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NGL780309
DD's team had their first meet this weekend. She didn't compete, but I so wanted to do a meet report for her team. Counting the days until that 6th birthday!
It was the first meet ever for all of these girls and they are level 4's. They started on bars and this is the event where I knew it was going to be pretty rough. We had a few girls that missed both their front hip circle and mill circle, thus a pretty low score. The rest did okay and made it through the routines, but not great scores (mid 7's to 8). The one girl who I expected to do really well, fell, but still had our highest score. 2 basically had never made it through a bar routine in their life and I really think they should have scratched bars, but I'm just a mom what do I know!
Beam I was expecting to go much better. The girls must have been really nervous because they made strange mistakes. Several actually forgot parts of their routine and turned to ask the coach what to do! It was surprising because they do so many beam routines. They just got flustered. One girl actually was so nervous she fell just standing up after her mount. In all we had some really low scores, but a 9.0 from one girl and a few mid 8's.
Floor could only get better right? It did. 2 girls required spots on their ROBHS so they got mid 7's. One girl made all her skills, but totally screwed up other parts. She actually did a tuck jump instead of a split jump at the beginning of the routine. She was one that also forgot her beam. I've seen this girl do floor with no problem. It was really strange. Then she got turned around on some other parts and went the wrong way. She got a mid 7. The rest were mid 8's and 2 low 9's.
Vault went okay. They were all in the 8-9 range.
Some of the girls were obviously really unprepared on bars, but for the most part they just made alot of mistakes because it was the first meet. I have to say that our coach did a very poor job of preparing them to compete. They had never practiced saluting before and after or what to do it they missed a skill. Some girls actually forgot to salute. All week I kept asking if they would have a practice meet during regular practice, but I didn't want to seem pushy. The girls could have really used that. Add that to the fact that their coaches weren't there (family emergency) and the L5/6 coach stayed with them. That had to bother them a little.
I also have to rant just a little and forgive me if you disagree. There were some teams competing that had girls scoring 9.6+ on every event. One team had two 9.95's! A 9.95 on the first meet of the season? What is there left to strive for? These gyms have all their girls do 2 years of L4. The first year they do achievement and the second year they do placement. We just do placement and move on. Our gym doesn't view L4 as a real level. It's an introduction to competition and not a place to spend several years. So in comparison our team looks horrible! Their achievement teams scored today about the same our girls scored. I know this has been discussed before and I'm not saying it's wrong to repeat level 4. I just think if you are scoring that high the first meet of the season it's a little crazy. You have obviously more than mastered level 4. The interesting things about these gyms is that they don't do well as optionals if they have many optionals at all. They will have some level 7's, maybe some 8's and rarely a 9. While DD's gym regularly has 5 L10, 6 L9 etc. I guess DD's gym just has a different philosophy. They have huge teams too. They had 30ish L4's each with their achievement and placement teams combined.
They have 2 weeks until their next meet so hopefully now the girls have some idea of where they need to work. Honestly the girls were all thrilled! They thought they did great. The two girls who really couldn't do bars joined the team in June and they just weren't ready on bars. One moved from another gym and the other moved from a Level 3 class because her mom raised a stink. Why move a girl up that obviously isn't ready in June, the end of June at that, when competition is so soon? She scored so low on bars they didn't even post it and the other got a 5! The others can all do bars, but they are hit or miss on the mill circle.
In all it was interesting. It gave me an idea where DD really needs to work if she ends up doing any L4 meets in the spring. I don't really care that she does. She needs lots of polish. I tried to picture what she would have scored if she had competed. I went in thinking she would have done really well, but then others made such unexpected mistakes I really can't say. Who knows how she'd react under the pressure. She's probably their strongest bar worker, but definitely the weakest vaulter.
Ok, thanks for reading! Can't wait to read other meet reports!
It was the first meet ever for all of these girls and they are level 4's. They started on bars and this is the event where I knew it was going to be pretty rough. We had a few girls that missed both their front hip circle and mill circle, thus a pretty low score. The rest did okay and made it through the routines, but not great scores (mid 7's to 8). The one girl who I expected to do really well, fell, but still had our highest score. 2 basically had never made it through a bar routine in their life and I really think they should have scratched bars, but I'm just a mom what do I know!
Beam I was expecting to go much better. The girls must have been really nervous because they made strange mistakes. Several actually forgot parts of their routine and turned to ask the coach what to do! It was surprising because they do so many beam routines. They just got flustered. One girl actually was so nervous she fell just standing up after her mount. In all we had some really low scores, but a 9.0 from one girl and a few mid 8's.
Floor could only get better right? It did. 2 girls required spots on their ROBHS so they got mid 7's. One girl made all her skills, but totally screwed up other parts. She actually did a tuck jump instead of a split jump at the beginning of the routine. She was one that also forgot her beam. I've seen this girl do floor with no problem. It was really strange. Then she got turned around on some other parts and went the wrong way. She got a mid 7. The rest were mid 8's and 2 low 9's.
Vault went okay. They were all in the 8-9 range.
Some of the girls were obviously really unprepared on bars, but for the most part they just made alot of mistakes because it was the first meet. I have to say that our coach did a very poor job of preparing them to compete. They had never practiced saluting before and after or what to do it they missed a skill. Some girls actually forgot to salute. All week I kept asking if they would have a practice meet during regular practice, but I didn't want to seem pushy. The girls could have really used that. Add that to the fact that their coaches weren't there (family emergency) and the L5/6 coach stayed with them. That had to bother them a little.
I also have to rant just a little and forgive me if you disagree. There were some teams competing that had girls scoring 9.6+ on every event. One team had two 9.95's! A 9.95 on the first meet of the season? What is there left to strive for? These gyms have all their girls do 2 years of L4. The first year they do achievement and the second year they do placement. We just do placement and move on. Our gym doesn't view L4 as a real level. It's an introduction to competition and not a place to spend several years. So in comparison our team looks horrible! Their achievement teams scored today about the same our girls scored. I know this has been discussed before and I'm not saying it's wrong to repeat level 4. I just think if you are scoring that high the first meet of the season it's a little crazy. You have obviously more than mastered level 4. The interesting things about these gyms is that they don't do well as optionals if they have many optionals at all. They will have some level 7's, maybe some 8's and rarely a 9. While DD's gym regularly has 5 L10, 6 L9 etc. I guess DD's gym just has a different philosophy. They have huge teams too. They had 30ish L4's each with their achievement and placement teams combined.
They have 2 weeks until their next meet so hopefully now the girls have some idea of where they need to work. Honestly the girls were all thrilled! They thought they did great. The two girls who really couldn't do bars joined the team in June and they just weren't ready on bars. One moved from another gym and the other moved from a Level 3 class because her mom raised a stink. Why move a girl up that obviously isn't ready in June, the end of June at that, when competition is so soon? She scored so low on bars they didn't even post it and the other got a 5! The others can all do bars, but they are hit or miss on the mill circle.
In all it was interesting. It gave me an idea where DD really needs to work if she ends up doing any L4 meets in the spring. I don't really care that she does. She needs lots of polish. I tried to picture what she would have scored if she had competed. I went in thinking she would have done really well, but then others made such unexpected mistakes I really can't say. Who knows how she'd react under the pressure. She's probably their strongest bar worker, but definitely the weakest vaulter.
Ok, thanks for reading! Can't wait to read other meet reports!
First level 4 meets...especially for young 6 and 7 year olds...are always interesting to watch and full of surprises!
