Parents Another level 5 State meet report! Long, rambling.

[UnoMas]

Well, the season is almost over! Older DD had her state meet on Sunday. She has had a really rough couple of weeks in gym for various reasons, and was healing up a gigantic rip on her hand all week ...but it was mostly better in time for the meet. She has struggled a lot on vault all season (never getting out of the 7's). So one of her goals was to hit an 8.0 on vault...and to improve her AA score.

The meet took place in a big steel building in the middle of a hailstorm! So that was quite interesting. I felt really sorry for the girls who were on beam when it was really loud.

Beam was first...which made me VERY nervous but DD later said she likes beam first. She has had mental blocks with falling off on the cartwheel all season. I was shaking as I videotaped it. Well, she had a couple pretty big wobbles but she stuck that cartwheel, did a good HS and a very nice dismount. Score 9.0 and 6th place, I think (not sure).

Next was floor. Floor is a good event for DD except she cannot get a pretty BHS. She did a good routine, got off the music in one spot and her BHS was ok (better than it was). It must have been pretty good because she got a 8.875 which is up from the last meet! She did place on floor...yay...8th I think (not sure again!)

Next.........vault. She looked absolutely awful in warmups. I mean scary awful!!! Like almost grazing her head on the table awful. I was not hopeful for a better vault score. I almost didn't video it. I am glad I did because she did something different...not sure what... but I could tell it was different. At least I hoped. Sure enough, after a LONG wait the score came up 8.225 and I swear you have never heard a mama scream so loud for an 8.225 score. She was SO happy and proud of herself. If you watch the video, let me know if you think vault 1 or 2 was better. I'm not sure. I hate the L5 vault!

Last was bars which is her favorite and usually best event. She did a good routine, her high bar cast was not as high as she can do it, but kips were pretty and tap swings seemed good. She needed a 8.9 to break a 35AA for the first time all season. Scores were backed up really bad on bars and we had to wait a long time but it came up 9.075!!! 5th place!

AA was 35.175, first 35AA in L5 and up from 34.475 at the last meet. That's a great improvement! She placed 6th AA which we are very happy with.

I have videos up...my video software has a bug in it so I had to do the individual events. Not as cool and fun but they are there. I'm proud though that I got all 4. I wanted to do that because she will be repeating L5 ...so I look forward to hopefully seeing a big improvement next year. It's going to be hard on her repeating...many of her friends started training L6 last night at practice, and as happy as she was on Sunday night, she was sad seeing her friends move up without her last night. She was teary and said "I want to be a level 6 too".

Does anyone have any ideas for keeping a "repeater" motivated? She's got all the skills obviously, needs polish and perfection I guess (well, vault needs a decent amount of work as does the BHS)...but it's a long 6-7 months until the season starts back up. I worry about her getting frustrated/bored. Any suggestions are welcome! (and the gym does not uptrain hardly at all so we cannot take comfort in learning new skills).

Thanks all for reading my novel. One more to come next week after younger DD does her L4 state meet!

Channel link is in my signature...

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Way to go!! She was able to meet all her goals!! CONGRATS!!! My DD was never been able to break a 35 her whole level 5 season. Luckily our gym does not base moving up on scores. As long as you have the next level skills consistently you can usually move up. Congrats to your older DD!! There are a couple of girls on our team that have stayed level 5 for more than 1 season and I think the payoff is when meet season rolls around she will definatly have podium time!! She will also be a role model for the girls that are moving up to level 5. They will look up to her.

 

[UnoMas]

Way to go!! She was able to meet all her goals!! CONGRATS!!! My DD was never been able to break a 35 her whole level 5 season. Luckily our gym does not base moving up on scores. As long as you have the next level skills consistently you can usually move up. Congrats to your older DD!! There are a couple of girls on our team that have stayed level 5 for more than 1 season and I think the payoff is when meet season rolls around she will definatly have podium time!! She will also be a role model for the girls that are moving up to level 5. They will look up to her.

Thanks, AGM. Yes, she was able to meet all her goals! I forgot to include that in my ridiculously long post! She met every single one of them...and she was so proud of herself. She really earned those improvements, she really did. I hope you are right that she will have podium time next season, and I HOPE she can be a good role model and not a crabby one...she is 10 and already having a few mood swings.

 

[GymnastJoy]

Congratulations on a great state meet!

She must feel so proud to acheive all her goals. My own L5 dd only made it out of the 8s in vault once all season as well.

No advice on motivating when repeating a level. My own dd will likely repeat L5 next year. Our gym decides individually and HC, dd, and I all feel that even though she can likely get all the L6 skills in time to compete, her L5 routines have a lot of room for improvement. My dd is on board with the decision and is already uptraining which makes things all OK.

