Anon Question about team breakdowns at competitions

[Anonymous (6a47)]

New gymnastics parent here. Most of this is way over my head! Haha.

When at competitions, I sometimes see two separate sessions or divisions for the same level. I understand that within the level they break the kids down by age group. Makes sense so you do not have a much older kid competing against a much younger kid. Is the reason for two separate sessions/divisions just based on amount of kids total? Or is it talent based? Team size? I have no idea!

Like for example, below is the state meet for levels 3/4 in Ohio. The only thing I can guess is the size of the teams? But even then the level 3 top division has 279 kids vs 140 in the lower? Where as the level 4 looks fairly even.

Not that it really matters in the long run, but a curious mind must know!!! Thanks in advance!

https://www.ohiousag.org/Media/Compulsory-State-Division-Breakdown.pdf

 

[Anonymous (ee16)]

Each meet does it differently, as you can see at the bottom of that pdf they didn't have enough athletes for level 2 and level 5 to be divided into divisions so it's one group.

As far as how they split it up it's up to the meet director, looks like at that meet they put all the big gyms in one session and the smaller gyms in another, some like to split up the bigger gyms between sessions.

 

[Anonymous (11ce)]

Does Buckeye have 50 level 3s?! That’s the size of our entire DP team! Whoaa

I’m not in your region, but looking at that spreadsheet makes me think it’s purely by team size.

 

[Anonymous (6a47)]

that was my best guess as well that it was team size. Im just used to regular sports and this is all too new! little more complicated to follow than a 55-46 basketball game. haha!

 

[gymgal]

Our state meets run solely by age division. It is crazy for the coaches because they often have lots of back to back sessions of just 1-3 gymnasts each from their individual gym. I have seen what you reference in the chart in large meets, where they will divide the larger teams from the smaller ones. We often found this worked to the smaller gyms' benefit because the larger gyms are usually powerhouses with higher hours, intensive training and higher scoring.