Women Changing JO Optional season to the fall

[josie55]

I know there are various reasons in general to move JO optionals to the fall, but I’m thinking now might be just the time to do it. Regardless of how this thing plays out, it will likely take the athletes some time to get their skills back, and maybe it would be safer to have the next season start in August 2021 instead of December 2020.
Realize it would be a long time to go without competing but maybe there could be some fun practice meets in the spring to tide people over. Thoughts? Do JO and elite have to overlap or would it work okay to separate them?

 

[GymParent]

I can see both pros and cons, however the older girls may have issue with moving it. I have a sophomore hoping to be a first year level 10 this next season and is hoping to make a college team. Moving it to fall 2021 would only give her one year. Any current juniors would be done with meets if it were to move to fall 2021.

 

[Carabistouille]

What would be the benefits of moving the competitive season to the fall ? Except in this very specific situation I mean.
I'm curious because we have meet season in spring in my country, with no intention of moving it to fall, and I can't see the potential benefits of moving it.

To me, it's rather nice that the competitive season more or less ends with the school year, so that a gymnast who wants to move on because she graduated / is busy with school / is done can end her competitive career at the end of the school year. I feel it creates a nice sens of closure. At least in my country, the beginning of the school year is the perfect moment to start up new activities / explore news horizons, which would be hard if meet season was in the fall.

Also, I feel that having meet season during spring allows gymnasts who want to have vacations during summer to so, which would be much harder if meet season was coming right ahead.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

What would be the benefits of moving the competitive season to the fall ? Except in this very specific situation I mean.
I'm curious because we have meet season in spring in my country, with no intention of moving it to fall, and I can't see the potential benefits of moving it.

To me, it's rather nice that the competitive season more or less ends with the school year, so that a gymnast who wants to move on because she graduated / is busy with school / is done can end her competitive career at the end of the school year. I feel it creates a nice sens of closure. At least in my country, the beginning of the school year is the perfect moment to start up new activities / explore news horizons, which would be hard if meet season was in the fall.

Also, I feel that having meet season during spring allows gymnasts who want to have vacations during summer to so, which would be much harder if meet season was coming right ahead.

I was also wondering what the benefit to moving the season would be. Summer training would be kind of boring working routines instead of upgrades. It would also be a long time for seniors competing in college to go without a competition.

 

[josie55]

Here are the benefits I could think of:
- nationals wouldn’t conflict with AP testing
- end of season meets wouldn’t conflict with proms and other high school things
- wouldn’t be during flu season

There may be others. I feel like the idea gets bantered about periodically.

But agree it would be bad for those who would miss out on their final year of competition. Hadn’t thought is that and it’s a big downside. For those hoping to be recruited, alternatives could be put into place I would think.

 

[Tigtimes]

My bigger concern is if we will even have a gym to go back to ........

 

[NutterButter]

I've thought of this before. There would be many benefits of moving the competition season to fall. Plus it would give some an opportunity to do high school sports like HS gymnastics or track. The JO season REALLY interferes with the AP/IB testing season. You have to decide in the fall which tests to sit for and pay up, all the while not knowing if your kid will still be competing in the post-season.

Apart from that, what I've been wondering about is what the upcoming season will look like. What will L9, L10 and NCAA look like when everyone has not been able to train for months. Many will bounce right back and pick up where they left off. But many (maybe even the majority?) will come back and struggle both physically and mentally. Some will come back after going through growth spurts and find they have a totally different body. Will routines in the upcoming year that have less difficulty and bonus? Will routines that are not 'up to level' become the norm next year as kids work on coming back. I kinda think about it like the entire sport, all athletes, have suffered a potentially career- ending injury. The sport will have to adapt to this.

And that doesn't address the gym issue and the fact that not all will survive a long term closure.

