AboutMark Williams Expertise My expertise is primarily with men`s gymnastics at all levels. General questions about gymnastics and Olympic and World Championship competitions are also areas which I have knowledge.
Experience Head Coach at the University of Oklahoma, 1996 Assistant Olympic Coach for US Men''s Team, 1999 Head Coach of Pan American Games US Men''s Team
Question I just can't win anything at competitions. I just can't place in anything at competitions. I had a comp on Sunday, 2nd last comp for the year. I got nothing, my team came 8th and I did really bad there. For example: My floor score was 13.05/15.4 I had 2.35 points deducted off it. My bars score was 9.95/14.0 I had 4.05 marks taken off it. My beam score was 11.15/15.4 I fell twice and I got 4.25 deducted off it. My vault score was 13.2/15 I had 1.8 taken off it. So why do I get these bad scores? Why can't I get 14.5's on floor like the other girls do? Why can't I get 14.65's on bars like the other girls do? Why do I pike my vault and don't pop off the vault when the other girls do? How can I fix this? I do strength at home but I still get these same scores, they are so bad. As this was a big competition, they only gave apparatus placing's to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. And in the all around they gave out trophies to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all around. I would really love to win some medals and trophies but I don't think that is possible at the moment! Please give me some advice! I really need help!
Answer Ellen-
You seem to want to do gymnastics very badly. Therefore you will have to work hard over a long period of time to make improvements. You are not going to make huge jumps in your scoring unless you are able to do these routines well in practice before putting them out on the competition floor. You need to make the corrections in practice, preform comfortably in the gym at a high level and take that confidence to the meets. It may be too late for big improvements this year but you will have to be very determined to improve for next year's meets.
