Parents Lack of Flexibility for Competing w Higher Age Group due to Conflict?

[uchiknow]

Hi! I am somewhat of a new gym parent as my daughter just started competing about a year ago. She is really passionate about it and loves the competition.

However , there have been several meets, including States, which she has not been able to compete in due to the schedule for her age group falling out on a Saturday (cannot compete due to religious observance).
It’s unfortunate that USAG doesn’t offer alternate schedules to allow all athletes to compete if a conflict arises (for whatever reason). I’m curious why they don’t allow one to compete in an age group older than they are. I understand not allowing to move to the Younger group since that wouldn't be fair to the competitors, but if one chooses to compete against older girls and be put at a natural disadvantage, why shouldn’t those scores count?
Thanks for any feedback!

 

[CuriousCate]

That's a tough one and I'm so sorry. It is so hard and I really respect your conviction. What level will she compete and how old is she?

We have very often found that the younger age groups turn out the highest scores. My older child has only once ever competed above the youngest age group, and most times her score would leave her off the podium in the youngest age group but would have placed 1st or 2nd in many of the older groups.

You may want to see if your coach would be willing to speak with the meet director about your situation and see if they might allow your daughter to compete out of session. Essentially she would compete outside of her intended group and would therefore not be included in the placements with her original or new competition group, but at least she would be able to compete her routines and see how she scores. My kid had to do this once to be back home to get ear tubes. She was a level 6 at the time but competed with her team's level 7 group the previous day. No medals since she was essentially in her own group, but she was happy that she was able to compete.

 

[uchiknow]

Thanks for the response. Yes, competing out of session is essentially what we have done so far (where her scores don’t count but she is able to join in the meet and perform her routines). I’m just curious what the rationale is for not allowing a younger gymnast’s scores to count if they choose to compete against older girls due to inability to compete in their own younger session.

 

[uchiknow]

She is 10 years old - in XG.

 

[CuriousCate]

She is 10 years old - in XG.

Got it. Speaking only for my state, a girl from our gym who scored over a 38 at the XG state meet placed 3rd in the youngest age group, but would have won the three next older age groups. That seems to be common at least in our area. So, while it may seem like a disadvantage to be younger in an older group, it may actually bump some of the older girls out of medal contention unfairly. Still stinks for your daughter. In some bigger meets, wonder if there may be an option for her to compete within her own age group but in a different session. Good luck to you guys!

 

[uchiknow]

Yes – I’ve seen the same phenomenon that the younger groups get scored better. But I’m referring to a younger girl competing in an older age group and being scored the same way as those she is competing against. In other words, not to be given any advantage of better scoring. So if anything, the younger girl is at a disadvantage competing against older girls. I guess there’s no easy answer….I just wish there was more flexibility, especially for the larger States and Regionals, in order to have an ‘alternate’ session for those that cannot compete in their original allotted group.

 

[Carly]

I don't think that the younger girls are being given an advantage of scoring better. They are probably performing better so their scores will be higher. Scoring can be a little different from session to session at the same meet especially if there are different judges because there are multiple sessions running at the same time.

I've been to plenty of meets where the younger groups in the same level outscored the older groups and vice versa. It really just depends on the skill levels of the girls competing at that particular time.

Sorry that you are going through this. Hope you can find meet sessions to work for your daughter.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Because gymnastics is not like many other sports, being older is not necessarily an advantage.

Often those who are younger for their level are better. So it would be considered unfair to older gymnasts to allow younger gymnasts to compete against them.

 

[uchiknow]

True - never really thought of it that way. But I guess on that point, if age isn’t necessarily correlated with skill, then why are there groupings by age? Maybe gymnasts should be separated by height since a shorter gymnast has a physical advantage over a taller one…
For other sports that are more 1-1 physical, it makes sense.
Sorry for all the questions and hypotheticals ; pretty new to this so I’m just trying to understand how it all works!

 

[Flicfliclay]

You would also be paying significantly higher dues if your daughter had to compete by herself a lot. Meaning the coaches would have to come to an entirely different session/day for just your child, therefore you would have to pay for the coach/coaches that have to be there to coach your child. There are some kids around here that don't compete on Sundays, but i they are normally scratched if their day falls on Sunday or if three are multiple on the team some meets will do their best to put their entire team in a different session.

 

[GymDadWA]

Does your team normally compete the same level but at multiple sessions? If so and the days are split, the gym can ask the meet coordinator to fit someone in. If your entire team competes at a single session than it might not be the meet that is being inflexible it could be your coaching staff as they don't want to have to pay/coordinate coaches for a single athlete and an extra day.

 

[uchiknow]

Does your team normally compete the same level but at multiple sessions? If so and the days are split, the gym can ask the meet coordinator to fit someone in. If your entire team competes at a single session than it might not be the meet that is being inflexible it could be your coaching staff as they don't want to have to pay/coordinate coaches for a single athlete and an extra day.

Fair point as well - thanks!

 

[uchiknow]

You would also be paying significantly higher dues if your daughter had to compete by herself a lot. Meaning the coaches would have to come to an entirely different session/day for just your child, therefore you would have to pay for the coach/coaches that have to be there to coach your child. There are some kids around here that don't compete on Sundays, but i they are normally scratched if their day falls on Sunday or if three are multiple on the team some meets will do their best to put their entire team in a different session.

True - I guess logistically it’s harder to arrange that the coaches are there for a session that they wouldn’t normally be at.

 

[Aussie_coach]

True - never really thought of it that way. But I guess on that point, if age isn’t necessarily correlated with skill, then why are there groupings by age? Maybe gymnasts should be separated by height since a shorter gymnast has a physical advantage over a taller one…
For other sports that are more 1-1 physical, it makes sense.
Sorry for all the questions and hypotheticals ; pretty new to this so I’m just trying to understand how it all works!

In our competitions they usually don’t seperate kids by age, of if they do it’s only 2 age groups.

There can be 80-150 kids competing against each other and they only give awards to the top 6 places.

The other 100’s don’t receive anything.

I assume in the US it’s a way to split up the competition and it seems the fairest way.

If the competition allows people to change to different sections them they would probably have a lot of requests and it would become unmanageable.

 

[NutterButter]

My kid got a late start in the sport so was almost always in the oldest age group at meets (except state, regionals, Westerns and sometimes big regional meets like Chicago Style). More often than not she came home with multiple medals while her younger teammates - who often had higher scores - came home with one or two medals.

 

[JPC13]

True - never really thought of it that way. But I guess on that point, if age isn’t necessarily correlated with skill, then why are there groupings by age? Maybe gymnasts should be separated by height since a shorter gymnast has a physical advantage over a taller one…
For other sports that are more 1-1 physical, it makes sense.
Sorry for all the questions and hypotheticals ; pretty new to this so I’m just trying to understand how it all works!

I'm not sure that shorter gymnasts have an advantage until they reach the pinnacle of skill. My daughter is vaulting over a table that's basically at the top of her head height, while for her teammates it comes up to their lower chest. Shorter usually means lighter too, so she's not even getting as much lift as everyone else off the springboard. Clearly that's much harder.

Same for bars. It's much easier to jump to the higher bar and kip nicely when all you're doing is slightly leaning over -- for my daughter if she doesn't focus on lengthening her jump she probably won't make it.