This is kind of how it goes down in our house:
Day before:
- Eat well, get good rest. No sleepovers or big outings for the day
- Hydrate!
- Locate and lay out all of your competition gear (don't forget shoes!)
- Locate and lay out all of your hair stuff
- Pack your backpack with a snack, extra grips, hair spray, spare leo, extra hair thingies, etc.
- A good day for doing visualizations of your routines. Not unusual to see my daughter randomly doing full turns around the house.
Morning of:
- Eat good food with quality nutrition (whether that's grazing or a big meal--sometimes my daughter opts for a smoothie, then packs some pretzels, nuts and fruit for the road. Sometimes she wants pancakes, lol.)
- Hydrate!
- A few hours before leaving, do hair (and makeup, if applicable). This gives you plenty of time to deal with days when your hair wants to do anything but what you need it to!
- Get dressed and be ready to go on time!
If you have a lot of travel to do, listen to music that calms you or hypes you up (whatever you need that day!) or just an audiobook or podcast to take your mind off of things entirely.
For hair, we just use the bun doughnuts you can buy on Amazon. Those plus lots of gel and hairspray, hair thingies and a few bobby pins and it's usually pretty easy. My daughter (13) mostly does her hair herself; I just wrap the hair elastics around the doughnut.
I don't know if it would work for you, but my daughter often facetimes with her teammates when getting ready. It kind of turns her nervousness into something more like excitement, and makes her feel a lot more positive. Like they are all going into battle together, so she isn't as fixated on the little issues she's working on. It's reassuring to hear that the nerves are normal.
It's great if you can have something fun planned after the meet. Whether it's hitting up a tasty restaurant or ice cream place, or going to a friend's house for a sleepover... it's good to have something to look forward to that's going to be enjoyable, no matter what happens at the meet.
Finally, I always remind my daughter that ultimately, (like on an existential level), none of this really matters. There are any number of things she could choose to be doing on a given weekend day, but she chose gymnastics and going to a gymnastics meet, because she loves doing this sport. Meets are her chance to show off what she can do and what she's been working so hard on. It should be fun and enjoyable, to participate in this activity with a ton of other people who love the sport like she does. These are her people! This is her tribe! How wonderful to have this opportunity!
And honestly, the more fun she's having, the better she does out there. Because she's relaxed and her joy shows through. Feel better, do better. It's awesome.
Hope this is at least a little helpful. Absolute best of luck on your upcoming season! Keep us posted about how it goes!
