MAG Competing Consecutive Weekends

[USA_2024]

Hello all,

What are peoples thoughts on competing on consecutive weekends for either compulsory or optionals. What about competing 3 or more weekends in a row?

My basic philosophy (experience) is competing on consecutive weekends should be avoided and limited to local meets. The gymnasts do not have time to recover either mentally or physically as well as complete. They have school, projects, etc. I have never come out of a second weekend where either the gymnast and family were saying wow I am sure glad we did that meet. Everyone is tired and the next week of practice is off. 3 weekends in row is simply irresponsible, especially is a meet requires travel. The kids have lost skills, strength, and have repetitive stress injuries. Travel meets should not be scheduled on consecutive weekends. I would like USAG to provide guidance to prevent repetitive stress injuries.

In college, consecutive meets are more manageable because the kids life is smaller with there world confined to campus and school arranging travel. Hours are more limited that for JO/JE athletes and the kids don't have the long commutes as some JO's/JE's do.

So what are your thought? What has been your experience?

 

[skschlag]

We have done back to back weekends every year my son has competed. Never really thought of it as bad or good. Last year was a bit tough because we had a travel meet right after our home meet. BUt other than that, it was not bad. It really does help prepare them for 2 day meets, which are new for most kids.

We didn't really see any increase in injuries, or loss of skills.

I dont know of many gyms that do consecutive travel meets. I am not sure I would like 2 travel meets in back to back weekends. But one with a local is doable. Not ideal. We do have one in our state that did it last year, and it was not that much for them. And generally, parents can decide whether to travel or not. But most coaches look for competitive meets to get ready for nationals.

Talk to me abotu nationals, now, and the need to be gone from Tues-Sun (or if far enough, Monday as we had to do). That was tough! a week gone....that was stressful.

I think USAG provides a lot of training on overuse injuries, training, etc. Coaches adn parents have to then decide what is best for their gymnast.

 

[profmom]

Just based on how state schedules work, it can be difficult to get through a season without one back-to-back weekend stretch, but our coach prefers not doing consecutive weekends so that the guys have a little time to work on things in between meets. A lot depends on how many meets a gym does, and also where in the country you're located. We're in a place with a decent number of driveable options, so it's not too hard to put together a good schedule with some competitive meets without being at the mercy of the meet scheduling gods or needing to do several flyaways.

I don't think overuse has much if anything to do with meets. Heck, a meet involves fewer reps than a practice once a kid is past L4. Any good men's coach is going to make sure the guys keep up with strength maintenance work during the meet season. Sure, overuse injuries happen in men's gym, but I don't see meet schedules playing any particular causal role unless there's something I am missing.

Our gym owner makes the quite sensible point that incorporating an annual travel meet is useful so that a kid isn't having her/his first experience in getting on a plane to go to a meet be for nationals.

 

[acam1103]

We literally had 5 in a row last year that included drives that were 2.5 hours, 3 hours, and 6 hours and a flight 6 states away . My kids loved it but they are only in compulsories. The travel meet was a late addition or we would have skipped one of the others but it was the last in the series in their team took 1st place so I'd say they were okay with the back to back. It did require some missed school but we just planned ahead.

 

[skschlag]

Just based on how state schedules work, it can be difficult to get through a season without one back-to-back weekend stretch, but our coach prefers not doing consecutive weekends so that the guys have a little time to work on things in between meets. A lot depends on how many meets a gym does, and also where in the country you're located. We're in a place with a decent number of driveable options, so it's not too hard to put together a good schedule with some competitive meets without being at the mercy of the meet scheduling gods or needing to do several flyaways.

Our gym owner makes the quite sensible point that incorporating an annual travel meet is useful so that a kid isn't having her/his first experience in getting on a plane to go to a meet be for nationals.

Good point. We have to travel more just due to the fact that there is little here. We have to travel further...even in state every meet fro us specifically is at least an hour away. (lol..so is practice. Our home meet is the closest to us lol). So we do have to work with what we are given.

 

[dbean]

Last year we had a few and it was rough for parents and gymnasts. Didn't help meets fell on friday or required drivinf long distances with 8 am meets. We only habe one back-to-back this year. So happy about it but it was only possible because they are doing some earlier meets. One in November and one in December.

 

[Sasha]

There have been years we have had 3 weekends in a row, but usually only 2 in a row, and semi-local (driveable at least).

