Well, the first official Level 6 meet is in the books! While this meet does not qualify Z for States, because it is an out-of-state meet, it does give her an idea of what she can do and whether she might qualify at her next meet on February 4th.
Not only was this an out-of-state meet, it was one that occurred on a Friday, which meant taking a day off school. We did advise Z's teachers before hand and since a test was scheduled for Friday, Z went in early on Thursday to take the test. Due to stupid rules/laws, even though we were taking her out for a reason, it is deemed an unexcused absence--I guess sports don't count as excused unless they are school related.
The other problem that we were having was getting to the meet. Normally it is about a 3 1/2 hour drive, but we are dealing with some extreme weather and getting to Reno, over mountain roads, involves snow and possibly chains. While we had agreed to carpool with another teammate and her coach, with the other father driving, he was unable to find chains for his car, so I ended up driving. Luckily, although we did buy chains, we found out that our AWD vehicle has tires rated for snow and mud and we ended up not needing the chains. The drive took about 4 1/2 hours, with some of that spent behind snow plows, but really wasn't too bad. I was actually glad that we were carpooling or else Z would have become very bored and it would have been a miserable trip.
Once we got to the venue, we checked into our hotel room and set about getting prepared. I had done the front of Z's hair the night before, so all that was left was the braid bun and getting dressed. We had about two hours, but finished early and headed down to the area where the meet was being held.
This place was HUGE! All of the equipment looked new and there really wasn't a bad viewing area in the place. As parents, we all staked out our seats and then ushered the girls to the coach. Unfortunately, we only had three of our five level 6 girls--one had been really sick and one couldn't make it as her father didn't have chains. In hindsight, I should have offered to let her come with us.
Our first event was beam. Since it is Z's weakest event, I'm always happy when they do beam first as it gets it out of the way. Although she had a huge bobble at one point, and I honestly thought she might fall, she scored an 8.950. Considering her best beam score in Level 5 was a 9.000, I was happy. It did ultimately get her 5th place on the event.
Floor was next. This has always been one of Z's favorite events and I love her routine. Her warm-up seemed to go well, although during open warm up she fell on her front tuck. I shouldn't have worried, however, as she performed beautifully. Unfortunately, I hit the wrong button on my phone and instead of video, I have a great shot of her walking off the floor when her routine was over. :( She did score a 9.500, which not only was first place in her age group, but was the highest score of all the Level 6 competitors.
Vault was fairly typical. Her warm up was so-so, but when she actually performed she did great. On her second vault, which was probably her best one, it looked like she was really going to stick her landing, but she ended up taking a step back. It looked unnecessary, and her coach teased her about it when she was done. She scored a 9.250, earning a third place medal.
Bars was last. Bars has quickly become one of Z's strongest events. She now has her cast to handstand and her routine at the in-house meet was great. During warm-up she over-shot the handstand and fell forward, but did another one and was fine. When she was competing, she did a monkey-swing after her squat on, something she doesn't normally do, but she didn't fall and other than a small step on her landing, her routine looked clean. She scored a 9.175, which was second place.
Z's all around score was a 36.875, which earned her second place in her age group. It was also the third highest score of the Level 6 session. I was so proud of her. This was definitely a strong start to her season.
After the meet, her coach told us that the judge who was on floor was very critical and being able to get a 9.500 from her really meant something. He also indicated that all of the judges at the meet were the highest ranking judges, so they have been doing this for a LONG time.
When we got home, we also found out that Z now has her team record for the highest bar score in Level 6. And she is only off the top floor score by 0.025. I can only see these getting better as she moves on this season.
Next week will be interesting. It is the week before a competition, but her class has science camp all week. I think we are going to bring her home on Thursday afternoon so that she can get two nights of practice in before her meet.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Monday, January 16, 2017
Optional Season Begins . . .
Z's first official optional meet is this weekend. We are travelling out of state and she gets to miss a day of school since she competes on Friday. I'm not worried since she is a straight-A student and gets all her homework done ahead of time.
The past couple of months (since States) have been a little strange. Our team has grown tremendously due to the closing of another local team. As a result, we have now been carpooling a couple of nights a week and I don't get to watch Z practice as often as I used to. That means there are times when I come to watch and she is doing skills that I didn't know that she could do!
