Anon Unfair Coach

[Anonymous (ce65)]

My teammate and I competed the exact same routines last year in xcel gold. When team placements came around, I noticed I got put in xcel gold again, while she was moved up to platinum. When I asked my coach about this, she stated that though we have the same skills, I was held back because I was a first year gold. My teammate was a 4th year gold.

Coach told me what skills I needed to move up to XP: half on full off, kip-cast above horizontal- into clear hip- cartwheel into round off on beam, and front handspring front pike and round handspring layout on floor.

Teammate is competing: half on half off, xcel gold bar routine, cartwheel swing through cartwheel on beam, and rbt and rbhs on floor.

Our routines in XG: vault- half on:: bars - pullover, cast, double bhc, tap swing turn dismount::: beam - cartwheel swing through cartwheel::: floor - round off tuck and front tuck

I find this very unfair. I don’t think so should have higher requirements or be held back solely because I was a first year. I scored well too. I don’t know what to do. Any advice? First meet is in october!

 

[Anonymous (ced6)]

Is there an age difference between you and your teammate? Perhaps the coach is trying to keep people of the same age together.

Also, potentially your coach wants you to be more prepared for Platinum. From my experience, it sounds like your teammate will not be competing skills that are up to par for Platinum. Do you have any of the skills needed for Platinum? Are you close to getting any of them? Keep in mind too, it is possible to move up partway through the season and/or change out skills in routines during the season.

Is there a difference in dance elements? What about technique? What about hours in the gym? Have you been injured at all? These are all things I take into account when looking to move girls between levels as a coach - and these are all things my coaches take into account when moving girls too.

 

[Anonymous (10fc)]

Sometimes it is better to repeat another year (coming from someone who repeated xcel silver for 4 years, and is a 2nd/3rd? year gold)

Last year, I was also bummed by how some of my teammates who competed the same skills as me could move up to platinum, while I stayed i gold (we both also roughly scored on the lower end of our level)

What happened for me was, I had a pretty successful gold season (claming 4th place AA at regionals and placed 4th floor and 5th bars at nationals)

What happened to most of my other teammates was, lower scores (most not even qualifying for reigonals), a bunch of injuries that left them out of training, and eventualy led to 6/8 of them quitting (out of the 2 remaining, one was a senior and graduated)

Me currently, I am training XP and XD, and I can do all of my platinum routines with 10.0 start values, and close to getting all of my XD routines for potentially moving up to XD halfway through this season

So while you think now that its unfair, it can lead to better outcomes for you in the future

 

[Anonymous (10b0)]

There's a lot here I can't comment on because I don't know enough about gymnastics. However, I do know this:
Maybe it's not that the standards are extra high for you because you've only done gold one year, but they've lowered them for your friend so she doesn't stay stuck in gold? How would you feel if you had done gold for 4 years and you had to stay for another 5th year? Maybe they are thinking less about fair or about what skills somebody really should have, and more about making sure your friend still gets to enjoy gymnastics. Maybe they think you can still learn a lot from one more year of gold, but if she's not gotten those skills in 4 years of gold she's not gonna get them in a fifth year. Maybe she has a private reason why she can't be in this group anymore, and they're moving her up because of that. Maybe she's older and they're worried she wont fit in anymore if they leave her in gold. But I can totally get loosening the standards so somebody doesn't stay in gold for 5 years.

The question is, do you think you can learn what you want to learn by doing another year of gold?
Why does this bother you so much? Just the unfairness, or is there a reason you'd want to move to platinum this year per se. Are you worried about getting split up from your friend? Are you worried about not getting to the highest levels before a certain time? Or are you upset for another reason?

It totally makes sense that you're feeling this way. It sucks when things aren't fair. Sometimes, things are unfair for terrible reasons (like when somebody gets treated better because they're rich). Sometimes, different people simply need different things.

 

[Anonymous (ce65)]

Is there an age difference between you and your teammate? Perhaps the coach is trying to keep people of the same age together.

Also, potentially your coach wants you to be more prepared for Platinum. From my experience, it sounds like your teammate will not be competing skills that are up to par for Platinum. Do you have any of the skills needed for Platinum? Are you close to getting any of them? Keep in mind too, it is possible to move up partway through the season and/or change out skills in routines during the season.