I would not like consecutive travel meets (requiring overnight stay and/or flight), just because it is hard on the family (and logistically in general), but I am not sure it contributes so much to the repetitive stress injury concern unless coaches are pushing gymnasts harder before a meet (which they shouldn't).

It sounds like perhaps your gym requires frequent consecutive meets. The mental exhaustion from travel, making up school work, and general competition stress certainly seems like it could be a concern if this is a frequent expectation - but is there also something your coach/gym is doing (or not doing) on the physical side that concerns you (since you mention repetitive stress)?

If your son is JE, generally, those boys are at higher risk for RSI simply due to the longer hours and (often) more demanding conditioning put upon them to achieve bigger skills faster. I would think that would contribute to RSI much more than a travel schedule. So let me know what I might be missing there.

 

[sce]

Depending on the year, we've had back to back meets and we've also had as long as a month between meets. There has been good and bad things about each situation. How the caoch manages the practices in between, makes a big difference on how taxing the close together meets are.

The back to back weekends get more difficult when Friday session are involved. A lot of optionals get scheduled on Fridays, which means they end up missing a fair amount of school.

 

[Madden3]

Hmmm. Well, the precise alchemy of how a coach chooses what meets to attend and what meets to not attend is beyond me, but in my experience scheduling the meets seems to be more about going to the meets that are going to be the best meets for that gym (or gymnast), making it a good seasonal mix of smaller and larger meets, and enough but not too much of the really expensive, overnight types of meets overall, and making sure the meet schedule does not overextend the coaching staff (so that practice can continue for the boys not going to that meet.) It would seem to be less of a concern when the actual meets happen.

I guess I would wonder what is going on with these meets that they are so stressful. The meet experience better be pretty fun or you are going to have miserable athletes no matter how often they happen.

I guess I do not understand why meets on consecutive weekends cause repetitive stress injuries when daily practice does not. Why is a meet so much more physically stressful than practice? I always thought the opposite was true. Why would consecutive meets cause a kid to loose skills or get injured? I guess I am just not getting it. Are you talking international travel, jumping multiple time zones, not going home in between... that kind of thing?

In college, consecutive meets are more manageable because the kids life is smaller

really? Not sure I agree with this! If a high schooler is living a bigger life than he will in college, maybe he is living a little too "large" and needs to cut back somewhere? I tell my boys all the time...there are only so many hours in the day and gym takes X. If you want to do gym, you will have to sacrifice in some other areas.

Look I can certainly see a problem where the kid competes on Sunday and has to do a day or more of travel to get the the next meet and it's on Friday, something like that. And I guess elites have to do tech sequence, and that makes some (most?) meets longer- like, multi day? My kids are JO so it is just the one day for each. But anyway in my experience back to back meets happen at least once per season, I think we have had 3 in a rows once in a while as well, but it has not been a problem- for my kids. I think that traveling to meets (and to some degree they all involve travel unless it is a home meet) is hardest on the parents, honestly.

 

[profmom]

There really aren't that many meets with techs. Most of the JE guys around here only do one or at most two prior to states.

Having watched coaches select meets for many moons, here's my read of what goes into it. First and foremost is getting the right mix of meets. There are basically three kinds of meets: 1) the small confidence-builder, 2) the large, competitive ones where your athletes test their mettle against the best, and 3) the state qualifier, which at times could also be a 1 or a 2. As an athlete advances up the ranks in skills and level, the balance between 1 and 2 should shift in favor of 2, but the 3s always have to be in there somewhere. All states have rules about what has to be done to qualify for state championships, and even if it's as low as "compete at one meet," that probably puts two state qualifiers on the schedule in case someone gets strep.

Second will be the dual considerations of how the meet schedule plays with the athletes' training and (at some gyms) how much travel parents will tolerate. Different coaches have different philosophies about how many meets their athletes should have prior to states and regionals; I've personally seen everything from a gym that does two or at most three big meets and one state qualifier to a gym that schedules their male athletes for eight or so meets. My son's coach takes a middle road: we always do two competitive meets that, happily for us, are within close range, an early season and late season state qualifier, and then one or two more meets, often one that splits up the compulsories and the optionals (optionals go competitive and compulsories go more local and friendly). Our compulsories also get a friendly judges' cup to kick off the season, as our Dec. state qualifier is pretty competitive. The program director also looks almost exclusively at travel meets over winter break week, because he doesn't want the guys who make nationals to miss more school than is necessary.

