warm-ups at meet

[emandelsmom]

Today at a gym that is considered by most as in the "inner circle", there are 3 of these gym in our state, we saw the weirdest thing. A child from the inner circle gym arrives way late for the meet. We have always been told that they will scratch a child. This child missed warm ups and introductions etc. The style of the meet warm up was where everyone warms up and then they begin competiting. This child was allowed to warmup compete the event, warm up compete each event. This was the only child who was allowed to do this. Very weird. All the parents in the stands were asking why? And you could hear whispers of that is not allowed. This was a sanctioned meet. It continued this way through the whole meet. Honestly that was one of many weird bad parts of the meet today. Broken medals, bad equipment etc.

 

[gymdog]

I don't think it's "not allowed", although I'm not absolutely positive. If there is a way to conveniently fit a child in I don't see why it shouldn't be done. But it's been years since I've been to a JO meet that isn't capital cup or modified capital cup, so this wouldn't really be an issue. if the child arrived and could stretch before her actual competition spot began, putting her in would not generally be viewed as a problem.

 

[gymkat]

That's standard practice in my state if a gymnast is late.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

I arrived late for my state meet this year, due to misunderstanding which age group I was in (I'd been competing in "13+" in most of the meets, but at state it was "13" and "14+"), missed open stretch and arrived during march in. We were warming up, competing, and warming up, competing, so my coaches just asked for our gym to warm up last on the first event so I could stretch. Everything was fine in the end, and I just missed the ceremony. However, your meet was apparently set up differently and the girl in question was probably, what, an hour late? I would not expect the meet coordinators to allow her to warm up individually while everyone else is competing the way she seems to have done...however I am not sure that the gym being in an "inner circle" is a viable explanation for this...I'm not sure I understand what the "inner circle" is "inner" to?

 

[emandelsmom]

In the past 4 years I have never seen that done.
I checked the guidelines and it doesn't seem to be not allowed. It talks about scratching a gymnast but gives no guidelines. Also nothing in it about the quality of medals or the equipment.

 

[gymnut1]

As long as they don't really hold up the meet too much I don't see a problem with this. At the end of the day these are CHILDREN we are talking about. I'm all for following rules and it is annoying when others don't but sometimes it is right to step back and look at the bigger picture. Would you really sleep easy in your bed knowing a child was heartbroken and carrying a bad experience because you insisted on a rule that could be accommodated. Dont forget a child who rushes in late and warms up in bits is going to be flustered and unsettled. It is probably not going to be their best meet anyway. And they could have been late for a horrible reason like a car crash or something. It feels very annoying at the time to see someone get different treatment but best to wish the child well and let it go.

 

[emorymom]

Just remember you don't know why she was late.

 

[emandelsmom]

I agree. And I have thought of that as well. Just wondering if it was allowable. It essentially stopped the flow of competetion on each event to allow this child to warm up and then compete each even. I have never seen that happen in the four years my daughters have been competeting and there was lots of talk of it in the stands. It was just an oddity to see.

 

[gymnut1]

knowing that it is so unusual makes me think it was something pretty major that made her late.

 

[emandelsmom]

Thank you. I think you are right. Hope all is well with her family etc.

 

[CoachGoofy]

I'd imagine there were extraordinary circumstances. The gym she attends was probably not relevant in any way to the allowance of modified warm up, but the fact that she got there & whatever the reason was.

I like to think if one of my girls was late for a serious reason, TPTB would let her compete. And I like to think that adults would respect her privacy about why she was late. If a kid showed up late for another team, particularly were she a bit frazzled, I also like to think our parents would take the attitude that "horray, she gets to compete, isn't it awesome that they found a way to get her in?" & that my girls would be supportive-particularly if we were in the same group. But that's kinda how I roll.

There are, to me, graver scandals than a kid warming up differently because she got there late for a reason that really isn't my business. If it satisfies the meet director (or if they decide it isn't their business either), it's good enough for me.

*drops her 2 cents & the Good Teammate Medal in the bucket*

 

[emandelsmom]

Yes, I am glad they let her compete, but we have seen them scratch others at the same meet. Like I said it was odd. About halfway through the meet, it was realized that she was warming up. Everyone had finished the routines/events for that cycle and then we look up and a girl is warming up. Then competiting. Just odd. Yes, she was frazzled. Her beam was off-poor thing feel off 3 times (may have been the wobbly beam or nerves or both). So, I am glad they let her. I just thought it was odd, and that it was from the gym of the head judge.

 

[CoachTodd]

If a child is late and misses warm ups, it is up to the meet director to decide if they are allowed to make up missed events or get a touch on the events they did not get to warm up.
There is no rule requiring them to be there for introductions and open stretch that I can find.

 

[bookworm]

This happened at an invitational meet we ran...one girl's father read the directions wrong and headed to the opposite end of the state (!!) and when they realized it, they called to see if she would still be allowed in the meet because they knew she would be late...we told them to come anyway and we'd see where we could fit her in...she arrived and competed , basically did her 4 events one right after the other without warming up , and won her age group!! Her parents came up to us after the meet and thanked us for allowing her to compete because , as you can imagine, the kid was devastated when she thought she was going to miss the meet. As one prior poster said, they are kids.

At another meet we ran there was a huge snow storm and people arrived late throughout the meet due to the weather (they were already on the road when the snow started so they kept traveling) and we just kept putting them into the meet as they came and it all worked out in the end.

I don't think there was anything sinister with the girl from the "inner circle" gym being allowed to compete...she probably had somne major snafu that prevented her from getting there on time.

 

[flippersmom]

In my state, as long as they get their before their order to compete, they are allowed to enter the meet and compete. If they are after that, it is at the discretion of the meet director.

However, some gyms have rules and if their athlete is late and misses warm-ups, they will not let them compete even if the host gym says it is okay. That is their team policy, so that is what they have to go by.