Power Competition!!!

Date: Mon Nov 6 1:29 PM, 2006

RE: Power Competition!!!

Date: Mon Nov 6 1:58 PM, 2006

It's perfectly fine to give your opinions about a competition you attend; it's one way they can be improved on, and it gives feedback for others who may or may not be considering going next year. Open honest feedback should never be dismissed as, to paraphrase, "always someone who has to complain".

Date: Mon Nov 6 2:08 PM, 2006

the suggested stunt groups didnt mean max stunt groups. alot of teams use four bases to hold a stunt and maybe some only used three, so extra people didnt have to stunt, or make another stunt group, or could tumble or something.

did any team 2 man stunt?

Date: Mon Nov 6 2:18 PM, 2006

To Anonymous: Name calling is not necessary on this board but if you would have proof read your post before submitting, maybe you wouldn't look so much like the "idiot" you claim I am.

Thanks to Another Cheer Mom for pointing out that I did not say the youth teams could compete against level 5 teams as that is definately not what I meant, but they sure could give a lot of the level 2, 3, and a few of the level 4 teams a run for their money! And yes the Royal allstars Sr. Coed 3 had a SSG of 5 and put up six stunt groups and still had 4 more people left over. Sure hope they didn't get extra points for that as they could have had 7 stunt groups!! But if they did it would help explain the scores in that category. I am glad you liked the short day as I am sure a lot of people did. It just seemed a little too rushed for me.

Again, I love POWER and wish them the best of luck this season as I know they will have unbelievable teams as they always do! Good luck to all!

Date: Mon Nov 6 3:45 PM, 2006

To Another Cheer mom wrote:

the suggested stunt groups didnt mean max stunt groups. alot of teams use four bases to hold a stunt and maybe some only used three, so extra people didnt have to stunt, or make another stunt group, or could tumble or something.

did any team 2 man stunt?

In regards to the Suggested Stunt Groups as determined by Power, I assumed that the number of SSG's was based on the number of kids on the team (the more kids on a team, the more SSG's). Based on that assumption, I thought that Royal's SSG should probably have been 6 instead of 5 because there were so many extra kids on that particular team when 6 stunts were in the air (although I wasn't actually counting, so I could be wrong).

I do recall seeing some stunts with only 2 bases (no back spot), but I think that might have been Motions Sr 5Coed (I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong). I know Airborne Sr3Coed had two partner stunts with their two guys (good job guys!).

Thanks for your input (especially in such a positive manner)! Definitely appreciated!

Date: Mon Nov 6 4:38 PM, 2006

they charged $10 to get in..... kind of expensive for such a short program.

Date: Mon Nov 6 5:36 PM, 2006

Does anyone know what the points where for pyramids jr level 2? I also want to say congrats to them for working hard and getting first again.

Date: Mon Nov 6 7:25 PM, 2006

I wonder if POWER will post the scores?

Date: Mon Nov 6 7:39 PM, 2006

Power's announcer said the results with scores would be posted today, I haven't checked to see if they actually did.

Date: Mon Nov 6 10:23 PM, 2006

i just checked, and the results are posted under forms- power's website.

they made an error on who got the highest score..... it wasn't motions, it was the golden girls - senior level 5 pyramids.

final score: pyramids got 389 and motions got 364.

whatever.... we're all in the same family (cheergyms), so congrats to both teams!

Date: Mon Nov 6 10:54 PM, 2006

Motions Coed DID get the highest score of the competition, a 396. It's probably a typo on the website.

Bryan
Motions Large Coed

Date: Mon Nov 6 10:57 PM, 2006

My mistake, I just checked the website.

Very clear that Motions DID NOT get the highest score.

Haha, sorry.
Bryan
Motions Coed

Date: Mon Nov 6 11:01 PM, 2006

I am getting sick of reading about youth team this and pop warner that. We have over 5 youth/pop warner programs in our area. Now they barely have any rules, and practice like 3-4 times a week. In addition, they get kids from the same area. Now all star kids come from an hour each direction, practice only 2 times a week, and learn their skills at a FASTER and such small time span. The Folsom teams I saw last season were a train wreck. They are a wanna be power cheer with random routines. I am not saying their not good, but if you want to boast about them and put other programs down, then write a letter to their organization.

Date: Mon Nov 6 11:04 PM, 2006

The Folsom teams you saw last season...give me a break. We're talking this season, and if you were there sitting, watching, you can't possibly deny that they have teams that could easily go against all star teams, especially at the younger level. Seeing is believing, try it sometime.

