Michael Trevino

Team Uniforms

Competitive uniforms are custom-designed and ordered on September 1^st. They take about two months to deliver. Sometimes, used uniform pieces can be purchased for half price from another team member. All prices are approximate as they are last year’s prices. The best deal for uniforms is to join the Booster Club for $50 and rent a uniform for a competition season. At the end of the season you must turn your uniform into Mike’s office upstairs in a plastic bag with your son’s name on it.

Uniform Cost	New
Team Shirt (new members)	$19.00
Uniform(price for level 5 & up)	$95.90
Bag	$27.00
Warm - Ups (no level 4)	$60.00

The uniform for the 2007-2008 season will not change from previous years. One or two parent volunteers will be in charge of the uniform exchange.

Estimated Summary of payments

Meet Entry Fees: The team does not “make money” on meet entry fees. These are the fees that are paid to the host gym for the individual gymnast to attend a meet. Meet fees are collected in advance to allow the team to enter meets, usually 4 to 6 weeks before the meet is held. The entry fee for a “team” is paid by a collection of three or more gymnasts per level. This fee will vary from team fees per meet. There are very strict deadlines for meet entry fees per meet. A late registration may result in additional fees per gymnast. There are often discounted rates for early entries. We try to take advantage of these to save parents some money. We make every attempt to send in our entries before deadlines so if your gymnast has not paid for a meet, then coaches will assume that you are not attending that particular meet.

Please fill out the form toward the back of the packet of which competitions you would like to attend. Keep in mind the coaches fees are for 8 meets and a state or regional competition. If your family decides that they would like to do two meets the coaches fees will be $110. The meets would include Star Center Inv. and the Texas State meet. Meets will not be exchanged if you cannot attend one of the two meets, if your son wants to do more than two meets then the fee goes back to $220. Coaches encourage the gymnast to compete at all meets to get prepared for the State meet.

Fees included are:

Fixed Expenses	Amount	Due
USAG Registration	$47	September
Star Center Registration	$60	August
Coaches Fees	$220	November
Booster Club (Optional)	$50	September
Meet Entry Fees (all season)	$365	Seasonal
Total Fixed Expenses	$787.00

Check the schedule for State Meet by level. If your son competes at a Level 6 or higher he may qualify for the regional competition held in Kansas.

All information is located in the Team Payment Book (TPB) in the office. Please look through it weekly to see if you are current with payments due. If your child’s name is not listed please write in the TPB and our staff will update the rosters.

Competition Meet Schedule

Competition	Date	Competition Site	Tentative Entry Fee
Competition	Date	Competition Site	Tentative Entry Fee
Ricky Deci Invitational	01/06/2008	Champion Gymnastics Academy - Houston, Texas	$70
Star Center Invitational	1/12/2008	Akins High School - Austin, Tx	$70
Black Jack Invitational (option 1)	2/6 - 2/10/2008	Dusty Ritter Gymnastics - Las Vegas, NV	$125
Alamo Challenge (option 2)	02/09 - 02/10/2008	Alamo Gymnastics - San Antonio, Texas	$65
41st Annual Spinner Invitational	02/23 - 02/24/2008	Spinner Invitational/Austin, TX	$55
Bryan Invitational	03/01/2008	Bryan Gymnastics - Bryan, Texas	$60
Houston National Invitational	03/14 - 03/15/2008	Houston Gymnastics Club - Houston, Texas	$60 - $80
Texas State Meet Levels 6-10	03/29 - 03/30/2008	Fort Worth, Texas
2007 Regional Championship	04/11 - 04/12/2008	Ft. Smith, Arkansas
Texas State Meet Levels 4-5	04/19/2008	W.O.G.A. - Plano, Texas
J.O. Nationals	05/04 - 05/07/2008	Battle Creek, Michigan

Team Guidelines

As a parent the most important thing you can do is bring you child to all practices on time and be supportive of his decision to train in gymnastics. Leave the coaching to the coaches, they are very qualified and they do this job because they love the sport and the kids.

Competition levels are determined among the coaching staff for what is best for the athlete following our philosophy. Concerns will be addressed, but parents do not get to choose the level they think their child should compete. Once again our coaching staff is very qualified to make these decisions. The workout grouping (during class) DOES NOT mean your child will compete in that level. That decision will be made closer to the competition season by our very qualified staff.

The Head Coach has many responsibilities. Many of these responsibilities do not require coaching gymnastics, but rather business management skills. There is much work to do to make sure the workouts run smoothly and planning and administrative duties are met. The Head Coach will not coach every gymnast nor will he be at every meet for every level.

