Parents What does the week before a meet look like at your kid's gym?

[mariposa]

Just wondering for comparison. How does your DD/DSs gym prepare them for meets?

I am off to the library, but will post how ours does when we get home from the gym tonight.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

Looks like practice EVERY day at our gym. Lots of routines and 'fixing' anything that is incorrect. lots of focus on the small stuff. Mock Meet on Friday.

 

[mariposa]

Thanks for answering! DDs gym doesn't do any of that. In fact, according to DD, they haven't practiced the floor routine since the mock meet in September. I haven't seen them practice it anytime I have been there either. It basically looks like regular practice. I would think they would do routines, routines and more routines, corrections, etc, but they don't. I can't understand it.

I wish I was gutsy enough to bring it up with the owner. No wonder our scores don't seem as high as other gyms overall. Not that it matters much to me, but I would think during competition season, they would focus more on routines, at least the week before a meet. But I know I am not a coach. I was in marching band in HS and we always practiced routines routines and more routines the week before competitions. It just seems to make sense.

Luckily, DD has no sense of scores and is just thrilled to be competing. I am not expecting much, mainly because the lack of practice focused on competition is just missing. I did get her a little trophy from a local store. It says her name, First Level 4 Meet and October 2008. I doubt she will be getting any medals, so I wanted something for her to have to remember the meet by. Though I will have to tell her that after that, she is on her own. LOL. It was $11.00.

 

[Aussie_coach]

That is really a concern, you would think that the week leading up to a meet would be pretty much routines, routines and more routines. Kids need to practise their routines regularly in order to remember them and feel comfortable with them, and even more so to become so confident with them that they can really perform and show them off.

It is a time to be focused on the small details, you dont want to be making any major changes just before a meet. This should be perfecting time. With mainly routines and working on the skills that they will be competing.

 

[mariposa]

Thanks Aussie. I always enjoy your input! It is concerning to me as well, but I am a chicken and doubt I will be able to bring it up to anyone with any power to change things. Like I said, my DD isn't into scores, etc, but I know she could be much better prepared and would have a better chance at scoring well. At this point, if she gets a 28AA I will be ecstatic. I guess her gym is just more relaxed about meets. She loves it there and is happy, so we will just go with the flow I guess.

 

[gotgym]

We do lots of routines and even practice showing one girl at a time on each event. Confidence or lack of it plays a big part in this sport regardless of the level. Is this a real meet or a mock meet? Either way goodluck to your dd and keep us posted. Nice trophy idea!

 

[hunde2]

Our season does not start until January but as far as I can remember from last year is that the closer they get the more routines you see the girls performing not just the single elements.They already have some kids go through their floor routines without tumbling.Sometimes they do the tumbling without the dance.They have them do penders(spelling?)where they have to tumble and in between the passes they will have to run from corner to corner a couple of times.
They will also show their routines to the other teammates.

 

[MdGymMom01]

As far as I have seen, our gym seems to do a lot of routines and fine-tuning and polishing. The kids have been working on the skills all spring and summer and now I can really see that they are putting it all together with routine after routine after routine. Our team is small (7 girls) so what the coach does a lot right now is have them all take a place on the floor and they will go through the full floor routine like 6-8 times in a row. I think this is good because it really focusses on the repetition of the routine and builds stamina. Beam and bars is pretty much the same thing right now as well--trying to work the routines straight through without hesitations and fixing and cleaning up the little details. We have a mock meet coming up on Oct 25th so the coach is really trying to get them ready for that. None of our girls have done meets before so it will be interesting!

The gym has a lot of day camps when schools are out due to holidays and teacher conventions so some of the girls will attend those to work on routines with the coach.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

Mariposa - that would be concerning me too, the lack of practicing routines. I understand that at this point your DD is not concerned about scores and is just excited to compete. That is great - she will be more relaxed that way.

That said - at some point she will realize that she is never (maybe not never, but if all the other gyms are doing routine after routine in practice and hers is not her chances of making it to the podium are smaller) on the podium. She should still get at least an All-Around medal. All of the gyms we compete at all of the girls get an All-Around medal so everyone goes home with something. But she may not medal on individual events. I am more concerned that my DD enjoy herself that win. However, I do like that she has a chance to medal. My DD is noticing scores more this year, her goal is to get over a 9.0 on everything. She is not upset if she doesn't - but very excited if she does.

I would say something to the coach - it does not have to be in an accusatory manner. Maybe something like "DD doesn't feel comfortable with the routines yet, is there any way she could work on them a little more. It is making her nervous about the upcoming meet."

Good Luck.

 

[Ingymmom]

Our gym does a more regular practice. It does not differ the week prior to a meet... The day before, they work a little more on the floor routine, but we have really only been practicing entire floor & beam routines for the last 3 weeks. (our 1st meet is Nov 7th)

Bars and routines are done daily, beam and routines (now) are done daily, but floor routines they do every other practice, and each girl does it 1 time (sometimes 2). And that is all. The first few meets our girls rarely have blow me out of the water floor routines, but they do get a respectable score. They generally always score very well on bars, beam & vault - which our coaches put more importance in.

 

[flippymonkeysmom]

The gym we left when my dd was level 5 was like that - she would go from one meet to the next without doing a full routine. The gym she went to after that during meet season was routines, routines, routines. Guess which one she did better at.

