Wow I'm sorry I respectfully don't agree with your comments. We have been told that the tier system will be in place until end March. Competitions are unable to take place until later than that. Possibly much later. They are allowing grades to be skipped, they have put 2 opportunities in for compulsory 2 and 1 to go ahead next year and have rescheduled the British for the Autumn so that girls who missed it in 2020 have every chance to compete in 2021.
I think the only BG national finals missing next year are compulsory 4 and 3 and national grades finals. Unless I forgot some I think all the others are in. I think that is not too bad really considering the crazy situation we are in. I think they have been very flexible really trying to keep everyone safe yet have opportunity.
I think large venues have to be decided and booked a long way in advance. Maybe that is why they have to make decisions early. Also from a safety point of view they have stated they want coaches to know a long way out when the competitions are likely to be so they can plan and train appropriately for the competitions ahead. From a coaching point of view that is important and necessary.
I'm curious what you thought they had been totally inflexible about? I've been quite impressed how they have thought ahead and tried to sort out everything.
I do appreciate some parents feel they don't get the information from their clubs that they would like. That isn't really
Wow I'm sorry I respectfully don't agree with your comments. We have been told that the tier system will be in place until end March. Competitions are unable to take place until later than that. Possibly much later. They are allowing grades to be skipped, they have put 2 opportunities in for compulsory 2 and 1 to go ahead next year and have rescheduled the British for the Autumn so that girls who missed it in 2020 have every chance to compete in 2021.
I think the only BG national finals missing next year are compulsory 4 and 3 and national grades finals. Unless I forgot some I think all the others are in. I think that is not too bad really considering the crazy situation we are in. I think they have been very flexible really trying to keep everyone safe yet have opportunity.
I think large venues have to be decided and booked a long way in advance. Maybe that is why they have to make decisions early. Also from a safety point of view they have stated they want coaches to know a long way out when the competitions are likely to be so they can plan and train appropriately for the competitions ahead. From a coaching point of view that is important and necessary.
I'm curious what you thought they had been totally inflexible about? I've been quite impressed how they have thought ahead and tried to sort out everything.
I do appreciate some parents feel they don't get the information from their clubs that they would like. That isn't really BG's fault.
Wow I’m sorry respectfully also. To satisfy your curiosity I am once again concerned about BG inflexibility towards ,what by now must be considered, their” 2nd tier citizens” on what is misguidingly called the “national path” . Both parents and their children (and in the early days some innocent clubs) are led to believe that this is a softer less extreme route to the British Gymnastic finals but in harsh reality at the final hurdle known as the Challenge cup the qualification scores are set so high as to be near impossible to gain admission to the “elite” club that BG seem to be so unequivocally obsessed with concerning the British Championships.. So impossible in fact that many of the compulsory gymnasts that have earned their right to automatic qualification would also not qualify should they be so unfortunate enough to be given the same great deal that our long serving national girls have. It would indeed be an interesting experiment to see how many of the compulsory girls would actually qualify under an open competition in the Challenge Cup...judging by scores in the actual British it would seem quite a few would not make the grade?
So with the aforementioned in hand then of course if you are a parent or coach of a compulsory or British “passage of right”gymnast you would quite naturally be “ impressed at “how they have thought ahead and tried in their earnest to sort everything out for the “promised few”.
However I am the long suffering parent of a national gymnast who started at the sensible age of 7 years at a club that had decided the national path was more appropriate to its internal economics and most certainly at the time also thought that it was in fact a “real” alternative to the compulsory route offering a realistic chance of making the British Championships. Unfortunately as I have already made clear we need to take away the “realistic” part of the “chance “ in the aforementioned statement.
So what do our national girls who in parallel with all others after a year of nothing have to look forward to in 2021?
Well first the good news, I have scoured the net and discovered that the most impossible of British qualification vehicles commonly known as the Challenge Cup is indeed on the BG menu for early November. I will accept this is at least as a consolation prize when both the English Championships which are a great opportunity for the national path girls and the National grade finals have been written off for the entire year despite the most encouraging signs regarding vaccinations for covid that have made so many of us revert from pessimism to optimism for the first time in almost a year. If only BG were showing that optimism across the whole board, however I will forgive them, perhaps they are still in deep depression about other matters more close to home?
I am also totally miffed about why BG are giving the go ahead for regional grade events ( due to safety presumably??) but cancelling the national finals. I was fortunate enough to travel to Fenton Manor for my daughters National Grades final last year and believe me the venue and audience space is far larger than my region where you are lucky enough to get a seat with standing room only left in the wings. At Fenton Manor there is seating for about a thousand or more. We sat pre covid with space all around us...as with all regions there are 5 gymnasts in team per grade....the number of parents from our region present....5....one per gymnast...of course our regions total parents and family was at the bottom end but trust me there were acres of space available to pick your spot....National Grades are not the British Championships after all are they? Plenty of room to be flexible later in the year should by an unimaginably freak of nature the vaccine prove to be a false hope and the summer weather conditions have not helped as they did this year.
In short given the news regarding forthcoming vaccines and tests BG should be showing more flexibility, faith ,thought and optimism concerning all events. If they are willing to cancel the National finals can you explain why in the same breath they are willing to to authorise and endorse the regional grades? Maybe it’s just down to being loss adverse in booking venues and of course as everybody knows if you are not “compulsory” you really are in the eyes of BG just second or third tier gymnastic citizens not worthy of any special consideration....pun most certainly intended..
