WAG Question about level 4 bar routine

[needcoffee]

As the mother of a kid who will more than likely never medal, I understand. It's hard watching the same kids win over and over again. I made the mistake of going through all the results from a comp a few weeks ago and thought "wow, if my kid was born 6 months earlier, she would have come 2nd AA in her session!". So no, I suppose it's never going to be fair for some. I just do the best I can not to put any emphasis on scores and placements.

 

[munchkin3]

There is a lot to be said for putting the onus on the kid. It's amazing how many girls did the skill.....flyaway with no spot, free hips etc. But to tell a kid, if your BWO is not spot on most of the time, then you are re doing a whole season of 4, is upsetting.......

I understand that a coach never wants to spot during a meet. But if the whole point is to progress, it think you would get it faster by competing a bit ahead and let the child catch up rather than compete behind and have the child bored and unmotivated.

I don't know what you all think, but I would rather pay for progress than for a gazillion first place medals.

Surround yourself with those who are stronger and better.

 

[munchkin3]

As the mother of a kid who will more than likely never medal, I understand. It's hard watching the same kids win over and over again. I made the mistake of going through all the results from a comp a few weeks ago and thought "wow, if my kid was born 6 months earlier, she would have come 2nd AA in her session!". So no, I suppose it's never going to be fair for some. I just do the best I can not to put any emphasis on scores and placements.

When she gets her medal, regardless of what spot, she will be overwhelmed with happiness and the whole crowd will notice. That moment is priceless.

 

[profmom]

The only way to make a legitimate sandbagging charge, IMHO, is if it's the team, not an individual gymnast. With one gymnast, it's quite likely there is a story. L4 to L5, it could easily be backwards trouble on beam, which can last for years.

I've only seen it with one gym and on the boys' side. Doesn't really matter much because as the boys repeating L4 and L5 continue to get better, they also continue to age up and out of competition with the littler guys. And in that case, the blame lies at the door of the gym's owner, who likes all the championship banners and won't let the coach field a L6 or L7 team. Anyway, perhaps because the boy parents are a little more chill about the whole thing, we just laugh and move on when one of their compulsories puts up a 66-67 AA. We'll catch 'em at L8 -- because they won't be ready.

Basically, people need to worry a lot less about it. In four years, you won't remember what medals your child got or didn't get at any given meet. You'll care about seeing that look of triumph on their faces when they come bubbling out of practice to tell you that they finally got that skill that's been bedeviling them for months. As our very wise program director told the boys when they started, "Gymnastics is what happens in the gym. Meets are just for you to show off for your parents."

 

[raenndrops]

I never knew about this concept until reading this post, but find it fascinating because I went to a meet this weekend where the first place team did really well. I got curious so checked past scores and saw that of their top five gymnasts (who took the top six overall spots at the meet), all have competed L4 before and did reasonably well. For one, this is her fourth year in L4 and at last year's states she got close to a 38AA. I know that everyone's got their own path/situation and I don't know the whole story, but it does seem strange. But maybe not as strange as me coming home from a meet and analyzing the scoring history of kids I don't even know...? Oh, this is a funny sport in so many ways...

Remember though that the levels changed names a few years ago... so, if this is her 4th year at Level 4, then the first year was Old L4... so this os ONLY her 3rd year at New L4, lol. Maybe her gym has a 38 at States to move up rule or something stupid like that.

 

[ascarter1]

I actually can't imagine though a coach/club keeping a kid at the same level for FOUR years unless something significant was going on if you know what I mean? Even all the sandbagging and medals in history isn't worth that if the kid could easily move up. My DD would be bored ****less, and I can't imagine a parent that would be happy with it. What a waste of money. If it was true sandbagging, I'd be gym shopping.

Unfortunately, there is a club in my state that does this exact thing. When dd was in compulsories, we didn't even consider them when competing. Their girls were literally 4+years older than our oldest girls. Luckily we are in our 2nd year of optionals now, and don't have to deal with them!

 

[raenndrops]

There is a lot to be said for putting the onus on the kid. It's amazing how many girls did the skill.....flyaway with no spot, free hips etc. But to tell a kid, if your BWO is not spot on most of the time, then you are re doing a whole season of 4, is upsetting.......

I understand that a coach never wants to spot during a meet. But if the whole point is to progress, it think you would get it faster by competing a bit ahead and let the child catch up rather than compete behind and have the child bored and unmotivated.

I don't know what you all think, but I would rather pay for progress than for a gazillion first place medals.

Surround yourself with those who are stronger and better.

That is our gym's philosophy... and by the end of the season, we have a lot of strong contenders. We do not repeat a level more than once unless there is a REALLY good reason and the gymnast is young (no kip, no beam cartwheel, no FHS and under 10 years old ... combined = No L4). Once they get into Jr. High, The goal is to make sure they get out of compulsories. If they compete for the MS team, HC will allow them to score out of L4 and / or L5 (2 meets per level needed) and compete L6 with their MS routines (Basically Xcel Platinum Routines tweaked if needed)... or they can compete Xcel Gold if their routines weren't "Platinum worthy."

 

[needcoffee]

When she gets her medal, regardless of what spot, she will be overwhelmed with happiness and the whole crowd will notice. That moment is priceless.

Only the top 3 AA medal around here so probably won't happen this year, she's in a tough age division! Maybe next year!

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Only the top 3 AA medal around here so probably won't happen this year, she's in a tough age division! Maybe next year!

At states they hand out medals for top 3 on each apparatus.

 

[needcoffee]

At states they hand out medals for top 3 on each apparatus.

Ooooh really?? Cool! Fingers crossed then!