Parents Design your own meet!!!

[Blackie6]

We are almost officially done with our third season of competative gymnastics. States is the end of Jan for DD and we have just one more meet before that. Just had a meet last week and I don't know, maybe it was because of all the Christmas stress, or just that it was our third year of meets, but for me to be the spectator, I was just really uncomfortable and squirming in my chair the whole time. It was long, we all know even the well run meets can be about 4 hrs long (or more) including getting there early, warm-up, comp & awards. At the end of the meet my back & butt hurt so bad I seriously thought about doing a Shamu-The-Whale and throw myself belly first onto the floor to flap my arm around and stretch my back out! So, I was thinking....if YOU could run a meet, what would your dream meet be??

Mine would be:

Stadium seating with chairs that were cushioned and had backs on them so everyseat has a good view!

Real concession stands with REAL food and salad, not just dirty water dogs and crusty backed ziti that has been sittinga round since 10 hrs prior for first session.

Maybe someone walking around selling drinks (like COLD water) so you don't have to time your run so you don't miss your DD.

Bathrooms with more than one or two stalls. Most gyms only have 1 or 2 stall bathrooms and as soon as a gymnast goes in there to change, you are screwed!

Stuff! (t-sirts, pins, candy/bear grams, leo/shorts sale)I do like to buy a little something for DD at a meet still, she is only a 8 yr old L5 and I know there will be a time when I will be sick of that stuff, but right now there are times when we are up against bigger and more competative gyms and she doesn't always come home with a ribbon or medal. It's nice to buy a candy gram or bear gram or even a pin for those days. When my son does a wrestling or baseball tournament there is a always a t-shirt guy there where you can buy an inexpensive ($8-10.00)event shirt. Sometimes we do get them as meet goodie bag gifts, and we LOVE them! This past meet I picked up GK shorts for DD for only $15, woohoo!

AA medals for all! Most meets DD gets an AA medal and if you don't place anywhere else, it helps, but not all meets recognize all the girls and when they are younger, and after putting in 15 hrs a week, it's nice to show recognition for effort. It gives them something tangible to bring home to remember even if it wasn't their best meet.

Themes! We went to a meet this year with new gym that was a PJ slumber party meet, very cute...not a lot of extra work for the meet runners, but still nice for girls and FUN! Again, for older levels and older girls probably boring, but we like them now!

OK, anyone else have anything to add?

 

[MdGymMom01]

Great thread!!! Our meets are relatively small since we are in a much smaller division than USAG, so seating and being able to see isn't really an issue--we just simply get up and walk around to where we can see better if someone is blocking our view or something.

I would love to see professional photographers at our meets (or at least championships) where we could buy photos of our gymnast. I guess MDL isn't big enough yet to do this, not sure.

T-shirts are always cool and not all of our meets have them. Our gym is hosting the next meet next week and we are getting a t-shirt for the event !

Here's a pic:

I love the idea of people walking around selling water--that way you don't have to get out of your seat.

That's all I can think of right now, but very cool post!

 

[Blackie6]

VERY CUTE T-shirt! We have a couple and my DD loves them, slleps in them, wears them to practice, ect...an in expensive way to remember an event.

Yes! About the photography. New gym didn't do any big meets really this year. We have one in 2 weeks, but last yr and yr before I got some really nice pictures of DD & it was worth it to have some nice, up close action shots! Just realized after your suggestion I no opportunity to buy anything this year for my DD. Maybe at states.

 

[emandelsmom]

I know what you mean. We attended an instate meet a few weeks ago and it was awful. It lasted 6 hours. We left before team awards. It began a 10 am. Needless to say, the girls were STARVING!! No lunch. Food was cruddy. And there was no heat!!! It was freezing. Our instate meets tend to be like this. We take the girls out of state for the second part of the season. We go to LA, and AL. The meets there are better run. The coach works with myself and another mom and we pick the meets. This is my 4th year of lugging dd's to meets. We now know what to look for and which are fave meets. The themes help. In Feb, we will go to Mobile for the Mardi Gras meet. The kids throw beads in a parade before the meet. We will go to one at Tulane University that is also a New Orleans themes meet-so much fun. We did one meet where you could see dd turning purple at the meet in all photos because she was freezing. Hubby has bought a fold out stadium chair to help with the sore backs. We pack water. But, I agree some of the meets are horrible. Like the LONG meet we set through with no lunch for the kiddos. By the time we left it was past dinner time.

 

[Blackie6]

Emandelsmom....the meet we just had the other night they did have food but it had been sitting around so I did not want to take a chance. Because we got there early to see old coach & L4's awards I think we were there about 4 1/2 hrs or more, and when I left me and DD could not get to Mc D's fast enough. I was ready to chew my knuckles off and I hate McD's but I was starving and so was DD, LOL! UGH! About cold meets...I feel sooo sorry for the girls when that happens. If you have a 1st session always pack some extra clothes!

 

[Bobby]

Well here in Oz I'd have to say bring on the air-conditioning!! And I'd love a creche area where you could check in your toddlers!!

 

[kristilyn73]

2 dream requests... A room for little brothers (not necessarily toddlers) but school age kids, where they can play Video games watch movies, etc.

Free or cheap entries for spectators! To be honest, I dont mind paying a couple bucks.. but we have some meets that are upwards of $15 per person. To the point where I tell friends and family not to come because I feel bad about the cost. We were at a meet last year where we overheard a family with 3 or 4 kids who were there to watch their neice and couldnt go in because of the cost. It broke my heart.

 

[emandelsmom]

The last meet we attended=the really long one-had a family sitting right behind us. Bleacher style seating so their knees were in our backs. The parents had NO control of the kids. Literally, the kids were older 10+.. They were screaming and fighting-yes throwing punches. The mom was whining. She was eventually cursing at the children. The dad just sat there. The meet was horrible. So to add what we have already said, someone to monitor the stands.
Oh, during the meet, a coach lowered the beam. The next coach raised it back to the normal level. No one checked it. We were sitting right in front of the beam. You could see it wiggling. It was not tight. Each time a child did a leap or jump it moved. The girls were falling off. My own child fell off 3 times. Her team mate also fell off 3 times. The kids were fighting for balance. It was the last rotation. The judges kept on judging. No one did a thing. On the video we took, you can see it not being tightened correctly. So I think someone officially checking the equipment between adjustments.

 

[snowbound]

We went to a meet where they had this giant kid habitrail (you know, the tubes like Chuck E cheese) and you could drop off your kids for $5 and they had supervision there. It was soooooo cool. of course the seating was bad, the food was worse, and it was next to impossible to see the events in the back of the gym, but I thought daycare was marvelous.

I agree about the person walking around selling water, and I'm going to offer that idea up next year for our home-meet.

Something I make special order for parents at my gym is bleacher cushions. I made some for my DH and I and everyone started asked where I got them!



Something I would add to "dream meet" is electronic scoreboards that gave the kids name and number as well as the score. Scoring can get so confusing (whose score is that? Is it my kid or the one before ? What was the last score, I missed it!")

I also kind of wonder if the people who get the hotels lined up for meets have ever talked to the people who stay there. Last year for states we didn't stay in the hotel that the team stayed at because they had really bad reviews online. We stayed in another hotel for about the same amount and it was really nice. Some of the team kids said they saw bugs in their rooms. Ick!!!!

Snowbound