The Highs & Lows of Scoring: A Parent's Perspective

There is one meet I remember so vividly ... A was having a difficult vault warm up. She actually landed on her head trying to flip her vault (thankfully, she was fine!). (Side note: "Flipping a vault" just means you flip in the air after going over the vault table. Usually girls start flipping their vaults in JO level 8.) She'd had a great meet up to that point, but vault has always been hard for her and I was gnawing my fingernails to shreds as she got up to compete that afternoon.

And then ... lo and behold ... she landed it. She not only landed it, she stuck it! Not once, but twice.

I was elated, jubilant. She had conquered! Huzzah!

And then the score came up ... 7.9

What the what?!

Have you ever felt like this? You think your kid just pulled off a great routine and then they get a score like that!

My first reaction was wanting to (though I never would have done it) march up to that judge who had been giving my daughter the stink-eye since she landed on her head in the warm-up and demand to know how she had deducted that much from my daughter's stuck vault.

I know A was pretty bent over when she landed. And it was hard to tell how high she went off the table. And her legs do tend to come apart when she goes over. But how in the world did she get below an 8? Was the judge biased? Had she watched all the warm-up vaults and pre-judged my daughter?

Now, sometimes when I talk to my daughter's coaches, they can help me understand. We also have a mom on our team who was a coach in years past, and she has helped me understand a lot of the scoring, too. Sometimes I'll feel indignant at first, and then I'll watch the video afterward with my friend and she'll gently point out all the things that A didn't quite get perfectly that brought deductions. A lot of times now, I know enough to see it for myself. In level-nine bars, for instance, you need to cast to handstand. If your kid is playing it safe because maybe they fell out of their handstand during warm-up, then there'll be a deduction there. If they play it safe during three cast handstands, that's three deductions. They all add up.

Vault is the hardest for me, though. I know they need height. I know they need good form in their round-off. I know they need to open as they land. They even judge them on their run toward the springboard. My daughter was probably docked for all those things. It's still a mystery why she got that low of a score. Our coach didn't know. My fellow mom was surprised, too. The video angle wasn't clear enough for me to have it totally analyzed by anyone else.

And so, what then?

Drop it and move on. 

My advice? What did I do? I dropped it and moved on.

Because in the grand scheme of things, it's just another meet. Just another vault score. Yes, you could go and fight it out with your coach or that judge, but I wouldn't recommend it. If there's something that concerns your coach enough, or if the meet is a qualifying meet and you need a certain score, your coach may approach the judges to have them reevaluate the score. But in most cases there is no recourse except to drop it and move on.

That's hard. It's hard on parents. It's hard on the kids who may not understand why they got a certain score. That's the nature of a subjective sport. The judges are trying to be objective, but ultimately they're human. Ultimately, they have certain things they're looking for in a vault or a beam routine ... and maybe your child didn't deliver what they were looking for that day. It's okay.

That's hard to swallow, though. I know. It's human nature to want justice and equity. And when we're a biased parent who knows just enough about gymnastics to be dangerous, we can feel indignant pretty quickly. Especially in the lower levels, you watch all these girls doing identical routines, and your child sticks her routine, seems to look exactly like everyone else ... and gets a lower score. How is that possible? Sometimes there's no good answer. You just have to drop it and move on.

Don't get hung up on scores. 

Focus instead on:

1. Did your child do anything better in their routine than they did before? Praise that, even if the score didn't reflect the improvement.
2. Did your child have a great attitude even when the score was lower than they expected? Praise that.
3. Did your child encourage her teammates during the meet, even if it was a hard meet for her? Praise that.
4. Did your child do her best? Praise that. 

There is hope.

I'm not promising that when you get to higher levels you'll see better judging. But I do think that at the regional and national competitions when there are more eyes on your gymnast, you do see pretty consistent scoring. At Western Nationals, for instance, there are four judges for each event. 

Please, please don't get hung up on scores in the compulsory levels. At those levels, just give praise, praise, and more praise. Even kids who get 8's across the board in level four can grow up to be kids scoring 9's in level nine. I know, because I have one. Just stick it out and teach your child the importance of a positive attitude at meets. Developing a positive attitude and a fighting spirit will see them a lot farther in the long run than a perfect score. Believe me.

Sometimes you're pleasantly surprised

I know it's hard to remember when the subjectivity of a meet works in your child's favor, but that does happen, too! There have been times when my girl will do a solid routine and I'll expect a certain score, and WOW, she got a great score instead. Those are really nice moments, and I'm not about to go around complaining about subjectivity in those cases. So, why should I complain when it tips the other direction? Sometimes subjectivity benefits us, sometimes it doesn't. If you learn to roll with it, you'll be a lot happier sitting in those bleachers.

Sometimes it's obvious

We all have bad days. Your child is human, so she is no exception. Sometimes they'll flub up their routine and it's obvious why they got the score they got. In these situations, drop it and move on. This is where you can model a great attitude. It's not that you don't care that they had a bad meet, but show them how to look ahead to the future: "Oh well! There's always next time. I love watching you no matter what!"

Failure is good for all of us. Let it be okay to fail, without blaming the judge or the coach. Sometimes it's just a bad day, and that's okay. Sometimes it's a weird score that no one can explain. That's okay, too.

Do you have any weird scoring stories to share? Any thoughts on how to encourage a child who didn't get the outcome they wanted?