Parents Rough meet

[twinmomma]

DD had a ROUGH (L4) meet yesterday. First off, vault, solid. Not an amazing score, but she ended up 8th out of 30 in her age group. Bars, starts off great, has this weird bobble after her squat on but saved it and didn't fall, but really uncharacteristic for her. Beam. Oy. Beam. Cartwheel - landed, a little balance check, all good. Handstand just fell apart for some reason. And, she was never told (I didn't know either) that if she never has her feet back on the beam and goes straight to the floor to repeat the skill or she gets hit for the fall AND loses the skill altogether. (Coach told her it was her fault and apologized to her). 7.7. Worst score ever on anything. She doesn't cry in front of anyone and even she couldn't keep it together. Coach was good with her. Then during floor warm ups, one of the girls in performance on the adjacent floor suffers a serious injury in the middle of her routine (possible broken arm or hyperextended elbow) and all the girls watch it happen. DD goes out and does a great floor routine, but she gets tenthed to death on flexibility. Great improvement on her score over last meet, but still nowhere near medaling (8.865). She medaled on bars and vault. She seemed ok until we got to dinner where she fell apart in the bathroom. Upset she didn't know about repeating the handstand, upset about not qualifying for state (.4 off the qualifying score). Worried she may not qualify, worried about not getting to move up to level 5, etc... She just broke my heart last night.

I told her not qualifying would be ok, and repeating L4 would be ok too. That she has repeaters in her team and that she's competed against and lots of girls repeat L4. We talked about doing privates and all kinds of extra work if she wants. Thing is, this meet was a lot of uncharacteristic stuff for her, but I'm worried about her confidence. We only have three practices before the next meet. I just don't know what to do for her right now. She woke up in good spirits for school. I told her last night "this is when you let this go and learn from it and put the work in for the next one."

This is when I wish she'd picked a team sport. Maybe I can still get her to do softball. LOL.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

No advice, but we've had two bad to fair ones in a row here too. Extra tough because coach requires higher-than-minimums to qualify for sectionals and states, and to move up. And for my older L4, not moving up this year would probably be the end. Two meets down, five to go and so far, not any fun at all. There are definitely days that I dislike this sport -- other than the ones where the checks are due!

 

[twinmomma]

I'm sorry for your DD. We have four to go after two down, and I'm with you, not any fun right now at all. I hope your DD's season picks up.

 

[rjb123]

I am so sorry. I am sure that there is not a gymnast out there who hasn't had a horrible meet. Lord knows my DD has had them! I think that the key for us has always been a few things. First of all, our rule is that we only are allowed to discuss the meet the day of the meet. As of midnight the day of the meet, it is not to be discussed again. Period. Good, bad or indifferent, it is in the past- over and done with. Also, when the tears are flowing I always ask "do you love gymnastics? Right now, after bombing your beam routine or whatever, do you love to do gymnastics?" She always says "yes!" and I tell her that in that case she needs to learn something from the experience, put it in the past and focus on working hard and doing her best. If she loves the sport, is working hard and doing her best, that is all that matters in the end. I guarantee that in a few months you won't be able to remember what scores or placements she got at what meet. Neither will she! What the two of you WILL remember is how proud she was when she hit her beam routine at a meet the first time. Or the first time she got over a 9 on bars when she started out the season near a 7. Or how she hugged her team mate when she fell off the beam and made her feel better about herself. Or how darn cute she was when she was a little level 4. These are the things that come to my mind when I look back on DD's first few years of gymnastics. Hang in there mama! Give her a big hug and a kiss. Tell her how proud you are of her. Tell her that you believe in her and that you know she can do anything she puts her mind to doing. It will be ok.

 

[duyetanh]

I am SO sorry. It is so hard when this happens. I think we hurt for them more than they hurt for themselves. You said ALL the right things, and it can only get better. Good thoughts for your DD, and my daughter fwiw hated that darn handstand and is so happy to be leaving it behind on beam!

 

[tortuga]

I'm glad your DD wasn't hurt from her beam fall, it looked like it could've been painful.