 

[ginnymac]

Our gym falls somewhere in the middle. Early the week before the meet (M or T) they do a meet style warm up, event warm up with touches and everyone runs through routines.

The rest of the week looks like a regular practice. They may not do routine after routine, but they work on "parts". When doing their warm up skills they go in lines across the floor and for example: "everyone do the gym-acro series from your floor routine", "do the leap pass from your floor routine", "do the ending from your floor routine".

 

[mariposa]

Thanks everyone, parents and coaches alike. Now I am more worried, but what can we do? There is a week until the meet. I am hoping that next week they do do some routines. Especially since 2 of the girls have never competed before, my DD included.

It must be the gym's philosophy or the current coaches philosophy since all the other parents seem to be fine with it. We have girls getting medals in individual events and AA and we also have been up there in team AA, but I think it is the girls that are 2nd season L4s. I am not sure about the other levels.

I wouldn't mind having a practice that was similar to normal weeks if they actually practiced the routines on a regular basis, even once a week. Beam and bars they have done occasionally all the way through, but floor they haven't.

Again thanks for sharing. I figured that something wasn't exactly right. I don't know how the L4 meets are here, if they medal out all the way in AA. My DD will say how winning isn't important, just to do her best, etc, but I am not sure she really understands that deep down. This is supposed to be a fun meet though, Halloween themed, so I think she really is just going to have fun just being there and getting to compete.

I am sure I probably went overboard with the trophy, but it is tiny and just to have something from that meet. She still treasures her medals of participation from the 2 shows she has done. She always says she has won 2 medals already in gymnastics. LOL.

We could use a visit from the fun first meet fairy, if anyone has seen her.

 

[gym law mom]

I'll just add on that both gyms we've been at tend to do alot of routine run throughs the week of a meet. At our current gym, the HC likes to do meets every other weekend which gives the kids some downtime after a meet, so they may spend some practices working parts of routines or individual skills. Sometimes they will even throw a little uptraining in to break the monotony. From watching our compulsory girls, I would say, bars/vault are done almost every practice----of course, they go faster leaving time to work on sections of the floor or beam routines.

Before the last meet, the L5 girls had to each do a beam routine with all the optional girls sitting on beams on either side of the beam they were using. One optional girl was the "judge" and held up her hand to get the "salute." I think there is a fine line between too many routines(the kids just get bored) and not enough. However, with younger girls who are new to competition I would err on the side of doing a few too many to start to make sure they know the routine quite well before the 1st meet.

In our state, they don't give out AA awards to everyone. Each girl at L4 and L5 get participation ribbons on each event---blue for 9.0 and up, red for 8.0-8.99, white for 7.50-7.99 and yellow for any score under 7.49. At least that way each girl has 4 ribbons to take home.

 

[mariposa]

GLM,

I think doing it in front of the other girls with someone saluting, etc, is a great idea. Gets them on the spot as well.

My DD loves ribbons as well. I hope they at least give those. I guess we will find out in a week.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

Our Mock Meet the Friday before is run just like a meet. They open stretch, then go to the first event, warm-up. HC acts as the judge - calls the girls name and salute's. Each girl does her routine & HC gives tips.

All the other girls and the parents watch and cheer.

 

[Blackie6]

Well, last weekend was our L4 sectional so maybe things were a little more tense than usual but the girls don't really change up anything they do in practice. They did just start a dance class during their Sat practice but that isn't because of meets it's just part of the program along with tramp class that my DD just LOVES. We have a meet next weekend that involves the girls doing a costumes dance/skit/act before they compete so now that sectionals are over with they have spent some extra time on that. This will be a FUN meet though, so no stress, not even the regular comp leo.

I know before our states last year we did have another judge (we have one that is a coach/judge on staff already) come in and spend a whole practice with all of the girls on each event going thru how to make the routines better and what they do that causes deductions. My DD didn't get too much from it at 6 yrs old but it was still nice to get that one-on-one time with an outside professional.

I think each gym is different on how they prepare for meet season. Some gyms around here practice those routine all year round. Our gym does not, we only started them up again about August. Our coach likes to do other things, learn new skills, condition, TOPs after states and thru the Summer so the girls don't get bored. Trust me, those routines will get oracticed over and over again. You & your DD will be humming the floor routine music in your sleep!

Cute idea about the trophy!!!! That will be very special to your DD for her first meet. For sectionals last year and this year I bought DD and her cuz an inexpensive purse (they love pocketbooks!) and I stuffed it with some things from the dollar store (lip gloss, hair bands, scrunchies, cheese-it's, sweedish fish, ect...) purse was $3 (Wal-Mart sales rack) & treats about $6 so under 10 and different then the usual things they have for sale at the meets. My DD also likes the gymnastic pins and puts them on her gym bag. They usually sell them at meets or you can buy a couple ahead of time online (I go to snowflake design) and they are under 5$. We don't spend too much $$ since they go to about 8 meets a year and it all adds up, LOL

 

[kristilyn73]

Our Gym concentrates on Routines during meet season. Monday's you do 3 routines each, Tuesdays & Thursdays 5 routines and Friday's 1 routine.. If you compete on Saturday you only do 'dance through's'.

As long as the girls have their skills and dont need major adjustments I think this works well. The more you do a routine, the more you get that Muscle Memory...