Sometimes it is about the score, not the medal . . .

This weekend was Disco Tech.  This is a favorite meet among the girls because they march in with disco music, a dark gym, disco ball and glow in the dark necklaces.  Last year Z did really well at Disco Tech and was hoping to repeat her performance.  In my opinion she did, at least score-wise, but not medal-wise.

The girls started on bars.  If you've been reading this blog, you know that Z struggled greatly at her first two meets--hitting her feet on the bar during her dismount.  Her last meet she was finally able to complete the routine without a fall and scored an 8.950.  This meet turned out to be different--her warm up looked good to me, but I was still nervous.  At practice she still has times where the dismount doesn't really work.  Well, my goodness but it worked this time.  She looked great and her score showed.  A 9.475.  This is the highest she has ever scored on bars in three seasons of competition.  She had a huge smile and her coach gave me a two thumbs up when he saw the score.

Beam was next--Z has not been able to land her back walkover at a single meet this year.  She looks great during warm up, but something always happens.  Unfortunately, it happened again.  This time though, she was able to stay strong and had few wobbles and bobbles because she still scored an 8.800.  This is her highest score this season and if she hadn't had the fall, it would have been at least a 9.300.  Not too bad.

On to floor.  I love floor, Z loves floor and this season she has always scored in the 9s.  During warm up, I saw her practicing her switch-leap.  This is an option for the dance pass--either a split leap or a switch leap.  She has never done the switch-leap in competition, but her coach told her that she would get less deductions by doing so.  Her routine looked good, other than an extra hop after the back tuck--and she scored a 9.200.

Finally she had vault.  She's been doing fairly well on vault this season, especially at the last two meets.  Her first vault looked good, but she tucked her legs on the second.  She wound up with a 9.150.  Not too bad.

Overall, she scored a 36.625 all around.  This is her best all around score ever--for any level.  She never reached a 36.000 all around in Level 4, so I was thrilled for her.  She always says that her goal is to hit a 36.000 all around, which is essentially getting at least a 9.000 on each event.  She did it and surpassed it.

The problem with this meet was that we were competing against several teams from the Bay Area.  And they were good--even though Z had her best meet ever, she only got three medals-- 2nd place on bars, 5th place on floor and 6th place in all around.   While I don't think she would have been that upset, to know that she outscored her team mate in bars, vault, floor and all around, didn't help.  They put the girls in groups based on ages.  If she was in the "older" age group like her team mate, she would have wound up with 2nd on vault, 1st on bars, 5th on beam, 1st on floor and 1st all around.  Even if we had competed on Saturday in another session, she would have wound up with five medals, including 3rd all around.

I had to explain to her that it isn't always about the medal, it's about the score.  She scored a personal best on bars (over three seasons), beam (this season) and all around (over three seasons).  There is nothing to complain about there.  The age thing will get her for awhile--she competes against younger girls (she is 10) and by the time the girls get older (her team mate is 13), a lot drop out of gymnastics if they haven't hit the optional levels.  So, the younger girls tend to be good and at least in the Bay Area there are a lot of them.  The older girls were mainly from smaller gyms that are not in the Bay Area.

We have another competition this weekend, then on to States!

Optional Season is becoming a reality . . .

Well, we ordered optional leos today.  And we are getting ready to register for our first meet in January.  Last week, Z's coach started working on her optional beam routine.  Just two passes, but it's a start.  We are going to hold off doing more until after States in three weeks.  He has also picked out her floor music and is going to start choreographing that routine.  So surreal that this is happening.

We also found out two weeks ago that our team is going to be growing.  The other local gym has decided to not have an optional team, and initially indicated they weren't going to have a team at all.  Based on the initial notice, four girls decided to move to our gym after States, including one who is one of Z's best friends.  Then, last week, one of the girls who left our gym to go over there decided to come back.  She will be back in three weeks as she also wants to compete optionals starting in January.

It's going to be fun to have a large team again, and to get some girls back.  :)