How do Meets work?

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Most parents and athletes quickly learn how overwhelming a meet can be. The prep work, arrival, flight times, and rules are a lot of information to get right. This page is here to help dissect the typical meet flow to help you and your athlete understand what a meet is like

You are responsible for making your own hotel reservations. It is also your choice how long you choose to stay and when you leave. We always try to have a team dinner at some point during the competition weekend. Taylor will typically try to schedule it for the night before the competition. 

Boys: Step-in or compression shirt, with or without sleeves, and must be skin tight. Shorts must be a single color and no more than a 5” inseam. Trampoline pants of a single color may be worn on trampoline. White foot covering, trampoline shoes, of no more than ankle length is allowed. 

Girls: Leotard with or without sleeves. Shorts are allowed as long as they are skin tight, and either black or a color that matches their leotard. White foot covering, trampoline shoes, of no more than ankle length is allowed. 

Warm ups: Airborne team jacket or Airborne sweatshirt. Black pants. Level 8+ will wear either a practice leo or competition leotard for training sessions.

Hair: Long hair must be secured tight to the head (male and female). If hair is long enough, it must be secured in a tight bun or braid, or a ponytail for shorter hair.   

Jewelry: No hard jewelry is allowed. 

Wrap/Tape: Must be tan, black, or white. 

You will arrive depending on what time your child's events are. If your kids event is the first flight of the day, arrive 30-45 minutes before your scheduled event time and head straight back to staging. The rest of the day, you should be in the event center at least an hour before your event. Head back to staging at least 30 minutes before your event. 

The competitions can be behind or 30 minutes early. You need to be prepared if your flight gets called earlier than your scheduled event time.

This is probably the hardest thing to get an understanding of for meets. Prior to the meet, the coach (Taylor Miller) should have the flight schedule and she is very good about sharing this with TeamSnap. 

 A flight is the group of athletes that are competing against each other during their event competition time. A flight is no bigger than 12 athletes. These groups are made up of all the kids that are the same age and level. There could be multiple flights that are the same age and level group. All of the flights together will make the overalls, this is everyone who is that age and level.  

Staging is the area where your kid will go before each of their events to warm up. They should arrive 30-45 minutes before each of their events. This is where they will stretch and do light warm ups to get prepared for their event. This is also where they will check into their flights and be placed in the order that they will compete in. Athletes are not allowed back in staging if you are not there to warm up for an event. They must wait in the stands until it is time for their event.

Once everyone in staging is lined up and the judges are ready, a staging worker will walk the flight to their event. The flight will first present to the judges by either standing in front of the judges table, or the judge will come up to the flight line. This is to ensure everyone is in the correct order and competition ready. Each flight eceives a certain amount of touches, this is their time to warm up their passes/routines. Whatever they do during this time does not count towards their score. Typically they will receive 2 touches per event. The optional levels may get more. Once everyone takes their touches, it will be time to compete. Once it is your athletes turn to compete, they will stand facing the judges waiting for the head judge to say their name and salute them. Once the athlete salutes back, they can start their routine. Once they finish their routine, they will hold for the appropriate time then turn to salute the judge one more time. 

If they have 2 passes, everyone will compete their first pass then go through the line again to compete their second pass. 

Understanding Scoring:

Level 1-7 (All events)

Chair of the Panel: (CJP) The one judge standing up 

What they do:

• Head judge incharge of the panel.
• Determines any instability or landing deductions that need to be taken on completed routines and tells the E judges to subtract that from their score. 
• Declares the minimum mark in case of an interrupted routine. This would be the score that the judges start at to take off their deductions. Completed routines have a maximum mark of 10.0.
• Decided and displays all penalties
• The judge who will salute the athlete to start their routine.

Execution Judge: (E) Typically the two judges sitting down

What they do:

• Typically two execution judges at each event.
• Evaluate the execution of each element in the range of 0.0-0.5.
• They look for lack of form, control, height, and rhythm. The landing deduction is decided by the CJP.
• Each judge will subtract their deductions from the total mark, determined from the CJP.
• The two execution judges (E1/E2) will add their scores together to get the total execution score. Then will add total for each pass together for the total score. 

Example: (DM/TU)

• Pass 1: E1: 9.5 + E2: 9.5 = 19.00 Pass 2: E1: 9.4 + E2: 9.3= 18.70   = 37.70 score

Example (TR)

• E1: 7.3 + E2: 7.5 = 14.80 score 

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Levels 8+ (all events)

Note about optionals: There are no set routines for levels 8 and above like there are for levels 1-7. Instead, there are requirements for each routine and the routine is created by the coach and the athlete. Also, athletes will perform two routines on trampoline.

Difficulty: (DD)

What they do: 

• Collect all competition cards. These are filled out by the coach or athlete so the DD judge can easily see each skill that will be performed and the DD of each skill.
• Determine and record all skills that were performed and the difficulty value. 
• Each skill has a difficulty calculated based on the amount of flip and twist. 
• DD gets added onto the total execution score to make the final score. 
• DD is added onto both double mini and tumbling pass and only the second routine on trampoline. 

Example (DM/TU) 

• Pass 1: E1: 9.5 + E2: 9.5 + DD: 2.8 = 21.80   Pass 2: E1: 9.4 + E2: 9.3 + DD: 3.1 = 21.80 Final score = 43.60

Example (TR) 

• 1st routine: E1: 7.3 + E2: 7.5 = 14.80  

2nd routine: E1: 7.0 + E2: 7.4 + DD: 6.0 = 20.4  = 35.20 final score 

Horizontal displacement: (HD) Only on Trampoline

What they do: 

• determine the HD score based on the number of valid elements.
• Determine which box the athlete is in majority and take off the deduction related to what zone they are in on the trampoline. 
• HD gets added onto the E total score for both routines along with the DD for the second routine. 

Example:

• 1st routine: E1: 7.3 + E2: 7.5 + HD: 9.8 = 24.60  

2nd routine: E1: 7.0 + E2: 7.4 + DD: 6.0 + HD: 9.7 = 30.10  

= 54.70 final score 

Time of Flight: (ToF) Lv. 10, Only on trampoline

What they do: 

• How long the athlete is in the air for each valid element. 
• Should be evaluated using a time measurement device. 
• ToF will get added onto the E total of both routines, along with HD and DD. They do not calculate ToF at every meet, especially the small ones. 

Example: 

• 1st routine: E1: 7.3 + E2: 7.5 + HD: 9.8 + ToF: 15.25 = 39.85  

2nd routine: E1: 7.0 + E2: 7.4 + DD: 6.0 + HD: 9.7 + ToF: 14.75 = 44.85  

= 84.70 final score 

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Penalties: (ND) Seen as Neutral Deductions on the scorecard. 

• Given by the CJP, they are taken from the total score in routines with the violation occurring for both incomplete and complete routines. 
• Landing zone penalties are only taken from completed routines in double mini and tumbling.

The only lunch provided at meets are for the judges, and they usually have a 30 minute break during the meet to eat. You need to plan ahead to ensure you are able to provide food for your athlete as some venues have concessions and some do not

Once everyone in the flight has competed, the judges will get all the scores together and gather the medals or ribbons. You will receive your award based on how you finished. 

If there are more than one flight, they might also give out overall awards. This happens once everyone who is competing in the same age and level has all finished competing. Typically, they will only give out another medal to the top three overalls. At bigger competitions, they may place the top 10. 

Once your athlete has completed all of their flights for all events, they are done and can leave. It is always a good idea to have your athlete check in with the coach (Taylor will be on the meet floor the entire time) to make sure there is nothing else they need to do before you leave.