Parents Virtual meets and fairness

[3crzygrlsmomma]

Ok, let me start off by saying I am a new gymnastics mom. My kids started xcel team this year. Obviously some kids are more talented and coaches love that- I get it- really I do. My kids are not going to be olympic gymnasts and they won't get any college scholarships, but they work hard and they do have some individual talents and strengths. They had a virtual meet, I had to work but my husband went with the girls. Their coaches recorded them and then sent in the videos to be scored. He told me later that one of the girls fell off of the bars and they allowed a "retake". She usually has a great bar routine. But still, if it was at a real meet, she wouldn't have had a second chance right? He believes he saw them also allow another kid to redo her beam routine. Looking at scores today the kid that fell placed first in her age group. The girls in second and third had higher scores on vault, beam and floor. It's not like my kids would have been in first place if she fell. It's just making me so mad knowing that they would do that and the kid in second missed by 0.05 points! My husband is the kind of person who won't say anything about nothing and doesn't want to make the coaches mad because he believes they will take it out on the girls. But if the year will be spent doing virtual competitions, what if they continue doing this? Should I say something?
Anyways, like I said- I wasn't there. But even my kids said she got a second chance when it was her turn.

 

[Pirouette]

Are the published rules and guidelines the same for virtual meets as they are for in-person, traditional meets?

 

[3crzygrlsmomma]

I don't know much about guidelines and rules, I try not to think about it to much. I just assumed it would be ran the same as a real competition, not choosing certain kids "best" videos to upload.

 

[skschlag]

It would depend on so many factors. Not sure what the rules were for this one. It may not have been a one-take thing, and honestly, in that situation, you are trusting everyone to follow the rules, whatever they are. But without knowing that, there is no way to know if there was any issue.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

If that is what happened, it really stinks. I would not be impressed with coaches willing to lie and cheat. But I think as a parent I would probably let it go. Next year should be back to normal and they sure won't be able to do that in a real meet.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

If it happened is beyond not cool. You could ask for clarification, of the rules, what happened etc..... This why I have no interest in my kid doing virtual meets. I simply don't trust the process. You could report it to the state sanctioning body.

You are always going to have things that simply don't look fair. You will have gyms that level back their kids for stronger performances. Gyms that train more hours. You won't like the way an age group cut off happened. JO kids using Xcel at times. You will swear certain kids were scored easier then others. Lots of it stinks.

And yes the difference in placements will come down to tenths and hundreths at times.

I recommend letting it go, (especially given these Covid times).

Around here we focus on skills not scores. What went good. What needs work. Is she improving on her personal bests.

 

[Aussie_coach]

So you mean the virtual meets are not live? We had a few virtual comps when COVID was happening here and they were live.

The comp was live streamed, you could watch the other competitor and the judges would see the routines in real time.

The problem with it if it isn’t live is that even if your coaches don’t do retakes if a gymnast falls or doesn’t do her best. You can pretty much guarantee that is happening at the other gyms competing.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

This is why my gym doesn’t want to do virtual meets. They don’t aren’t sure of the fairness of it.

 

[bogwoppit]

Honestly I would just let it go, this year is a weird year and everyone is hyper vigilant and hyper stressed. Let's cross our fingers and hope that 2022 is "back to normal" for gymnastics, or near normal.

This virtual stuff totally sucks, no matter what.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I’m gonna be honest. Fairness doesn’t always matter in gymnastics. I’ve seen girls get do-overs live, in sanctioned meets. I’ve seen a coach just approach judges and ask for a higher score for a needed qualification and get it. That’s not even accounting for sandbagging and whatnot. You gotta just roll with it and not stress about it too much, and let your kid compete against their own best days.. unless they’re L9+ it doesn’t matter all that much in the end, but yeah.. it can sure feel unfair.

 

[gymgal]

Let it go. If states/regionals depended on it, then I would consider inquiring. First meet of the season, in the year of covid, in a virtual meet (are these even sanctioned?) - it's not worth stressing about it

 

[CLgym]

Personally I would let it go. But then I’m the kind of person who generally avoids conflict anyway. If it’s really bugging you, then maybe an email to the coach asking them to generally explain virtual video rules including retakes. This is a weird year with weird meets, and scores/medals from one meet don’t really matter.

I actually just found out our first meet is now virtual. Personally I am beyond relieved for a variety of reasons (I have a post)... but at least one parent has already raised your question re fairness and retakes.

 

[3crzygrlsmomma]

So you mean the virtual meets are not live? We had a few virtual comps when COVID was happening here and they were live.

The comp was live streamed, you could watch the other competitor and the judges would see the routines in real time.

The problem with it if it isn’t live is that even if your coaches don’t do retakes if a gymnast falls or doesn’t do her best. You can pretty much guarantee that is happening at the other gyms competing.

No it wasn't live streamed video.

I’m gonna be honest. Fairness doesn’t always matter in gymnastics. I’ve seen girls get do-overs live, in sanctioned meets. I’ve seen a coach just approach judges and ask for a higher score for a needed qualification and get it. That’s not even accounting for sandbagging and whatnot. You gotta just roll with it and not stress about it too much, and let your kid compete against their own best days.. unless they’re L9+ it doesn’t matter all that much in the end, but yeah.. it can sure feel unfair.

 

[CuriousCate]

I didn't realize that some virtual meets were recorded and not live. Wow. That seems to be asking for situations just like this one.

From my understanding for my YDD's upcoming virtual meet is that it will be live and there is some sort of "synchronized clock" that needs to be showing at all times to ensure that the routine is being done live. Apparently they are recorded as well but only to be used if there is a streaming glitch. And even then, the synced clock needs to match up with the original time the routine was performed, so no re-dos. I really hope this system works, because while I wouldn't say anything, I would sure be irritated if they allowed re-dos for some kids at any of the gyms in the meet.

 

[novagymmom]

I agree with previous poster. All of our virtual meets have been live. I wonder if a meet can be sanctioned if it's not live. Not sure what the rules are on that.

 

[JBS]

There are virtual meets by us that are not live and count as state qualifying and level mobility scores.

 

[CuriousCate]

It's funny but it actually wouldn't bother me if kids were able to qualify to state meets based on recorded routines. But it some kids could repeat their routine and others could not, it would seem pretty crappy to be deciding awards based on that.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Agreed CuriousCate, if it clear that anyone can revideo and send in their best video, then why not. But when different gyms are doing it differently, then it just does not work.

 

[3rd_time_around]

I’ve wondered how they do these meets without a lot of cheating going on.

 

[CLgym]

So my DD had her virtual meet today. They used a platform called Flyp10. Sounds like, in addition to filming routines for upload, there was also a mandatory live stream to ensure the proper process was followed (timed warm up, only one routine, etc.)