WAG Gym/meets on Sundays?

[Orangesoda]

Again, excuse my ignorance. Are meets generally on Saturdays or Sundays? Does this vary by geographical region? We're in San Diego. Competitive gymnastics might not be a good option for us if a majority of the meets are on Sundays. How frowned upon is it within the community to opt out of a meet? Is it a total no no? Or not a big deal?

Actually, I'm curious to know how much gymnastics is a part of your life on Sundays in general. Thanks for the input.

 

[z2akids]

Pretty much every meet we attend has Sunday sessions. I think of our 6 meets last year, we had 2 Sunday slots did our L3 team. I would expect about the sane this year.

Our L4 and optional girls have weekly scheduled practice on Sunday. 3 hours each I think.

 

[gymmutti]

No Sunday practices for any of our girls. Small to medium compulsory-only meets were either Saturday (if a 1-day meet) or Saturday/Sunday. Unfortunately, you will not know which day or exact time until 1-2 weeks prior, which is well past the time the coach has to register your DD. It really is 50/50 each year if a certain level will compete Saturday or Sunday as it depends on how many gymnasts register for each level. Large meets can also be on Fridays (sometimes Thursdays). Yes, that does sometimes mean an unexcused absence from school. I worried a lot this past year about this as my DD was in middle school but she made up the work and kept her grades up so it was not a problem. For our gym, large meets only come into play once they hit optional levels and a large meet is optional for a compulsory level gymnast to attend.

 

[Becauseisaid]

Meets can be anything from Friday through Sunday night with the occasional Thursday or Monday thrown in. You can look at the meets your gym attended last year and then check the days of the meet. I believe Meet Scores Online will show the day each level competed. Just be aware that it can be completely different from year to year. In our area, higher level optionals tend to compete on Fridays with the larger groups/levels competing Saturday and Sunday.

We do have one girl on team who has made the decision to not compete on Sundays. Mom let the HC know this before joining the team and he agreed. The best thing you can do is talk to your HC. HOWEVER, personally opinion here - it is unfair to the team to only be a part-time competitor. Particularly at the compulsory level, this IS a team sport.

 

[htimcj]

I think it depends on the region as well. I live in an area where Sunday anything is frowned upon so other than States and Regionals all of our meets are Friday/Saturday. There are too many people who won't compete on Sunday to make it even worth trying.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

There have been several threads on this, one pretty recently. If you do a search, I'm sure some will come up and you can read the discussions so people don't have to repeat the same things they said a month ago.
My personal opinion is that it is a team sport and if you can't follow through with the commitment, don't do it, but that's my own opinion. I know it's slightly different but DD had one girl in her ballet company that would not dance on Sundays. That meant she was excluded from any and all performances that would go on Sundays, which were all the major ones: Nutcracker, spring gala and so on. It was her choice, but there was no possibility for her to be cast at all since we couldn't have a "gap" in the dancers on Sunday performance...

 

[rbearclaw]

In our area there's a 50/50 shot it will be on Saturday or Sunday. I think for State there was the added option of Friday, but Level 3 didn't compete that day. I think I had 4 out of 9 meets last year on Sunday. I know you typically sign up for all meets at the beginning of the season, not knowing what day your level/age will compete. It would def be frowned upon to back out once you knew the exact day, since all payments/arrangements would have already been made.

 

[gymbeam]

"Bible Belt" here and we do Sunday sessions quite often. Doesn't bother me at all, though.

 

[LJL07]

We had to pull out of school for Friday (school was very understanding) and have competed on both Saturdays and Sundays. Last year Sunday was the most frequently scheduled day for us

 

[Orangesoda]

Thanks all. So there's generally like six meets per season? So even if ALL the meets required Sunday attendance, one would only be taken from their regular Sunday activities six times per year, yes?

 

[ginnymac]

Yes. Unless Sunday is a practice day. Or travel day.

 

[rbearclaw]

Thanks all. So there's generally like six meets per season? So even if ALL the meets required Sunday attendance, one would only be taken from their regular Sunday activities six times per year, yes?

Yes that is true. We entered 3 prelims, then sectionals and state, and then 3 invitationals in spring.

