT, balance check. Does switch leap, another
balance check. This is starting to remind me of her first level 8
meet. Does series (BHS-BHS) and falls, I could sense it, but was
still hoping that she would make it through the routine, but I
should have known. Well anyways, she's back on and she is ready for
her dismount and I was like, oh no, she is dismount on the wrong end
and there is no landing mat for her, just the like 4 inch mat that
is usually under the 8" one. That's how out of the game she was,
she mounted the beam on the wrong end. Oh well, knock 'em dead and go
for it - she does and sticks the landing (had to hurt a little on
that one little mat.) Score - 8.55, no placement.
I have now come to the conclusion that all this child was thinking
about was vault, right from the beginning of the meet. I think her
petrified look and anxiety attack on beam was really about her doing
her vault for the first time.
Floor -
How can she mess up floor, her floor is great. The stress of beam
is out of the way, it's time to shake it off and do what she
normally does. Warm up is non-eventful (YEAH...), she's up in the
middle of her squad-pack. She goes, she actually hit all of her
passes. She did her FHS-FLO-FT and her RO-whip-BHS-BT and then FHS-
FP. A very nice routine. Score - 9.125, 5th place. She actually
scored the highest of her teammates, so that is something that she
can bring out of the meet.
Onto Vault -
I'm starting to feel my heart come up through my throat and my
nerves were starting to go. Her first vault, it looked like she landed it,
but she said she put 1 knee down after her feet. Ok, I see her pop up and she's still alive, so all is good in my book. Second vault, she was close
to the table, but much better landing - still low, but only feet on the mat this
time. She pops up salutes the judges and has a big smile on her
face. Vault was a success, in dd's terms that is. Score - 8.6,
9th place. This is her highest score thus far in level 8, so this
is encouraging. Especially considering that she really has only
consistently had this vault for 2 weeks and has never competed it on
a hard surface, so this is the "lemonade" of the meet so to speak. You can see her excitment in the video, she is so happy when she pops up to salute the judges - I loved it!
Bars -
Bars is last, bars is great. This is where dd shines, she had
this in the bag. No biggies, warm up was normal just as expected.
Well she's up, I'm all relaxed and she kips up to handstand, but no
pirouette comes back down handstands up again and very archy
pirouette - ok, I'm fine with that, I know this is how she handles
if she doesn't get the pirouette on the first try - ugly squat on,
but does it and quick jump to high bar. It didn't look right, but I
thought she'd pull it off. She does clear hip and then just flops
on bar, no handstand, no nothing, just hips on bar. So, now she is
gathering herself up there on the high bar. Does she attempt to do
the clear hip to handstand again, no she just handstands, 2 giants
and flyaway. So, essentially she had no circling element in her
routine. Score - 7.7, yeah no placement.
AA - 33.975
Rant to follow:
After meet, dd was fine, smiling and she knew she screwed up
bars, but it happens - even to the best. She and her teammates know
that they are going to get a beatin' from the coaches today at gym.
HC was not happy at all - funny her level 8 finished 1st place, but
she was fit to be tied.
I happened to see HC outside the room after the meet and I was like,
do you believe it, her bars and HC was like that was the worst
routine she has ever done even in practice. I said well at least
she made her vault. HC didn't like my attitude and told me that was
all she was focused on and she needs to think about all events,
blah, blah, blah. HC continued to say that she was very upset with
the way the team performed and quite honestly that it would be best
if I didn't say anything. Well, I just looked at her and said ok
turned around and walked away. I have no idea why I was even in the
hall to begin with, because I had to go to the bathroom, so off I
went. When I came out HC was talking to another parent and she said
that she wanted to talk to me. She apologized for saying what she
said and I told her that if she is going to tell me to not say
anything then I am not going to stand there and just look at her. I
then proceeded to tell her that although she is the coach and she is
not happy with how they did, that I am the parent and I need to find
the positive of the meet and bring that out to the my child. She
told me that I need to tell dd to listen to her coaches and then
again I responded that I need to tell my child that she did the best
she could and that I as a parent need to make lemonade out of the
lemons that were dealt this meet. She really bothered me with
this. My kid did not intentionally come to this meet and say hey I
want to do bad, she's 12 yrs old and she gave it what she had. I
had still had yet to see dd at this point. After the awards,
dd was up with the girls, she came back to me and asked me to
give her a kiss. That's what my kid wanted a kiss to let her know
that she did her best and I was proud. She knew she didn't do well,
but she wanted to know that I was ok with it. That is what I as a
parent have to deal with. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with
HC. She is the HC and a darn good one, she had her way of doing
thing, but don't ever question how as a parent I should respond to
my kid - don't cross that line.
As for the meet, well, it's over and looking back, the meet wasn't
the best, but there are things she can build off of and her next
meet is 2 weeks away. For me, I was shot.
When I post video, per dd's request she would like me to edit out bars, so
it might be a little shorter than usual.
What an interesting meet. It was definitely far from the best. Of course she had an 8am report time, YUCK! We live about 40 minutes from where the
meet was so we left around 6:45am. Mom's night before ritual, very
restless sleep, up practically every hour, nerves are building....
I was pretty sure that she was going to flip her vault this meet
because she hadn't been practicing the twist at all and she landed 5
flips the day before at practice. The meet was Modified Capital
Cup, there were 18 girls in her age division.
Another thing that always seems to happen to our gym, we started on
beam, double YUCK! Funny how the host gym pulls the primo rotation
of starting on vault. We stayed for the next session too and again
the host gym had the primo rotation of starting on vault. Doesn't
seem like a random drawl at all, now does it (scratching my head,
sitting in my "thinker" pose.) Oh sorry Blackie, don't take this the wrong way,
just my sarcastic analization...
