Gymnastics – Page 6 – Dishers.com

January 21, 2006

The Coaches Cup Report

Molly Competed today. Her second ever meet and her first “Big” meet.

She scored a 9.000 in her floor exercise and took 5th place overall (for her level and age group). We’re very, very proud over her.

Her bar warm up routines were rockin but during competition, the wheels came off. Shortly there after she moved to beam and took a nasty fall. During both events she kept her composure, jumped right back on the apparatus and didn’t miss a beat. You’d never know this was the second event of her life. Molly is a natural competitor and we are oh so proud. Not many kids would have handled the day she had today so well.

Scores aren’t everything but they are that by which we measure success and why we compete. Scores are all we have in that regard.
After working the Coaches Cup and watching today, the coaches at CGA are clearly second to none. They are very hands on. Every gymnast gets a hug after each event and feedback on how well they did, yet they are not overly coddling.

Molly was crushed after her bar routine and broke out into tears but not until after she had taken care of business and saluted the judges. Her coach was quick to point out that this is all for fun. Don’t worry about what happened or what will happen.

The scores mean nothing and in her world they shouldn’t mean a thing. They know what Molly is capable of and every Gymnast will have their day, good and bad.

Last meet Molly notched a 9 in vault and bars. Today she notched one in the floor exercise. It’s only a matter of time before she notches one on the beam and then puts it all together for a spectacular all-around score.

I know it, her coaches know it, and she knows it, that’s why she was crying. What happened today happens to everyone. She was just off her game.

We love you Molly, 9’s, 8’s, 7’s or 6’s.

January 20, 2006

Working the Coach’s Cup.

This weekend is the big gymnastics meet, the Coach’s cup. Molly competes tomorrow. Claudine and I had the pleasure of working the event today. I said pleasure because it was kind of neat.

Molly is new to this so for us a lot of these experiences are new, though we can see they can and probably will get old rather quickly.

Web-Logging is a unique and wonderful thing. It allows us to share our experiences and thoughts with folks all over the world. It can be a powerful tool. Those who know me know I don’t really care all that much what people think. I have my opinions and they can often be strong. This post might be one of them.

We are very, very fortunate to have a gym as high caliber as Cincinnati Gymnastics in our area. We really really are. There are folks that have moved here from all over to attend CGA. There are folks that work for CGA who have moved here just so their daughters can have a chance to make the national team. The gym is that good.

There are two parts to the story though. There is CGA the for-profit business entity which employs the coaches and runs the facility, for which we pay a monthly fee for our gymnast to attend and there is the non-for profit parents club which pays for everything else (meet fees, leo’s and all kinds of other things). We have to pay this too but we also have to fund-raise a portion of this. To level the playing field and to ‘ensure’ you can’t buy success, all parents have to participate in certain activities. You earn points by fund raising and volunteering, etc. If you don’t earn your points you are penalized financially (go figure). So if you’re in the dough and don’t want to fund raise, guess what? Don’t do it you can buy your way out. I’m ok with this. The cost is about the same, and it does give those who can’t afford it an opportunity to fund raise. Just don’t spin it as ‘leveling the playing field’.

Continue reading “Working the Coach’s Cup.”

January 17, 2006

U.S. Coach’s Cup On The RiverFront

Molly competes this weekend in her home gym’s premier meet, the Coach’s Cup.

Mom and Dad have to work all day Friday as part of our obligation to the parents club. Dad gets to do security, event timing and computer (score entry), I forget what mom is doing in the morning but she’s also doing timing and score entry.

Molly competes Saturday morning 8am to noon. If you’re interested in seeing her. Let us know and we’ll let you know how to get there and get tickets and stuff.

You can visit here for more information. (warning: not for the bandwidth impaired)

January 8, 2006

Molly’s first Official Gymnastics Meet

Molly competed for her first time today in an official USAG meet. She was soo stoked!

A little nervous at times, but she didn’t show it. I think she was more overwhelmed. But she handled it all really, really well.

She took 4th over all in her age group on bars (excellent!) and did very well in vault. I think she got the short end of the stick on her floor routine, the judges were very harsh and her balance beam wasn’t her best.

She finished 10th over-all (which is the combined scores in all events). Not too shabby for a newbie.

Afterwards she wanted to do it again. 🙂 She was ready to go.

Later on the way home while talking to Grandma, she told her “She could go through it again if she had too”.

I took about 600 photos of her and the other gymnasts. Once I get them sorted I’ll post them to the gallery.

January 6, 2006

Molly’s First Meet

Molly has her first Gymnastics Meet this weekend in Columbus Ohio!

We’re getting excited, as is she!

She still gets to compete as an 8 year old this weekend which will be a bonus, after this weekend though, she gets booted up into the 9 year old bracket. We wish her well! Mom and Dad are proud of her.