WAG Which way do we go?

[onelittledream]

Lurkers scare me too, but well hopefully we will all be able to keep each other safe?

 

[sce]

There is a meet this month and although she will be traveling with the gym she will not be competing this month. She will start actually competing in November.............I am a bit fuzzy on the meets there are compulsories and invitationals. Some are required some are not.........some you have to be actually invited to on top of also being on the team so.............I will say probably early November.

What do you mean traveling with the gym? Are you taking her to watch? I don't see how you can be fuzzy on the meets. Have they not given you dates and fees for the meets she will be competing at? November really isn't that far away. How is she doing with learning routines?

 

[Quadqueen]

I'm pretty sure compulsory season is basically over in TX by November. .

 

[Ali'sMom]

There is a meet this month and although she will be traveling with the gym she will not be competing this month. She will start actually competing in November.............I am a bit fuzzy on the meets there are compulsories and invitationals. Some are required some are not.........some you have to be actually invited to on top of also being on the team so.............I will say probably early November.

Have they not given you the list of meets?

 

[gymbeam]

wow! she is going to compete level 4 in just a few weeks from now? when you said she was level 4- i just figured she would be training for a while longer before competing. are they just going to score her out or will she do multiple meets at 4?

 

[GYM0M]

I'm pretty sure compulsory season is basically over in TX by November. .

Compulsory state season is wrapping up. She probably won't be able to participate in district championships next weekend, but I'm not familiar with how exceptions to the rules are handled in these types of situations. If she does not compete in the district championships, she cannot move forward to north/south state or state for that matter. However, some invitational meets run concurrently with these meets. And then invitational season picks up right after states! I would assume she will just start competing in one of these invitational meets.

 

[NoDramaMama]

Congrats to your DD. Level 4 is a great placement for an 8 yo. I'm sure you're very proud of her.

I'm new to the competitive gymnastics world, too, so I understand being fuzzy on the types of meets, etc. I just figured out the difference between prelims and invitationals and this is our second competitive season. In CA states are in November, but we have invitational meets in Jan and March.

 

[onelittledream]

OK I think I got some clarification. I think she is too late in the season to do the meets that are marked compulsary that lead to state.....but she is going with the team to do the workouts and be with the team. I will have to pay for travel and lodging but the insurance I purchased for her satisfies the gym people enough that she can still do workouts with the team when they travel. The invitationals I don't know how the work but they are hoping to start her on these and it will be later in November than I thought because the one the first weekend of Nov is a compulsary I think.

Now that she is on team, she is doing well with routines, mostly because I cannot stop her from walking around with the illustrations and I had to go to the school and pick them up because the teacher had to take them away from her today. I did not know she had sneak them into her school bag....sigh. But they are working really incredibly hard on form. Apparently at this gym they level them up just because they can throw the tricks but the lower levels dont concentrate on form so the coach is working with her on "cleaning it up a bit" meaning better lines and I hear her chanting about tight abs and "pointy toes" and stuff like that so that must be what is being said on the mats.

I think, that I am actually looking at the rest of this year and next year level 4. I am not thinking that we are going to have another level up for some time just because of the form needing cleaned up. There seems to be an incredible gap between the pre team and the team. I don't know how it is at other gyms but here it is a bit dramatic in that the preteam moms sit on the floor level seats and the team moms sit in the balcony seats...........nothing is really said if a preteam mom goes up in the balcony but I went up there once to see what was going on over at the beams (which are behind some stuff on the floor so it is hard to see) and I definately got the feeling I did not belong there. Seems like the coaches are a bit icy to each other too. And the girls, Catie's best friend who is still at level 2 came to the house in tears this past week thinking that Catie was not going to be her friend anymore because she was on the team now. I personally would not let my child give up friends for this reason.........I am all for her making new friends but her old friends do not get dropped fo such a silly reason.

Either way I digress...........I am still confused with some things but I am just trying to learn as we go here. I am on the learning curve.

 

[wandrewsjr]

I'm pretty sure compulsory season is basically over in TX by November. .

Compulsories can compete in the invitationals held in optional season.

 

[onelittledream]

yes they gave me a list of meets but I get the dates and locations...........the rest is greek to me so I am trying to figure it all out....... And what does "scoring her out" mean? I am not expecting her to do crazy high scores at first (though I wouldn't know because I know nothing about scoring either) but I am thinking this year may be a polishing get experience year and then we take off next year.............maybe.........?

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Sounds really good! I get a feeling that gymnastics is already her passion at such a young age!

Have you already figured out what a kips is? Has she learned it already? I guess she have if she has been placed in a level 4 team. I find it a little bit funny that for you and for some other really talented later starters the kips happens before the kid or the parents even get to know how hard it is! It's amazing how fast she is learning.

Did she throw any tricks at home when she hadn't started doing gymnastics at real gym yet? I guess she is over the moon to now have many many gym days a week

If you feel comfortable loading some videos of her showing her skills I would love to see them!

 

[onelittledream]

anyone want to try and educate me on what the different kind of meets are?

 

[skschlag]

Scoring out means getting the required score to move on to the next level. USAG has set scores, but some gyms have different ones.

What kind of insurance did you have to purchase? I don't think we have ever had to do that...

 

[onelittledream]

Sounds really good! I get a feeling that gymnastics is already her passion at such a young age!

Have you already figured out what a kips is? Has she learned it already? I guess she have if she has been placed in a level 4 team. I find it a little bit funny that for you and for some other really talented later starters the kips happens before the kid or the parents even get to know how hard it is! It's amazing how fast she is learning.

Did she throw any tricks at home when she hadn't started doing gymnastics at real gym? I guess she is over the moon to now have many many gym days a week

If you feel comfortable loading some videos of her showing her skills I would love to see them!

Yes she has a kip but it is being worked on........it is one of those oh she has it when she was doing the classes but now that she is on team they want better form and more power and such on everything.

What I did find out is that one of the little girls that she plays with and has gone to camp with and is in her school a few grades up did show her a "few tricks" through the years. The little girl does gymnastics on the team so she has been I guess giving my little girl pointers for years and I never realized it.

Passion is putting it lightly, she is obsessed, she was talking about gymnastics in her sleep last night.

 

[onelittledream]

Scoring out means getting the required score to move on to the next level. USAG has set scores, but some gyms have different ones.

What kind of insurance did you have to purchase? I don't think we have ever had to do that...

I don't think it is required but I work for an insurance company so I have high risk insurance on her along with our regular family insurance. So basically she can go with the gym and they are not financially liable if she gets injured during the workouts.

 

[profmom]

Huh. Our gym's policy covers that sort of thing. We team parents simply pay a modest annual fee to subsidize the gym's insurance. The first in line is obviously the parents' own medical insurance, but ours is pretty decent.

 

[skschlag]

You might check with the other gyms. I have no idea what they might require. I know we have had injured gymnasts travel with us and they were allowed to be on the floor with us but not allowed on any equipment...

 

[profmom]

Yeah, around here if a gymnast is scratched from a session or not entered in the first place, the meet folks will generally look the other way if she or he is on the floor stretching with teammates or sitting with them in between events, but they don't touch the equipment. DS and one of his teammates were on the floor with another teammate while he was competing alone in an age group at regionals. They carried his bag for him and massaged his shoulders in between events.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

awww how sweet

 

[onelittledream]

I am not sure.........I will have to ask when we get to the gym this evening. I think she is going with them just for the "team spirit" and to see, she is just brand spanking new to all this too. Throwing the tricks is one thing but being a "part" of a gym I am starting to gather is quite another.