If teams from the West Coast are going to be competitive at WORLDS level we need the following.

1. Standing Tumbling
a. Jumps into tucks – flawless in execution, not hiding several non tuckers in the back
b. Jumps into front tucks – flawless in execution
c. Standing two back handsprings to fulls (numerous 10+), not one!
d. Standing fulls – almost every team at worlds had members throwing them male and female

2. Pass Tumbling - Layouts or fulls don’t cut it
a. Multiple specialty passes into fulls
b. Double Fulls
c. Specialty into front tumbling skills
d. Timed group passes into specialty into fulls +

3. Stunts – this are is the one area where West Coast teams can compete
a. Combination trick stunts – stretch to scorp to scale clean doubles out of them
b. Not having every group with front spots, or even your standard 4 man stunt groups

4. Pyramids – Need to be more creative and difficult
a. Power and American had two of the better pyramids at worlds, but most of the west coast is stuck in the up down and then hit kind of pyramids. Step it up if you want to have a shot

5. Jumps
a. West Coast jumps stink across the board
b. Sting Ray, Spirit of Texas and Georgia make West Coast teams look like bad youth football teams

6. Choreography
a. We lack in skills so much that our chorography is limited and behind the rest of the country.
i. Other teams have things going on all the time even during transitions so the action never stops.
ii. We are lucky enough to have the skills we do so we don’t have extra kids to spare to take the focus off transitions, that for the most part are boring, etc

Lets get real. It is great to say we got to WORLDS, and now this year it should be easier for some teams to slip in because they do go to some Janky Competition with only a few good teams there, and get a bid. Just the truth! Why are we settling to say we got to WORLDS? We should want to have a shot at being at the top there!

Fact – Few teams on the West Coast will be good enough to get to WORLDS by not having the overall skills needed.

Fact – more teams will be looking at going to competitions that give bids to worlds as their choice of travel trips. I heard POWER is going to JAMZ and CTC in Vegas, and have dropped other competitions such as Spirit Sport just because they aren’t offering bids. I assume more highly competitive programs around the country are doing the same, why not; a FREE trip to Florida is at stake.


The next two items go hand in hand, if one area applies to your program/team rethink how you, your team, or program is doing things! Continued comments from these types of teams/parents/members gets old, put it on the floor where it should be, and go from there.

Fact –You can’t say a program is highly competitive if they don’t field a single level 5 team. They may be competitive at their respective level 4 and below, but if they were highly competitive program they would step it up to level 5 and compete against the big dogs, provided they have the skills to be there.

Fact – Flip side - To field a level 5 team or ALL level 5 team(s) when your overall skill level(s) are not indicative of it, is ridiculous on the owner/coaches part. Sure you can look good in Nor Cal, and say we have all level 5 teams (Wahoo!), but step out of our little protected area (called Nor Cal) and get beat, and beat bad. Look at the level 5 teams from Nor Cal who went down to CTC in Anaheim, how many won or placed second? (Provided there were more than 4 teams in that division)

We need to start looking at what we can do to make our region better
1. Why do some programs work on competition routines in June when your skills are not up to snuff, why not develop kids skills and then work on routines late in the summer / beg of fall. Programs that don’t work the skills have the same problem every year, sure they know their routine in October/November, but the kids never improve the skill level from year to year

2. Too many programs promise the moon to individuals. Suzy you can come to my team and fly and tumble, where as if you went to XYZ gym you would be just part of the mix and assured of nothing because everyone else is just as good as Suzy. Then Suzy cheers with that team never to place above 3rd and never be pushed to improve her individual skills because no one on the team or at their gym is as good as her. Wasted another year and wasted more money!

3. Parents need to commit or don’t commit (not all but a few of you) If you are going to do competitive cheer then do it, but don’t mix in soccer, high school cheer, dance, vacations, etc. Those parents that do this and then complain because Suzy is not progressing fast enough, well dugh! How do you expect her to get better? You whisk them off to Piano right after practice, you leave no time for classes and/or privates to better their individual skill because you pack their lives with too much stuff, then you complain when the highly competitive competitions come about that “the team is not as far along as you would like to see”, SERIOUSLY! OF course this is only a few and not the mass, but it is those kinds of parents/kids that skew the teams progression. You committed parents know what I am talking about

4. Finally, have your program go to quality competitions where there is competition. I am sooooo Sick of hearing “we are National Champions” because they went to the Podunk Nationals and competed against one team or none, Who Cares? So you are saying that that one trophy cost your team $1500.00, it would have been cheaper to go buy a trophy for each one of your members, oh and hey why not a jacket while your at it. You can use your own team name and call it your team name nationals If you want to get better you have to see what is out there, so do your kids, and so do your parents. Sure a feel good competition is good once and a while, but to do it competition after competition, year after year? This is COMPETATIVE cheer not REC!!!


These are just my thoughts, I know I probably ruffled a few feathers, but hey this is the anonymous board!! All I ask is to think about it!