Parents Meets

[Teammom]

Just curious...after your gymnast’s first meet, did he or she enjoy gymnastics more or did the nerves of competition make him or her like it less? Or, did meets not make a difference?

My 7 yo daughter is about to begin level 3 competitions in the fall. She likes gymnast plenty right now. She is very competitive, so I think she’ll enjoy competitions as long as she gets a ribbon every now and then!

 

[RTT2]

She always enjoyed the fun of competing. Nerves really didn't kick in until a season or so in, but she still loves meets.

 

[kipnastic mom]

Just curious...after your gymnast’s first meet, did he or she enjoy gymnastics more or did the nerves of competition make him or her like it less? Or, did meets not make a difference?

My 7 yo daughter is about to begin level 3 competitions in the fall. She likes gymnast plenty right now. She is very competitive, so I think she’ll enjoy competitions as long as she gets a ribbon every now and then!

When my daughter competed the first time, we were hopeful, that this would be something she would decide really wasn't for her. Needless to say, she loved every minute and has continued with her love of the sport for several years. Its crazy watching her perform under pressure and come away with a huge smile!!!

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Mine was 7 when she started competing and I just asked her and she said it made no difference. That kind of surprised me.

Then I asked if she would still want to train with the hours and intensity she does if there were no competitions at all and the answer was basically a "Duh, yes." I knew she was skills-motivated and not winning-motivated, but not how much.

 

[Aussie_coach]

The meet is usually about so much more than just the competition and the results to the girls. They like having an outing with their team mates and coaches. Wearing their special leotard, being chosen to represent their gym, having everyone cheer for them etc. It makes them feel special and important to be part of something like this, and be chosen to represent their gym. The results may be secondary to many little girls.

How competing affects their enjoyment will also come down to how it is approached by their coaches and family. If everyone enjoys the moment, celebrates all successes (not just wins) and sends out a positive vibe, it should be a positive experience.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

My daughter would be Ok if there were no meets. And she could just do gymnastics.

It’s not that she feels a huge amount of pressure and she has a good time with her team at meets and she would be fine not doing them too.

 

[JessSyd]

Mine loves the meets, and has sinceher very first one at aged six. As Aussie Coach said, it was about the sparkly leotard, and hanging out with her coach and teammates, and the interesting meet routine, and being at a different gym, and presenting to the judges and so on. About that ‘special event’ vibe, I guess you could say. She always finished every competition, even the ones where she came stone cold last, fired up (in a good way) and desperate to get back into the gym to keep gymming!

Now she is nearly eleven. This current season is the first season she has come out of meets and actually asked ‘what did I score?’ And it is the first season she has really been nervous before competing. I think something has shifted a little as she has grown older and while the vibe is still where the fun lies, the competitive side of thing is starting to become more serious for her.

 

[SMH]

Mine was 7 when she started competing and I just asked her and she said it made no difference. That kind of surprised me.

Then I asked if she would still want to train with the hours and intensity she does if there were no competitions at all and the answer was basically a "Duh, yes." I knew she was skills-motivated and not winning-motivated, but not how much.

This is also my gymnast. She loves meets because she gets to hang out with her friends and coaches, go to a ‘fun’ place, but she would be just as happy working new skills and eternally uptraining without any competitions. She’s happy when she medals she’s happy when she doesn’t, but what really makes her heart full is learning new skills.

She’s fiercely competitive in every other thing in her life, but for some reason, maybe because she’s 9 or because she loves gymnastics so much, she’s not competitive when it comes to meets. Placing is a fun extra, not a ‘need’.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Right? In the gym if you present her with any type of contest, she's fiercely competitive. But at meets as long as she gets SOMETHING out of it (whether doing well in an event or having a personal victory) she's cool. She enjoys all the downtime with her friends for sure.

 

[CLgym]

When mine was on pre-team at age 6, they learned routines (think they were maybe the Level 1 routines) for a "showcase" -- and this pretty much sealed the deal with my DD. She loved learning the choreography and perfecting the details of each routine. Her first real meets (age 7 Xcel Bronze) were pretty fun too -- super duper low key -- but exhausting for her. She would crash afterwards.