 

[tomtnt]

I hate to even mention politics, but it sounds like our President would like to end this lockdown by Easter, at least for most of the country except for specific epicenters. I suspect we will end up with a situation where most gyms will be open again except the ones in CA,NJ,NY,WA

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

I hate to even mention politics, but it sounds like our President would like to end this lockdown by Easter, at least for most of the country except for specific epicenters. I suspect we will end up with a situation where most gyms will be open again except the ones in CA,NJ,NY,WA

I actually suspect that in 3 weeks' time there will be a lot of places added to that list of epicenters. I think Florida and Texas are going to be in a bad way unless hot, humid weather really does slow it down, in which case that will help us tons. It's already getting swampy here. I'm sure there are more.

 

[sfts]

Hmm, one challenge of having it in fall seems to come from counting backwards... If Nationals is in May now, Regionals in April, States in March, counting back from mid-December, States would need to fall in October. You need to give some time to qualify for states and compete in general, so you'd have competitions starting in August, during summer vacation, to make it work.

My state has all levels compete states in the spring with invitational competitions starting Oct/Nov. I know there are states with fall compulsory seasons, but since those end at state level competitions, there is time for more of an invitational season the fall before a December state meet.

 

[gymgal]

Hmm, one challenge of having it in fall seems to come from counting backwards... If Nationals is in May now, Regionals in April, States in March, counting back from mid-December, States would need to fall in October. You need to give some time to qualify for states and compete in general, so you'd have competitions starting in August, during summer vacation, to make it work.

My state has all levels compete states in the spring with invitational competitions starting Oct/Nov. I know there are states with fall compulsory seasons, but since those end at state level competitions, there is time for more of an invitational season the fall before a December state meet.

I am not a fan of a fall optional timeframe and this is the first I have heard of this proposition but in terms of above, nothing stops them from starting in sep/oct and going through the new year until maybe feb/march.

This would really mess with high school gymnastics though.

 

[raenndrops]

I am not a fan of a fall optional timeframe and this is the first I have heard of this proposition but in terms of above, nothing stops them from starting in sep/oct and going through the new year until maybe feb/march.

This would really mess with high school gymnastics though.

In Ohio, our girls have to choose between competing HS gymnastics or club gymnastics. Luckily, the YMCA starts their season end of Oct / beginning of November. The girls can compete for their club (or YMCA) right up until they compete their first high school meet and then can't compete club again until after their last HS meet ... early March. Our Y Championship meet is SUPPOSED to be mid-March, so our HS gymnasts competed 3 meets for the Y and then competed their entire HS season. They were getting ready for Championships when the shutdown happened (Literally - we had a decorating party for the meet on a Wednesday night ... 90 minutes after it was over, HC was notified that the meet was cancelled. We had practice Thursday evening. And that next Monday, we were told no more practices until further notice. Now we have a "Stay at Home" Order from our governor at least until April 6.

I think moving optionals to a fall season that has to start competing before the end of September would be craziness, but an extended season like the YMCA does (October - early March regular season and then post season mid-March to late April/early May ... but working around testing etc) would be fine with me, lol.

 

[mommyof1]

I hate to even mention politics, but it sounds like our President would like to end this lockdown by Easter, at least for most of the country except for specific epicenters. I suspect we will end up with a situation where most gyms will be open again except the ones in CA,NJ,NY,WA

It looks like governors, and to a lesser degree mayors, are going to be the ones determining the lengths of closures. We are not in one of those states, but our governor has already shut down gyms and schools way past Easter.

 

[LJL07]

I hate to even mention politics, but it sounds like our President would like to end this lockdown by Easter, at least for most of the country except for specific epicenters. I suspect we will end up with a situation where most gyms will be open again except the ones in CA,NJ,NY,WA

Our state I think has the highest per capital rate of cases in the nation, so I don't think we will be reopening either by Easter sadly.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Our governer refuses to do anything, and our city/county officials just put out an order with NO teeth. Almost every business that is willing to risk it has found some kind of loophole to justify staying open. So...we'll see what that looks like in 3 weeks.

 

[wolf_turn_on_uneven_bars]

While I’ve never thought about this idea, on the surface I don’t like the thought of moving meet season to the Fall. Kids are entering a new school year and need to settle into that. School comes first. That’s my immediate thought.