Hello, this is Christen’s mom. Christen and I went to a meet on Saturday to watch the other girls on her team compete. We also wanted to see what it would be like next year when she will actually be competing instead of just doing skills.
We had a really fun time and Christen’s coach even let her march in with the team and sit with them as they made their rotations to the different apparatus. It was a good experience for Christen and she liked seeing them get scores and everything.
I liked it much more. Though there was still some subjectiveness in scoring, it was much more uniform and understandable than the skills judging. The session was definitely longer as there were more gymnasts represented and their routines were longer. But the length was made up by getting to see the different levels and abilities represented (the session we went to had Junior levels 1-8).
I think it will help Christen be more relaxed next year when she actually competes because she will know what it will be like and she can just focus on doing her best and having a fun time with her team.