Date: Mon Nov 6 11:04 PM, 2006

Granite Bay too.. they were impressive.

Date: Mon Nov 6 11:11 PM, 2006

huh? wrote:

The Folsom teams you saw last season...give me a break. We're talking this season, and if you were there sitting, watching, you can't possibly deny that they have teams that could easily go against all star teams, especially at the younger level. Seeing is believing, try it sometime.

I wish someone would follow up these "youth" teams who are supposed to abide by certain rules, regarding their training, number of practices and other things because i'm sure they are not a youth team by any standards.

Date: Mon Nov 6 11:39 PM, 2006

Jamz has been contacted several times about particular teams who do not really cheer for any sport (unless you count a game here and there that they all don't even have to attend). They know about it, yet seem fine with it, so what can you do. I agree that it seems unfair for them to go against true youth/pop warner teams who spend a good deal of their time (every Saturday) actually cheering for their football team, and weeknights practicing their cheers. They don't spend ALL of their time in a warm gym working on their competition routine, like these others. At first you had one or two doing it, but others are following suit and pretty soon the true youth/pop warner teams will be left behind. Sad, but true.

Date: Tue Nov 7 7:46 AM, 2006

tried wrote:

Jamz has been contacted several times about particular teams who do not really cheer for any sport (unless you count a game here and there that they all don't even have to attend). They know about it, yet seem fine with it, so what can you do. I agree that it seems unfair for them to go against true youth/pop warner teams who spend a good deal of their time (every Saturday) actually cheering for their football team, and weeknights practicing their cheers. They don't spend ALL of their time in a warm gym working on their competition routine, like these others. At first you had one or two doing it, but others are following suit and pretty soon the true youth/pop warner teams will be left behind. Sad, but true.

Youth/Pop Warner teams and school teams were not designed to focus solely on competition, but some still try, which leads to problems later. Either way its hard for thos teams who truely are youth/pop warner. There are about 4-5 programs that should go under investigation.

Date: Tue Nov 7 8:24 AM, 2006

Power - thank you for posting the scores; seeing the details of the scores and deductions makes the scoring seem less random. Although I would be interested to understand the Technical portion of the score; I couldn't find any information on where that comes from.

I did notice, by looking at the score sheets, that the maximum number of points varies depending on the Level of the Division - only level 5 actually had 100 points possible in each scoring category, level 4 was 90 points, level 3 was 80 points, etc. I'm not sure the maximum points for technical for levels other than level 5 though...just wondering.

Date: Tue Nov 7 9:29 AM, 2006

Howdy Everyone

Thank you again for all those teams that attended the competition Sunday. I hope all of you had as much fun as I did.

Now here are some responses to questions/comments being made on the boards here. Yes, I like to clear the air and inform everyone reasons for this or that. Knowledge is POWER. I apologize for the length, but I don’t want to leave any statement or questions unanswered. If I don’t give you a good enough response and you want a further explanation you can email me at powercheer@aol.com.

1. Goal of Sunday’s event – to provide a quality competition, with adequate warm-up facility, spring floor, large venue, leveled scoring and an economical price. The cost for our competition was only $25.

a. We provided 2 different spring floor warm-up areas for each team and scheduled it so they were given 8 minutes on each, a total of 24 minutes warm-up time. One of the longest times for warm-up for any competition.

b. Backdrop / Lighting (are you serious!) –

i. We hosted a league championship for a youth football league in the AM. I was not going to slap POWER all over everything just to push my agenda/teams. I have class and a great working relationship with those teams, and I intend to keep it that way. Instead of starting the All-star teams an hour later just so I could put a sign on my back drop saying POWER, I decided that getting my customers home back to the bay area at a reasonable hour was more important, thus why the blank back drop!

ii. After the cost of the facility, awards, equipment, and the staffing of the event (Sacramento City union workers), there wasn’t the additional thousands of dollars in surplus needed to higher a lighting company and stage crew to meet those needs. I too well understand the sky rocketing costs of competition fees, and know how it can be such a burden on families. I was NOT going to up the cost just to have lighting, because in the big picture it was NOT worth it.

c. Scoring - I have retooled scoring for our competitions. Seeing so many different ways of doing things, and so many score sheets that are still being used from the 1980”s, I decided to be progressive in thinking of a format that would be fair, insightful, and efficient. This is what I came up with.

i. 6 different judges all judging different aspects of the routine. This would allow judges to focus on specific areas, while not forcing them to try and catch every little aspect of every routine, as things are always missed. Each judge only had 5 or less scores to give for their area.

