The following is a copy of an e-mail sent out to new level 4’s. We feel it is important to get ahead of the curve before parents get TOO obsessive about scores.
Dear Parents
We couldn’t be more proud of all the girls, especially those who just competed for the first time. It was a great meet! There were some solid routines and encouraging improvements made across the board.
We wanted to take a minute to explain some of what goes into the scores the judges come up with and how we view them. We need the girls to concentrate on what they can control. There are a number of things that the girls need to think about during a meet and we don’t believe scores should be one of them. They simply can not control the score.
1) Scores can vary from meet to meet. The judges’ number one priority is to establish the proper ranking on each event (ie. the best vault gets the highest score, whether that is a 9.8 or a 9.1, and then each vault is ranked down from there). Depending on the number of competitors and the overall quality of the gymnastics, the exact same floor routine could score an 8.2 at one meet and an 8.8 at another. Neither the coaches nor gymnasts can control the scoring process.
2) Because of the variable nature of scores, we do not emphasize them during training or even in competition. We believe that it is far more effective to keep the girls’ energy focused on what actually has an impact on the quality of their performance. We consistently emphasize process-specific goals for each event (ie. I want to make sure my legs are perfectly tight on my leap pass in my floor routine). We don’t believe in wasting any mental or emotional energy on thinking about whether or not the routine will “get a 9.0”.
3) When you communicate with your daughter, try to ask her about her goals and whether she was able to accomplish them. Ask her about what she is still focused on improving. While it is harder to talk about the specifics of the routines, it will help us convey a consistent message that the process is more important than the outcome. Instead of congratulating your daughter for a certain score, try to point out placement instead (wow, you were third place on vault out of all those gymnasts!).
4) If you do have questions about what your daughter is working on improving, please feel free to email us. We are happy to do our best to help you better understand the sport. If a situation arises where coaches have a question about a score, there is a formal process that allows us to inquire with the judges. Once a judge reexamines the routine, the score can go up, stay the same, or go down.
Thanks so much for all your support of our home meet and your gymnasts!