Philosophy

The Star Center gym is housing many talented kids that may become our next Olympians or community leaders. We feel it is important to use the training in gymnastics to develop well rounded children that understand the concepts of hard work, goal setting, time management, and social interaction with their peers. We are prepared to coach every level athlete and believe strongly that it is not the parents or coaches that create champions, the kids have that instilled in their tiny little bodies already. We are merely there to give guidance and build confidence. Being active in your son’s gymnastics helps him to strive to get better because he has a cheering section on his side. Sometimes it’s the little things that mean so much to a kid.

Maintaining a level head and keeping gymnastics “fun” if the most important thing for the coaches. Oh yeah, winning is always nice too!

First Aid

The following are techniques used for years by world-class gymnasts. The following information is a suggestion on treatment for common gymnastics injuries but does not qualify as a physician’s advice.

Hand Care:

Ongoing hand care is essential for gymnasts. The heat and pressure placed on gymnasts’ hands every day during training sessions, as well as the drying effect of the chalk used during workouts has a telling effect on the hands if they are not cared for consistently and properly. Every morning and every night, a gymnast should apply a lanolin-rich hand lotion abundantly to his hands. Often, when hands have gotten extremely hot during training, or overly sore, it is advisable to apply extreme amounts of hand lotion (more than the skin will immediately absorb), cover the hands with clean white socks, and let the hands soak up the lotion as the athlete sleeps overnight. The socks help warm up the skin and keep the lotion on the hands and off the bed sheets.

“Rips” are the result of the friction and resulting heat buildup on the top three layers of skin from training on P-Bars, High Bar, Rings, and Pommel Horse. They are a normal and unavoidable consequence to gymnastics training. “Rips” occur often, especially in the beginning of a gymnast’s competitive training, and are often quite painful. As the athlete continues, his hands toughen and the skin becomes accustomed to the exaggerated heat and use. Calluses develop to further protect the palms. “Rips” become less frequent though generally more severe throughout an athlete’s career. “Rips” should never be covered or bandaged. Some will bleed a bit, some excessively. Nevertheless, do not bandage them. Initially, the athlete should soak his palm with the “rip” in a pie plate filled 1 inch deep with very warm water, in which 1 teaspoon of table salt, and one teaspoon of Vaseline petroleum jelly have been added and stirred until dissolved. This will sting, but will do much the same as “tanning” leather --- dry the wound but toughen, moisturize, and make pliable the new skin. Further, this therapy will hasten the healing, and significantly desensitize the new skin allowing the gymnast to resume regular training, often the next day.

The athlete should take care to wash his hands three times daily as the wound heals. He should take care to regularly apply Vaseline, Preparation H, or liquid Vitamin E to the “rip” for the next 24-48 hours, and always after he washes his hands. He should gently stretch his palm and the “rip” after each application to prevent the new skin from drawing up and then cracking as the hand is used.

Though coaches will usually have already trimmed the “rip” of the loose and torn skin, all dead skin must be trimmed from around the edges of the “rip” or it will catch on the bar in the next training session and cause further ripping to occur.

Do not use razor blades or fingernail clippers to do this. Buy and use small, very sharp scissors.

If the above treatments are followed, infection will not occur. By the way, “favorite remedies”---Neosporin, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine, tincture of mercurochrome and like ointments offer no advantage to the healing process, are often excessively painful, and can often over-moisturize or dry out the wound.

Do not coddle the gymnasts who complain of sore hands. This will only hinder their adjusting to what is a normal, and acceptable consequence to their training. They must learn to “deal with it”. Coaches and older gymnasts will tell them they are “real gymnasts” now, and that they are “cool” and “studly” now that they are getting rips. Parents should encourage the athletes; tell them they are brave, cool, and becoming real gymnasts. This will help them deal with the admittedly painful experience of their first several “rips”. Rips are never an acceptable reason to miss training!

Calluses, while helpful in toughening the hands, can be the 2nd most common reason for “rips” to occur, just behind dryness of the skin. Calluses should be kept at normal skin level, and “shiny” by way of using an emery board, fingernail file, or best of all, a pumice stone to “shave them down” regularly. Callus buildup will result in extremely deep, bloody, painful, and hard to heal “rips”. Do not neglect to “shave down” calluses regularly. Also, have the athlete do this job. Teach him how, remind him to do the treatment, inspect his work, but do not do it for him! Hand care is the athlete’s responsibility, not the parents’.

