meet ideas

[davfit]

This is a suggestion for some meet ideas. I have been reading some of the posts in regard to competition and the seeming emphasis upon scores! There are gyms competing back levels, gymnasts held back when they should be advanced, etc. I have been there, seen it and experienced it. Also, is not the intent of sport the promotion of sportsmanship (or sportwomanship).

What about a meet based upon the competition without open scoring? The scores could be recorded as usual and results sent to the gyms after the meet was over, not the day of!
Next, instead of awards and trophies, why not have something like fruit? It could be called the Fruitbasket. Different sized or types of fruit for places. All around and individuals to receive a smaller bowl,etc. This would allow the gymnasts to not regard the exact score or the trophy. Better yet, everyone could pose with their "trophies" and then eat them. This would also be a great time for all to mingle (coaches,gymnasts and parents alike).
How about a meet or better yet, an exhibition where the routines could be based upon a theme or style? Comedy or western or well known shows or movies

I realize that some people would view this as a waste of time and they are entitled! In my mind, the only obstacle would be that some would only see it as time and money. There is that but I would like to believe that the kids are important enough for us to do something because it could be a positive , fun experience.!

If you are reading this post, thank you:applause: and please reply!

 

[lannamavity]

This is a suggestion for some meet ideas. I have been reading some of the posts in regard to competition and the seeming emphasis upon scores! There are gyms competing back levels, gymnasts held back when they should be advanced, etc. I have been there, seen it and experienced it. Also, is not the intent of sport the promotion of sportsmanship (or sportwomanship).

What about a meet based upon the competition without open scoring? The scores could be recorded as usual and results sent to the gyms after the meet was over, not the day of!
Next, instead of awards and trophies, why not have something like fruit? It could be called the Fruitbasket. Different sized or types of fruit for places. All around and individuals to receive a smaller bowl,etc. This would allow the gymnasts to not regard the exact score or the trophy. Better yet, everyone could pose with their "trophies" and then eat them. This would also be a great time for all to mingle (coaches,gymnasts and parents alike).
How about a meet or better yet, an exhibition where the routines could be based upon a theme or style? Comedy or western or well known shows or movies

I realize that some people would view this as a waste of time and they are entitled! In my mind, the only obstacle would be that some would only see it as time and money. There is that but I would like to believe that the kids are important enough for us to do something because it could be a positive , fun experience.!

If you are reading this post, thank you:applause: and please reply!

No scores=why bother?
Sorry, but I really feel it's the competition which brings out the best in kids/coaches/clubs. Without that, it's not a sport.

Nice try. Those would be great ideas for recreational or "pre-competitive" gymnastics.

 

[Billy]

Would you ever suggest a football game with no score? How about baseball, or soccer, or any other sport, for that matter? Isn't the competition the whole point of sports in general? We are supposed to be encouraging our gymnasts to excel and be the best they can be but without a frame of reference, how would they know what "the best" means? My daughter is inspired by watching higher level, better gymnasts and striving to be like them. Her scores help her to know how she's doing and the awards are her reward and recognition for those efforts. Doing routines and having a fruit snack isn't a meet. It's practice.

 

[catesmom]

At our gym we host a meet and the lower level 4 and 5 only recieve awards based on AA. The girls are called up and each girl receives an award gold, silver bronze based upon where the girls place in the group. They of course get their ribbons at each event, but no individual medals. The parents HATE it and always complain that there are not individual places for events.

In my opinion, an event with no awards wouldn't work, but the thought was nice.

 

[Imat3]

I have to agree with the others. The whole basis of being on a "competitive team" is to compete. You really must have scores or it wouldn't be a competitive sport. It wouldn't be much fun to play/watch a basketball game in which there was no score.

I think the ideas were great for recreational/pre-competitive groups.

I do think that some get too worked up with the scores/placements. But healthy competition is certainly a good thing.

