Never assume the minimal amount of reinforcement a gymnast receives even from winning a meet is sufficient in the long run to motivate them.  This is especially true if the meet is an away meet and the gymnasts depart quickly with their parents.

Paltry Gymnastics Awards
 Among the awards of comparable subjectively judged sports – martial arts, diving, dance competitions, cheer competitions, etc., the union-judged sport of gymnastics suffers from the most paltry selection of awards because there is rarely much left from the meet budget to award the true participants.  $1.00 (in quantity) medals abound as the ultimate gymnastic award as opposed to the huge trophies often awarded in the other sports. 

Meet Budgets Stretched and Leave Little for Awards
Yes, our point is that judges in many other sports primarily donate their time and our so-called professional judges receive a higher hourly rate than many coaches do and all their expenses paid.  This leaves little money out of a meet budget to award those who truly deserve the positive reinforcement effects for the work they have put in for that competition.  Imagine if we were paying the gymnasts for their participation at the rate we reward judges.

We’re Not Looking to Make Them Pros
Yes, we remember that gymnasts are amateur athletes but there are acceptable ways to reward them in terms of the NCAA and the IOC.

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