I would rather loose fairly anyday. I HATE competitions where I dont feel it was fair, it makes me not want to go to them. When you both hit your routines there is (usually) less room for "we should have won" Yes it is kind of fun and exciting if you are going against an amazing team and you win but you still know (whether you are willing to accept it or not) that they should have won.
Also one more thing, I know that in Nor Cal especially, that execution is focused on more than anything. If it is close, I favor skill over execution but thats just me and my style of cheer I like.
Last and final pet peeve-- teams going into level 3/4 divisions when they can do better. even just watching some of these teams routine ONCE i can tell that if they just push it a little harder they could be advanced. i wanna see more nor cal competitions with more advanced teams and less int!
Well, if the team is as good as your team and they make mistakes, that doesn't make them worse, just having a bad day. So either way, it's a win. If they aren't as good as your team, then winning is easy and maybe that wasn't quite the competition you were hoping for. If they are better, then if they make mistakes, you earned that win. So both ways are the same to me. Even in football, you can be the reigning champs, but if you fumble the ball, it could cost you the game. Even Tiger Woods misses a shot sometimes.
I think cheerleading is heading in the "safer" direction, which I am all for. Especially for insurance purposes. Saying that, teams who have solid execution are going to start placing higher, if their difficulty is high enough. It varies, if a team hits a VERY basic routine for that level then its a harder chance for them to win against a team who had a HARDER routine. I like seeing the HARD skills, but I don't like seeing 10 standing backs with girls/guys landing on their knees. Also double downs in sloppy body positions in cradles. Do what you have clean!! =)
Good question. If you're going against a team that is superior to yours, the only way you could possibly beat them is if they were to make mistakes and you didn't. So in that regard, everyone has a chance. So that can be exciting, to beat a team like that, even though you know you won because they had an off day and you didn't. But I guess it's still more exciting to beat a team that is at your level that had a perfect routine (even if you didn't). What isn't fun is when the other teams in your category are clearly in the wrong division (when they're not good enough to be at the level they're competing in) and the win is too easy. Or the worse, when there isn't anyone in your category. That's always so weird, going against nobody. I can't think of any other sport where you would have that (not counting teams that forfeit). It would be nice, when that happens, if there was still something to compete towards, some score you need to reach to place 1st. And publicize it so that everyone knows at the time of awards, so you can feel like you really did earn it.
Good Q wrote: Good question. If you're going against a team that is superior to yours, the only way you could possibly beat them is if they were to make mistakes and you didn't. So in that regard, everyone has a chance. So that can be exciting, to beat a team like that, even though you know you won because they had an off day and you didn't. But I guess it's still more exciting to beat a team that is at your level that had a perfect routine (even if you didn't). What isn't fun is when the other teams in your category are clearly in the wrong division (when they're not good enough to be at the level they're competing in) and the win is too easy. Or the worse, when there isn't anyone in your category. That's always so weird, going against nobody. I can't think of any other sport where you would have that (not counting teams that forfeit). It would be nice, when that happens, if there was still something to compete towards, some score you need to reach to place 1st. And publicize it so that everyone knows at the time of awards, so you can feel like you really did earn it.
Actually at some competitions you will not win a banner/jackets unless you reach a certain score. That is if you are competing against yourself. Also most competitions have a grand championship round where you are competing for the highest score. I just get tired of competitions that don't have all the same divisions. Thats why teams have to switch every other weekend. Honestly, to win period is exciting. Rather you drop, hit, kinda hit, winning is a great feeling. The feeling of hearing your name called and your kids getting excited is priceless. Also you may have the skillz, but if you can't hit when it counts, then congratulate those who did. Thats what matters in the end.
i think that the question does not really exist. in my opinion, the best team out there would not make mistakes, therefore would be undefeated, and even if second place made mistakes and first place didnt, that shows me that 1st place was ready for competition, and they were better becasue they didnt drop. however, i do think that some routines contain more difficulty than others. so the real question is;
would you rather lose to a team that had more difficulty in their routine than yours..
or
..win against a team that had more difficulty in their routine but made mistakes?
A mistake is a mistake. You drop a stunt, you bobble a stunt, you touch down...whatever. You made a mistake. You shouldn't get anything just because you tried it, no matter how hard it is.
No one likes to see people fall, drop, touch down, etc. Listen to the crowd, listen to how they do their little "gasp of death" when someone falls. The judges feel the same way.
Nowadays, when you get to Nationals, it's just about guaranteed that you aren't winning if you make a mistake. Some penalty sheets are written out where a judge will mark the tiniest bobble to seperate first and second.
There are obvious exceptions to this rule, we all know that. A team performing clean prep straight cradles isn't going to beat a team that has one out of 7 heel stretch doubles drop. Duh, that's obvious. But take a look at some of the past competitions, take a look at who's winning and who is taking second or third. See how the skills match up and who's executing.
Bottom line, don't make a mistake. Otherwise, you probably aren't going to win.
Don't think you can simply say if you make mistakes you probably won't win. We've already seen teams win with mistakes over perfect routines. It's really pretty simple. You get deductions for falls and other mistakes, but if you've accumulated enough points in other areas, you'll still end up ahead of a perfect routine who didn't build up as many points, right? You get points for what you do right, and then you're subtracted points for what you do wrong. If you still end up with more points than the others, you win. It's really that simple, and in my opinion that's exactly how it should be.
So it's an awesome feeling to win even though you had mistakes because it means you STILL had enough points to beat the others. And then you imagine how high your score would have been without those mistakes, and that's worth working hard towards! I think the opposite is true too, when you do a perfect routine but lose to a team who made mistakes. It sucks, yeah, but it gives you incentive to add more difficulty to your routine, or whatever else it takes to beat a team like that.
That's why there are now levels. I believe that most coaches understand that if they aren't doing the skills neccessary to compete in that level, yet they hit a clean routine, they may not win.
i think that i would rather win to a good team because even though it wasnt a "fair" win, it really was. I say that because its not like you cheated to win, you just executed your routine better and thats how your supposed to win, by putting on the floor a clean, interesting routine, and i would be happy to win to a good team if i put that type of routine on the floor, when they made mistakes to cost them the win, because i know everyone has there off days, but when my team has an off day we might not win, so when we have a good day, its nice that we won, and i think that is a fair and square win.
A win isn't worth anything if you don't try your hardest. I would rather win or lose to a team if both teams had tryed their hardests and hit everything!
