NEW WEBSITE

After months of work, Meet Control is excited to announce that we have created a brand new, more user friendly website.  The new site offers information on all of our services (scoring, sound, LiveScore, awards, printing, promotions, packages and much more), our calendar and tour, meet results and information about all upcoming meets.

Please follow the link to see our latest creation:

www.meetcontrolonline.com 

~ New Address ~

~ Even Better Services ~

~ Same Dependable Company ~

Microsoft Excel^®

Using Microsoft Excel^® can be a tricky thing.  One of the most important things to remember is to format your columns correctly.  What this means is you are telling that group of cells what type of information you are putting into them i.e. a date, a number or just general text.  There are many different ways to format cells. First, you can select an entire column-right click and select format cells or you can select a column and click edit, at the top, then format cells or you can select a column and use the keyboard shortcut keys (on a PC it's "ctrl+1" on a Mac it's "cmnd+1).  I highly recommend learning keyboard shortcuts, it is a much faster way of using Excel^®.  If you are not familiar with keyboard shortcuts take a look at this website.

Now that we know how to format cells let's decide what we format them too.  If you read last months article you know that the most important information for a meet entry is:

• First Name
• Last Name
• USAG Number
• Date of Birth
• Level

Knowing this, we need to format the cells accordingly.  First and Last Name should each be in a separate cell and should be formatted as "General" or "Text".  USAG Number is the tricky one, most would think this cell should be formatted as a "Number" but because some athlete's USAG numbers begin with a zero we can not format the cell as a "Number" due to the fact that Excel^® drops a preceding zero. Therefore we have to format the cells as "Text".  This allows us to enter all 6 digits of the athlete's USAG number.  Now you might notice a little orange triangle in the upper right corner of the cell.  This is just a warning label that the information in the cell is a "number stored as text".  It is nothing to worry about and if it really bothers you you can go into preferences and turn warnings off.  The next cell is the other tricky one, the Date of Birth.  It is fairly straight forward. You do select "Date" but in the newer versions of Excel^® the date is displayed as a two digit year.  For purposes of competition entry the date should be displayed as a four digit year.  To tell Excel^® you want it to show a four digit year, after selecting date on the left a box shows up on the right.  In that box it shows many different ways for displaying the date.  Scroll down the box until you see a date that looks like "3/14/2011".  Click on the date and now you cells will show a four digit year.  The last cell we need to format is the Level column.  This column of cells can be left as "General" or change to "Text".

Making sure the information you submit on your entry forms is clean and formatted correctly is critical in decreasing the amount of errors that occur.  You should enter your data in Excel^® just as you want it printed in the program, scorecards or displayed on the digital score boards.  Entering your athletes names in all caps or in all lower case allows for errors in transposing the names to proper case.  Sending entry's with a two digit year also increases the error possibility in the date being changed to 1995 when it should have been 2005.  Remember, once you have this information correct in your master list it is very easy to copy and paste the information into each meet you are entering (learn about copy and paste in part 3 of Excel^®).

If you have any questions about how to setup an Excel^® list of your athletes please feel free to contact us at any time.  We will be happy to look at or help you design your own form for meet entry. 

Whether You Think You Can Or Think You Can't-You're Right

Whether you think you can or think you can't-you're right! That statement is attributed to Henry Ford and rings particularly true for those of us who coach gymnastics. Even the most prepared athlete falls prey to this situation at some time and that time could be during warm-ups right before the meet.

Triggers, yes triggers. We all have them and for a young athlete it could be anything from a bad hair day to the color of the floor carpet. It is a little more involved for experienced competitors. The memory of a mistake on a critical skill, not connecting a series, or losing to someone they never lost to before can trigger doubt at the most crucial time. Invest time prior to competitions and arm your athletes with tools that help prevent these problems.

Here are a few thoughts to share with your gymnast that could better prepare them should this situation occur:

· Practice like you are at a meet so your meet will be like practice.

· Athletes must be able to see themselves achieving something in reality, not just in dreams. Doing several mental routines should be a daily exercise, one that can be done traveling to and from practice, and at home.

· What make teams effective are individuals.  Yes, you work as a group but you bring your own thing to the table.  Know who you are as a person/athlete and then bring those assets to your team on a silver platter. You are meant to contribute.  You are meant to count. 

· No one is thinking anywhere NEAR as MUCH about you as you think they are. Most of the audience and other competitors are consumed with their personal performances so cut yourself some slack!

· Your character is often put to the test at award ceremonies. Losing by a half of tenth is much more difficult than losing by two points. Congratulate the first place winner! Treat the Gold Medalist like you want to be treated when it is your turn to stand on first!

· Go ALL out! Defeat the negative feelings creeping up your spine. Embrace those butterflies because those chemicals your body is creating are the essence of STRENGHT! Use that rush in the pursuit of victory. You never want to have to say "if I had only tried harder". You do want to say I did the best I could on this day of competition.

· Write it all in your journal, your victories, your mistakes, your thoughts. Mistakes are the key to learning what not to do, and what to avoid next time.

· You have a magnificent power within you. It is there waiting for you to summons it. It is yours alone. Rid yourself of negative images by using your power!

 I would love to hear some of the "tools" you use to better prepare your athletes for competition. Email me at deb.walls@meetcontrol.biz
! Good luck!