I posted this to another thread and thought maybe it was worth discussing in it's own topic. I'm curious to know what other people (parent, coaches, owners and athletes alike) feel about this issue.
I attended the GSSA Comp on 12-13 in Sacramento. A parent on the results thread mentioned he was surprised at the lack of discipline and the number of dropped stunts. (please see the thread as i may not be quoting 100%). I posted this and wondered what others had to say:
I too was surprised by the number of technical errors especially in stunting. What worries me more is the number of iffy tumbling passes thrown. I am almost always horrified with the number of kids throwing tumbling skills that are not solid. You can often see the look of surprise on the kids face when they actually hit the skill.
I find the tumbling to be especially dangerous as at least a flier has a group that will (hopefully) catch her.
As a parent I would not allow my daughter to be pushed (or have her push a coach to let her) put a tumbling skill on the floor that she is less than confident with.
I have always heard about a general coaching rule of 90% hit ratio before allowing a skill in a routine. Doesn't seem like many are hitting anywhere near this percentage.
I also did not see many accurately executed or pretty kick fulls/ kick doubles. Anyone else agree?
I did not attend this event but i did attend jamz at UCLA and every level 5 team but cheerforce junior 5 had major stunt falls. I was very surprised. One of the level 5 teams fell out of a stright up stunt with no transitions at all. Also from reading the board it looks like power small 5 also had an off day with their stunts.
At the event i attended i do believe they were just mistakes because the majority of these stunts were hitting in warmups.
I also saw alot of tumbling bust. But none that were too major. I think with as competitive as the cheer world is today just to be an ok team you have to really push the limits. Thats why i believe we are seeing so many mistakes.
In all honesty, I didn't see that many falls this past weekend. However, I need to premise that with, I was on at the convention center for about 2 1/2 hours of the event. I guess alot could have happened before and after my viewing time. I am quite new to the all-star scene. It's a big change for me and my girl. we moved over to a allstar team after we feared these same concerns on our jr football team. The girls were falling and hurting themselves as they were trying to stunt on uneven ground and in the dark. To me allstars is like wrapping my girl in bubble wrap. She is now with certified coaches and on a padded spring floor every practice.
its mostly tumbling that worries me. ive seen girls pull double fulls out of nowhere and they are so scary to watch. many girls ate their double fulls and fulls because they weren't high enough, the twist was super slow or the technique was just plain bad. the fulls seriously looked like they had just learned them a day ago.
In all honesty, I didn't see that many falls this past weekend. However, I need to premise that with, I was on at the convention center for about 2 1/2 hours of the event. I guess alot could have happened before and after my viewing time. I am quite new to the all-star scene. It's a big change for me and my girl. we moved over to a allstar team after we feared these same concerns on our jr football team. The girls were falling and hurting themselves as they were trying to stunt on uneven ground and in the dark. To me allstars is like wrapping my girl in bubble wrap. She is now with certified coaches and on a padded spring floor every practice.
I couldn't agree with you more. Padded Spring Floors, big difference.
its mostly tumbling that worries me. ive seen girls pull double fulls out of nowhere and they are so scary to watch. many girls ate their double fulls and fulls because they weren't high enough, the twist was super slow or the technique was just plain bad. the fulls seriously looked like they had just learned them a day ago.
I think this issue is caused when the coaches and parents want to push the cheerleaders so they barely get a skill and it's in the routine. Also in my opinion there are some flyers that just do not belong in the air, they don't stick in practice and for some reason they stay in the routinue and everyone assumes they will take it to the floor and stick, just on a pure adreneline rush and the presure of being a competition, but that never happens and they just usually wind up falling anyway, then crying afterwards because they have disappointed the team, coaches and parents in a public arena. It's very sad!
Just some follow up and a quick thanks to all of you posters for your candor. To clarify what I was getting at was just what cheerforlife08 said kids are throwing skills that look like they just learned them. Then you hear comments like, "I finally hit my tuck". Maybe they are not landing on their head but the potential is there...
My kids tumbling instructor recommended performing the skill just below the one they are currently working/ just got.
Im going to go with a different point of veiw. We have the opposite happen to us this weekend. Our girls were sticking all their tumbling at practice and even stunts. Then they got on the floor and some just didn't stick them????? we were like wow that never happens at practice. But I think it depends on the temperatutre of the venue, the warm up before you get on the mat, nerves and even emotional well being that day. What time of day it is . is it too early or too late. how long have they been sitting, were they rushed because it was an early performance. and it is still early in the season and most of them are still working out their jitters.
You go back in the gym keep encouraging them to get their skills and build their confidence.
Lord knows I have been walking up and down my stairs in myhouse for years, but i still trip every once in awhile
Im going to go with a different point of veiw. We have the opposite happen to us this weekend. Our girls were sticking all their tumbling at practice and even stunts. Then they got on the floor and some just didn't stick them????? we were like wow that never happens at practice. But I think it depends on the temperatutre of the venue, the warm up before you get on the mat, nerves and even emotional well being that day. What time of day it is . is it too early or too late. how long have they been sitting, were they rushed because it was an early performance. and it is still early in the season and most of them are still working out their jitters.
You go back in the gym keep encouraging them to get their skills and build their confidence.
Lord knows I have been walking up and down my stairs in myhouse for years, but i still trip every once in awhile
I absolutely agree! But my daughter did say that the floor fell differently at GSSA this weekend. My daughter always hits her tumbling without fail and had 2 touch downs on the floor. She said it felt slippery, not sure how this mat was different. Was this actually a spring floor or air floor? I have heard that the air floors have a different feel.
if the mats are brand new then they are EXTREMELY slippery... you can tell if after a few performances there are a lot of lint balls all over ther floor. New mats are pretty scary to tumble on and they always use brand new mats for nationals and worlds. Kinda sucks
My daughter has a couple of passes and she said that the floor was soft and actually absorbed some of the punch. Her pass has a whip to a full and when I commented on how low her full was (lower than normal but not scary) she made the comment about the floor.
So it sounds to me like a lot of the tumbling from this particular event was affected by the floor. That makes sense because it just seemed like so many of the fulls or doubles were very low.
-- Edited by got cheer fever?? at 17:13, 2008-12-18
I was looking foward to seeing all the big teams and the high flyin. I cant say i was disappointed at all. But it seemed like something was a bit off for all teams. Now that I read about the floor that kind of explains a lot of things. But man for all of them to go out there and do it on a diff floor every comp. They all rock