You should add that ours was the last session on Sunday night, your daughter was doing her floor at 8PM, four hours after the meet began. Temperatures outside had been three digits all week, Sunday was a balmy 97 at 5PM with dense smoke-filled air from all the fires. Really, it was a tough meet for many reasons.

My DD was 4th to last in her "best" event where she "should've" been top three. Yes, a tough meet.

 

[twinmomma]

I'm glad your DD wasn't hurt from her beam fall, it looked like it could've been painful.

You should add that ours was the last session on Sunday night, your daughter was doing her floor at 8PM, four hours after the meet began. Temperatures outside had been three digits all week, Sunday was a balmy 97 at 5PM with dense smoke-filled air from all the fires. Really, it was a tough meet for many reasons.

My DD was 4th to last in her "best" event where she "should've" been top three. Yes, a tough meet.

Very true. All of it. Not to mention so far both meets for us have been late night sunday meets. But you're right. Literally we got there at 3:30 and it was 7ish when beam was going on and floor at 8 or so. And I'm really sorry your DD struggled as well.

This is the first time my DD has really internalized the scoring/awards/state qualifying thing. I'm not sure if it's a function of age, or if they just talk about it more at her new gym than they did at the old place making it more of a "thing" to them. Either way, I'm concerned about confidence right now, and I'll be talking to her coaches about it. Because some of our discussions yesterday were about doing the work and doing your best and her answer was that it didn't pay off yesterday and she's been doing the work and trying her best. These are hard lessons at 9 years old. And I have a hard time figuring out if it's better to tell her it's ok if she doesn't qualify and ok if she doesn't move up, or if I express that I'm confident she will do both those things and potentially set her up. I can see why people say the transition from 3 to 4 is really difficult for kids.

 

[munchkin3]

If I may offer some perspective.
L4 is a very important level to journey through. It is the first 'tough' level where girls need to navigate through many fears and persevere with tough competition. Explain to your DD to focus on improving throughout her season so that when she ends the L4 season, she will be fully ready for L5. It may not be about winning, it may be about beating her previous score, or obtaining a 36/37 etc.
Remember that Level 5 is unforgiving and can really make or break a gymnast. If they are not mature in the L4 skills, L5 will absolutely knock 'em down. Explain to her that this is the season where she should be thinking 'optional'.....skills not levels.....this is where practice is more important than competition.....if she practices with the mindset of being an optional gymnast, she will have a different perspective.....the meet will just highlight what she does I practice already. When does she compete again, and what score does she need to move to L5?

You can't rush through level 4 and or 5...and competition is the only way to get 100% under pressure for the athletes. It only gets MORE difficult, and MORE intense.......

 

[munchkin3]

Ps, our compulsories just went to their first meet......some looked exceptional, and one of the girls achieved a 37.5...... It was still 8th AA with 1 medal......how can you prepare a kid for this????

 

[ZJsMom]

For a "horrible meet," I think she actually did really well. 7.7 isn't a terrible score. If that's her floor, she's doing well. And all she had to do was repeat the handstand and it would have been better. That would have been enough for her to reach the qualifying score. She'll get it next time.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I agree- in the moment when she was upset an sad it may have seemed like a rough meet, but any meet where you medal on two events and didn't hurt yourself on anything is a pretty awesome meet in our book. It truly is all about perspective. My DD rarely medals on anything, and is usually closer to last place than first, so even one medal is hugely celebrated. Kudos to your DD for holding it together till she was finished with the meet. Just redoing the handstand would probably have qualified her for states, so no reason not to be optimistic with her that it will happen. It must have been frightening to see another girl get injured- for the kids and the parents. Those late evening meets are just rough on almost everyone. I hope her next meet is smooth and meets her expectations.

 

[wgymmom]

We've definitely been there with tough meets, but she didn't do that badly, TBH. I know it's hard on kids. This wasn't her "last chance" to hit any scores for qualifying for anything. She's got another meet in a few weeks. She now knows about the beam issue. Her floor score was actually really good! When we started in new 4, it was definitely a challenge, but onward and upward! I am positive she will have a better meet next time. I hope you come back and update us all!

