Parents Depressing meet

[Mom2Brats]

I guess we've had "big fish in a little pond syndrome." This was only Allison's 5th meet, as she only did 3 at L4 and now two at L5. So for all the one's we've been to have been in North Dakota and had mostly North Dakota teams with a few Minnesota teams here and there. Our team has always placed, but they don't do individual places in ND. Just ribbons for how well they scored.

This last weekend we went to the Winter Challenge in Minneapolis. It was our first "big meet" 90 girls in our session alone. They did two age groups (7-10 and 11 and up) and individual placements out to 12th place for each age group. Admittedly the weather was bad and about half our team didn't make it anyway. But the only one who place was an older girl who's moving to L6 after this meet. No one else placed. Allison was devastated, she's used to being close to the top and I think she secretly was hoping for one of the trophies that they had for individuals, since this would have been her only chance to get an individual trophy. It also was the longest meet I've been to. Not fun since we brought the whole family out. Oh, well.

Bars: this is her favorite event and she's usually strong but this last week she suddenly gained a bunch of power in her kip and hasn't learned to control it yet. At practice Tuesday she did her kip and then casted all the way to handstand before she freaked out. So at the meet, her routine was gorgeous, straight arm kip on low bar, everything looked nice, connected, straight arm kip on high bar, nice back hip circle, going into her undershoot and she went way too far, almost did a giant around the bar, freaked out and dropped down so that she couldn't get back up high enough for her taps swings. Score: 6.7 but her coach has been really good about helping her through that, telling her that he'd rather have her have too much power and try hard than to be timid and telling her that their goal for the season is to get her to a 9 on bars.

Beam: She hates beam. She does fine in practice but shakes like a leaf in competition. Last week she fell off after her cartwheel. This week she looked shaky, but held her own, stayed on, and then fell on the dismount! She was so mad at herself! Score: 7.3

At this point, we looked down and my husband asked where she went and I said, 'probably to go cry somewhere private.' He didn't think she'd be that upset but the HC came out and sat in the stands for a bit after that and I asked him how she was doing. He said she was fine and not upset but afterwards she told me that she left because she was afraid that she would start crying in public. See, I know my kid!!

Floor: Nice, I thought it looked good but don't know all the little deductions they take off for. Score 8.2, which was the highest on her team but still lower than last week.

Vault: The timing was so awkward on this one! Her whole team went, then all the other girls that were in their rotation, and then she went. So she was the last one of the whole meet and not even with the rest of her team mates. Still, vault looked good to me anyway. Score: 8.15, same as last week and the judges seemed to be scoring lower overall so I think she was happy.

She got in the car in tears and said that she never wanted to go to cities again (she's been looking forward to this for months). Of course, we're moving this summer, so she won't but I'm wondering how she's going to do in Las Vegas. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, it's all ND meets for the rest of the season.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

I am so sorry that this was not the meet that she dreamed it would be. It is so hard to go inti larger meets like that. Not knowing what to expect with a lit of girls and a lot of competition.

I don't think her scores were bad and it sounds like she's got a great **** at that 9 on bars.

I bet the disappointment was not in her actual performance but in that it was not what she had pictured in her mind.

(hugs) to you both.

 

[emandelsmom]

Awww. Give her a hug. Sounds like she did well. My daughters team goes to all the surrounding states so that girls get a feel for different teams, and judges. In the long run, it helps them adapt and tighten up some skills. If we only stayed in MS, then she would always be judged by the same MS judges and be against the same girls. Tell her that it will help in the long run!

 

[Mom2Brats]

Thanks, I think you are right. I think she was expecting to go and do well and get trophies and everything would be wonderful. And honestly, it's probably good for her to get used to disappointment. But dang, it's hard! I remember in high school I got nominated for a scholarship program and there were four of us competing. I knew that there was a good chance that I wouldn't get it, but I still went home and cried after I lost. And I was 16!! So really, I'm proud of her for getting up and continuing to go on and do her best on floor and vault.

