Parents Frustrated!

[ZJsMom]

So today at practice dd's coach decides that the composition of her beam routine doesn't work and she needs a new series before the first meet in two days. She's doing level 7 and the issue is she has three cartwheels in the routine. Her acro is BHS, cartwheel-cartwheel for series and cartwheel back tuck dismount. She has had lower back issues and stoped doing back walkovers because of it. She's a real planner and needs to know what's going to happen months in advance. She also needs lots of reps under her belt to feel confident in competition. I'm ticked off now because the coaches let her do this routine for months and then tell her two days before the meet she has to change it. I think it's too stressful for her.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Could she do a front tuck dismount instead. This is very easy, most of our level 4's compete it in Australia, and its worth the same as a back tuck.

 

[ZJsMom]

Yeah that's probably the easiest short term fix. She's not happy with that idea because it took her some work to connect the cartwheel back tuck and now she does it really agressively with really nice positions.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Oh, I understand that. When a child has worked very hard for a skill its so difficult to tell them they can't do it. Of course I would make sure she understands that it is temporary and she will put the cartwheel to back tuck in again very soon.

Sometimes you have to be a bit creative in working out solutions. here are some possible acro connections that don't involve the back walkover.

Handstand - tic toc
Cartwheel - round off (this will be good as it can be used as the series in level 8)
Front walkover - front walkover
Tic toc - front walkover

Perhaps she could even work the round off to back tuck dismount.

 

[socko]

At Level 7 does she even need a series or just one flight element (the BHS)? I remember when my daughter was a 7 she only did the one BHS, and didn't do a series until Level 8. I am surprised that they would have her do BHS-cartwheel-cartwheel because I didn't think a cartwheel fulfilled the requirement for the flight composition anyway and where she was having back issues, you'd think they'd keep it real simple...

 

[ZJsMom]

In 7 there are two separate requirements-- a flight element and a series, which doesn't have to include flight. Most level 7s do a BHS and BWO BWO for their series.

 

[socko]

I forgot about that..she did do the BWOs. It doesn't seem that changing her dismount to a front tuck would solve the issue of the 3 cartwheels so I don't know if I'd have her bother with that as she doesn't like change anyway.

 

[Billy]

If the issue is too many cartwheels, maybe she can just remove the cartwheel connected to her dismount and do a standing back tuck dismount instead. Then she doesn't have to change her series and it would be a minimal change to the routine as a whole. Instead of the cartwheel, she can just substitute a couple of dance-y steps and/or poses to get to the end of the beam and into position for the back tuck. Of course, she'll need to make sure that taking out the 3rd CW doesn't remove a required element (make sure she's still got enough As and Bs without it).

 

[gymnut1]

Good answer Shawn. Even better how about getting to the end of the beam, turning and doing handstand step down into back tuck. That would feel more like the entry to the tuck back she is doing at the moment. So many do the front tuck dismount the back tuck makes a nice change.

Aussie coach - if she has lower back issues front walkovers might not be possible.

 

[ZJsMom]

I forgot about that..she did do the BWOs. It doesn't seem that changing her dismount to a front tuck would solve the issue of the 3 cartwheels so I don't know if I'd have her bother with that as she doesn't like change anyway.

I'm afraid I'm not stating it clearly, but the third cartwheel is the cartwheel in the dismount series. Shawn's suggestion might work, but I'm not sure if you get a better routine by trying to dance and pivot turn into the back tuck. That seems like it would be kind of awkward.

 

[gym law mom]

I think the simplest fix would be to pull the cartwheel from the dismount and have her just do a front tuck off. My gymmie had a teammate in L7 that could never connect the cartwheel-back tuck and the coaches just pulled it out and had her do a front tuck off. The routine was the same up until where she would have done the cartwheel to start the dismount and instead she just took a couple of steps and did the front tuck.

Much easier to make that change than have her learn a whole new series with her meet season starting.

I would be very upset with the coaches for not realizing months ago that this was not a good routine as far as composition. Certainly not fair to your dd to have to make major changes at the last minute. My gymmie also has some low back issues and I know some of it came from insane reps of bwos for L7 and L8 beam routines.

 

[ZJsMom]

Thanks for all the suggestions. She's going to change the series to FWO-Cartwheel. She feels good about, so hopefully it will be okay. The meet is this afternoon.

 

[kristilyn73]

How did the meet go? Did the new connection work out?

 

[ZJsMom]

Sort of. She did it without a fall, but it wasn't connected. She had a balance check between the FWO and cartwheel that she tried to cover up, but they didn't give her credit for the series. She's comfortable with the idea of this series now though and I think it will work out in the long run. Thanks for asking!