WAG Does my kid have to use music for floor?

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Thank you everyone for responding and for some of you for trying to track down someone to offer insight. This is new for us, new for her coaches/gym and well, I guess we'll just figure it out as we go along. I did talk to someone from the USAgymnastics for our state and they told me alert the judges of her deafness and they would take that into consideration when scoring - but that the coach will be allowed to be present and cueing her of when to stop/start. I'm not sure how that will go over (the "taken into consideration when scoring part") because I want my kid to be on an even playing field and not give anyone reason to take issue with it not being fair. On the other hand, with all the noise going on simultaneously during a meet, there would be no way she would know that her music has started...something that she just can't help. As many of you can already see, this might be a sticky situation if we should run into a wound-tight coach or parent. I just want things to be fair and still unsure what "fair" is...

As a judge, I would take this to mean that I would not take deductions for inappropriate coaching when the coach cued the gymnast to start and stop, nor would I be as concerned about if she was exactly with each musical cue. I would still judge all of her skills to the same criteria and look for a dynamic routine. This is similar to how I would make adaptations for any gymnasts. For example, I judged a blind girl a few times. I didn't worry about if her "focus" was in the right place, as she couldn't see to "focus" over her hand or up or down as required by the compulsory routines. I still judged all of her skills to the same criteria. Similarly, I judged a level 5 girl who had an undeveloped hand. The ruling from the state and the meet directors was that she was allowed to have a spot on bars for no deduction, as a safety precaution. I still evaluated her skills to the same standard, but did not take any deduction for her coach being there.

It's about being as fair as you can but not disadvantaging someone for something she has no control over.

The compulsory music, of course, is something you have no control of. However, as your daughter advances through the levels, music may become less of an issue. I don't know if she can "feel" certain music, but music with a heavy bass might be an option. She could choose music with a consistent beat or steady counts that she can memorize. She might chose to focus on the other events. Of course, these options are many years down the road.

Finally, the most a gymnast can lose in the compulsory levels for not being with the music is 0.30. In the grand scheme of everything a gymnast could do wrong, this is minimal.
 
I don't think Brad's (BYU coach) email is available online. Not that I could find atleast. Here is a way to contact him though. Their office phone number is available on that same website I think too.

Contact Brad Cattermole | The Official Site of BYU Athletics
The Cattermoles also own and coach at All American Gymnastics in the Lindon/Orem area. If you wanted to contact them this would probably work too. I am pretty sure Dawn Cattermole coaches at BYU also, so she would probably be able to help, and may be easier to contact.
 
...and Geoffrey - my goal is for her to confidently go into her floor routine - not get blown into the parking lot outside by the mega bass! :) Do you use a hand truck for that?

Well, I don't think it would blow her out into the parking lot. Just make the floor shake a little.

...

Ok, I was lying about the "a little" part.
 
Hi!! I'm Bri the Deaf gymmie that everyone was mentioning in this post. I competed through JO level 10, tried to start training elite and then went on to college. I got injured and coach now. I'm profoundly deaf (like 110 db) and use ASL/mixed signed English, I went to hearing school. I've never had a CI and have used hearing aids on and off, but not very successfully.

Anyway, for all my events, I got a visual sign to start, instead of a buzzer. For floor my big thing was finding the visiaul rhythm in the routine. For comp routines I just watched my coaches and other gymnasts over and over and was able to "feel" it through sight. For optionals I was very lucky, my little sister is hearing and a ballet dancer. She picked music and coreographed all my routines, I'm a power tumbler so we focused on simple, heavy beat music that worked well with those kinds of routines. I know it sounds crazy to hearing people but you can really see rhythm.

Is your daughter HoH or Deaf? Does she have a CI or use hearing aids? Does she sign or lip read? Sorry for so many questions it just helps to set up a great coaching strategy for her. Please PM! I'd love to answer anymore questions you have! It's so so so so so great to see more HoH/Deaf gymmies getting into the sport!
 
As a judge I wouldn't take a coaching deduction for the coach signaling her when to start the routine if I knew she was deaf. I think that is something that should be communicated by her coach to the judges. If she is coached well, then she should be able to have the timing right with the music.
We have a Judge in our state who is pretty much deaf. At meets she often cannot hear the music, so those kids who are off get a freebie.
 
I have coached a proundly deaf athlete and like everybody has said I was able to give her a cue on when to start her routine with no deduction. We taught her to go through a "beat count" in her head to stay on time with the music and never had any trouble. Gymnastics is a great sport for your daughter, I know I learned a lot from this particular gymnast and her parents.
 
I have coached a proundly deaf athlete and like everybody has said I was able to give her a cue on when to start her routine with no deduction. We taught her to go through a "beat count" in her head to stay on time with the music and never had any trouble. Gymnastics is a great sport for your daughter, I know I learned a lot from this particular gymnast and her parents.

Great way to describe it. I started with beat counts in my head when I'd first learn a routine then I'd start to just feel the rhythm and see it.
 

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