WAG Meets - the good, bad and ugly

[htimcj]

I have learned over the years to just go with the flow. We go to one meet where all of the girls are called behind the awards area, given their awards and then march out one at a time when their names are called. As the walk up their placements are announced. The awards are also a plaque with little metal stickers to place on it. Goes really fast but everyone has their time.

Most meets have two sets of equipment going at the same time but no one ever seems to get confused with things.

When we have two flights we request that our team at least be on the same event since we only have one coach. Meets have been very accommodating with this. We only had one meet where we didn't end up going because the meet changed the DAY, TIMES and PLACE of the meet. They split the teams into to groups and had them competing in different venues at the same time. If we knew before that was going to be the set up we would never had gone in the first place. That just doesn't work when you only have one coach. The meet refunded us our money.

All of the bigger meets we go to have 3 or four full sets all in a giant room. Only states had two different rooms going, one for level 3-10 and another for boys and cell

 

[Byrd_USA]

Let's see.
the bad
DS got stress fracture on his hand 2 days before Regionals.
Bleeding from rips so he got rebandaged between events during meet.

Don't let 5yr old kid run across the floor mat while team mate is starting tumbling pass. Yes he did get deducted for stopping.
Judge swears he didn't see the child.

Don't play national anthem while kids are in the middle of routines. Battle Creek.

Team had the flu during States.

The good.
Moving up level 5 to 7 DS had great year averaging many 2nd place AA.
3rd year State Champion. Vault
Regionals qualifier.
I didn't have to declare bankruptcy.

 

[gymdog]

When we have two flights we request that our team at least be on the same event since we only have one coach.

I don't understand how this works. Do the girls just warm up by themselves while the other flight competes or does the coach not watch them compete? With the modified capital cup system there is no way to coach two flights without holding up the meet or not supervising some kids. Let's say you're flight one and two starting on vault, first flight warms up and goes, then needs to rotate to bars and start warming up. Usually they will need to be warming up while second flight is still competing, unless there's a back up and obviously the timing on some events is off (floor takes longer than bars for each gymnast to compete). But overall either the gymnasts on vault would have to set up and check all their stuff while the coach warms up bars or the kids on bars have to warm up by themselves, or you have to hold up the meet rotation your flights together (which defeats the point of flights).

Whenever a meet schedule is published here, it always includes the required number of coaches based on how many flights the team will be in. That number of coaches is required. I'm not sure if the R&P addresses this specifically but I don't know what a meet here would do if some requested to only have one coach for two flights. I don't see any way it can be accommodated. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Any meet we have been at there must be at least one coach per group, which I assume is a flight. So if we have our girls split in 2 groups but in the same session we have 2 coaches on the floor, one for each group.

 

[needcoffee]

I have absolutely nothing of substance to add, but this thread has been a cool read! Our meets (maybe 3-4 a year) are all at the same place, living in the most isolated capital city in the world, there is nowhere to travel to. Lol. Unless you are lucky enough to be one of the very few to make the state team and head to nationals.

I whinge when I have to drive 30 minutes up the freeway. I don't know how you all do it, paying travel expenses and hotels!

 

[z2akids]

Any meet we have been at there must be at least one coach per group, which I assume is a flight. So if we have our girls split in 2 groups but in the same session we have 2 coaches on the floor, one for each group.

You can have your team split into two or more groups without them being in different flights. At our meets, they don't usually put more than 12 gymnasts on an apparatus at a time. So, if there are more than 48 gymnasts in a session, the groups are divided into flights. One flight competes while the other flight is warming up.

So you could be in the same flight, just starting on different events. Or, they could be in different flights starting in either the same event our different events. But at our meets, if you have more than 12 gymnasts competing in a session, they need to have at least 2 coaches there (if you have more than 24 gymnasts, you would need at least 3 coaches, etc).

 

[wnl256]

Any meet we have been at there must be at least one coach per group, which I assume is a flight.

Let's be clear on the terminology as I think it is leading to some confusion and mis-statements. A flight has a very specific meaning and it is not the same as a squad. A typical rotation will have four squads: one on each apparatus (I'm assuming women's gymnastics). Each squad rotates together through the equipment. Larger meets may have two sets of equipment and two sets of squads competing. In this case, each "set" of 4 squads is called a flight. While one flight competes, the other is warming up for their next event.

