Parents How do you feel about 100% medals placements?

[Sk8ermaiden]

On another note, I have a friend whose daughter does competitive dance. I realize, different everywhere, blah blah, disclaimer, BUT. She told me that they also place out quite a ways and when they call each girl up, they give them a trophy. But if you want to KEEP the trophy, it's about $50!!!! Every event, every competition.

Geez louise, I never thought I'd be GRATEFUL for how gymnastics does awards.

 

[MILgymFAM]

On another note, I have a friend whose daughter does competitive dance. I realize, different everywhere, blah blah, disclaimer, BUT. She told me that they also place out quite a ways and when they call each girl up, they give them a trophy. But if you want to KEEP the trophy, it's about $50!!!! Every event, every competition.

Geez louise, I never thought I'd be GRATEFUL for how gymnastics does awards.

Wow!! My girls have danced for quite a long time, but never for a competition gym. That’s crazy.

 

[Taxidriver]

For some competitions they do trophies and medals for AA but you only get to keep the trophies for the year and then they have to be handed back, normally the trophies are taken home to allow them to be shown at school and then are kept in the gym display cabinet before being returned for the same competition next year.

 

[MUTigerMom]

Just went to my first placement meet (level 3). I was shocked when they announced all-around all the way to the VERY last place finisher. I felt so bad for that little girl because she looked so upset and embarrassed. I know my daughter would much rather receive nothing than have it announced to the whole meet that she finished last. If they are set on giving 100% medals for AA, it seems nicer to stop announcing placements at top 1/2 and say something like, "Also competing in level 3 were... and just list the remaining contestants. Just my two cents. I was a competitive skater as a kid... medals and trophies to top 3 only. At regionals and nationals only, you got a certificate for qualifying to the finals.

 

[JessSyd]

I am a big fan of entry level gymnasts (Bronze and whatever is the common lowest compulsory level in your area) getting achievement awards. Our state used to do this way back when, but not anymore. Girls would get a ribbon for events (Blue for 9+, Red for 8s, etc, etc, and then an AA medal, the color also dependant on the score. The girls were excited to get the awards, the youngest littles usually didn't even know what the different colors meant and older girls would work to better their score, but, there was no team competition and no holding girls back to win AND when girls moved up to harder levels, they didn't get upset that they were no longer winning.

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This is exactly how it works in my state (of Australia) for the first two competitive levels. There are five ribbon colours going down from ten in 0.5 increments.

It works very well as the girls have an eye on the band they want rather than thinking about winning or losing or fixating on specific scores. Sometimes they do not even find out their score, just what band they scored in. Once the girls get to level five they stop being scored like this and medals go out to third place. Sometimes there are ribbons for fourth and fifth.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

It seems to be a USA vs Rest of the world (modified FIG) thing again.

Top 3 get medals, usually at invitationals 60+ in each age group ( Usually in age, in age + 1, in age + 2, everyone else).

Getting a medal is RARE, kids have no problem with rarely/never getting one, makes it oh so special if they do.

 

[Sasha]

The only time I kinda like it when they give out 100% AA is when it is a big or special meet where they have designed a really cool commemorative medal that is different than what you typically see.

Sorta like the racing analogy a couple people spoke about. I definitely loved getting a medal at the end of my half-/full marathon even though I placed nowhere near the 'winners'. But then again, I wasn't racing every other weekend against only 10-20 people, so not exactly the same as gymnastics. But I did find the medal to be a nice memory for the months and years of hard work.

ETA: I should add that so far, we haven't seen a lot of 'meet gifts' or goodie bags, so the medal is the only commemorative item unless you do buy a shirt.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

It seems to be a USA vs Rest of the world (modified FIG) thing again.

Top 3 get medals, usually at invitationals 60+ in each age group ( Usually in age, in age + 1, in age + 2, everyone else).

Getting a medal is RARE, kids have no problem with rarely/never getting one, makes it oh so special if they do.

Yes this is a unique US thing. And not in a good way. Parents want to feel they are “getting” something for the dollars they are spending. And they don’t want their little ones to “suffer and be hurt”.

Somewhere folks have stopped making the connection self esteem comes from the inside.

 

[SMH]

We just had a medal ceremony where they did 50% of 5 age groups for each event- then called up every kid by age group that didn’t place in all around and gave them a medal. Then did all around for all 5 groups. Then team awards. It took forreeeverrr- and this is at a level 3 meet where they didn’t even start competing until 7:30. Awards lasted till after 10:30.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Yes this is a unique US thing. And not in a good way. Parents want to feel they are “getting” something for the dollars they are spending. And they don’t want their little ones to “suffer and be hurt”.

