As you may know, a gymnastics competition is called a meet.

Gymnastics meets can seem confusing if you’re not familiar with how they are organized and run. First gymnastics meets can feel intimidating to both a gymnast and their parents since they don’t know what to expect.

Let’s review the basics of a gymnastics meet. If your gymnast knows how a meet is organized, it will make their first gymnastics meet less stressful and a happier occasion!

Gymnastics meets may be sanctioned (approved) by a League or unsanctioned. Sanctioned gymnastics meets need to follow the organization’s Rules issuing the sanction. In contrast, unsanctioned meets may not have written rules to follow.

Gymnastics meets are scheduled for the weekends. Depending on the size, the gymnastics meet may start Friday and end Sunday or Monday.

There is usually a fee for spectators to watch the gymnastics meet. Yes, even gymnast’s families must pay to watch the meet they’ve already paid for their gymnast to attend. It’s just one of those quirky things about gymnastics meets. The good news is, often, all or some of the money raised benefits the host gym!

Gymnastics meets are broken down into sessions. Because of the limited space in gyms, competing athletes need to be split into different sessions.

The number of gymnasts competing in the gymnastics meet determines how many sessions are in each day of the meet. There are rules concerning the maximum number of gymnasts allowed per session, depending upon the level. Each session of the gymnastics meet may include one level or more than one level.

Gymnasts only compete in one session per gymnastics meet. Their session is the time your gymnast will compete in that competition. You may have the 1st session start at 8 am, while the second starts at 10 am, and the fourth session of a meet may begin at 4 pm. Meet session times will vary by gymnastics meet.

Sessions are between two to four hours (or longer on occasion).

Sessions in a gymnastics meet will change every meet. What session your gymnast competes in depends upon their level and the specific scheduling of that meet. You’ll need to check each gymnastics meet’s schedule for details regarding your gymnast.

Gymnastics Meet Schedules list check-in and start times for each session in a competition. Meet schedules change per gymnastics meet.

Meet schedules are usually released a few weeks before the meet. Check with your gym for the meet schedule, or check the website of the host gym or organization.

Gyms sometimes have last-minute updates or changes to the schedule. Be sure to verify start times the day before the gymnastics meet!

Understand that even with a well-planned schedule, sessions in a gymnastics meet can run behind. Be prepared for a meet session to start a few minutes late.

You may arrive for your session at 12 pm, only to find out that the 9 am session is running behind due to bad weather this morning. Your session is now scheduled to start at 1 pm.

No one wants to be running late, I promise.

The gymnastics meet director, judges, coaches - everyone wants a meet to run on time. But, it doesn’t always happen. There are a million moving parts of running a meet, and it’s hard to keep them all running smoothly - especially when hundreds of kids are involved!

Most meets operate similarly, but the specifics depend on the type of meet. We’ll explain more about that later, but let’s get to the important stuff first.

When gymnasts arrive, they should either be wearing their competition leotard and warm-up or have them with them.

Gymnasts should check in and get their gymnast’s number for the competition. Once they’ve checked in, they should find their coach if it’s time for their session. Make sure they have a water bottle and gym bag with them.

Meets usually begin with open stretch, during which gymnasts warm up as a team.

After the open stretch, teams are typically introduced, and announcements are made. Of course, spectators will be asked to turn off the flash on any cameras or phones. Flashes can distract gymnasts, which could be very dangerous.

At the competition, gymnasts are expected to stay on the competition floor the entire time – from open stretch through final awards for their session.

After the open stretch, gymnasts begin their first rotation or first event. They will warm up that event and then compete.

At the beginning of each event, the gymnasts competing in that rotation may (or may not) present at the judge’s table.

Gymnasts must wait until a judge acknowledges the gymnasts before starting the routine. When it’s your gymnast’s turn to compete, they will salute the judges before and after the competition.

During a gymnastics meet, the athletes move (rotate) through the four events. Each rotation includes a warm-up and then competition on that event.

They will begin the meet by competing on one event and then rotating through the other three events during a gymnastics meet.

At gymnastics meets, athletes rotate through the events in Olympic order no matter which event they start on. For Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, that means Vault, Bars, Beam, and Floor.

When gymnasts start in the middle of the rotation, they just continue through the list and then restart the list from the beginning. So if they begin on Beam, they would move to Floor, and then Vault and end on Bars. This order remains the same at all gymnastics meets.

During some gymnastics meets, athletes competing in a session are split into two Flights. Splitting competing athletes into flights speeds competition when there are two sets of equipment.

When athletes are split into flights, athletes on Flight A are competing, while athletes on Flight B are warming up on the B set of equipment.

Often, the judges will move from apparatus A to apparatus B to judge the different flights.

There are usually vendor areas set up during the meet.

Most meets have concession stands where food and drinks can be purchased for a nominal fee. Monday raised in the concession stands often goes to the booster club or gym hosting the meet.

