This was brought up in a couple other posts and I wondered what others thought of it. Personally I don't agree with making large teams compete against small teams in a division. But I think it's fine for open teams to compete against not open when a team in either category has no competition. I don't see any advantages that an open team might have over the other. I know it usually means members are younger and flyers are lighter, but is that a big enough advantage to keep them separate and have them go against nobody or one other team? I saw too much of this last season, teams with just one or two in their division because of this open vs. not open split. It's my biggest pet peeve about it ... adding it means less competition to go against because it's just another division to split everyone up in, just like this new 4.2. What are your thoughts??
I'm over the whole combining divisions discussions. Doesn't everyone understand it is supposed to be the industry standard to combine similar (not exact) divisions when there is no competition. If gyms don't like it then put together teams in more competitive divisions or enter as exhibition only. That's what you would be doing if they don't combine.
My daughter's team isn't open. Now it seems every competition we go to we rarely have more than one or two teams to compete against because the majority seem to be going towards open. So we're supposed to put someone under 10 on our team just so we can have some competition? I thought these open divisions were to help small gyms, but it seems they are now the norm and the teams that aren't open are the odd ones. Doesn't make much sense to me.
I am all for combining the open and non open division when there is no competiiton but I think the judges need to understand a team of 8 cant do the same caliber of pyramids as a team of 30. It's not that they are less talented there is just not enough people to do the crazy pyramids with a million different things going on. They also wont have as much tumbling because there are less of them. Even if the team of 8 has 6 tumblers (More than half the squad) they dont look as impressive as the team of 30 with 13 tumblers (less than Half). I think as long as the judges know how to judge the routines it wouldnt matter if the team of 8 competed against the team of 30. Were they sharper, was the tumbling and stunts that they did throw clean and creative, was the showmanship there, was there creative dances, motion sections, jump sections and transitions. I know it comes up that the "Open" team has the advantage with the little people on the team but thats only if the little people know what they are doing. Just because they are little doesnt mean they can ride a basket or pull up on their stunts. In fact I have found that it's the opposite. Most of the little ones dont have enough body awareness as the older more experienced girls (Im talking average little girls and not the young STUDS who are just naturals and are actually Level 3, 4 & 5 cheerleaders) I dont think it an advantage at all. Try hiding those sloppy motions and bent knees in stunts. Sorry about the rant. JMO.
