Parents meet agegroups

[sleeping judy]

My dd has had a somewhat rough year scoring-wise. She tends to move back and forth between age groups as she has a winter birthday. Sometimes she's with the youngest age group and those little girls are rockstars. I usually mentally prep dd that she probably won't medal because all arounds start at 37.5 and many times are 38s. She is not there She has such a good attitude about it and is a very supportive and sweet teammate. She's used to not winning despite being a very solid gymnast (she scores high 8s and some 9s). She's maybe gotten 3 medals all season.

We recently went to a meet and she was listed in the 12/13 group (she's 12). I could see her face get all excited when she realized she was going to medal on bars which has always given her problems. Then, they didn't call her name and we realized, they had bumped her down an age group. She was fighting back tears because she totally thought she was going to get at least one medal.

Her coach asked and they said yes, they had bumped her down to the 11 and under group because of the number of scratches. I am feeling a little momma bearish, but I find this incredibly crappy. Couldn't they resolve this issue by going out fewer places in the age groups where they are short or by splitting up the 12-13 groups into two? At least then the girls could have been in their true age group.

She walked away with nothing when she thought she would have been 2nd AA. She was devastated. Like I said, she usually doesn't medal and it doesn't phase her because she can mentally prep. I feel so bad for her and I don't think it's fair

 

[sce]

That is rough that they changed the age groups at the meet. Sorry she was disappointed.

 

[sleeping judy]

I wish I could have at least prepped her like I usually do. She just kept saying, but I'm not 11, I'm 12.

 

[MomIdidit!]

Aww....bummer...cyber hugs to you and dd!

 

[Seeker]

That is not cool. I'm shocked that they did that honestly...age groups are generally set prior to the meet. If they had scratches, they should have just medaled out 50% +1 and left them as is. I'm sorry.

 

[sce]

I wish I could have at least prepped her like I usually do. She just kept saying, but I'm not 11, I'm 12.

At my dd's meets, its all younger, middle, older, or child, junior, senior. So we have no idea how they separate the ages. But they don't usually change the age groupings at a meet, either.

 

[sleeping judy]

Some of the meets are like that Child, Jr. or some other ambiguous age group and others are listed by age. It goes about half and half and my girl often goes back and forth between the youngest and second youngest. I appreciate that our coach asked but the advice I got from the coach was she just needs to try harder next meet She tries hard EVERY meet. I was more upset at the principle of the matter. The look on her face when she realized broke my heart. We had a lot of family at this meet so she had to pull herself together and remain composed. I'm so proud of her for doing that. She is such a good sport and has such a good perspective about winning/losing.

On a positive, she walked out of there healthy (my biggest concern) and got a P.R. I just wish she hadn't received this psychological slap in the face. I just found it such a crappy way to run the meet. No matter the level, they are still little kids

 

[gymmomtotwo]

I completely agree with you. They should have kept the age group she was supposed to be in regardless of scratches. I don't blame her for being disappointed, especially if she is one that doesn't medal alot. Not fair, period.

 

[Committed]

That stinks that they changed her category without notice! I'd be irritated, for sure.

Your POV is interesting to me, as the parent of the kid who has always been at the bottom of the "younger" category. It's frustrating to see 12 yos competing against my 8yo! The competition is tough in that division, just with the 8-10yo girls!!

 

[sleeping judy]

What level is your dd Committed? I found at the lower levels that I wanted my dd in the lowest age group because the girls hadn't developed the same body control that the older girls had. Now that she is a higher level, the younger age groups are powerful! Many are girls who are TOPs girls or training elite. They've gained the body awareness, but also haven't hit those big growth spurts that wreak havoc on their bodies (fears, re-learning how to do giants so you don't hit the low bar etc.) Maybe it's just that way around here. Who knows!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

your age groups always baffle me - we just work on year, so you are a 2003 or 2006 etc, and then it usually "in age" or "out of age" you will always be either in age or out of age ( you can't compete a level if you are not old enough)

 

[Committed]

What level is your dd Committed? I found at the lower levels that I wanted my dd in the lowest age group because the girls hadn't developed the same body control that the older girls had. Now that she is a higher level, the younger age groups are powerful! Many are girls who are TOPs girls or training elite. They've gained the body awareness, but also haven't hit those big growth spurts that wreak havoc on their bodies (fears, re-learning how to do giants so you don't hit the low bar etc.) Maybe it's just that way around here. Who knows!

