My daughter is in a similar type of sport. This supplements her sport, so I thought this would be a good place to ask what you do in this scenario. My daughter is 9, and she practices pretty hard at her sport. However, she has bad habits that prove to be difficult to break. If she is intentional during her practice, it goes a lot better. Some of these things, as her coach says, "do not take talent." She is at a higher level with a lot of potential, and as I've posted before, the family does sacrifice for her to be able to do this sport. My husband isn't into intense extracurriculars, but since we've gone this path, he wants her to take the competitions seriously. Yesterday she had a competition. She didn't stretch or warm up properly, and she goofed around quite a bit. She spent a good chunk of a day with a friend and also with a child whose mother (and the child) made last year a bit more difficult for us with negative comments, mocking, etc. That irritated me a lot because at the end of the day, the girl pushed her to go get an award anyway, so I feel like she sacrificed her own opportunity over someone else who isn't even good for her to be around. We want her to socialize, but her routines went very badly, and I think she was totally unfocused. I had to tell the girls to stop doing certain things so not as to distract other competitors. In her routines, I saw her ignore things her coach has said to her repeatedly to correct---simple things like how to acknowledge you are starting your routine, a pretty "free hand." As for her harder skills, those went worse, but it'd be okay if I thought she had taken it all more seriously. Sadly, I had reminded her of these simple things before each routine. One judge wrote "ouch" on her score sheet. I asked what she thought of the day, and she told me she thought it went fine. She doesn't seem to think it went differently from any other competition. I was really disappointed in her. I don't mind last place if you tried your best and listened, and we all have off days. (she wasn't last, just saying). I just feel like she didn't manage herself well yesterday and disregarded things I've heard her coach repeat--she looked careless, without intent, and casual. These things are written on her score sheets. She reads them. I honestly haven't said much. I think these are life lessons, and I want her to get a lesson from all of this---without ruining her enjoyment or hurting her feelings.