Splitting a team up across two squads in the same flight will require at least 2 coaches: one with each group. It doesn't need to be the same coach for each rotation, so you can have one coach do vault and bars while the other does beam and floor. Splitting a team up across two flights seems to be like it would be a bit more complicated. Depending on the setup, the two coaches might hardly ever see each other during the entire competition.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Let's be clear on the terminology as I think it is leading to some confusion and mis-statements. A flight has a very specific meaning and it is not the same as a squad. A typical rotation will have four squads: one on each apparatus (I'm assuming women's gymnastics). Each squad rotates together through the equipment. Larger meets may have two sets of equipment and two sets of squads competing. In this case, each "set" of 4 squads is called a flight. While one flight competes, the other is warming up for their next event.

Splitting a team up across two squads in the same flight will require at least 2 coaches: one with each group. It doesn't need to be the same coach for each rotation, so you can have one coach do vault and bars while the other does beam and floor. Splitting a team up across two flights seems to be like it would be a bit more complicated. Depending on the setup, the two coaches might hardly ever see each other during the entire competition.

I'm not trying to be obtuse, I might well be but......

2 groups should equal 2 coaches. 4 groups, 4 coaches.

During warm ups, our coach is doing just that coaching. During competition coach needs to be sure of what is going on and making sure all is well.

Not sure why the coaches need to see each other, or stay with the same squad/flight/group.

It would seem to me it shouldn't matter if they are a different "flight" or a "squad" or both. A coach per group.

Thanks for clarifying a flight (even though I am not sure I get that completely , but I don't its you, rather its me)

 

[profmom]

Let me see if I can sort this out. Imagine a big meet with lots of teams and two very large teams in split squads. It's set up like this:

FLIGHT A (competes first event at 9 AM)

Vault

Team Stars (squad 1)
Team Stripes
Team Circles​

Bars

Team Red
Team White
Team Blue​

Beam

Team Stars (squad 2)
Team Cats
Team Dogs​

Floor

Team Azalea
Team Daisy
Team Rose​

FLIGHT B (warms up in back gym at 9 AM, competes first event at 9:45 AM)

Vault

Team Dolphins
Team Swordfish
Team Stingray​

Bars

Team Gold (squad 1)
Team Azure
Team Cyan​

Beam

Team Journey
Team Van Halen
Team Foreigner​

Floor

Team Gold (squad 2)
Team Hyundai
Team Kia
​

Note that in this scenario, Teams Stars and Gold need two sets of coaches, but neither team is split across flights. This will work whether you have one group of coaches trailing around after a squad for the whole meet or if you do dedicated event coaching, so the vault coach for Gold and Stars can hang out there and coach the girls whenever they show up on her/his event.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Regardless of which coach it is or which flight.

Gold and Stars have 2 squads, they would require a coach for each squad on each event, correct ???

We have had situations like this. Each "group" of our kids has a coach. Again the coaches may switch out, but no group/squad regardless of flight, doesn't have a coach. Our Coach A might do floor and beam for both sqads, Coach B bars and vault. But none of groups are without a coach.

 

[gymdog]

This is how modified capital cup works:

Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor

Each has a flight one and a flight two. You could start, for example, on flight one bars, or flight two vault.

I have more than 12 gymnasts per level, generally. Sometimes I get lucky and they put up to 15 per flight (not for every single event and group because that would be more kids than allowed overall), so sometimes I barely make that and we're in one flight, usually we are not. So we will have ten kids somewhere and 5-10 kids somewhere else. No matter where we start, let's say we're flight one and flight two on vault. Flight one still has to rotate before flight two. Even if we are flight one bars and flight one vault, both groups need to be doing something simultaneously on another apparatus, so two coaches are required.

Culturally, here, we tend to use flight to mean the people we are rotating with, which is a bit confusing because it means for general purposes we would consider flight one vault and flight one bars different flights. They are technically the same flight I guess, flight one, but since we call the group of teams starting first on bars "our flight", then to us, flight one vault is a "different flight." In other areas they may use different terminology like squad to mean the group of teams. Squad is kind of a technical term here and not really used colloquially. But that may be what's making this conversation confusing.

