DRAMA at a meet!

[GymDadRadioguy]

Here's a senerio for you. A coach on a cell phone steps onto the vault runway as a gymnast is about to start her vault. Her father stands up and starts screaming at the coach who's clearly embarrased. The guy won't let up and the gym goes dead quiet. Pretty awkward! Anybody ever witness anything like this before??

Dennis
gymdad.blogspot.com

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

YIKES !!!! Uhm, no. Can't say I have ever seen something like that happen. Very awkward.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

dumb coach..dumb parent...pretty common.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

dumb coach..dumb parent...pretty common.

This, pretty much. I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite on the level you're describing, but it doesn't surprise me that such a thing happened.

 

[CoachTodd]

I've seen coaches act as if their kids are the only ones at the meet and completely ignore the fact that they are hindering other gymnasts. This doesn't sound like what you saw. It just sounds like the coach wasn't following the rules (No cell phones during the meet) and the parent wasn't following the rules (No parent interference with the meet). Stuff happens .

 

[toriluvsgym0618]

well there was this girl one time at a meet and she was in my roatation and her routine was like perfect until the backwalkover. she fell and started having a fit she was crying and kicking and screaming. she also said some words i cud not mention.i dont know if that counts.

 

[I-Heart-Beam]

A fire alarm went off once?

 

[bogwoppit]

I have seen a coach scream at a kid who had fallen off the beam. Very ugly, then the parent came over and joined in.

Also seen a parent approach the bar judges table and tear a strip off them because their kid scored lower than a team mate. That was REALLY ugly.

There are stupid people everywhere!!!!

 

[gymdog]

This, pretty much. I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite on the level you're describing, but it doesn't surprise me that such a thing happened.

Yeah. Well actually, I think I have.

I mean, some people get out of control. Shouldn't be on the cell phone (if it's urgent just step out of the gym). But it's not like he walked into the gymnast and hurt her, or she had already landed her vault and he knocked her over. We need to have some sense of scale. He moves, she goes and does her vault. Instead, her dad's screaming rant probably rattled and upset her more than any other outcome. I bet this was a compulsory meet too.

Everyone needs to remember these are introductory meets, there is not a lot at stake, there will be another one next week and five more next year. We don't do the kids any favors by acting like it is some sort of apocalypse when anything goes slightly wrong. Just another day, sometimes things go wrong, you move on. The point is that the kids are learning about life experiences.

 

[gymnastbeth]

Once in a level 2 house meet that I was helping out at, a parent used a flash in their camera, and a coach just flipped out. Mind you, I know that it is dangerous, but this coach just ruined that session of the meet. He was swearing, and just yelling so loud, around these little girls! After his "little" rant was over, it was REALLY quiet. I'm pretty sure it was a mistake that the flash went off! First I think I would politely tell the parent, before exploding... I just can't understand some people...

 

[gymgramma]

Once at a meet when the National Anthem was playing a coach was talking very loudly on his cell phone. All the spectators were pretty angry with him!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

that takes the cake any day.

 

[CoachGoofy]

Once in a level 2 house meet that I was helping out at, a parent used a flash in their camera, and a coach just flipped out. Mind you, I know that it is dangerous, but this coach just ruined that session of the meet. He was swearing, and just yelling so loud, around these little girls! After his "little" rant was over, it was REALLY quiet. I'm pretty sure it was a mistake that the flash went off! First I think I would politely tell the parent, before exploding... I just can't understand some people...

We go over the "no flashes. Ever. Practice. No flashes. Ever. Ever. Ever. And CoachGoofy thinks whoever put a strobe light on cameras should be drawn and quartered, by the way, so this is a gym rule AND a safety rule" before every meet.

In addition to being blinding, there is the potential of there being a gymnast or spectator or even coach with photosensitive epilepsy present. While totally going off and swearing at someone isn't ok, how much would it suck to totally ruin some kid's meet by sending her (or her mom, or her coach) to the hospital with your camera?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i'm with coachgoofy on this one. i have seen a gymnast have an epileptic seizure {petite mal, the kind where they stand and stare and can't move} while waiting for their warm up on bars. photosensitive epilepsy is a real thing.

 

[cathiann]

Thankfully nothing on that scale. Do these people ever stop to think about the way they're presenting themselves?? It's THEIR behavior people are going to remember, not the original person causing the issue.

 

[Bobby]

I have seen a coach scream at a kid who had fallen off the beam. Very ugly, then the parent came over and joined in....

The parent was yelling at the child or the coach?!

 

[CoachTodd]

OK. I have one example of a coach that has no clue.
My daughter's level 8 state meet and her series on beam is supposed to be back handspring, back handspring. This turned into back handspring, back head spring due to a foot slip. I wasn't coaching her at this time but the coach that was did a good job of catching her and guiding her fall to the mats instead of the gym floor. We sent for the trainer and I was out with my daughter near the beam doing all of the concussion checks.
About a minute into this, one of the other teams' coaches comes up and tells me that her time is up as if I'd planned on putting her back on beam.
At this point in time, i refrained from tying that particular coach in a knot and using her as a basketball.
I think it's terrible when coaches lose site of the fact that we are there for the children and not ourselves. It gives the sport a bad image and makes it difficult to keep kids in the sport.

 

[bogwoppit]

The parent was yelling at the child or the coach?!

Sadly they joined the coach in yelling at the child. I often wonder if that child kept on competing.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

We've had some crazy parents, but only audible in the stands, thank God. Once when I was flashing, a slightly-off-kilter coach came up to tell me not to let her girls see the scores. That would have been okay, except she was extremely intense about it and kept coming back to double check that I hadn't flashed the wrong score. And she told me off for putting the score in a strange place on the cards (the flashing thingy had two 0's that wouldn't show). She yelled at her kids a LOT.

 

[T.Gymnastics]

Boy am I so glad that none of the coaches i have ever had are like this! I have seen coaches yell at girls from an elite producing gym. Once a coach yelled at a girl on bars for dropping off bars without dismounting when the timer called warm up time over. But thats pretty much all. My coach believes most in giving our gym a good reputation, so she stresses tight meet hair, good responsible behavior, organized stretching and warm up etc. so I am quite thankfull as i now see i should be.