Muscle Soreness, Bruises, Sprains

Gymnasts are constantly trying to work their muscles to the point of failure to allow for the process of building new muscle to occur. This process involves constant muscle soreness. Expect it more often than not. It is a sign of hard work and improvement. Muscle soreness will decrease as the body adjusts to the level of work the athlete is doing, but should never be absent entirely for more than a day or two. Massage, and applying ice to the sore areas will aid in recovery and reduce soreness significantly. “ If it is sore, ice it!” should become a rule of thumb. Applying ice to sore muscles, sprains, scrapes, bruises, etc. should become an almost nightly practice. New gymnasts don’t like it, it is inconvenient, it takes time, but it is effective, will hasten recovery, reduce pain, and improve progress and performance. Heat is never recommended except in certain situations.

Bruises commonly occur due to unplanned and unwanted contact of parts of the body with hard objects, i.e. other body parts, pieces of equipment, and the ground. Bruises are unavoidable. The gymnast’s legs will get especially bruised from Pommel Horse. Just look at the upper level gymnast’s legs and upper arms and you will see how common this is. Often, coaches may unintentionally bruise your athlete’s arms or ribs or legs while “spotting” or rescuing the athlete during a difficult new skill. We hold the gymnasts tightly to ensure we can protect them, especially on the high bar. We would rather leave a hand print on them than let them fall. Never feel badly about questioning your athlete and the coaches about a bruise. We want to know about them. While many are unavoidable, some are unnecessary and can be avoided. Sprains of ankles, wrists, necks, and/or backs can and do happen. Compression and ice are the most effective treatment for sprains of ankles, wrists, and back. Ice only (no compression) can be used on the neck. Please always bring sprains to the attention of the coaches prior to a training session and insist that your athlete inform the coach as well. We might want to alter the training schedule for the day based on such an injury, or might unwittingly amplify the injury during regular training if unaware of such an injury. Over time, you and your athlete will learn what levels of discomfort and what degrees of strains and sprains can interfere with training, or are truly injurious to the athletes.

Pain Relievers

Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve (and their generic equivalents) are all safe and effective pain relievers. Advil and Aleve are effective as anti-inflammatory agents. Follow the directions on the bottle regarding dose. Advil should not be taken more than 10 days in a row without a week’s break. If your athlete is old enough to assume responsibility for his own medication, you may give him a bottle of the above over-the-counter medications to have in his gym bag. He should always tell the coaches should he need to take some. He may not share medication with other gymnasts. Coaches are not allowed to give medications, including over-the-counter pain relievers, unless you are contacted.

Never give an athlete any pain medicine after he has sustained a significant hit to the head. Medications can mask symptoms of concussions. Check on the athlete for nausea or severe headache every two to three hours for the first 24 hours, and periodically up to 48 hours after the incident.

Ointments such as Ben-Gay, Icy-Hot, etc. are only topical irritants and will not reduce muscle irritation and/or pain. Wet heat applied with hot wet towels will be more effective in reducing irritation and pain. Heat however, should only be used after the initial 48-60 hours following an injury. Generally, ice is still preferred to heat up to two weeks following an injury.

Never give an athlete any medicine prior to or during a competition. Even over-the-counter medications like pain relievers, muscle relaxers, and antihistamines/ decongestants can be dangerous during a competition. Ask a coach for his opinion if you want to medicate your gymnasts before a competition. Daily medications (like Ritalin) should be taken as usual before a competition, with the coaches’ knowledge.

Meet Information

Location: The meets we attend are generally held in one of two locations. A club meet is held at the host club’s gym, and an arena meet is held at a nearby high school or college gym.

Seating: Club meets have unpredictable seating. Most of the time spectators are squeezed in around the perimeter of the competitive area, usually on folding metal chairs or small bleachers. Some clubs have an upstairs observation area. Arena meets are more spacious, usually with ample bleacher seating.

Admission fee: Most meets charge an admission fee for each session. $5 to $10 per adult and $3 to $5 per child is common. Competing gymnasts get in free for their session.

Concessions: All meets have concessions (it’s a major fund-raiser). Expect breakfast tacos and donuts in the morning and something like hot dogs and pizza in the afternoon. Soft drinks, bottled water, candy and fruit are almost always available. T-shirts are sold by the host meet and cost $12 to $15. The nicer T-shirts sell out early (especially in smaller sizes).

Parking: At club meets, parking is cramped since the facilities are not designed for large attendance, so plan for a walk to the entrance (drop off at the front door then go park). At arena meets, there is ample parking. Parking is usually free.

Changing facilities: At club meets, changing facilities are usually not available except for the restrooms, so bring your gymnast in uniform. At arena meets, the boy’s locker room is sometimes available.

