WAG Meets - the good, bad and ugly

[OzZee]

So in the US are the groups competing together not split by age? Where I am generally each session is an age group, so a whole team would only be in the same session if it was a small competition anyway (ie less than 40-60 for that level).
Is that how you get such small groups for awards sometimes?

We don't get given anything here so I'm fascinated by that. So how do they do the free leo thing, do you specify size before?

 

[OzZee]

Just curious, how much do you pay for a bottle of water from a vending machine in the US?
Here it is not uncommon to pay close to $3 for a bottle of water in a shop or from a vending machine.

Lol hence why I got so excited by hungry jacks putting water on its $1 menu. Saved us a lot of money when a shopping trip has gone overtime and everyone is thirsty.

 

[COz]

Lol hence why I got so excited by hungry jacks putting water on its $1 menu. Saved us a lot of money when a shopping trip has gone overtime and everyone is thirsty.

Really?? Good to know!
<Yes, my life is boring too...>

 

[raenndrops]

I don't understand how this works. Do the girls just warm up by themselves while the other flight competes or does the coach not watch them compete? With the modified capital cup system there is no way to coach two flights without holding up the meet or not supervising some kids. Let's say you're flight one and two starting on vault, first flight warms up and goes, then needs to rotate to bars and start warming up. Usually they will need to be warming up while second flight is still competing, unless there's a back up and obviously the timing on some events is off (floor takes longer than bars for each gymnast to compete). But overall either the gymnasts on vault would have to set up and check all their stuff while the coach warms up bars or the kids on bars have to warm up by themselves, or you have to hold up the meet rotation your flights together (which defeats the point of flights).

Whenever a meet schedule is published here, it always includes the required number of coaches based on how many flights the team will be in. That number of coaches is required. I'm not sure if the R&P addresses this specifically but I don't know what a meet here would do if some requested to only have one coach for two flights. I don't see any way it can be accommodated. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

We had a meet where one of our coaches was on time (the other three were caught in the parking lot that WAS an Interstate highway). One of the other teams "loaned" us a coach for warm ups. We have done this for other teams too in the past. I guess this is one perk of being in a "league" (district).

 

[momof2gymmies]

So in the US are the groups competing together not split by age? Where I am generally each session is an age group, so a whole team would only be in the same session if it was a small competition anyway (ie less than 40-60 for that level).
Is that how you get such small groups for awards sometimes?

We don't get given anything here so I'm fascinated by that. So how do they do the free leo thing, do you specify size before?

Our gym gives out leos at our home meet. Eveyone emails the coaches the size they would like, and then the coaches from each gym hand them out while the kids are waiting for awards. We also get t-shirts a lot! Not ones we have to make, but already made up ones with the meet name on them. We also email those sizes before hand.

Most of the meets we go to are not split by age. States is. There may be multiple sessions at each level - 3 L4 sessions, 2 L5 sessions, 4 bronze, so teams just tsick together. Sometimes the larger teams are split between two sessions.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I don't know how much say the coaches have in how a group is split.

We have been to meets where our group (all the same level) got split into different squads and they were split by height. That way equipment only required one adjustment.

 

[OzZee]

Most of the meets we go to are not split by age. States is. There may be multiple sessions at each level - 3 L4 sessions, 2 L5 sessions, 4 bronze, so teams just tsick together. Sometimes the larger teams are split between two sessions.

So how are awards done? By session? By age at session? So you could be against 5 others or 30 others depending how the sessions were broken down? Or do you have to come back after all sessions for awards over several sessions?

Though think I've seen mentioned that age groups are broken down evenly?
So if there are 40 kids aged 7-15 then they are broken down into 4 groups of 10?
So you might not compete against others in your area the same age till states?

Thanks for explaining this is so different and very interesting.

 

[wnl256]

So in the US are the groups competing together not split by age? Where I am generally each session is an age group, so a whole team would only be in the same session if it was a small competition anyway (ie less than 40-60 for that level).

One session will typically have multiple age groups competing at the same time. The sessions are split up by level, sometimes only one level per session and sometimes multiple levels. Even at state there will be at least two age groups in one session. This makes tracking scores by hand much more challenging.

We don't get given anything here so I'm fascinated by that. So how do they do the free leo thing, do you specify size before?

They have the leos sorted by size. The gymnast goes up to the table and gives name and size. The name gets checked off a list and (hopefully) they still have some of that size left.

 

[wnl256]

So how are awards done? By session? By age at session? So you could be against 5 others or 30 others depending how the sessions were broken down? Or do you have to come back after all sessions for awards over several sessions?

Awards for a session are broken down by age group. The meet director splits the competitors up in to (more or less) equal size groups by age. You only compete against gymnasts in your session and your age group. So in one meet your child may compete against that superstar at the gym across town but in the next meet she won't.

I have to admit, there are one or two names that I am relieved to hear are not in her age group when we get to state.

Team awards are typically done across all sessions by level (either for each day or for the whole event, depending on the event). So the team awards aren't issued until the last session for the level. And yes, sometimes the team isn't there to receive the award.

