Parents Mom learns a valuable lesson!!

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S

starmaker

So Liv had her third meet of the season. It was also Halloween themed with lots of candy and goodie bags. Liv had a blast!!!

Here's the valuable lesson I learned: No lotion before competitions!

DD skin was dry and I applied lotion all over her body. Big mistake! While she was warming up on bars the first time she fell out of her backhip circle (very unusual!). Her second time up she did the same thing! Her coach puts her back on the bar and she tries again and this time flies over the bars and does a face plant on the mats. HC grabs her by the wrist and marches straight towards me. I was still confused as to what was going on. HC asks me if she has lotion all over her body and we proceed to wipe her down with baby wipes. When it actually counted she did a great bar rountine but did not quite make her mill circle. That was ok, though.

Then it was off to floor. She has really improved on floor. She's alot tighter, pointier, and less wobbly. Well at compeition she did something that I have never seen her do before. She falls on her butt landing her roundoff. I don't know if it was too powerful, it was the sugar, but she recovered nicely and continued her routine. Not her best!

On beam she did great except for a major bobble coming down from her handstand which is also very unlike her. All in all it was not her best meet but she was thrilled because she received her first trophy.

Here is her video: YouTube - Level 3 Age 5 Meet 10/26/08
 
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Great job, she had so much power coming out of that round off, that would make it hard to do the controlled run backwards. Her floor is lovely and she really has lovely form. Evrything is coming along so nicely with her and she looks so very happy.

I also learned some Mom lessons along the way, one of which was don't make that hair too tight, a headache through warm ups and then ripping out 35 elastics before the actual comp begins is horrible and boy the hair looks bad then!:D

We live and learn. Moisturizer and gymnastics do not mix, that's why we have chalk!!! Maybe we need moisturizing chalk???
 
Olivia is oh so cute :p, and has really nice form!

We were at the same meet, at the very last session. Was it hotter'n blazes in there for you guys like it was for us?! Nice gym hosts, tho.

P.S. The 'Popeye' bar judge is our HC. He looked so silly, LOL! :cool:
 
Olivia did great! She has really improved with form IMO. She did have a lot of power with her round off. Does she have her back handspring? At DD2's level 4 meet last year I did the same thing! Her skin got really dry and chippy, so I put on lotion and she slipped right off the bar.
 
She is so cute and has great form and confidence. She definitely has power on the RO. I will remember about the lotion as well, thanks for sharing!
 
Olivia did great! She has really improved with form IMO. She did have a lot of power with her round off. Does she have her back handspring? At DD2's level 4 meet last year I did the same thing! Her skin got really dry and chippy, so I put on lotion and she slipped right off the bar.

Yeah the lotion before meets really is a bad idea. I never even considered the possibility of it interferring with her routines. It makes sense to me now though. When you think it about that's why the use chalk in almost all events. Oh well, you live and you learn. Yes she has her ROBHS so she over powered her RO. Olivia also likes to do things a bit over the top. She exaggerates skills she can do well. For example the the leg swing to V-sit is way over the top. She kicks her leg so high it almost hits her in the face. HC has been working with them for the last two weeks on form and you can see improvements. Olivia was second in her team as far as scores go and lately has been dropping. She is now second to last out of 10 girls. All but 3 have received 36's. Liv hasn't even been able to score even a 35. I don't know why her scores are so much lower than her teammates. According to HC they need a 36 to move to L4. I can't imagine having her do L3 again:eek:.
 
She is so nice and straight on all the routines!!! I thought the beam score was a little low...and she's close on bars too (darn that evil mill circle)!

We have to have 36 AA to move to L4, too. I feel your pain! Bummer that she fell on that RO..she would have pulled a 9 for sure on that one!

I bet next meet she'll be closer to if not AT that 36. Just put the lotion away!:p
 
Olivia is adorable! What a great job she did! Around here, gyms rarely compete their Level 3's so I've never actually seen the routines till today! I can't help but think that if my Little Monkey had gotten the experience/skills in Level 3, it might have helped her in Level 4!
 
Hmm, what a cute lil' munchkin. She does need to work on her polish in routines overall and some of the movements ( like her tuck jump her head goes forward and she scrunches down in the air ). Too much wobbling and extra movements like swings or steps. She might want to use her hands more on her backward roll as well, in my coaching opinion. In fact more of the arms by the ears.

She seems to have good flexibility and strength with the potential for more and love having gymnastics like this because it's something I can work with.

She may have fell backwards because she hit the ground out of her RO on her heels and that is just awkward. I can't remember if a rebound is allowed though I am familiar with the CW step in run back or round run back progressions.
 
Thanks for the lotion tip !! Sorry you learned the hard way !!

