Friday meets

[hannahsmom]

I was going to watch a meet for the gym we're looking at and when I looked at the schedule, the level we wanted to watch was competing on a Friday early afternoon. Are there often Friday afternoon meets? If so, how is that handled with school? I'm not sure I'd be that fond of pulling my daughter from school for a meet????

 

[UnoMas]

My DD had one Friday meet this year. She also had to miss another Friday to travel to an early morning Saturday meet. So, she missed school for 2 out of 7 meets. Our gym gives out school excuses, and they count as excused absences at our school. I don't love pulling her out either though!

 

[Aussie_coach]

We never have meets that are on Friday afternoons unless they are during the school holidays. I don't think it would be terribly common to have a Friday meet, so its probably safe to miss a day for this once off situation.

Many schools are quite supportive of the kids gymnastics training and competition and don't mind a bit of missed school for travel and meets. Schools are generally aware that a lot of learning happens outside the classroom and that these experiences can be incredible educational opportunities.

 

[eme777]

In our area, Friday meets do happen, but are rare. However, they are scheduled late enough that most kids should not have to leave school early, though it might be a time crunch to get hair ready etc.

In some areas, however, I have heard that Friday meets are more normal. In Utah, for example, they don't usually compete on Sundays, so Friday meets are more common.

Also, larger meets will often need 3 days to complete all the sessions needed for all the competitors.

The best thing, would just be to ask the gym if this is normal. Also find out their policies. If you don't want to pull your child out of school for a meet, is it ok with them if she misses these. Every gym has a different policy & philosophy on these things, so it's best to find out before you commit.

 

[mariposa]

There were 2 Friday meets this year for Abby. Usually they are the really big meets that just have to have Fridays as well because they have so many gymnasts entered. One was at 8am Friday morning and the other was at 2pm I think?

I wouldn't say it is common, but it happens. You usually can't take them out once the schedule is posted without risk of losing your entry fee. Most times the date has long since passed for refunds when the schedule actually comes out.

BUT, you can tell the gym that you don't want her competing on Fridays and when they enter her, they will put something next to her name like (Do not enter this gymnast if session will be on a Friday). We had a few families that are LDS and don't compete on Sundays, and that is what they always did. They missed several meets, but they didn't lose the money because the host gym already knew and refunded it when they made the schedule.

 

[coachmolly]

When I was competing, we had 1 Friday meet 2 years in a row. It was a bigger meet and that was just when they had to schedule the session. The meet actually started Friday morning, but both times my session was later in the afternoon. Still early enough that most had to leave school early, I convinced my mom both times that I really didn't need to go to school at all .
I currently coach in Utah and unless a meet is pretty small and all sessions can fit on Saturday, there will be at least one Friday session because most gyms won't hold meets on Sunday for religious reasons. Even the bigger meets that attract out of state gyms are held Friday-Saturday. I've never asked, but I assume the parents are okay with it since it doesn't seem to be changing.

 

[NotAMom]

In our competing region, Friday meets are pretty common if they are big. There are a couple of meets that we attend every year that schedule optionals on Fridays, sometimes in the morning.

Our school is pretty reasonable in accepting absence with a note from the parents. Sometimes we attach a letter from the sport's governing body if there happens to be one (never for gymnastics though).

I ranted about this before... I agree that not all learning has to be in school, but forcing or expecting kids out of school to do sports as a regular thing to do is something I can never understand and willingly accept (but I do anyhow). If it's something out of the ordinary, like say its a camp, championship or something, I certainly am apt to be more flexible.