Why do many parents keep track of every girl's scores at meets?

[Empowered]

All meets here use electronic scoring boards that can be seen from the competition floor and the seating. The ones that do jumbotron type scoring boards can also be seen from every seat and by every gymnast on the floor. Even the one meet that does the running scoring for everything posts that huge on the wall behind where the girls compete so everyone can see it. That is the one meet no one here needs to keep score as they do it for you.

No need to leave your seat ever unless you have to potty. They make sure everyone can easily see every score. Again maybe we're weird here, but this is the norm. We've never been to a meet that didn't use this technology.

 

[notjustgym]

I write down DD's Scores and her teammate scores. Both of her teammates. Yes, she only has 2 other girls in her level. We are an incredibly small gym.. and we are a few hours from most of the meets. We rideshare, spend nights in hotels together, eat with them after.. they are practically my kids! That is why.. Because I am just as excited for them when they qualify for state or place on an event as I am my own DD.

I do not typically track down other scores. One exception, in a meet a couple years ago with Event finals DD Threw up the biggest vault she has ever done. And scored incredibly high (For her). HC Came over to me after her score and asked me to keep an eye on Vault scores, Cuz we needed to know if she was staying for another meet or not.

 

[bogwoppit]

Our scores locally are handwritten on a whote board with a marker by a ten year old. Most of the time you'd need binoculars to read them. AT the Provincial meets they use flip charts, but as we have two panels of judging at those meets (two groups compete with two sets of judges) you have to know what group and what judges you kid is in/with.

Even our coaches have trouble keeping up with scores.

 

[my4buffaloes]

Soapbox time: Why is it that we have to judge every thing every other parent does on here as a routine? This is the Chalkbucket, not the snarky 16 year old kid forum. If you don't want to keep score, don't. If you don't want to do privates... don't. But just because another gym family is doing something differently than you doesn't necessary make they crazy or wrong. There is more than one right way to do everything.

Stepping down

I feel the need to respond to this since I started the thread - I was not judging, but trying to figure out why parents do this. I have gotten some very good reponses of reasons that I had not thought of and it has even given me reasons to keep track of them (for the scrapbook but I doubt I will actually do it). I have thought many parents are a bit nuts when it comes to tracking, but now that I know some of the reasons behind it I understand it a little more.

 

[gymnastbeth]

Once at a level 8 meet I noticed my mom doing this. When I asked her why, she responded "it gives me something to do! I get bored during your meets" (thanks mom...) But I do understand where she's coming from. She feels like she has a purpose if she has to look for everyone's scores. Otherwise it's hours of watching girls that you don't even know, and doing absolutely nothing. If she misses one it really doesn't matter, but for her it's just a thing to pass the time.

I don't even look at my scores. When we were level 5ish, the coaches always told us not to until after the meet. This has stuck with me and my teammates even now. It's not a "rule" anymore, but it just makes sense. If it's a bad score, I don't want to know, it'll ruin the rest of my meet!

 

[gasrgoose]

I'm curious if this is also done at meets for optional levels. MY daughter is level 5 so I've never been to a meet for levels 7-10.

I don't write down the scores of other gymnasts, but i keep up with her scores. I also note if she had a fall or two on the event. The falls are very relevant to me. The score is only part of the story, one of her highest beam scores came in a routine where she fell on the cartwheel. That made her aware of how much she was holding back just to try to stay on the beam. The way I see it she's only really competing against herself. So many times her placing is dependent on quality of the other gymnasts, as opposed to how she performed.

At a recent meet we attended they had a WiFi system set up and we could log in to the system and it continously updated with scores. You could look at the division your daughter was competing in or any other division including the team score. It was really cool and a great use for my iPad. It was free at this meet but I'm guessing they could charge $1 or $2, since people are willing to pay a few $ for the order of go sheet.

 

[Quadqueen]

I write down my DD's scores if I have a pencil handy. Otherwise, if I'm at one of the judge's tables like at a home meet, I just try to remember her scores. I will look at other girls' scores if I think of it, just to see how everyone's doing, but I don't keep track of anyone else. When awards are announced, it's always a surprise!

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

Did you not read my first post? I get nervous and the busy work keeps me calm.

Yes, I did read your first post. In my quotation, I was AGREEING with you. The writing comment was meant for those who are so obsessed on keeping track of everyone's score... to the point where they disrupt MY enjoyment of trying to watch my DD compete. As I have mentioned before, sometimes I couldn't even HEAR the floor music or focus on her routines because I've got people all around me yelling, "did you see what she got?" "How did that other girl score?" etc. Several moms at my DD's gym have developed quite a reputation such that no one wants to sit anywhere near them because it is sooo nerve wracking to have to listen to them obsess over everyone's scores on each event. Also, when these people (I have to be honest, it's dads sometimes too!) are so busy writing down everyone's scores, they frequently miss something their own daughter does.... then we have to listen to "were her feet pointed or flexed?" Well... you get the idea.