Still I don't see any way in modified capital cup or true capital cup for a team to be in two groups with one coach. Either everyone has to start on flight one bars meaning everyone warms up together, or there has to be two coaches.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

This is how modified capital cup works:
Still I don't see any way in modified capital cup or true capital cup for a team to be in two groups with one coach. Either everyone has to start on flight one bars meaning everyone warms up together, or there has to be two coaches.

That's pretty much what I thought, thanks.

 

[htimcj]

I don't understand how this works. Do the girls just warm up by themselves while the other flight competes or does the coach not watch them compete? With the modified capital cup system there is no way to coach two flights without holding up the meet or not supervising some kids. Let's say you're flight one and two starting on vault, first flight warms up and goes, then needs to rotate to bars and start warming up. Usually they will need to be warming up while second flight is still competing, unless there's a back up and obviously the timing on some events is off (floor takes longer than bars for each gymnast to compete). But overall either the gymnasts on vault would have to set up and check all their stuff while the coach warms up bars or the kids on bars have to warm up by themselves, or you have to hold up the meet rotation your flights together (which defeats the point of flights).

Whenever a meet schedule is published here, it always includes the required number of coaches based on how many flights the team will be in. That number of coaches is required. I'm not sure if the R&P addresses this specifically but I don't know what a meet here would do if some requested to only have one coach for two flights. I don't see any way it can be accommodated. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

I am not sure exactly how it works since DD levels have always been small enough to not get split but our l3-4 this year were larger 12-14 kids and they had been split across two flights but the same event. I didn't hear any complaints but wasn't there to see how it was actually accomplished.

 

[twinmomma]

We actually had our L3 team in two separate sessions at one meet - different times, different awards, etc... It stunk big time. Sure, we had a larger team (20) but every other meet was able to get us all into the same session. The girls didn't get to support each other, and the coaches had to miss the awards from the early group so they could go warm up the later group.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

We actually had our L3 team in two separate sessions at one meet - different times, different awards, etc... It stunk big time. Sure, we had a larger team (20) but every other meet was able to get us all into the same session. The girls didn't get to support each other, and the coaches had to miss the awards from the early group so they could go warm up the later group.

My dd's level 2 group had 12 girls in it and I think there was only 1 meet that all 12 girls were in the session. The age range was 6-9 and there was almost always at least a couple of girls that were split out from the main group. Sometimes it was 6 and 6. Once it was 11 and 1 (the oldest). Some of the girls stayed and cheered her on at least. Of the ones that were in the same session,they still were always split into separate groups starting on different events. However, I don't think they were ever in different flights at the same session. We had one level 2 coach and she always had to bring along another coach (usually one of the level 3 coaches) to help.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

We actually had our L3 team in two separate sessions at one meet - different times, different awards, etc... It stunk big time. Sure, we had a larger team (20) but every other meet was able to get us all into the same session. The girls didn't get to support each other, and the coaches had to miss the awards from the early group so they could go warm up the later group.

We have had this happen a few times, they end up split by age groups. It happens.

 

[sce]

oic. well, maybe temperature then! IT was so hot this weekend, that the kids were all flushed during the meet. And concession prices....seriously...$3 for a bottle of water?? I know that case cost about $3 for 36 at Sam's club....

That is expensive. I know that $1 is already a big mark-up but I pay it as I know it's a fundraiser but $3!

I agree about temperature. Regionals was COLD! Dd's first meet was cold too, it was early morning and the girls were freezing.

I am not surprised that there were a lot of awards criticisms, as those vary so much from meet to meet and effect the overall experience. I totally agree about not listing all places, just a quick and also participating were .... Only for AA, not all events.

I do like that the gifts vary from meet to meet but I have no issue with the t-shirt coupon, as I'm good at saying, "no" to the extras. We just get the free one and go. Though it can still take forever if it's not run well.

Also, if one event is running over don't half the girls to the next event and then make the rest fit their floor warm-up in between routines. It's not fair.

 

[sce]

We have had meets where they didn't let us take anything in

That is not okay.

 

[COz]

Just curious, how much do you pay for a bottle of water from a vending machine in the US?
Here it is not uncommon to pay close to $3 for a bottle of water in a shop or from a vending machine.

 

[Oceanflippermom]

I hate how much it costs to get into a meet! Paying 50.00 to get the hubby, me and my son in is no fun! I wish we went to the meets that gave leos! The only meet we have ever received a leo at is Ozone!