She did really well. I agree w/ above, get rid of the extra steps and wobbles and you are on your way !!

Don't fret too much if she has to do L3 again - my DD did (and she was not happy about it at all - still isn't) and it has helped her. She is much less nervous at meets (actually not nervous at all anymore) and has finished 1st AA twice and 2nd AA twice out of 4 meets this season. thankfully she has met the 36AA score and will move to L4 in Dec.

My DD also struggles with form. Staying tight is a real struggle for her.
 
Thanks for the lotion tip !! Sorry you learned the hard way !!

She did really well. I agree w/ above, get rid of the extra steps and wobbles and you are on your way !!

Don't fret too much if she has to do L3 again - my DD did (and she was not happy about it at all - still isn't) and it has helped her. She is much less nervous at meets (actually not nervous at all anymore) and has finished 1st AA twice and 2nd AA twice out of 4 meets this season. thankfully she has met the 36AA score and will move to L4 in Dec.

My DD also struggles with form. Staying tight is a real struggle for her.

DD has had 3 competitions and even with her fall in the last competition came in 4th AA and in the other 2 has come in 2nd and 3rd AA. I don't think that she is struggling in level 3. She has actually placed higher than her teammates eventhough they got higher scores. She also has more Level 4 skills than any other of her teammates. DD still has one more competition before states and another competition in Jan. that our gym is hosting. So I guess she still has time. I don't mind repeating a level but repeating level 3 seems so silly to me though. As it is she is sick of doing the same rountines over and over again. I guess a 5 year old can't put all that repetition into perspective. I always remind her that practice makes perfect and I think she is starting to understand that now.
 
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Olivia is oh so cute :p, and has really nice form!

We were at the same meet, at the very last session. Was it hotter'n blazes in there for you guys like it was for us?! Nice gym hosts, tho.

P.S. The 'Popeye' bar judge is our HC. He looked so silly, LOL! :cool:

We were the very first session...9am! It was not too hot in there yet I guess! I read your dd did great at this meet. Congradulations! It was a very nice meet but the trick-or-treating really messed with Liv's focus. And Liv tends to get very excited at meets as it is and has a hard time sitting still while waiting her turn. I guess that's why age and maturity is important. HC tells me after comp. that Liv was especially hyper! I could tell because I was watching her. She loved all the costumes, decorations and she said the haunted house was too scary for her and she ran out...:rolleyes:.
 
That mill circle was so close - she will get it next time I'm sure. Her bars and beam are very good! The only things holding her back is abit of wobblyness on floor. Does she do ballet? That might help her remember to tighten up her tummy, legs and feet on floor. She is so good for 5 - really super. If I was working with her I would ask her to have her arms closer together in her bridge and point her fingers towards her toes (not out to the side). That is an easy thing for her to do which would pick up points. She is doing just great as she is though. Scores don't matter at 5 - enjoyment and fun do! I don't think she needs a particular score to move up to level 4 anyway, perhaps the coaches just want her to really shine and win some 1st AAs before she moves up. Best of luck for the next meet - I can't wait to see her get that mill circle!
 
First off I think Olivia did a great job!Secondly I do not think gyms should put a certain high score that has to be achieved to move on for the lower comp.levels.L2-L4 are supposed to be fun for the girls,getting them used to competing.L2 and L 3 seemed to be getting pretty popular in fl.But I have seen gyms making to much of it,by putting to much pressure on the girls making them repeat these Levels (which I find silly)Our gym tries real hard to make l2,3,4 has fun has possible for the girls and is always reminding us that it is not about scores at these levels.They do not want them burnt out before they reach opt.My dd's team competes against alot of girls that are repeating the level 1-2 years they still hold ther own.If my dd would have had to repeat L3 she would have quit .Thats my opinion.
 
We were the very first session...9am! It was not too hot in there yet I guess! I read your dd did great at this meet. Congradulations! It was a very nice meet but the trick-or-treating really messed with Liv's focus. And Liv tends to get very excited at meets as it is and has a hard time sitting still while waiting her turn. I guess that's why age and maturity is important. HC tells me after comp. that Liv was especially hyper! I could tell because I was watching her. She loved all the costumes, decorations and she said the haunted house was too scary for her and she ran out...:rolleyes:.
Oops! Sorry Olivia was distracted! I guess trick-or-treating at the Judges' tables could get a bit too crazy for the little ones! But hey, she probably had a blast!! One of my dd's teammates (who's 10 yrs old) was also too scared to go into the Haunted House, LOL!


Are you guys going to Stuart this weekend? We are, on Sunday. I think dd is in a double session where there will be L6's & then L 2&3's on another set of equip. She'll get a kick out of seeing the little cuties!
 

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