It's also important to keep in mind that coaches have their preferences about meets, and some things can be deal-breakers for them (poor treatment of coaches, bad scheduling, disorganization, perceived judging problems, etc.).

If you pull all of these considerations together, you can see how much it matters where you are and what the options are. If you're in an area with lots of meets like we are, sure, it's not that hard to design a schedule with five to six meets prior to states and at most one weekend with back-to-backs. But that is not going to be true for a gym in an area that doesn't have lots of well run meets, including competitive ones, within easy driving distance.

 

[skschlag]

Yes profmom. That balance is tough! Our gym is considering 3 travel meets for the optionals this year just for that reason. . Plus the huge in state one, and a couple of smaller ones. I guess we will see what that looks like when we get the schedule

Madden3 I agree. I am not sure that meets put more stress on the kiddo, or causes loss of skills. In fact, I think most kiddos come back from meets psyched and ready to work for the next one (or at least mine does )

 

[GymDad23]

I got a peek at our tentative meet schedule and looks like we only have one instance of 2 meets in consecutive weekends. One being Black Jack, then local the following. But February is prime for meets, so really it usually happens then anyways. I agree that big (air or 2 hours + in a car) travel meets should not be back to back. Though, I'm not a fan of having 3-4 weeks in between meets either. Truthfully, I'd prefer one or two more meets scheduled just to kill that time in between and I think it's silly to think more or consecutive meets would be harmful to the kids......it's more of a wallet drainer than anything. Maybe it's the meth I feed my gymnasts before their meets, but neither kid has ever complained to me about being physically tired after a meet.

 

[gymbeam]

I have a girl but hope you don't mind my reply. It was a problem for some of our team last year.

The girls practice 6 days a week and some had Sunday comp. times two weekends in a row. That meant they went 20 days with zero days off.

They were tired.

 

[sce]

I have a girl but hope you don't mind my reply. It was a problem for some of our team last year.

The girls practice 6 days a week and some had Sunday comp. times two weekends in a row. That meant they went 20 days with zero days off.

They were tired.

That was poorly managed by the coach. They should have been given a day or tow off in there.

 

[Madden3]

Yes I agree with sce. In that case, you would think the coach would have wanted a day off! When we have had long stretches like that, a practice is either cancelled or made optional.

 

[cyclopsmom]

Our team has had 4 in a row and another 3 in a row for the past two seasons I think. Usually only one is local and the rest are 2.5-9 hours drive. There is one that everyone flies to, but we skip it every year. Part of it is the area we live in, but there are some closer meets that we don't attend (and I wish we would.)

 

[profmom]

Yes I agree with sce. In that case, you would think the coach would have wanted a day off! When we have had long stretches like that, a practice is either cancelled or made optional.

Us too. The men's side generally doesn't want them working out the day before a meet, and if a group had last session, it's very much understood that some members of that group won't make it to a practice the day after.

 

[skschlag]

I have a girl but hope you don't mind my reply. It was a problem for some of our team last year.

The girls practice 6 days a week and some had Sunday comp. times two weekends in a row. That meant they went 20 days with zero days off.

They were tired.

Yikes. I am surprised coaches didn't give you guys a day off.....

Typically, the night right before a meet, the boys will have a short or no practice. Coaches like to do a verification before the meet, so that it is the last practice (run through the routines you will be doing). there were 2 times this season when the coach told the boys to take the Monday off after travel.

that would have been exhausting!

 

[gymmomx2]

I have a girl but hope you don't mind my reply. It was a problem for some of our team last year.

The girls practice 6 days a week and some had Sunday comp. times two weekends in a row. That meant they went 20 days with zero days off.

They were tired.

This is CRAZY and just begging for injuries. Typically my DD gets the day before and after a meet off. So if we had back to back meets and practiced 6 days a week, I guess our schedule would look something like this:

Monday to Friday before first meet (5 days) - Training
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Compete
Monday - off
Tuesday to Friday (4 days) - Training
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Compete
Monday - off
Tuesday to Saturday (5 days) - Training

That would be 14 days of training, 2 days of competition, and 4 days off. I would have serious issues with 20 days of consecutive training.