Parents "A" Team and "B" Team at same gym

[Deleted member 14190]

I was just curious if anyone else's gym does this and why the practice might be helpful from a coach's perspective. Dd attends a large gym and they break kids into two different ability-based groups that train together and then compete together. So it ends up with one rotation's worth of girls bringing in the high scores, and the other ones not so much. DD doesn't seem bothered by it. She's been in the "higher" scoring group for most of the time, but it didn't bother her even when her coach had her in the "lower" training group last year (she moved up to the other one when she was getting higher scores at meets). She was just happy to be in the gym doing gymnastics. It seems to bother the parents at the gym a lot, however, and sets off the crazier ones as their kids move up to higher levels and might move to the "B" team when last year they were on the "A" team. It has seriously been toxic in the waiting area as the moms grouse about how unfair it is that their gymnast is not being treated with the preferential treatment (more attentive coaching, more perceived opportunities to uptrain) that they were treated with in lower levels. So my question is, why don't the coaches place girls in mixed-ability groups, at least for the competitions? It seems like this set-up makes parents crazier than they would be otherwise...

The reality is that the kids are not just placed in a group, and the kids don't magically do better being in the other group. And kids don't just advamce quicker because they are in the A group. And a "B" kid may actually do worse in the "A" group. Why? Because the kids in the A group advance naturally quicker, that is why they are in there. And the B group kids need more time spent on basics etc.... if a B kid is taken too fast they fail. now if done correctly some B kids will beat the A kids, this does not mean they should be in the A group, this means they were put in the correct group to get the most out of them(mission accomplished). However the parents almost never agree with this, but that is why they are not the coach.

 

[MomIdidit!]

Thank you Assie coach.....this is an awesome post!!