 

[UnoMas]

Wow this is a crazy busy thread!
Ok, about writing down scores...
At our old gym, there was a very strict rule that you had to get a 36AA in order to move up to the next level. So, for many of the gymnasts and parents, the main goal of the meet was to get that 36. A lot of us parents would track all our team's scores so that if someone missed a score we could tell them what it was, and also of course so we would know if our DD had gotten the "magic number". It was also nice to know who out of the team had their "score" to move up. So, many times I did track everyone's scores. Not in an obsessive crazy way, but since I watched each girl on our team AND CHEERED VERY LOUDLY for each girl on our team...I usually caught the scores.

When older DD first started competing I would also try to watch the girls in her age division just to see if she was going to place. I don't bother with that anymore unless she has gotten a really nice score on bars or something and I know she has a chance to place. Like Sharks said, my kids are not 1st AA(or usually first anything LOL) kinds of kids but it is nice to know if they will place on SOMETHING.

I also agree with the poster (Sharks) who said writing down the scores gives me something to do and helps with nerves.

However we had moms who ONLY tracked the girls in their DD's age groups and would obsessively do so, asking "Did you get number 1121's score?????? That always weirded me out.
We are at a new gym this year who does not have a score requirement so I imagine I will do much less tracking although I will likely write down my own DD's scores...but again without that pressure of the 36AA maybe I won't care as much! I guess I will see!
Love reading all the responses. To each his own...as long as they are not stabbing themselves with pencils as punishments.

 

[cher062]

At our gym we have Level Coordinators that keep the scores for our Booster Club at each level. This way we can post them to the Booster Web page as the gym doesn't give them to us nor do they post them anywhere. Then the girls and parents can see how the whole team is doing. Our team does support each other and 2x's a week the levels do all their warm ups and cool downs as one big group with older girls teaming up with younger ones. This makes the team more of a team instead of just Levels getting to know just their own level. We also use these scores with the photos that the parents take to make an end of the year memory book to hand out to the girls at the end of the year banquet. The last reason is that the coordinators then send the scores to our Booster PR person who then writes one article with the scores of the different levels and submits them to the local papers of the towns where the girls live.

Personally I keep my DD's to put into an excel spread sheet as she likes to see her progress in a graph with a trendline. I do the same for the other girls at her level as the parents have asked if I could do it for their kid too. if I have the scores I can do that.

 

[vagymmomma]

Wow - this is a busy thread! First, I don't track scores, but I actually check in with the Mom's that do. Especially at home meets when I'm usually running around dealing wih different obligations. Why am I interested? Well, some of DDs best friends are on the team and I want to know they did. Also, I hear when certain girls are experiencing mental blocks and I'm interesting in hearing how they did (those mental blocks impact the gymnast and the parents, so you hear the angst). To me it's nothing close to voyeurism since most meets (in the US anyways) posts scores on their website the next day. It's generally a harmless energy burn. There will always be a few of those crazy Mom's that are paranoid their darling will not be at the top, but they're not worthy my energy to worry about. Oh, and I'm very impressed by the scrapbooking skills here (boy do I feel like a poor momma ).

 

[gymmomtoo]

I keep track of the scores for the girls on my daughter's team, but could never do it for everyone at the meet! That's gotta be exhausting--you would miss seeing the actual gymnastics--isn't that what you're there for??

I have an app on my phone that I use to track (Tumble Tally--advertised here on CB!) and love it! The girls even like being able to see how they improve from meet to meet--helps to focus more on personal improvement than whether they placed that meet or not.

I do know that some on our team track girls at Regionals--in their daughter's age group, like granny smith said, to see if their daughter is moving on to Nationals. I just don't know the other gymnasts so well to figure out who I should be tracking LOL!

 

[cher062]

Wow - this is a busy thread! First, I don't track scores, but I actually check in with the Mom's that do. Especially at home meets when I'm usually running around dealing wih different obligations. Why am I interested? Well, some of DDs best friends are on the team and I want to know they did. Also, I hear when certain girls are experiencing mental blocks and I'm interesting in hearing how they did (those mental blocks impact the gymnast and the parents, so you hear the angst). To me it's nothing close to voyeurism since most meets (in the US anyways) posts scores on their website the next day. It's generally a harmless energy burn. There will always be a few of those crazy Mom's that are paranoid their darling will not be at the top, but they're not worthy my energy to worry about. Oh, and I'm very impressed by the scrapbooking skills here (boy do I feel like a poor momma ).

