Women Regionals - lower numbers than usual - any insight?

[CuriousCate]

So I put this in a post about region 8 but wondered if anyone in any region had some insight.

I noticed for NC level 7, in 2019 the top 105 girls (out of 213 competitors) made it to regionals. This year, it says that they will only take 56 girls.

I wondered a few things:

1- are other regions noticing a change like this?
2- do you all have any insight on the reason for such a dramatic decrease? Are there fewer competitors overall this season? Or are they purposely decreasing the number for COVID safety?

 

[chalkbowl]

So I put this in a post about region 8 but wondered if anyone in any region had some insight.

I noticed for NC level 7, in 2019 the top 105 girls (out of 213 competitors) made it to regionals. This year, it says that they will only take 56 girls.

I wondered a few things:

1- are other regions noticing a change like this?
2- do you all have any insight on the reason for such a dramatic decrease? Are there fewer competitors overall this season? Or are they purposely decreasing the number for COVID safety?

Many regions are score based for regionals, not % based, so it's hard comparing other regions. I THINK only Region 8 & Region 6 do percentages. I imagine there are likely many less competitors this season for many reason. I imagine there was a fairly large loss in kids due to kids dropping (especially the higher optional levels), gyms deciding not to compete, or families not willing to travel out of state for meets.

 

[Flopsygymnast]

Makes sense my sis gym about 2/3 of all the competitive teams are competing at state. Usually all the kids will compete at state - its the most important. I think this yr some ppl dont want to travel and meet other ppl. And some girls havent qualified to state as they havent competed at all this season. And she says the higher level optionals are much smaller teams than usual, bc a few girls dropped and many girls repeated so hardly any level 10's

 

[mom2newgymnast]

I'm a numbers person too, so I was looking at it earlier. If you look at the state meet schedule, it looks like there are 152 level 7s competing at the state meet in NC. It's virtual and, from what I can tell, most, if not all, of the gyms in NC are competing at it. So there are definitely less competing overall at that level, but that allotment for regionals still seems low. I don't get the feeling that the regional meet is really much smaller though, so I wonder if it's just that NC has less girls at that level this year and other states have more?

Also, interesting, but the number of girls competing level 9 and 10 at the state meet are actually up from 2 years ago. There are 209 total 9 and 10s and I think it is pretty evenly split. I think it makes sense that there are more 9s then before since the jump from 9 to 10 is huge and I would guess that with the reduced training/etc that more girls would have repeated 9. I'm still surprised by the numbers a little. But then again we have full teams competing at all levels (heck we have 20+ level 8 girls alone) at our gym. What's going to be interesting is, as a gym in NC, we haven't really competed against any of the other strong NC teams this season, so we have no idea what the competition will be like at the state meet. I think the majority of big gyms in NC only competed virtually or attended small, local meets while we travelled out of state for all our meets.

 

[flippin out]

I posted this on the other thread, then saw this here --- so I'll comment here too lol

there may be some gyms that have chosen to either 1) not have any season at all due to interrupted training 2) chosen to not attend Regionals for the same reason or 3) chosen to not attend Regionals bc they are afraid of the virus [I know of at least 1 gym that the coach is super paranoid about the virus and has refused to go to any meets at all this entire year....so the kids there do not get to go. don't flame me with whatever your opinions are on that....doesn't matter whether you or I agree with it, it's about whatever is in the heads of those owners/coaches]

 

[Flopsygymnast]

I know a few level 10 girls from a nearby gym are competing with our gym for state and regionals as their club arent competing. Our gym allowed it as a one-off for a fee.

 

[gymgal]

If the 152 state competitors is correct, then the percentage is around 37%, which falls in line with previous the past several years. L8 hovers in the 55% range. So it looks like it is just a lower number of state qualifiers this year, which makes sense with covid.

Good luck to all the gymnasts at state meet! As anxiety provoking it used to be for me, I really miss the JO meets...

 

[jamieintexas]

Many regions are score based for regionals, not % based, so it's hard comparing other regions. I THINK only Region 8 & Region 6 do percentages. I imagine there are likely many less competitors this season for many reason. I imagine there was a fairly large loss in kids due to kids dropping (especially the higher optional levels), gyms deciding not to compete, or families not willing to travel out of state for meets.

Region 3 does a percentage.

 

[novagymmom]

Interesting. We don't do %s in Region 7. But I did check and the # of L9/L10 going to States in Virginia was 195 in 2019 and only 154 this year. So definitely a big reduction just at States!

 

[ernestine]

We are region 8 and level 8. Many of the gyms in our area limited competition in house meets and are not traveling at all or sending anyone to state at any level.