Do you mind if I ask why your dd is repeating? I may be naive and not a competitive person, but I think her 35+ AA at states, no less, is great. And that she placed in several events including AA means that she is performing at the top of her age group already. Is this not enough to uptrain to try and move up?

 

[Dezi]

Congrats to your dd!! I love when they set their own goals and make them, they are so proud. I cannot help with advice about motivation at our gym you automatically start uptraining to see if you get the skills for the next level, they decide a month before meet season starts and then begin doing routines.

 

[lhmom]

How wonderful for her to meet her goals at the State meet! Congrats to her and I hope she enjoys her time "off". At my DD's gym, they've gotten to do a lot of uptraining even though my daughter (and several of her teammates) will have another year at level 4. They've been having a blast! Good luck to your other DD-keeping fingers crossed for that mill circle.

 

[UnoMas]

Congratulations on a great state meet!

Do you mind if I ask why your dd is repeating? I may be naive and not a competitive person, but I think her 35+ AA at states, no less, is great. And that she placed in several events including AA means that she is performing at the top of her age group already. Is this not enough to uptrain to try and move up?

Well, thank you for the very nice words, and yes, I think it is enough. I am SUPER SUPER proud of her for the improvements she made at the end of the season. But the gym does not think it is enough. We have a pretty strict 36AA move up policy. Unfortunately, not a lot of uptraining is done...so DD will be doing L5 routines and L5 skills for awhile. Like I said she does need work on vault and BHS, and there is always room for improvement on good beam and bars routines. I very much hope that she can stay motivated and have a great 2nd L5 season. She has never ever been a top 3 all arounder type gymnast, so my hope for her is that she may see some good placements next year. But, you never know whether that extra year will be good or bad. I have seen it go both ways at our gym unfortunately.

 

[MaryA]

Very nice! Congrats to your DD! 36 sounds like a pretty high move-up score, even for a gym that does lots of uptraining, and awfully harsh for a gym that does very little. Someone who can get a 35+ at States is pretty darn solid in the skills to be working on those skills (and only those skills) for another year! Well, if she can get through the "off season" (as if there's really an off season in gymnastics!) maybe once the meets start she'll start raking in the trophies and all will be right with the world. Regardless, I hope she feels really good about how well she did at States!

 

[mtbmom]

congrats on reaching new goals. Be glad you're in a gym that cares about the gymnasts. It is good to keep her at 5 until she is more solid and can feel comfortable learning those very tough level 6 skills.

To keep her motivated, I would just remind her the importance of having a good base for level 6 and it will make her a better gymnast to stay back now and work some of the kinks out. She looks really good, but a little shaky. Looks like she's physically able, but lacks confidence this repeat year will do her a world of good. I know it did my DD a world of good to repeat level 5 and she is very ready for level 6 now. Such a difference this year has made for her. Remind her that gymnastics is not like school and that everyone moves at their own pace. She will get there and when she does she'll be ready. Moving to level 6 when she is not ready will just create major fears and it is so hard to undo that (I'm speaking from my daughter's experience - it has taken so much to work through the fears of moving her up before she was ready).

Tell your daughter congrats for me, she looked really good on the video (even with Momma's shaking LOL!).

Good luck on her amazing level 5 season coming up.

 

[Galadriel]

She looked great! Well done to her

 

[cathiann]

Congrats to her on an awesome State meet!! Bummer that your gym doesn't do any uptraining--that's what I was thinking would keep her motivated--especially between meet seasons.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

Congrats on a great State meet! I know every gym is different but I do not understand your gyms philosphy. An aa at states of a 35 is a really good score. It sounds to me like your gym is more concerned with a winning team. I do not understand the no uptraining and understand your concern about your daughter being bored. Maybe you should discuss it with your coaches. I am grateful that daughters gym does not require a specific moveup score other that USAG mobility scores they uptrain all the time especailly in the summer and then decide what level they should be in. Just because a gym does alot of uptraining does not mean they are not getting a good foundation with basic skills, my daughter tells me they spend alot of time during practice doing basic tumbling skills in addition to routines and uptraining.

 

[LMV]

Congratulations to your daughter! It is always great when they set their own goals and then meet them.

I don't have any great repeating L5 advice. I do wonder if perhaps your gym does uptrain and just doesn't call it that? At our daughter's gym they do a lot with conditioning and strength training cycles and they do a lot of progressive work [which I guess eventually leads to new skills by building towards them] and new skills just seem to come without really specifically uptraining if that makes sense [and it may not because I'm not explaining it well].