 

[needcoffee]

I've been there all season. Tough meets are so hard, and it's not nice seeing your kid so unhappy. DD has one good apparatus, but the rest are so hit and miss, and she's never going to be an all arounder. Beam scores this year have ranged from 7.8 to 8.2, and she's fallen at every single meet.

Lots of hugs, reassurances that she is AMAZING and so BRAVE to even attempt these skills that 99% of the population couldn't do if their lives depended on it.

FWIW, my DD did the exact same thing with handstand on the beam at her 3d meet this season. She actually did know that she would take the deduction for the fall and lose the skill, but she thought she would fall again if she attempted a second one so she just didn't.

 

[munchkin3]

Mine fell twice on the squat on in one routine......7.5. Tears during the routine......breakdown, spazzing, hating gymnastics....etc.
Then.....perspective......I told her, 'well, is only up from here! You got that outta the way!' And of course ice cream, and XOXO...

 

[twinmomma]

Well, she did MUCH better but man the scores were brutal. Her floor last week was 8.8, this week 8.1, with NO major issues??? I know she gets tenthed to death on knees and such but 8.1? Really?
However, she stayed on the damned beam, and even though her score was also low there she was happy. She broke 8, but barely. Then she rocked vault with a 9.025 and got a really decent bar score of 8.7 but still ended up .125 shy of qualifying. She was happy, but she was also a little weepy about state. But mostly happy, so that's good. And we told her how proud she should be of herself for working so hard. What's difficult too is we are going up against teams where they do a lot of repeating at the 3 and 4 levels so it's been a bit of a culture shock I think for the kids.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Well, she did MUCH better but man the scores were brutal. Her floor last week was 8.8, this week 8.1, with NO major issues??? I know she gets tenthed to death on knees and such but 8.1? Really?
However, she stayed on the damned beam, and even though her score was also low there she was happy. She broke 8, but barely. Then she rocked vault with a 9.025 and got a really decent bar score of 8.7 but still ended up .125 shy of qualifying. She was happy, but she was also a little weepy about state. But mostly happy, so that's good. And we told her how proud she should be of herself for working so hard. What's difficult too is we are going up against teams where they do a lot of repeating at the 3 and 4 levels so it's been a bit of a culture shock I think for the kids.

Good for her! Thanks for the update! It really is all about perspective and celebrating the small victories. You must be in a really competitive area. I don't these scores are that bad! I pretty sure they're better than what 'ol Puma Jr will be getting this season-no matter what level they put her at. (Hoping to be wrong!!!) But it's sounds like she's improving and you're doing a great job supporting her!

 

[twinmomma]

Good for her! Thanks for the update! It really is all about perspective and celebrating the small victories. You must be in a really competitive area. I don't these scores are that bad! I pretty sure they're better than what 'ol Puma Jr will be getting this season-no matter what level they put her at. (Hoping to be wrong!!!) But it's sounds like she's improving and you're doing a great job supporting her!

We are, plus it was a meet in an even more competitive area, where girls at the top are getting 37s consistently.

 

[twinmomma]

Good for her! Thanks for the update! It really is all about perspective and celebrating the small victories. You must be in a really competitive area. I don't these scores are that bad! I pretty sure they're better than what 'ol Puma Jr will be getting this season-no matter what level they put her at. (Hoping to be wrong!!!) But it's sounds like she's improving and you're doing a great job supporting her!

What's your state qualifying score? It's 34 for L4 here.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

We are, plus it was a meet in an even more competitive area, where girls at the top are getting 37s consistently.

Wow...good and bad to being in competitive areas I guess! Puma Jr came in second AA once last year with a 33.3...seriously. But I think it will be a little different this year that she's back to JO and the new gym does bigger, more competitive meets. And (to answer your question) it's a 32! It's only 28 for Xcel, but many gyms have their own criteria.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

What's your state qualifying score? It's 34 for L4 here.

. Seems low compared to most of you guys!