LOL I hear you there. The other thing it does is give us nervous moms something to do other than bitting our fingers to nubs. A distractor factor. its good to when you give it as a job to the siblings that are there and really don't want to be there - keeps them busy too.

Oh for me too the excel spread sheet I started when she was at L5. She had a hard time seeing her progress when one meet was really good and the next was terrible. The trendline gave her more confidence and it helped her learn some of the features of Excel. I set up the spreadsheet but now that she is older she maintains it and loves to see how her progress is going. There is always an upward swing in all the girls.

 

[bookworm]

I have never tracked more than my own kid...

 

[thnkGd4kds]

I'm too cheap to buy a meet program, lol, so I don't track scores! My husband, however, tracks our DD's and sometimes other gymmies from our gym if their parents ask. (That's only been a few girls at the most.) He loves manipulating numbers quickly in his head, so it's fun for him. Plus, he now has meet tracker on his phone, so he now combines his love of technology and numbers. I, a total right-brained person, leave it totally up to him and just sit back...

It's funny: My parents love to go to DD's meets (and any activity involving our kids ). Last season, my Mom starting tracking my DD's and some other girls' scores. She also, though, is a math-minded person who likes to keep her hands busy if she's going to be sitting so long. She's not vigilant about it, though; since she enjoys mostly watching gym, she just catches scores here and there. It's a way for her to feel more involved, I think, too.

I don't really mind if people keep track of scores unless they get obnoxious about it. It is a way for some to occupy themselves, stave off nerves, feel involved, stimulate their brains, whatever. Once though, I sat next to someone I didn't know from a competing gym, and I saw that she was writing down only my DD's scores until after DD's 3rd event! That was unnerving. Yuck.

 

[jasminekayla]

I only track my daughter. I really dont care what the other girls get. Actually that doesnt sound right. I do care but not to the point of writing down their scores. Thats what they have parents for. I like the surprise of team scores or placing. To me that is almost like going to a practice and writing down everything each girl can do or cant do.

 

[2gymmies]

I used to write down everyone's scores for our team because older dd liked to know when her scores were good enough to count for the team score. Now I don't need to because the girls pretty much do all of that and she usually tells me, "mom I rocked (fill in event) today, I know I counted for team on that one!" With a new little one starting Level 4, I might have to actually write some down again - not sure I can focus enough to do that! I usually get so wrapped up in watching cool routines that I miss half the scores anyway now that older dd is in optionals. There are so many cool (and sometimes scary) things to watch!

 

[sportsmom22]

I keep up with my daughter's scores, her team mates, and if I can, the girls that are competing in her group. Why? I'm not really sure, except that it gives me something to do and the programs have all these blanks just waiting to be filled in. When my oldest dd competed, the other moms did it, so I think that is why I first started writing them down. Now, having sat through 4 years of level 4--soon to be 5, it gives me something to do. I really don't watch the other gyms, but try to watch all the girls on dd's team. I'm a little, well probably a lot, adhd and honestly it keeps me busy. Hubby brings a book and I try not to talk to other moms because they are either writing down scores or watching, so it just gives me something to do. It's not like I'm trying to see if dd if going to come in first--I mean we are in our 3rd year of level 4. Chances are pretty good that if she was sloppy the first 2 years, she is going to be sloppy again. I guess I never even thought of it bothering anyone--maybe this year I will sit for 5 hours to watch my dd compete for 5 minutes and play words with friends.

 

[Deanna]

I keep track of my DD. And that is it. I normaly write it down in the little handbook thing they give you when you get there.
Funny you, sportsmom22, mention the little lines just waiting to be filled in. First meet we went to with my DD. I had out a pen, and I was writing her scores on my hand..because it was her fist season..and wanted to preserve memories. After the meet was over, I was looking through the book and I said to my husband. "Well, that's pretty cool, that all the girls in all levels competed every event". He just kinda looked at me and asked me how I knew. I said "well..they all have lines beside the their names under each event..noone has an event Xed out". He just kinda blinked a few times and said. "That's where you can write the scores down". .
I have seen parents write all of the teams scores down..and some write every single score that shows up on the boards. I have a hard enough time keeping track of where Kadee is, if she is preforming at the time, and then trying to see her score. My poor simple mind couldnt handle more than that. But at least now I know I can use the handbooks they hand out to keep her score in instead of my hand..bhahahahaha

 

[gymnast4life94]

Ironically enough my mom isn't the one who keeps my scores for the scrapbook, she used to but in the past 2 months after we adopted my 2 younger twin sisters they loved to track my scores and other girls and i always somehow end up in first when they track the meet I keep a scrapbook for their meets since we got the not to long ago and they are 7. my moms usually films for whatever level my sisters and I are in and another mom gets scores so at the end of the year banquet they can have a video of all the girls and their best moments and then a video for each individual girl of all the meets.