Judges: Judges usually wear jackets and ties. Be polite to the judges (by the end of the season they know many of the boys by name) and never approach a judge about scores or other technical aspects of the meet. Most judges have “week day jobs” as coaches, teachers, or businessmen, and they leave promptly at the end of the meet.

Equipment: The host supplies all equipment at the meet. It is all USAG standard equipment. Do not allow your gymnast (or other children) to play on the equipment.

Cameras and Video cameras: Flash photography is not allowed at any meet due to the danger of temporarily blinding a gymnast and risk of injury. Large lights like those on older video cameras are not allowed. Bring extra batteries for the video camera because there are no electrical outlets available. You will be able to move around, but you will need a “zoom” on your equipment since you must stay in the spectator area and cannot go onto the competitive floor.

Siblings: Siblings, especially younger siblings, find the meets to be boring. Bring quiet activities for siblings that keep them seated and occupied for the full 3.5 to 5 hours. Viewing from the spectator seats can be poor and space can be very limited, and the floor is often dirty from chalk dust. There is often no safe place to roam or run. Consider a babysitter for young children!

Meet duration: Each session of a meet lasts about 3.5 to 5 hours. In the popular warm-up/compete format, there is a 30 minute general stretch period, then the gymnasts will warm-up on a event for about ten to twenty minutes then compete on that event (about 20 to 30 minutes), and then rotate to warm-up on the next event. Most gymnasts and coaches favor “Warm-up/compete” format since the gymnast can concentrate on one event at a time. Following the “warm-up/compete” on all six events, there is about a 30 minute award ceremony. A more traditional schedule includes a 30-minute stretch, followed by 60 to 120 minutes of warm-up (10 to 20 minutes on each event), followed by about a 2 to 3 hours of competition (20 to 30 minutes per event), followed by about a 30 minute awards ceremony. Meet times are determined by the number of competitors in each session, so most meets limit the number of competitors. There are usually 4 to 8 sessions in a weekend. There are variations on how to run a meet: sometimes the warm-up is done in an adjacent gym with two groups of gymnast switching out on the competition floor, sometimes two sessions of different classes or age groups will be competing simultaneously. Gymnasts must be on time for the beginning of the “stretch” period or, when 10 minutes late, they will be scratched from the competition.

Meet times: Commonly, each session of a meet is a morning, afternoon, or evening session. Morning sessions may be times like 7:30 am to noon, afternoon sessions may be noon to 5 pm, and evening sessions may be 6 pm to 10 pm. Although the host determines the schedule, it is common to have the upper-level “optional” boys (classes 4/3/2/1) compete on Saturday and “compulsory” Class 7/6/5 boys compete on Sunday. Class 6, since it is a large group, usually competes on Sunday morning and sometimes gets split into two or more sessions by age division. We get final meet details (session times, number of competitors, locations, hotels, etc) about two weeks before the meet.

Meet hotels: Try to stay at the hotel arranged by the host club. The host hotel usually has a very competitive group rate, and the host arranges for reduced rate or free rooms for the judges if enough people stay at the hotel. If we stay at their arranged hotel, we can expect them to stay at our hotel and reduce our expenses at the meet(s) we host.

Food: You will need to feed your gymnast before his competitive session, knowing that the session will be 3.5 to 5 hours long. Some gymnasts carry re-closeable water bottles with them during the competition (but NEVER put the water bottle in the gym bag). At out-of-town meets, the parents and gymnasts

competing in the morning session usually go to lunch after the session at a place like Bennigan's or Friday's.

Parenting at a Meet: From the moment you hand your gymnast over to the coach at the beginning of the stretch period until the moment awards are finished and the coach releases your gymnast to you, your gymnast is under the care and guidance of the coach. DO NOT APPROACH YOUR GYMNAST during the meet; this is especially true in the event of an injury or fall. The coach will send for you if you are needed. Demonstrating good sportsmanship, all gymnasts stay for the entire session including the awards ceremony.

Awards: The host gym determines how many awards are given (how many “places” are recognized). Commonly, the top 10 to 20% of the gymnasts in an event receive ribbons, with the top three receiving medals. In the all-around, it is common for the top 20 to 30% to receive ribbons with the top three receiving medals. In meets with higher entry fees, more medals are given. Team awards are usually a team trophy or plaque or banner to be displayed at the home gym. The top three teams for each age group are usually recognized.