DD is Level 7. Her group competed L5 in the fall and is now L7. We often see level repeaters, girls who completed L6, and girls who took a year between L5 & L7. So when I see the 'older' girls in her category, I figure they've got loads more experience than my 3rd grader. On the other hand, DD is doing quite well this season - Optionals is way better for her than compulsories were!!

 

[kayjaybe]

I've seen this happen before. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn't. It is probably best to try not to let your child know what age group she is in, just in case. That way she won't have an expectation of where she will land.

My dd also bumps around between age groups. In our last meet, she placed 4th on beam and that was it. She was in the middle age group. If she was in the older age group (like she usually is), she would have medaled on beam, bars, vault & taken 2nd AA. But, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Last year she got 2 medals at states in her age group but if she had been in the group younger, she would not have medaled at all.

It is hard for them, but it will happen again in the future, so it is something they all need to learn to accept.

 

[needcoffee]

This is something I struggled with last year, and I kinda hate the way we do awards. Quite a few times my DD would have placed AA or on bars if she was just a couple of months older/younger.

Our governing body also breaks their own rules, which is meant to be if there is more than 30 in an age group, they split it in half. Last year at states the level 4 senior group was split in half, but the level 5 seniors who had the exact same number of gymnasts wasn't. My DD wasn't in either of those groups, but I thought it was a bit unfair.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

I'm so sorry I would have been frustrated too! We've never been to a meet where the age groups changed after we got there. I don't think it's cool to bump her down to the 11 and under when she is 12 either.

We have been to a lot of meets where the groupings are kind of uneven. Like the group before ours or after will have half as many girls as our group. It can be mind boggling trying to figure out the reasoning behind age groups, I've pretty much given up. DD can be with one group of girls on her team at one meet, be the only one on her team in her age group at the next, and then at the next meet be with an entirely different group of teammates. It seems that no matter what we are almost always in the largest age group and with the top scorers from the whole meet. There were many times she would have been first AA if she had been one age group up or down. We finally got lucky this year at a smaller meet and she landed in just the right age group and won it. She was super stoked of course but I told her to not expect it to happen again anytime soon, b/c you just never know how the age groups will end up. I prefer the meets that group them by bday and then make the groups as even as possible, and that's getting to be more common around here but doesn't always happen that way.
I'm so sorry your DD was disappointed and I hope that the next meet experience she has is a much more positive one. Tell her to keep her head held high!

 

[sleeping judy]

I've seen this happen before. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it doesn't. It is probably best to try not to let your child know what age group she is in, just in case. That way she won't have an expectation of where she will land.

My dd also bumps around between age groups. In our last meet, she placed 4th on beam and that was it. She was in the middle age group. If she was in the older age group (like she usually is), she would have medaled on beam, bars, vault & taken 2nd AA. But, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Last year she got 2 medals at states in her age group but if she had been in the group younger, she would not have medaled at all.

It is hard for them, but it will happen again in the future, so it is something they all need to learn to accept.

I agree sometimes it works in her favor and sometimes not. I mentally prep her because she does go back and forth so much. She usually accepts it nicely because she was aware of which age group she was in. It's hard to not let her know which age group she is in because she's 12 and can read the program. She also knows she's 12 so would naturally expect to be in the 12 year old age group. She also has added up all her scores so she knows where she falls. It was a hard blow because she thought she was in one age group and they changed her last minute to another without any mention.

I don't think it's crap that she didn't win any medals. I think it's crap that they flipped her to a different age group without any notification and one for which she isn't even the right age. The look on her face when she realized was just defeated.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Its not possible to make sense out of age groups.

 

[sleeping judy]

Its not possible to make sense out of age groups.

Right, but they need to pick one and stick with it

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Right, but they need to pick one and stick with it

Yes that would be nice and nothing surprises me.

 

[skschlag]

All I can say is that at least they try to do even age groups for girls. At my ds' meet this weekend there were 2 age groups for level 9. younger group had 35, older group had 3....