Just my opinion
Imat3

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Haha that sounds cool. The fruit part is random but they could do like silly awards

 

[Robindq]

...At our gym we hold a group routines competition and all our clubs group routines have to follow the theme. Also all the decorations at our year end show follow that theme. Lat years theme was country (we live in the country and a lot of us listen to country so this was my favorite theme so far) my group did our routine to "Me and my Gang" by Rascal Flatts! (i love rascal Flatts <3) lol
This year's theme is Disney and we're doing a Miley Cyrus song.

At the group routines competition every team gets a trophy, a score out of 30, and a certificate that has your score and what you were best at, and everyone gets a medal, but there are no places or anything and no pressure. It's a lot of fun!
As far as doing this sort of thing for every competition i'm not sure it would work out, considering how competitive some gymnasts/gyms/coaches/parents can be.
I think would be cool for 1 meet a season or something! And like the others said for rec and pre-comp gymnasts.
It would definitely be a great experience!
Cool idea though

 

[gracefulone]

We have one meet-the Shamrock Surprise, where the scores don't get flashed-you don't find out until after awards. It's kind of fun, but I wouldn't want it all the time!

 

[ZJsMom]

I appreciate the impusle behind the idea, but also not sure it would work. I was trying to come up with something like this myself, inspired by my ds who's in his first year of team and doesn't get the highest scores. I started thinking wouldn't it be nice if there were no scores for level 4, maybe they could just get some general feedback from judges and give them blue, red, or white ribbons, without scores. But then I thought nobody's going to want to pay judges to come to a meet if they're not going to come up with exact scores. And afterall that is what makes it competitive gymnastics. If we really don't want our kids to be judged and scored, we'd keep them in a recreational program instead.

 

[Billy]

While I definitely don't agree with this concept for all the time, it might be fun for the team girls to get to do a relaxed exhibition once in a while. Maybe they could get to try choreographing a routine or showing off a new skill that's not in the regular routine (for the compulsory levels). The coaches could give out silly awards like Funniest Hairstyle or Most Crooked Cartwheel (they'd know which girls could take the joke and which ones couldn't and "award" properly). It could just be a fun, relaxing change for them and it could be done all in-house to show off for friends and family.

 

[Aussie_coach]

In australia it is quite common to have meets where no awards are given for places just different colored ribbons for different scores. Every gymnast recieves a ribbon for each apparatus they compete on based on score. Say 9.5-10 blue, 9.0-9.5 - red and so on. The same works for all around. It is common for level 1,2 and 3 meets designed to introduce kids to competition in a positive way.

 

[ZJsMom]

In most states USAG levels 4 & 5 are like that too. They get achievement awards based on scores instead of, or in addition to rankings. A lot of meets though, they get their achievement ribbons in an envelope, but then there's an awards ceremony where they give out placements. I think doing this really undercuts the achievement awards. At least none of the kids go away empty handed though.

 

[a_gymnast_forever]

yeah. I would never go to a competition like that. it makes it like not even a competition.

 

[flippymonkeysmom]

When my dd did level 4, some meets were like that (ribbons, etc) and some were what we are used to now. In NY it was one of the first years they even competed level 4 - previously they only competed level 5 and up there. Even still they don't have an individual level f 4 state meet - it is a team cup - so while individual scores are flashed, no individual medals are given. Everyone received a trophy for participation and then there were team awards. It was a nice way to ease into the whole competition thing.

 

[MoonKid]

At the invitational meets that I used to compete in the scores were not flashed. We did get individual ribbons and medals for each event and the all-around, and the list of scores could be bought for a very small fee afterwards.

Also, in Ontario for 7 and 8 year olds (the youngest competitors) at meets they give out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places based on set execution scores (they don't pay attention to difficulty even though they use a slightly modified version of the new code). I don't remember what the exact scores for the different places are, but it's something like 9.0-10 is 1st, 8.0-9.0 is 2nd, and less than 8.0 is 3rd.