Awards Ceremony: The awards ceremony for each session is usually held at the completion of the competition, delayed about 10 to 20 minutes from the finish of the last routine (10 to 20 minutes allows the completion of the scoring process). Star Center gymnasts wear their full uniform to the awards ceremony (step-in and shorts for our Level 4 competitors, full warm-up suit for Level 5-higher). The warm up suits are worn neatly, with the jacket zipped. During the awards ceremony, our gymnasts sit respectfully and quietly. Under no circumstances are the gymnasts to be doing ANY form of gymnastics (no handstands, no circles, etc.). The coaches may or may not be at the awards ceremony, but be assured that they know the standings. Gymnasts who behave improperly during the awards ceremony should be reported to the coaches for disciplinary action at the next workout. Star Center has a reputation for well-behaved gymnasts that will be preserved.

Olympic Order (the order of events at a competition)

…Floor, Pommel, Rings, Vault, P-bars, High bar…

The rotation is circular, so if your gymnast starts on Rings, he will finish on Pommel Horse. There is no way to know in advance which event our gymnasts will start on, and it is possible for our gymnasts to be split into different groups. The order of competition on the events and the grouping of our gymnasts have no effect on the scoring; in fact, different age groups may compete together but scoring is segregated by the computerized program.

Warm-ups: The meet director decides if the warm-ups are going to be all done before the competition starts, or if the gymnasts will warm up on each event immediately before competing on that event. If the warm-up is to be all done before any competition starts, you will notice that the gymnasts begin warm-up on the event that they will be competing on second. This makes sense because their final warm-up session will then be on the event that they will be competing on first.

Determining a gymnast’s competitive age: The gymnast’s age group for the entire competitive season (November thru May) is determined by the gymnast’s age on September 1st. But, the coaches can elect to move a gymnast up one age level. The decision to move a gymnast up one age level is made to put the gymnast in a more appropriate competitive environment: for example, some of the higher age groups have more older entry-level boys and more boys with larger body types. Also, since a team must have a minimum of three gymnasts in an age group to be eligible for a team award, a younger boy might be moved up to fill out a team. Trust the coaches to decide in the best interest of the individual gymnast.

Scoring: The scoring software is a spreadsheet-based commercial package that runs on a personal computer; we use ProScore (the most popular software). There are several variations on scoring, but generally each gymnast is pre-entered into the meet by their coach, and each gymnast is assigned a three-digit competitor number for that meet. Most commonly, the judge watches the routine and records the errors and bonuses on his personal worksheet. He then gives the gymnast a numerical score (10.000 is the highest possible score). The judge writes the score onto the gymnast’s individual card (meet card) during each rotation. The gymnast’s competitor number and score are transferred from the meet card onto a tabulation sheet by the tabulator. The tabulation sheet is then turned in to the computer data entry person who enters the gymnast’s competitor number, the event (by number), and the score (with up to 3 decimal places). Scores are usually “flashed” to the spectators as soon as the tabulator has recorded them. The tabulation sheets are used to enter data after each rotation. After the final rotation when all the data has been entered, the computer program crunches the data and determines the award standings. The only “official “ score sheet is the judge’s personal worksheet (the meet cards and the tabulation sheets are not official score sheets). Some of the more progressive gyms (like Capital) have new systems where the scores are entered directly at the judging table via an electronic keypad then flashed on an electronic score flasher.

Ties for individual event awards are broken using the all-around score (the gymnast with the higher all-around score gets the award for that place, and the gymnast with the lower all-around score gets the next place award). Ties for the individual all-around awards are broken using the highest individual event score. Ties for the team awards are broken using the highest counting individual event score.

Scoring errors: If your gymnast gets an award by error, you should clap and celebrate just as if he scored a perfect 10. It is the philosophy (and stated policy) of most coaches that a gymnast should NEVER be removed from the awards stand, even if he received the award in error. If your gymnast does not get an award that he earned, you should immediately and quietly seek out your coach (do not approach the meet director or any of the judges). There are hundreds of people awaiting the completion of the awards ceremony so they can go home, so it is not reasonable to stop the awards ceremony to correct errors. There are ways to handle this very unfortunate situation; if the error is simple and can be corrected during the ceremony, then the gymnast will be called to the award stand near the end of the ceremony and be awarded duplicate place awards. If the error cannot be corrected quickly, the meet director will give the gymnast his awards personally. The final scores sent to the USAG are reviewed to be sure they are correct.

What to bring to “A Meet”

In the gymnasts’ bag:

Competitive uniform, usually consisting of:

Uniform top (step-in)

Uniform shorts

Uniform pants (“whites”)

Competitive socks

Warm-up jacket

Warm-up pants

Team T-shirt

Flip flops or slides (optional, helps keep socks dry and clean)

Athletic tape and