 

[CuriousCate]

If the 152 state competitors is correct, then the percentage is around 37%, which falls in line with previous the past several years. L8 hovers in the 55% range. So it looks like it is just a lower number of state qualifiers this year, which makes sense with covid.

Good luck to all the gymnasts at state meet! As anxiety provoking it used to be for me, I really miss the JO meets...

So I'm seeing that this year for level 7 it would be 37% (56/152) as you said but that in 2019 it was 49% (105/213 kids). That seems crazy low to me. I'm just being paranoid because my kid had one virtual meet and one in-person and her virtual score was pretty terrible in comparison to all of her in-person scores last season (she is repeating level 7) and compared to the one in-person score this year. Man, I hope she makes it!!!!

 

[gymgal]

So I'm seeing that this year for level 7 it would be 37% (56/152) as you said but that in 2019 it was 49% (105/213 kids). That seems crazy low to me. I'm just being paranoid because my kid had one virtual meet and one in-person and her virtual score was pretty terrible in comparison to all of her in-person scores last season (she is repeating level 7) and compared to the one in-person score this year. Man, I hope she makes it!!!!

Maybe they cut it down due to occupancy restrictions due to covid? But also, the way they figure out the numbers could be what is happening. If it's the same years' past, they count the number of gymnasts who scored a 32 and then the number who scored a 34 and they are weighted differently so it is possible that not as many gymnsts scored that 34? unfortunately, It's all conjecture at this point unless there is someone in-the-know here on CB. Good luck to your dd

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Maybe the scoring was just weird at the one virtual meet. I hope she makes it!

It took me a while to dig up the old info from 2019, but I finally did. There were more spots overall so that, combined with less gymnasts at the NC state meet, make sense. This year they are only having 371 total:
AL 26 (8 team + 18) FL 113 (8 team + 105) GA 86 (8 team + 78) LA 15 (8 team + 7) MS 11 (8 team + 3) NC 56 (8 team + 48) SC 30 (8 team + 22) TN 34 (8 team + 26) ------- 371

In 2019, they had 586 total.
AL 37 (8 team + 25) FL 171 (8 team + 163) GA 115 (8 team + 107) LA 33 (8 team + 25) MS 9(8 team + 1) NC 106 (8 team + 98) SC 45 (8 team + 37) TN 52 (8 team + 44) -------586

 

[Flopsygymnast]

Im wondering if at virtual meets the judges watched the routines a few times over or in slow motion so were able to pinpoint more deductions

 

[gymgal]

Im wondering if at virtual meets the judges watched the routines a few times over or in slow motion so were able to pinpoint more deductions

I would hope not! That wouldn't be fair. It's not in the rules to have instant replay

 

[Flopsygymnast]

I would hope not! That wouldn't be fair. It's not in the rules to have instant replay

I dont know anything more than you do but its a possibility

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Here in NY, they do a % but that typically works out to about 55-58 gymnast. In the years I’ve been paying attention which is about 5, it’s never been more then 60 gymnast. So it seems whatever percentage they use they are aiming for a total number of around 55-60.,

There were very few meets in our area. Most qualifying seems to have been done with in house meets for a lot of gyms. None of our L8 girls competed this year. The little ones are. A decision made by us parents. We just felt the stress of the ever changing situation regarding schools and quarantines, limiting spectators and dining/traveling wasn’t worth it. We are a smaller gym, with lower hours. Our girls are happy to be able to practice, work on upgrading skills and be together. So we parents have kind of been chortling them. They have sleepovers and are enjoying themselves. Hoping for a near normal season next year be it at level 8 or 9.

 

[PeanutsMom]

I posted this on the other thread, then saw this here --- so I'll comment here too lol

there may be some gyms that have chosen to either 1) not have any season at all due to interrupted training 2) chosen to not attend Regionals for the same reason or 3) chosen to not attend Regionals bc they are afraid of the virus [I know of at least 1 gym that the coach is super paranoid about the virus and has refused to go to any meets at all this entire year....so the kids there do not get to go. don't flame me with whatever your opinions are on that....doesn't matter whether you or I agree with it, it's about whatever is in the heads of those owners/coaches]

This has happened in my state a lot too. Many gyms are simply doing in house mobility meets and not attending larger meets. This means that many didn't go to State and therefore many will not go to Regionals. There are also some states that didn't hold state competitions and any regular season sanctioned event score of 32.00 will qualify them to Regionals if they didn't host a state meet. I have been trying to figure out how many kids will go to Regionals because of this Covid provision and the in house meets that we can't possibly know about. However I also suspect that if these gyms did not do regular season meets then they likely won't travel for Regionals.