Parents Baby Bog meet report....long...very long!

[bogwoppit]

I will begin by saying I am so incredibly proud of Baby Bog, when things didn't go right she stayed strong, didn't cry and was a great friend to team mates who were having a hard time keeping their game face on.

It has been an interesting year, to explain, our club has never trained full time, our coaches have families and take the summer, xmas and holidays off. So our girls train from Sept to May with a month off at xmas and some other breaks during the year, we will have all next week off as it is MArch break. SO you see what kind of club we are. Before 2008 we competed in a school league that was full of clubs like ours, small rural gyms who trained limited hours.

Last year the federation realised that it could make a ton of cash if it forced gyms like ours into their system, so they created a Circuit Regional which would encompass all gyms in Quebec and therefore we would compete with all gyms regardless of their style. SO now we are up against the clubs with development programmes from the age of 4 and clubs who train routines from August and who compete many times a year. This is proving to be very difficult.

In Bigger Bogs group there are only 4 gilrs in our region, piece of cake, she will get to provincials, but in Baby Bogs group the field is very deep and tough. Though she does compete against girls from other regions as that is how the clubs make the money from meets.

SO after all that here is the meet. BB scores out of 14 on most things, she has all the difficulty she should have and therefore the deductions are all for form or technique.

Beam - she did okay here but the judge was so tough at this meet we couldn't work out what she was looking for but it wasn't what our girls were bringing. BB did great until the CW and fell off, it was clear she couldn't land it She got a 9.35. OMG never saw a score that low for her even with two falls! One of her team mates, who usually wins beam, did a lovely routine with no falls and scored 9.25, her Mom just said "what did she do wrong?", I couldn't even find an answer.

Floor, she did a nice routine, bent her arms on her HS forward roll and curved out on her 3 acro line, but pretty much what she always does. She got a 10.8! Almost funny, she usually scores about 12.2 and so she was not happy, but sucked it up and moved on.

Tramp, nice routine we never saw the scores, no place though.

Vaults - first looked okay , certainly not her strong point. No score. Second she missed the end of the board and splatted on the vault, ouch. I could tell she was upset but she sucked it up.

Bars, her fav thing, she did a nice routine but fell on her squat on and took a step after her flyaway, she got a 9.35, another zinger of a score.

Needless to say she didn't place on anything and only one of our 7 girls placed on anything and that was a 7th place ribbon on tramp. They didn't perform less well than usual but it is clear what the judges where looking for and we don't have it.

Two clubs took all the awards and of course those two clubs are strong with huge programmes and National level gymnasts. The parents were all confused and kept coming up and sking why the scores were so low and what was wrong.

Our girls do three meets and hope to qualify to the CR provincials, but it looks like no one will be going and that is a first. In CR the top 3 AA go to provincials and the top 3 on each apparatus go individually. Not looking good.

SO a very tough meet for BB and our gym, not sure how I feel about this, but it is what it is. Baby Bog is still feeling fine about the whole thing. I reminded her in the car, over a very yummy oreo McFlurry, that on Monday morning she would still be the same person regardless of whether she won or not and we just move on from there. Bigger Bog had made cookies for her whilst we were out and so we spent a nice evening on the sofa not worrying about gym.

If you made it this far I am impressed, thanks for listening to my mental dialogue.

 

[Granny Smith]

Poor BB, what a tough one to have to endure! She does sound like a trooper to make it through that low scoring meet. I hope the cookies and McFlurry helped - would definitely help me!

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

Awwww, how tough for the kids ( and parents). Sorry it was a tough day - scoring wise for BBB. You must be so proud of how she held it together. I know that even here it is tough when the girls perform at their usual level and scores are lower.

Seems to me that the new schedule just puts gyms like yours at a disadvantage. I hope in the end it does not discourage BBB from the sport she loves.

BTW - I told GT you said 'hi'

 

[MdGymMom01]

Awww that has got to be so tough for Baby Bog . It can be so frustrating when the kids really do their best but the scores and places don't reflect it. I can feel for you somewhat because in the MDL there are so many new gymnasts this year (a lot of them are USAG who are doing the MDL meets for "experience"). Their scores are blowing the MDLers scores away because they train so many more hours than us. Our coach is upping our hours starting in March to 10 a week so that we can be competitive with them. It kinda sucks that we have to do that but what can you do ya know???

I love BB's attitude--she is such a trooper! And she has a great supportive older sis!! You taught them well Bog!!!

 

[taximom]

Please tell Baby Bog I am proud of her too! They sure learn some tough life lessons in this sport! I'm also proud of Bigger Bog for being a great sister and making the cookies.

Something similar happened here in Ontario a few years back. We used to have regions and the top finishers from each region went on to provincials. The Toronto and area clubs felt they were disadvantaged because they had stronger athletes who weren't able to make Provincials than the more rural areas. So now we compete province wide all season. As a Mom it can be hard to watch your child compete against the strong clubs with national coaches and programs but it is what it is. Our club has 1 set of unevens, no tumble track or pit bar and is about 5000 square feet in total. Our coaches work really hard at preparing the girls and coping with our facility limitations. I hope BB isn't too discouraged and still has a great time at practice!

 

[bogwoppit]

Please tell Baby Bog I am proud of her too! They sure learn some tough life lessons in this sport! I'm also proud of Bigger Bog for being a great sister and making the cookies.