It has unfortunately gone down hill since then. Mine likes the idea of meets (especially fun travel locations), but I think it's fair to say that she affirmatively dislikes the actual meets themselves. She still crashes afterwards (last season L7 age 10). She is grumpy and tired even after a good meet. Rarely wants to eat out afterwards with teammates, etc. And it's not stress about the scores or medals for her. She obviously wants to do well, but is pretty practical about the ups/downs of competition (falls happen, etc.). She just physically does not respond well to the stress, anxiety and adrenaline that meets produce in her. On our drive to Regionals this year, she wanted to skip it and pretend to be sick. (She ended up Regionals bars champ w/ her highest AA since Xcel Bronze, but still probably would have preferred to skip and stay home.)

A related question for discussion --- Do you think that enjoying meets is a requirement for longevity in this sport? Would love to hear thoughts on this.

OP -- Good luck to your DD this season in L3. Such an exciting time!! Enjoy

 

[cp13]

My daughter is the opposite from what all of you are describing. I feel like my daughter lives for meets. She seems to lose her motivation during the summer and becomes motivated once meet season is here and the pressure is on. I think she likes performing and the travel and the fun of being with teammates, regardless of what her results are. She never has gotten too worked up about her results. She is 13 and moved from L6 this summer to Xcel. She left J.O because she was having a hard time with the pressure to get more skills, the intensity of the conditioning and the time commitment. Based on her, I would think the kids who may last longer in the sport are the ones who enjoy training or who are very driven to constantly improve and progress.

 

[sce]

Just curious...after your gymnast’s first meet, did he or she enjoy gymnastics more or did the nerves of competition make him or her like it less? Or, did meets not make a difference?

My 7 yo daughter is about to begin level 3 competitions in the fall. She likes gymnast plenty right now. She is very competitive, so I think she’ll enjoy competitions as long as she gets a ribbon every now and then!

Competition made both of mine want to work harder in the gym, so that they could do better at each subsequent meet.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

My DD starting competing at 7 and before then she had been very shy and did not enjoy having attention on her, so I was worried that she would freeze and not even compete when it was her turn. Surprisingly to us, she loved competing, especially on floor. The sport and her coaches had really built up confidence in herself, and I think getting to wear a sparkly leotard was the icing on the cake. This was the first year that we started to see a few nerves on the beam, but overall she remains calm and upbeat throughout the meet. She is very goal oriented, and so we always come up with nonscore related goals that she can meet and if she medals it’s an added bonus. I think she would still like gymnastics without the meets, but I think for her it’s a way to feel rewarded and to show off the skills she has worked so hard on.

 

[josie55]

A related question for discussion --- Do you think that enjoying meets is a requirement for longevity in this sport? Would love to hear thoughts on this.

I tend to think the opposite - that enjoying training is a requirement for longevity in the sport. Sure it's best if a kid doesn't hate competing, but given how much time they spend training relative to how much time they spend competing, I would much prefer that my kid loves the training and not the meets, versus loving meets but not the training.

 

[3cats]

My daughter loves the training and especially the learning of new skills part of gymnastics. Meets, well she can take or leave them. When she reflects on her first year of competition she remarks how very little she understood about it. Now there is a lot more pressure with competition, but she still doesn't take it super seriously. She's in it for the thrills.

 

[Cheryl]

My kid could easily live without meets and willingly go to practice and learn new skills. When he was in compulsory, he enjoyed them more because he usually had all the bonuses and was very clean and won a lot.

Like lots of gymnasts, he tends toward anxiety and perfectionism. Optionals are much trickier scoring wise. It drives him up the wall when he gets lower scores on more difficult routines than kids who do easier routines but do them cleaner, although I’ve seen plenty of routines that I thought were disastrous that scored well and routines that I thought looked great that scored poorly.

I’ve decided I will find something to praise about his competition whether he wins or not, and just be a spectator and not try to second guess scoring. There’s always the meet you nail everything and there’s also the meet where you fall on your butt at least once.