Overall, I think part of the stress was just that we had a long drive, a rough night with kids not sleeping and everyone was frustrated at how long it went. We had all-day passes to Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America and I was only expecting the meet to take about four hours out of our day... instead in took about 6 and a half. But since the weather was bad, we decided to stay an extra day and go again. =) so I think that made up for a lot. Just didn't help out mom and dad's pocketbooks, lol!

We're not going to the meet this next weekend so she'll have two weeks to really work and prepare for the one after that and I think she will do very well. And adversity makes us stronger, right?

 

[bookworm]

I think part of the issue here is that when you compete in a small field (which I assume North Dakota is) you get a false sense of where your kid's skills stack up against others so when you go to a really large meet with kids from different regions , it's a total eye opener for you and the gymnast.

This happened to friends of ours who competed in RI...small state with a small field of gymnasts but her daughter always did well in state...fast forward to a large out of state competition and she doesn't place at all and is devastated. Not to say that you can't do well in theses smaller fields but if that's all you are seeing , it doesn't really give you a glimpse of what's out there to compete against.

For the Las Vegas meet, look at the list of gyms going so you can kind of have an idea of how the weekend will go for her...if you see all powerhouse gyms listed , then try to stress how much fun the trip will be etc. so she won't be devastated by the results.

 

[gym monkeys mom]

Out of town meets are just like that sometimes you just never know. DD is 14 and Level 8 now but we have always done 1 out of town meet each season for experisnce sake and sometimes they go well and others are huge disasters.

It is just one of those growing process things and I know it is hard to watch our kids go thourgh it.

We were at Winter Challenge this weekend and I heard judging saturday was tough! Also out of the ordinary was the low number of spots they went out for trophies this year. Not sure why but I did hear they got a lot more kids signed up than expected. I know they run this meet to make it a good experience and lots of fun for the kids.

I would have your coach pass on the info to them (if he thinks this is true) that the numbers they went out for trophies was low. Usually in MN we have 3 age groups and invites go out 50 percent for medals/trophies. This was not true this weekend at this meet. Sunday at winter Challenge we had 57 girls in the meet and the went out a total of 13 places. 11 in 1st age group 2 in older group. The other thing was age group break up was odd!! My Dd is always in the old age group and ended up with the younger group this time.

This is a great meet and I am unsure why trophies were kinda scarce this year. I am sure cost had something to do with it. Best wishes the rest of your season.

I hope your DD feels better soon it is a hard thing for us as moms to see our kids hurt.

 

[Mariainlv]

Wow that can be rough. It would be very difficult to compete with a small group and then go to a big meet like the one in the Cities. Its doubly hard when its that long and they get tired. Hugs to her and I hope some time in the Gym will help her spirits.

Living here in Vegas, I would say she will be OK. We went to California this weekend and had a similar experience. I will say the level of competition here in Las Vegas is not on the same level.

 

[mariposa]

Tough when things don't go how they thought they would. Hope she is feeling better now and realizing it is just one meet. Hugs for you both.

As for moving to Las Vegas, I would just explain to her that every state and even every gym is very different on how they train, how tough judging is, etc. Do your best to find her a gym that fits her personality, etc. Maybe prepare her for the possibility of doing L5 again, seems common when changing gyms, they do things different, "fix" skills, do routines slightly different, etc. I am sure that you guys can find her a great gym there that will keep her in the sport she loves and happy!

 

[cathiann]

Okay--we go to this meet every year (and were there cheering our girls on this weekend too!). You have to remember two things--scores in Minnesota are well known for being lower than in many other states. Don't know why--they just are! Also--the big gyms in this area almost all go to this meet, so it's TOUGH competition.

As gym monkeys mom said--the meet was really bad on awards/trophies this year! Not sure why unless the gym is trying to save money, but they didn't go out very far at all on awards.

This is where they have to look at how they feel about their routines and not worry so much about their score or awards.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I found that alot of the big invitationals are really tough with the competition and scores. I think my daughter is used to this and is used to not placing although she gets disappointed I think it gives her a reality check and she works even harder for the next meet. Hope she has a great next meet. I think her coach has the right attitude that it is better to have more power in her bars for her to progress.

 

[Monkeygirlsmom]

Hugs to your dd!

that was the meet we just did with dd (her first meet!)
tho hers was on friday since she is level 4!