Something similar happened here in Ontario a few years back. We used to have regions and the top finishers from each region went on to provincials. The Toronto and area clubs felt they were disadvantaged because they had stronger athletes who weren't able to make Provincials than the more rural areas. So now we compete province wide all season. As a Mom it can be hard to watch your child compete against the strong clubs with national coaches and programs but it is what it is. Our club has 1 set of unevens, no tumble track or pit bar and is about 5000 square feet in total. Our coaches work really hard at preparing the girls and coping with our facility limitations. I hope BB isn't too discouraged and still has a great time at practice!

THanks, Baby Bog is a trooper and it won't hold her back. I know that on paper the federations think they are evening out the playing filed, but small clubs just cannot offer what the bigger clubs do with less space and limited equipment and coaching.

In Baby Bogs training group there are 10 girls aged from 8 -14. They compete at 4 different levels and under two different sets of rules. The coach is great with this, but it is just not an easy thing to manage. There is no solution and BB will continue in gym as long as she is having fun, I guess it is good that they only do three comps or I think they would give up with frustration. It is very hard on the coaches, they do their very best and at the end of the day it is the gymnasts and parents who look to them for answers they don't have.

 

[Ingwe]

Awww, I am so sorry that is was such a tough meet WTG to her on her great attitude!!!!! McFlurries and cookies always bring a smile to a face

 

[mariposa]

That just is so unfair. It is too bad you guys can't somehow start something like the MDL or AAU or something. Way to go to Baby Bog for handling it so well, must be that awesome parenting she gets. And what a sweet older sister to make her cookies!

 

[UnoMas]

I'm sorry, too. Sounds like your pep talk over the McFlurry was just the thing!!!!! I hate that it had to happen that way for her, though, and for your gym.

 

[ZJsMom]

I'm glad she was able to keep her head up. It makes me sad to think of those girls being subjected to that. It just sounds like there's no way they should be competing against those bigger clubs.

 

[canadiangymmom]

Wow, What a tough meet, when the scores don't line up with the quality of the routine. That has to be discouraging for baby bog. Congratulations to her for having a good attitude about the whole thing, and being mature enough to enjoy gym for the sake of gym, rather than the scores.

Any vids to follow??

 

[bogwoppit]

I will post some of the vids tomorrow, bad quality as I was sitting so far away. I have beam,floor and bars of Baby bog and bars and tramp of Bigger Bog, shame as her beam was lovely! Good thing I missed vault though!

 

[sportyfam5]

Bummer! It sounds like she has learned to pay attention more to her performance and not her scores. I can imagine that after your frustration, your sense of pride over how she reacted kicked in.

 

[bogwoppit]

Oh as I said on the first line of my post, I am so proud of her for all that she is capable of. But more than anything I am proud of the way she deals with adversity. When those around are melting down, she is moving on and comforting her team mates.

 

[cathiann]

What a tough meet! Stinks that your club is forced to compete against much bigger clubs like that--when they don't want to.

 

[NOG]

wow! what a rough meet for bb! Not sure what to say (still not understanding the whole Candadian format - just barely have a handle on the usag, lol), besides what a strong young lady you have there and how very proud you must be of her.

 

[gymnut1]

How tought for all the girls. It is so difficult to be up against those 'hours' and 'facilities' rather than their 'talent'. You don't get a fair shot. At one point our region tried to split girls doing more hours from girls doing less hours. But guess what? Some of the clubs doing more hours still competed in the 'less' hours category by declaring their girls were doing only 5 hours gymnastics but 10 hours of conditioning and ballet! So it didn't work anyway and was abandoned.

Doesn't it make you go GRRRRR!
Well done to both the girls. They are real troopers! How is baby bogs kip these days. My dd has hers about 1 in 3 sessions now. Regular but not reliable and sometimes the low bar one and sometimes the high bar one. She does 9 1/2 hours too - probably not enough to make it stick yet.

 

[bogwoppit]

Gymnut, they have tried many things here, this was is the craziest. One of the gyms we now compete against has national level gymnasts, starts all their team girls on preteam at 4 and only the best get to compete. My girls trained there for a few weeks one summer and I know for sure that the girls she is competing aginst right now were there then and have skills way above the level they are competing and have had the skills for years. The gym holds the girls back to win. They do the same x number of hours doing gym and then there is dance, choreography and muscu. Meanwhile our girls barely do 8 hours and they compete the level that fits their skills set. No dance lessons etc. It is too bad as they should be able to feel sucessful, but right now it won't happen.

The kip comes and goes like the wind, but as her hours are limited she only works it once a week or so. I imagine when the last comp is over in April they will uptrain until May when they stop for the summer!! Baby Bog wants to go into the Provincial stream next year, which will be tougher and against girls who train up to 20 hours a week. I won't mind as long as her attitude and ability to deal with the challenge is good.

THe coring here is very tough and after two meets I am very confused, I understand the system completely and it is clear the judges are mixed up as well. comparing videos the difference in scores is crazy. Hopefully people complain enough that the federation reexamines the system

 

[Shelovesthebars]

Situations like this can just suck the joy right out of doing gymnastics. I think it is fantastic that your gym closes in the summer and over Christmas to let families be together and enjoy life. It sounds like Baby Bog has a good head on her shoulders! Well done, Mom.