 

[z2akids]

Our gym gave out leos this year. When gyms sent their confirmation that they were attending the meet, they sent a list of leo sizes. Our boosters then ordered the leos and the coaches were given the appropriate number of each size in their coaches packet.

 

[momof2gymmies]

So how are awards done? By session? By age at session? So you could be against 5 others or 30 others depending how the sessions were broken down? Or do you have to come back after all sessions for awards over several sessions?

Though think I've seen mentioned that age groups are broken down evenly?
So if there are 40 kids aged 7-15 then they are broken down into 4 groups of 10?
So you might not compete against others in your area the same age till states?

Thanks for explaining this is so different and very interesting.

Take our last meet for example - there were 64 kids in our session. Our team was split into 2, since we are so big - we have 35 girls at DD's level. 17 went with DD (based on practice day) at awards they evenly split them into child, Junior A, Junior B, and senior. DD is usually in Junior A, but is sometimes in child. Her good friend who is on team with her as a b-day 3 weeks after DD. Sometimes they are together, sometimes they are not - totally depends on what other kids are there. The individual awards are done after each session, so it is very possible to have multiple L5 AAs, if there are multiple L5 sessions, and each session has 4 AA winners. Team awards are done at the end of whatever session has the last of that level competing.

Last year the kids DD competed against at states were mostly different than the ones she competed against at regular meets. There is a much larger age range at the regular meets.

 

[twinmomma]

All our kids are usually in session/flights together, but for awards they are split by age. The age ranges depend on how many kids there are and their ages, but DD is usually in the next to youngest age group. Our L3 team age ranges were from 7-12 last season.

 

[gymdog]

We had a meet where one of our coaches was on time (the other three were caught in the parking lot that WAS an Interstate highway). One of the other teams "loaned" us a coach for warm ups. We have done this for other teams too in the past. I guess this is one perk of being in a "league" (district).

Sure, of course. But another coach offering to help is still another coach for that session. Might not always be possible without prior planning too, because once the competition starts, that gym with the extra coach might be needed when their team is split.

 

[raenndrops]

Sure, of course. But another coach offering to help is still another coach for that session. Might not always be possible without prior planning too, because once the competition starts, that gym with the extra coach might be needed when their team is split.

We REALLY lucked out... the other team brought 6 coaches, so they had plenty. Their HEAD COACH worked with our girls.
We ALWAYS (except YMCA Nationals this year... 4 girls competing in 4 different sessions = 1 coach) plan for 4 coaches - minimum, but the traffic jam caused by multiple semis jackknifing in a 1/4 mile stretch was (obviously) unexpected.

 

[sce]

Our gym gave out leos this year. When gyms sent their confirmation that they were attending the meet, they sent a list of leo sizes. Our boosters then ordered the leos and the coaches were given the appropriate number of each size in their coaches packet.

This is how leos, shorts and pre-printed t-shirts are all done at meets we've attended. Coaches send in sizes and are given them to handout to gymnasts.

 

[flippingtogether]

Great thread, with lots of interesting thoughts and comments.

I have an observation differences in meets, as we moved from one state to another. What I am still not used to (and DD just finished first competitive season in new state) is the way results are posted. This varies A LOT from state to state, and region to region, I gather.

State #1 - every meet uses ProScore, every meet posts results to the host website soon after the meet. Always fun to see the scores on paper (or computer screen) and see how DD was relative to everyone else (which I can never figure out at the meet itself....I don't pay attention to that at all - just cheering for the team).
Not much live scoring in State #1 either, which is fine by me. But posting results with ProScore is wonderful and I took it for granted.

State #2 - like living in the dark ages. IF the scores are posted to the host website afterward (and many are not) - scores are listed in a very long, hard to read Excel file with no separation between levels let along age groups, page breaks are not at ideal places.....good luck deciphering. All I can say is I really, REALLY miss ProScore.....like going from first class on an airplane to to the back of the plane.

No complaining here.....just observing

 

[Deleted member 18037]

State #2 - like living in the dark ages. IF the scores are posted to the host website afterward (and many are not) - scores are listed in a very long, hard to read Excel file with no separation between levels let along age groups, page breaks are not at ideal places.....good luck deciphering. All I can say is I really, REALLY miss ProScore.....like going from first class on an airplane to to the back of the plane.

No complaining here.....just observing

I thought it was USAG requirement that results be posted within a certain time frame of the meet.

 

[twinmomma]

I thought it was USAG requirement that results be posted within a certain time frame of the meet.

I don't know that there's any posting requirements. I've seen threads here where scores never got posted.

 

[MILgymFAM]

We have been to meets where the scores were never posted anywhere. There was one meet that also had no live scores. Other than the judges scorecard given at the conclusion of the meet, we would never have known even DDs scores. I thought it was weird.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

https://usagym.org/PDFs/Women/Rules/Rules and Policies/2014_2015_w_rulespolicies.pdf
General info