Beam -
Huh, I am watching my child warm up for beam and begin to realize
that they have put her last in the rotation. I continue to keep my
eye on her and see that she looks horrible. You could see the panic
in her eyes, I didn't get it. She looked like she was a deer in
headlights - definitely not in it. After she came off one of the
warm ups up on beam, HC even gave her the snaps in the face, like
what's the deal, get in the game. She looked absolutely horrified.
Based on how this was going thus far, I wasn't expecting much. Well, it
was finally her turn and up she goes. She
gets through the BT, balance check. Does switch leap, another
balance check. This is starting to remind me of her first level 8
meet. Does series (BHS-BHS) and falls, I could sense it, but was
still hoping that she would make it through the routine, but I
should have known. Well anyways, she's back on and she is ready for
her dismount and I was like, oh no, she is dismount on the wrong end
and there is no landing mat for her, just the like 4 inch mat that
is usually under the 8" one. That's how out of the game she was,
she mounted the beam on the wrong end. Oh well, knock 'em dead and go
for it - she does and sticks the landing (had to hurt a little on
that one little mat.) Score - 8.55, no placement.
I have now come to the conclusion that all this child was thinking
about was vault, right from the beginning of the meet. I think her
petrified look and anxiety attack on beam was really about her doing
her vault for the first time.
Floor -
How can she mess up floor, her floor is great. The stress of beam
is out of the way, it's time to shake it off and do what she
normally does. Warm up is non-eventful (YEAH...), she's up in the
middle of her squad-pack. She goes, she actually hit all of her
passes. She did her FHS-FLO-FT and her RO-whip-BHS-BT and then FHS-
FP. A very nice routine. Score - 9.125, 5th place. She actually
scored the highest of her teammates, so that is something that she
can bring out of the meet.
Onto Vault -
I'm starting to feel my heart come up through my throat and my
nerves were starting to go. Her first vault, it looked like she landed it,
but she said she put 1 knee down after her feet. Ok, I see her pop up and she's still alive, so all is good in my book. Second vault, she was close
to the table, but much better landing - still low, but only feet on the mat this
time. She pops up salutes the judges and has a big smile on her
face. Vault was a success, in dd's terms that is. Score - 8.6,
9th place. This is her highest score thus far in level 8, so this
is encouraging. Especially considering that she really has only
consistently had this vault for 2 weeks and has never competed it on
a hard surface, so this is the "lemonade" of the meet so to speak. You can see her excitment in the video, she is so happy when she pops up to salute the judges - I loved it!
Bars -
Bars is last, bars is great. This is where dd shines, she had
this in the bag. No biggies, warm up was normal just as expected.
Well she's up, I'm all relaxed and she kips up to handstand, but no
pirouette comes back down handstands up again and very archy
pirouette - ok, I'm fine with that, I know this is how she handles
if she doesn't get the pirouette on the first try - ugly squat on,
but does it and quick jump to high bar. It didn't look right, but I
thought she'd pull it off. She does clear hip and then just flops
on bar, no handstand, no nothing, just hips on bar. So, now she is
gathering herself up there on the high bar. Does she attempt to do
the clear hip to handstand again, no she just handstands, 2 giants
and flyaway. So, essentially she had no circling element in her
routine. Score - 7.7, yeah no placement.
AA - 33.975
Rant to follow:
After meet, dd was fine, smiling and she knew she screwed up
bars, but it happens - even to the best. She and her teammates know
that they are going to get a beatin' from the coaches today at gym.
HC was not happy at all - funny her level 8 finished 1st place, but
she was fit to be tied.
I happened to see HC outside the room after the meet and I was like,
do you believe it, her bars and HC was like that was the worst
routine she has ever done even in practice. I said well at least
she made her vault. HC didn't like my attitude and told me that was
all she was focused on and she needs to think about all events,
blah, blah, blah. HC continued to say that she was very upset with
the way the team performed and quite honestly that it would be best
if I didn't say anything. Well, I just looked at her and said ok
turned around and walked away. I have no idea why I was even in the
hall to begin with, because I had to go to the bathroom, so off I
went. When I came out HC was talking to another parent and she said
that she wanted to talk to me. She apologized for saying what she
said and I told her that if she is going to tell me to not say
anything then I am not going to stand there and just look at her. I
then proceeded to tell her that although she is the coach and she is
not happy with how they did, that I am the parent and I need to find
the positive of the meet and bring that out to the my child. She
told me that I need to tell dd to listen to her coaches and then
again I responded that I need to tell my child that she did the best
she could and that I as a parent need to make lemonade out of the
lemons that were dealt this meet. She really bothered me with
this. My kid did not intentionally come to this meet and say hey I
want to do bad, she's 12 yrs old and she gave it what she had. I
had still had yet to see dd at this point. After the awards,
dd was up with the girls, she came back to me and asked me to
give her a kiss. That's what my kid wanted a kiss to let her know
that she did her best and I was proud. She knew she didn't do well,
but she wanted to know that I was ok with it. That is what I as a
parent have to deal with. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with
HC. She is the HC and a darn good one, she had her way of doing
thing, but don't ever question how as a parent I should respond to
my kid - don't cross that line.
As for the meet, well, it's over and looking back, the meet wasn't
the best, but there are things she can build off of and her next
meet is 2 weeks away. For me, I was shot.
When I post video, per dd's request she would like me to edit out bars, so
it might be a little shorter than usual.
). Thank you for having such a great parental attitude. A coach should coach...and a parent should parent and both need to be supportive of the other's role. I think you made this point tactfully & with grace. And I think your DD came away from this meet with a lot to be proud of! She is such a talented gymnast...yeah she nailed her vault!!! There's a confidence builder right there! Congrats to DD!!