1. Category Judge (Artistic Aspect) - Pass Tumbling, Standing Tumbling, Choreography, Music, Use of squad Skills.
2. Category Judge (Artistic Aspect) - Stunts, Pyramids, Choreography, Music, Use of squad Skills.
3. Category Judge (Artistic Aspect) - Jumps, Dance/Motions, Choreography, Music, Use of squad Skills.
4. Technical Judge (Degree of difficulty, strictly the skills performed) – Stunts & Pyramids. BTW SSG = how many you should have, based on number divided by 5, if you put up more stunt groups you get more points, and if you put up more groups and do more tricks in those stunts you get even more points. For example, doing just one trick is worth with your SSG is worth 20 points, doing 4 tricks with +1 stunt group more than the SSG is worth 40 points. Technical possible points are the same from level 1 thru 5, this year. We will be changing that to accommodate a different progression for each level in the future.
5. Technical Judge (Degree of difficulty, strictly the skills performed) – Pass Tumbling & Standing Tumbling
6. Deductions – see score sheet under forms @powercheerallstars.com

ii. Judges from UCA, NCA, GSSA, and All-star programs (only for youth football divisions) said this was an in depth process, that was fair to large and small teams, and very easy for them to score. It was a hit!

d. Spectator Costs - $10 for the entire day from 9AM – 6 PM. Trust me, that's very economical, the fact that some all-star teams did not have to arrive until afternoon, does not justify reducing the cost for them to enter. Many of those youth football organization members stayed the entire day to watch all-stars. I guess it was a great deal for them, but it was also a good deal for all-star teams too, as I did not schedule them to be there all day intermixing it them with youth football teams. I know it is better for all-star teams to come compete, and not sit there needlessly all day, been there done that, not at my comps!

2. Speed of competition – Several bay area coaches asked me to keep on schedule as they had a long way to drive back home, that it was a Sunday, and kids had school the next day. Since I have explained the scoring and how easy it was to be done in about 15 seconds after a squad was finished, it was very easy for me to accommodate those requests.

3. Proceeds of the competition (this is my personal favorite, so this goes out to - Name: wrong Date: Mon Nov 6 10:48 AM, 2006) – The money goes to subsidize POWER in general. We do things differently than most other organizations, which seems to be working out pretty well for us.

a. We offer our exceptionally skilled athletes discounts off their monthly tuition. Depending on what skills a member has they receive $10 - $30 OFF each month from their tuition, for the 2006/2007 season this is over $12,000 in tuition that I am giving back.

b. A member that cross competes on a second team that I ask them to do so, I cover the cost of there entry fee for that second team. For the 2006/2007 season this is over $14,000 in fees. Most of those fees are from the Small Senior 5 team which, yes are all members from our Large Senior 5 team.

c. This year I flew our Eric Little to do our dance choreography for both Small Senior 5 and Large senior 5. After all was said and done the cost for this was almost $5000. Which I paid for, not my members.

4. The debate of Youth Football Teams being competitive with all-stars – To be honest YES the youth football teams in the Sacramento Area can compete/hang with/ and even beat teams at levels 1 thru 4.

a. These teams in this area have won almost ALL USA & JAMZ youth football national titles in the “show cheer” division that they have entered in the last 5 years.

b. Many of these teams do compete into the year with their “open teams”. What are “open teams”? Open teams are comprised of kids from different squads within the same program. If you have done youth football cheer you know that some kids just aren’t cut out for competing, and some just aren’t cut out for cheer, thus the open teams. POWER was the first to start this division 4 years ago, USA and JAMZ followed suit the next year. The same thing with ALL Music for Youth Football teams, POWER did it, then they followed suit.

c. These youth football teams are the feeder programs for Folsom High, Granite Bay High, Oakridge and Oakmont to name a few. Competitive High Schools whose members train the youth football squads that combined with the resources, the talent, and knowledge allow them to be competitive against us in the all-star market if they were to choose to do so.

I hope this has been informative to all of you.

If you have any further questions for me you can email me at powercheer@aol.com. I will answer them the best I can. If you have any suggestions to improve our competitions, the best way to get them implemented is to use the email or a phone call please.

Once again thank you to all who attended the competition. I will be doing more competitions, at an economical price, larger venues, and with the coach, parent, and competitor in mind.

Cheers

JOHN

PS Sorry so long!