Is there a difference in dance elements? What about technique? What about hours in the gym? Have you been injured at all? These are all things I take into account when looking to move girls between levels as a coach - and these are all things my coaches take into account when moving girls too.

I am around a year older than teammate. Neither of us have had major injuries that kept us out of the gym for a long time. I do have both kips that probably could use some work, a front pike, and a round off on the high beam. I’m quite close to my clear hip kip, but I keep tapping feet during my kips. Both of us practiced 7.5 hours a week. I also had a very successful gold season, as I cracked 36’s, 37’s, and even 38 at states and regionals.

For dance element & technique: I have a 180 degree switch leap and a decent 1.5 turn. I believe she can also do a 1.5 turn. I can’t see my own technique, but i did usually have the higher scores on 3 events. She is a beautiful gymnast as well, and in no way was I trying to disregard her talents.
Perhaps she is just looking out for me and wants me to be more prepared for gold. If that’s the case, I wish it was better communicated instead of just “here’s a bunch of skills to get in two months- good luck!”
Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!

 

[Anonymous (ce65)]

There's a lot here I can't comment on because I don't know enough about gymnastics. However, I do know this:
Maybe it's not that the standards are extra high for you because you've only done gold one year, but they've lowered them for your friend so she doesn't stay stuck in gold? How would you feel if you had done gold for 4 years and you had to stay for another 5th year? Maybe they are thinking less about fair or about what skills somebody really should have, and more about making sure your friend still gets to enjoy gymnastics. Maybe they think you can still learn a lot from one more year of gold, but if she's not gotten those skills in 4 years of gold she's not gonna get them in a fifth year. Maybe she has a private reason why she can't be in this group anymore, and they're moving her up because of that. Maybe she's older and they're worried she wont fit in anymore if they leave her in gold. But I can totally get loosening the standards so somebody doesn't stay in gold for 5 years.

The question is, do you think you can learn what you want to learn by doing another year of gold?
Why does this bother you so much? Just the unfairness, or is there a reason you'd want to move to platinum this year per se. Are you worried about getting split up from your friend? Are you worried about not getting to the highest levels before a certain time? Or are you upset for another reason?

It totally makes sense that you're feeling this way. It sucks when things aren't fair. Sometimes, things are unfair for terrible reasons (like when somebody gets treated better because they're rich). Sometimes, different people simply need different things.

Thank you for your response- it really changed my perspective. I am about a year older, but we both don’t really fit in the group. To answer your questions, I don’t think I will be able to learn higher skills in gold again, especially floor and bars. Most of my team can’t do rbhs or ft, double bhc, or squat on. Usually, we don’t tumble but do drills for these skills. So I feel like I wouldn’t be able to learn higher level skills, whereas the platinums are currently training rbhsbt, rbhs layout, fhsft. Coaches are very limited and they can only cater to the needs of majority of the group, which I completely understand. For the second question, I feel like it goes both ways for me. While I do feel it’s unfair, I also want to be with kids my age. The platinums are in my school, so I do want to be with them. I am trying to reach sapphire, and I feel like doing an extra year of gold while competing platinum skills on all events would be a waste of a platinum year. Gym requires 2 years of platinum. I think what seems most unfair to me was the different requirements, when it seems like she simply wants me to learn more from gold. I wish she communicated that better instead of listing a bunch of difficult skills to obtain in little time. Thank you for your response, I appreciate it.

 

[Anonymous (ced6)]

I am around a year older than teammate. Neither of us have had major injuries that kept us out of the gym for a long time. I do have both kips that probably could use some work, a front pike, and a round off on the high beam. I’m quite close to my clear hip kip, but I keep tapping feet during my kips. Both of us practiced 7.5 hours a week. I also had a very successful gold season, as I cracked 36’s, 37’s, and even 38 at states and regionals.

For dance element & technique: I have a 180 degree switch leap and a decent 1.5 turn. I believe she can also do a 1.5 turn. I can’t see my own technique, but i did usually have the higher scores on 3 events. She is a beautiful gymnast as well, and in no way was I trying to disregard her talents.
Perhaps she is just looking out for me and wants me to be more prepared for gold. If that’s the case, I wish it was better communicated instead of just “here’s a bunch of skills to get in two months- good luck!”
Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it!

I definitely think she probably wants you to be more prepared, and probably thinks you have more to learn in Gold. I think it also could be worth having a sitdown with her and expressing your feelings to her.