- Oct 15, 2010
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Interesting reading. Really! Thank you.I would love to do a study on how allstar cheerleading has blown up the way it has, but if I had to point to one thing I would say it was.... tumbling.
Why tumbling?
Tumbling is not a skill you can not really start or learn later in life. Yes we all have heard or know stories of people learning skills at 15 and being level 5 in 2 months, but in general tumbling takes years for females to acquire. The US had a high school cheer system creating demand for this tumbling even before allstar was anything (think 20 years ago). In fact I think Cheer Athletics began as a tumbling class in a field? I imagine that was for High School cheering (but BlueCat can confirm or deny). So people could build gyms to teach tumbling for cheerleading, no allstars required (or really worth anything at that moment). That is the basis for allstar cheer. All these tumbling gyms then had the athletes and infrastructure to hold private competitions.
Internationally it has gone completely differently. There are no gyms or tumbling classes to even closely resemble what happens in the Us. There is no steady income to create these gyms. There is no backbone to build an industry on. So UNTIL tumbling becomes important and people create gyms to teach kids tumbling to build international industries and an international infrastructure all the other countries will lag behind. That is why making tumbling not worth anything on an international scoresheet doesnt HELP anyone. Short term gains for long term detriments.
PS - This is why the importance of tumbling to allstar cheerleading should NEVER be diminished (aka made worth less than stunting or anything else). The industry is built on tumbling classes. Make all skills in cheer worth the same and you always have a reason for a gym to have tumbling classes.