Other vendors on-site may sell gymnastics gymnast gifts, including leotards, shorts, sweatshirts, tee shirts, grip bags, pictures, flowers, and candy.

Some meets sell “Shoutouts.” Shoutouts are special messages delivered to gymnasts in writing at the end of their session or announced over the loudspeaker during the meet.

Even though your gymnast may be in a session with other gymnasts, that doesn’t mean competing against those other gymnasts. Your gymnast only competes against the other gymnasts at their level and in their age group.

At meets, athletes of a specific level are separated into age groups, so they’re competing against a smaller group of athletes closer (relatively speaking) to their age. Your gymnast may still have to compete against athletes much younger or older if there are not many gymnasts in a specific level.

Age groups are just all the gymnasts in a level, sorted by age, and then split into (somewhat) equal groups. The girls in that age group (ex: Level 2, age group Junior A) would only compete against other girls in their age group for awards. This makes scoring and competition among the gymnasts fairer.

Your gymnast’s age group will change for each meet. You may have to wait until Meet Day to find out which age group they’re in.

Some meets (such as States in some places) the age groups are published ahead of time. Their age group determines which session they compete in.

To many gymnasts, one of the best parts of a gymnastics meet is the Awards ceremony. Usually, after a session, the athletes from that session come together for awards.

Awards are distributed to the top athletes in each age division.

The Rules and Policies usually determine the number of placements, but for USA Gymnastics, it is 50% award distribution or greater in most cases.

The first place for each event is considered the champion. So the gymnast that scored first on Floor is the Floor Champion, and the gymnast that scored first on Bars is the Bars Champion for that age group.

The All-Around score is computed by adding up the event scores for a specific athlete. Adding their vault, bars, beam, and floor score would give you an AA of up to 40.00 points. Remember, if they don’t have a 10.0 Start Value on each of the four events, they will not have a possible 40 in the All-Around.

Awards are presented for the All-Around top finishers in the session in each age group.

Once again, the first place All Around is called the All-Around Champion.

Awards may be trophies or medals, depending on the meet.

When gymnasts tie during an event or the All-Around - what happens?

Let’s go over how to break a tie for awards in the DP and Xcel programs.

The rules for tie-breaking do not vary by meet, state, or region. The rules are very explicit and are spelled out each season in the Rules and Regulations.

What happens when gymnasts tie for score on an event? Or, what if they tie on the All-Around? Or, could it happen - could they tie on both an event and the All-Around Score? Let’s find out.

What happens when two gymnasts tie on an event, such as Floor?

If it’s for first place, both gymnasts will be announced as Champions.

After breaking the tie (I’ll explain how later), the gymnast in second place would either get a duplicate first place award or the second-place award if duplicate awards aren’t available.

When a tie isn’t broken, the next placement is skipped. So, in our example, with two first-place gymnasts, there would be no second place. The next gymnast would place third.

For any other place other than first, the meet can offer a duplicate award or break the tie as described below.

So, how do you break a tie on an event, such as Floor?

First, we look to the All-Around score. The gymnast with the higher All-Around total receives the award for the tied place.

The gymnast with the lower AA score would be in the next placement.

But, what if, on the rare occasion, the AA totals are also a tie?

Then, a flip of the coin in the presence of both coaches breaks the tie.

As is the case in an event tie, if gymnasts tie for First Place All Around, both gymnasts will be announced as Champions.

Suppose gymnasts are tied for an All-Around award other than first. In that case, the individual with the highest event score receives the award.

That means they take each person’s highest event score and the gymnast with the highest score wins the award. The other gymnast gets the subsequent placement.

But what if their highest event score is also a tie? In that case, they look at the second-highest event score, and again, the gymnast with the second-highest event score receives the award.

If the second-highest score was also a tie, they go to their third-highest scores and compare those to determine placement.

Wait, could there still be a tie?

Yes, yes, there could be.

If the gymnasts had identical scores (not on the same event), they would still be tied here.

So, what do we do next?

A coin flip in the presence of both coaches will break the tie for the award.

Yup, that’s right. We resort to the good old-fashioned flip of a coin to determine placement.

So, now you know how they break a tie when gymnasts tie on an event or on the All-Around.

At some sanctioned meets, all registered competing gymnasts are given a gift representing the meet. Gymnast gifts may range from a notebook to record scores to a commemorative leotard or shirt.

Some meets update their gift each year, and gymnasts love collecting them as they progress through the levels.

Did you know there are different formats of gymnastics meets? Or that the type of gymnastics meet defines how many gymnasts of each level may be a part of a competition session?

Let’s go over the different formats of gymnastics meets and how it affects competition.

For sanctioned gymnastics meets, the Rules and Policies dictate everything from how meets are run, to how ties are broken, to everything in between.

For USAG competitions (both Xcel and DP), the Rules & Policies covers ethical standards, memberships, sanctions, meet director certifications, meet officials, and the format of the competition.

The Rules and Policies dictate the number of athletes per session and competition procedures. The Rules and Policies can be updated each year.