Last week we had an in-house meet with a judge to allow the girls who have never competed optionals a chance to see what it is like. The judge who came was the bars judge at the Level 5 State meet in November, plus we have seen her at other meets. The benefit to having a coach who is also a judge is the connections to bring someone like this to the gym for us. The nice thing about this being an in-house meet was the judge gave a lot of feedback following each event. The girls were not given their score cards until after the judge left, but Z did really well.
The meet was held as an official meet would be. The girls wore their competition leos and warm ups. We started on vault, as we decided to do the traditional Olympic rotation--it also made it easier since there was still practice for the compulsory girls and recreation classes going on. Z has been fairly consistent on vault and this proved no different. The Level 6 vault is the same as the Level 5 vault, so nothing had changed. She scored a 9.35.
On bars, the routines are all different. Each girl doing her own routine with some similar skills. This was the first time that I had seen Z's full routine. To say I was impressed that she is now doing a kip, cast to handstand is an understatement. Her routine was clean and she scored a 9.40.
Beam was next. I was nervous about beam because this has always been her weakest event. Although she has been working on her back handspring, her coach has her doing a cartwheel instead. She is more consistent and normally doesn't fall. Her routine is cute and she smiled a lot. She scored a 9.10
Finally we had floor. This has normally been a strong event for Z. Her routine is great, although to me there are some slow spots. But she loves her music and has been working hard on this. Her coach did the choreography over a couple of weeks of privates, but hers was one of the first one finished. As such, she has had more time to perfect her routine. And, it showed. She was given a 9.60 on floor.
Her all-around score was a 37.45. This is the highest she has scored at any meet. Although she seems to think it isn't as important since the meet was at home, I did remind her that this was a "real" judge who was watching and giving the scores. The judge told her that her choreography is good, and that she is great with the emotion and smiling. She does need to work on her toe point and her split leaps, but she is doing well.
After practice was over, the other girls (compulsory team) were coming off the floor and as Z gave me her score card they were saying that "Z won." Apparently she had the highest all around score of the Level 6 girls. Although she will never compete directly against them since they are all at least 3 years older, it was still nice to see.
Fingers crossed that she keeps her momentum and does well on Friday. :)
The past couple of months (since States) have been a little strange. Our team has grown tremendously due to the closing of another local team. As a result, we have now been carpooling a couple of nights a week and I don't get to watch Z practice as often as I used to. That means there are times when I come to watch and she is doing skills that I didn't know that she could do!
Last week we had an in-house meet with a judge to allow the girls who have never competed optionals a chance to see what it is like. The judge who came was the bars judge at the Level 5 State meet in November, plus we have seen her at other meets. The benefit to having a coach who is also a judge is the connections to bring someone like this to the gym for us. The nice thing about this being an in-house meet was the judge gave a lot of feedback following each event. The girls were not given their score cards until after the judge left, but Z did really well.
The meet was held as an official meet would be. The girls wore their competition leos and warm ups. We started on vault, as we decided to do the traditional Olympic rotation--it also made it easier since there was still practice for the compulsory girls and recreation classes going on. Z has been fairly consistent on vault and this proved no different. The Level 6 vault is the same as the Level 5 vault, so nothing had changed. She scored a 9.35.
On bars, the routines are all different. Each girl doing her own routine with some similar skills. This was the first time that I had seen Z's full routine. To say I was impressed that she is now doing a kip, cast to handstand is an understatement. Her routine was clean and she scored a 9.40.
Beam was next. I was nervous about beam because this has always been her weakest event. Although she has been working on her back handspring, her coach has her doing a cartwheel instead. She is more consistent and normally doesn't fall. Her routine is cute and she smiled a lot. She scored a 9.10
Finally we had floor. This has normally been a strong event for Z. Her routine is great, although to me there are some slow spots. But she loves her music and has been working hard on this. Her coach did the choreography over a couple of weeks of privates, but hers was one of the first one finished. As such, she has had more time to perfect her routine. And, it showed. She was given a 9.60 on floor.
Her all-around score was a 37.45. This is the highest she has scored at any meet. Although she seems to think it isn't as important since the meet was at home, I did remind her that this was a "real" judge who was watching and giving the scores. The judge told her that her choreography is good, and that she is great with the emotion and smiling. She does need to work on her toe point and her split leaps, but she is doing well.
After practice was over, the other girls (compulsory team) were coming off the floor and as Z gave me her score card they were saying that "Z won." Apparently she had the highest all around score of the Level 6 girls. Although she will never compete directly against them since they are all at least 3 years older, it was still nice to see.
Fingers crossed that she keeps her momentum and does well on Friday. :)
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