Somewhere folks have stopped making the connection self esteem comes from the inside.

Research is now showing that the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality is damaging self esteem, rather than helping it.

Kids who grew up in a time where only the winners got trophies and you tried out for things and didn’t always get in etc. Are better able to cope with the small disappointments that come along with life.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Research is now showing that the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality is damaging self esteem, rather than helping it.

Kids who grew up in a time where only the winners got trophies and you tried out for things and didn’t always get in etc. Are better able to cope with the small disappointments that come along with life.

Yes that’s what I said. Self esteem comes from the inside not bling

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

 

[profmom]

I don't think we need to worry so much about kids with several years in gymnastics understanding how to deal with adversity. By the time they're optionals, getting a medal for a routine that went badly probably isn't going to affect how they feel about it. It's just going to waste everyone's time.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

I will say I don't like long awards ceremonies......so I kind of have mixed feelings. I think all kids who enter a meet should get something though....meets are expensive and I do kind of feel like they should get a little something to commemorate the event. It doesn't matter to me if it's a medal, a t shirt, a nice certificate, etc but some kind of little trinket of the meet is nice. And I certainly don't think a girl getting say an 15th place AA medal is taking anything away from those getting higher placements. She might have placed 15th but maybe she got personal best scores that day, or overcame a mental block. Recognizing more kids for their efforts doesn't take away from the others IMO. Not saying meets should be required to medal out to 100% but if they do, it definitely doesn't bother me in anyway. My dd did one meet where the only did 50% in the AA and she didn't get an AA medal that day but it was a holiday meet and everyone went home with hand decorated christmas ornaments with the meet name on them. I thought that was very nice and dd loved it.

 

[Nikki4]

Horrible!!!!
We just had a meet this weekend that did this. Optional level. They were going out to 12th place for each event and announced each girls score.

 

[raenndrops]

Horrible!!!!
We just had a meet this weekend that did this. Optional level. They were going out to 12th place for each event and announced each girls score.

We go to 12th, but only announce scores for the top 3. And it goes quickly.

 

[GymMom4]

I don't mind if they do medals all the way out for AA but not with calling their places. Call for the top 50% and then say "and also in this group is..." and give them their medal. But then people argue against participation medals. At cool meets, like the Nadia one we went to, dd would have loved to have a medal. They did just ribbons for event places outside of top 3.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

Research is now showing that the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality is damaging self esteem, rather than helping it.

Kids who grew up in a time where only the winners got trophies and you tried out for things and didn’t always get in etc. Are better able to cope with the small disappointments that come along with life.

I don’t think this is surprising to anyone that has worked with kids for the last couple decades. They need to learn how to lose graciously and I think it’s much better to learn early that not everyone can be a winner. You don’t always get rewarded for hard work out in the real world and you certainly don’t get rewarded just for participating. Yes our kids work really hard in gymnastics but they can learn to be proud of those efforts and personal bests without a medal.

At my DD’s very first meet, she shocked us all and won bars. But she also got three other medals for placing outside of the top three. After awards, we thought she would be over the moon with her first place finish, but she was much more excited that she got four medals and that first place finish didn’t mean any more than her fifth place finish. I know that she was only 7, but the number of medals did diminish the accomplishment of the first place. That first place would have been much sweeter and carried more meaning had that been the only one she got.

 

[mommyof1]

Depending on the size of the meet, we have had as few as 10 in a category up to around 20.

I feel like a read that there is a rule somewhere that USAG sanctioned meets are required to give out at least 50% awards? I could be wrong on that though.

I remember being told that the minimum requirement was 1/3 plus one. It's definitely not 50%, because our state meet does not place out to 50%.

 

[LindyHopper]

Research is now showing that the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality is damaging self esteem, rather than helping it.

Kids who grew up in a time where only the winners got trophies and you tried out for things and didn’t always get in etc. Are better able to cope with the small disappointments that come along with life.

I remember being on a bowling league when I was 8 or 9. The first and second place teams got trophies at the end of the season. Boys and girls high games and high averages got trophies at the end of the season. And these were nice sized (like 18+ inches tall) trophies.

Everyone else got a trophy also. It was about 6 inches tall and was engraved "I tried".

I found this to be a happy medium, because it was obvious who won and who didn't. It recognized the success of the winners, yet also recognized the efforts of everyone else. I was disappointed that I didn't walk away with one of the big trophies, but I took comfort in the fact that I DID try. And I tried even harder the next league I was on, because I wanted one of the "big" trophies. (Despite the bowling prowess in my bloodline, that never happened)