Coaches A Coach's Rant

[PalmTree]

My gym's Xcel Team had a meet last weekend, and I didn't hear about the details until today. I am fuming after what I heard!!

I am the JO head coach and gym director but we have other coaches who lead the Xcel team, so I wasn't at the meet. The details I gathered were from my Xcel head coach.

The meet directors and gym owners at this gym were quite rude from the beginning. They charged a huge entry fee, had a crappy gym, no prizes, only ribbons for awards (including Platinum division and AA), and worst of all, MADE MY KIDS FEEL BAD. Their cd player would not work. At all. My Xcel Coach does not have a smartphone and had the floor music on cds that their player couldn't play. The owner's response? "We no longer have to provide a cd player, so it's your fault your kids are going to get last place. Hurry up and have them scratch, because we have to keep moving. It won't affect their all-around scores anyway." I checked the rules, and indeed they do not have to provide a cd player. But the way it was handled absolutely appalls me. This was said in front of the kids!! Bronze girls who are 5 years old up to Platinum level teenagers! To tell them that they should just scratch because it "won't affect their all-around"??? As in, they are so bad that they'll get last anyway? I came to the gym tonight to see an entire Xcel team that felt defeated and useless. I had a five year old come up to me and ask why the judges at the meet didn't like our team. What do you say to a five year old who heard this whole thing?!! (In the end, all the girls competed without music and lost a full point because of it).

Our team was first to go up on beam, and the scores were two points lower than all the other meets. My Xcel Coach did an inquiry, and what came back was ridiculous. "Didn't have enough B skills" on a BRONZE routine!! "Handstand wasn't held two seconds" on a SILVER beam routine. She contacted the meet director immediately to express her concerns, only to be belittled and told that she didn't know how to coach. (meet director was same person who was rude about the music, so go figure). After the meet, the beam judge found my Xcel Coach and apologized. She said she forgot she was judging Xcel (???).

I am just angry that this happens at a low level Xcel meet!! It's not the freaking Xcel Olympics! Why do people have to be so mean? We are a new gym just starting out, and many of our girls (both JO and Xcel) won State Championships last season (our first season) and have done very well up to this meet. My coaches know how to coach. This gym owner/meet director has always been rude to me at meets as well, and I can't figure out why.

The only thing I can do is tell myself that we will never again go to one of their meets or support their program. Isn't gymnastics, especially Xcel gymnastics, supposed to be a celebration of children and individuality and the fun of the sport of gymnastics? How can anyone, especially a gym owner, belittle BOTH children and adults and think it's okay??

I am completely disillusioned right now. I feel like the whole state is like this. Super competitive and MEAN about it. And I should add that I know all this was technically hearsay since I wasn't there, but I heard it from my coaches, parents, and gymnasts. I thought about sending an email to the gym owners about how upset they made my kids, but the owner regularly judges every meet in our area, and although I'm sure she wouldn't score my kids lower because of a complaint…why take the risk? This is, after all, the XCEL OLYMPICS!!!

 

[raenndrops]

If they do not have a CD player, I thought the rules said they had to let you know in the pre-meet paperwork the type of music they could play.
I hope the beam judge went back and fixed all of their beam scores - she made the mistake and ended up admitting it, she should have fixed it if she didn't.
I definitely agree that you should not go to meets at this gym again. You also need to find a way to raise the spirits of your Xcel girls. Would it be possible to hold an Xcel Mock Meet and have that Beam Judge come judge it? At our gym, we have extra old trophies around from when people had scratched at a district Championships meet... they were participation trophies. The coach has been known to have new face plates done and present them for different things. She also made her own "gold medals" one year... cheap - spray painted gold onto wooden medal blanks.
You could also do something like this (since its just a mock meet)
Link Removed

Sorry they had such a rough meet. If you do do the Mock Meet, you could call the "Xcel Olympics Mock Meet Championships of the World"

 

[PalmTree]

If they do not have a CD player, I thought the rules said they had to let you know in the pre-meet paperwork the type of music they could play.
I hope the beam judge went back and fixed all of their beam scores - she made the mistake and ended up admitting it, she should have fixed it if she didn't.
I definitely agree that you should not go to meets at this gym again. You also need to find a way to raise the spirits of your Xcel girls. Would it be possible to hold an Xcel Mock Meet and have that Beam Judge come judge it? At our gym, we have extra old trophies around from when people had scratched at a district Championships meet... they were participation trophies. The coach has been known to have new face plates done and present them for different things. She also made her own "gold medals" one year... cheap - spray painted gold onto wooden medal blanks.
You could also do something like this (since its just a mock meet)
Link Removed

Sorry they had such a rough meet. If you do do the Mock Meet, you could call the "Xcel Olympics Mock Meet Championships of the World"

That's a good idea! I think we might just do that as a fun way to perk them up before the State Meet. And thanks for the laugh in the meet name, ("Xcel Olympics Mock Meet Championships of the World") I needed that!!

 

[raenndrops]

That's a good idea! I think we might just do that as a fun way to perk them up before the State Meet. And thanks for the laugh in the meet name, ("Xcel Olympics Mock Meet Championships of the World") I needed that!!

Anytime. Good luck the rest of the season and at States