 

[MeetDirector]

Orange -

It is good that you are asking this now as it could influence your dd's entire career in the sport.

Yes, meets on Sunday are a regular part of the competition season. 50-50 whether you will be actually competing on Sunday. As you get to the higher optional levels and start traveling to meets out of state, you will find that an entire weekend is taken up by the meet, either traveling or competing. We traveled out of state over 10 times last season including regionals and nationals and all involved traveling on Friday and returning on Sunday. You have to book your travel early to try and control the costs but you won't know the competition schedule until a few (at best) weeks before the meet; too late to cost-effectively change plans.

Are there ways that you can participate but not compete on Sundays? Yes, but mainly only at the compulsory levels. Optional level meets are not going to be accommodating with an athlete competing out of their session; its just too hard logistically to do that.

Good Luck.

 

[billise]

This was a big concern for us last season as my DD was going into her first year of completion so I started a thread to ask the same thing ("Handling Sunday Meets")... WOW were there a lot of responses and opinions!!!

In short, for my family, we explained our church commitments to our coaches and asked if it would be ok to opt out of any Sunday morning meets at this point in DD's gym "career" (she was a 6 year old level 3). They said that would be fine as long as I paid the non-refundable meet fees, meaning if her session fell on a Sunday morning I would just be out that money. Well, her 2nd meet of the season fell on Sunday morning. DD asked if she could go after church to catch the end of the meet and cheer on her teammates. We said sure! So that morning she wore her leo and warm-up to church complete with meet hair and bows, and after church we headed to the meet excited to cheer on her friends. When we got there the meet was nearly an hour behind schedule and DD's group hadn't even started yet (they had already done general warm-up and were warming up their first rotation which was about to start). When DD's coaches saw us in the stands they ran over and asked her if she wanted to compete. We were in shock as we had no intention of her competing. Of course DD wanted to compete so her coaches stretched her out, had her do a couple of vaults, and she was off!!!

We had 2 other meets that fell on Sundays but they were afternoon sessions so we were out of church by then and she was able to go.

I don't know what your Sunday commitment is but for us, church is what we do on Sunday mornings and at this point it is not something we are willing to compromise at this point in her "career". Thankfully our gym/coaches understood our commitment and because church is such a big part of our family life/dynamic and has always been, there was no resentment on DD's part. To her, even though she loves gym, it was just normal to pick church over gym!

For us, last season, God worked it out so DD didn't have to miss a meet.

 

[Ginger]

We had five meets last season, and only one of them fell on Sunday. I am actually more concerned about early Friday sessions because of missed school - happened twice
The meets run Friday-Sunday in our area (so 33% chance you get the day you don't want), and we never know which session is 'ours' till about two weeks before the meet. Meet fee is due at least two months before, and is non-refundable.
There is one girl in our team who also opts out of Sunday meets because of church, and the coaches don't have problem with that (and neither do her teammates).
I am not familiar with Meet Scores Online, but Mymeetscores always lists the first day of the meet for all girls, so even those who had Saturday or Sunday sessions got the Friday date.

 

[Orangesoda]

Is there a typical meet fee? I'm talking about the non-refundable one. Or are those quite varied?

 

[z2akids]

We don't get a breakdown by meet. But my DD was L3 last season and we paid for 5 meets (out girls don't pay to compete in our home gym meet). Our fees were $695 for those 5 meets.

 

[billise]

The fees for our 6 meets ranged from $35 to $70 depending on the meet. The one we thought we were going to have to miss was a big meet. Lots of clubs from many states. I believe it was the most expensive. Like others have said, you have to pay the meet fee a couple of months before the meet but you won't know what session your DD has been assigned to until 1 or 2 weeks before the meet.

 

[billise]

Wow, $695 for 5 meets? That sounds steep! Did that include coaches fees?

 

[gymgal]

Thanks all. So there's generally like six meets per season? So even if ALL the meets required Sunday attendance, one would only be taken from their regular Sunday activities six times per year, yes?

this is correct but remember that those 6-8 meets typically all happen in a 2-3 month period of time. That may be good or bad, depending on what you Sunday commitments are. Best thing to do is speak with the coach about their policy. Some gyms are very accommodating, others not.