College Collegiate Vs. All-star (crossover??)

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Nov 24, 2015
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I was just wondering if anyone is being a cross over from a college/university team and an all-star team and how it's working for you?

All but 6 athletes from my all star team are on my collegiate 6 team and I just feel like everyone (myself included) train differently at the practices. Has anyone else experienced this?

Would love to hear some opinions!
 
At our school NCSU, athletes are not allowed to cheer on an All-Star team during the season. They are athletes of NCSU and that is their first commitment. Now, sometimes after NCA some will help out an All-Star program esp, for worlds. Just something that happens. At Louisville I believe they all have to cheer at Gym Tyme-if not all than the majority of the team. I cannot imagine the amount of work that involves. For my CP between practices, lifts, public appearances, cheering athletic events AND school take all the time!
 
Well I know several members on Louisville's squad are also members on Gym Tyme's Open All-Star Squads.
True, but Louisville also has many of their athletes that actually go to jr college, which would make it easier to do both college and all-star.
 
At our school NCSU, athletes are not allowed to cheer on an All-Star team during the season. They are athletes of NCSU and that is their first commitment. Now, sometimes after NCA some will help out an All-Star program esp, for worlds. Just something that happens. At Louisville I believe they all have to cheer at Gym Tyme-if not all than the majority of the team. I cannot imagine the amount of work that involves. For my CP between practices, lifts, public appearances, cheering athletic events AND school take all the time!

It's interesting that they are not allowed to, at my school it is encouraged to keep training up. The coaches own one gym in town so we train there for half of our practices but they are not against anyone going to another gym.
How many hours a week do you train?
 
It's interesting that they are not allowed to, at my school it is encouraged to keep training up. The coaches own one gym in town so we train there for half of our practices but they are not against anyone going to another gym.
How many hours a week do you train?
They have practice 3-4 days a week,3 hours at a time, weight training 3 days a week. Those on the nationals team have basket classes with their stunt groups once a week. Plus basketball games right now, although the nationals teams is not cheering as much at those. We have 50 kids in the program but only 20 on mat for nationals. So they get tons of training-plus if someone on our nationals team got hurt cheering for an All-Star gym the coaches would not be happy.
 
They have practice 3-4 days a week,3 hours at a time, weight training 3 days a week. Those on the nationals team have basket classes with their stunt groups once a week. Plus basketball games right now, although the nationals teams is not cheering as much at those. We have 50 kids in the program but only 20 on mat for nationals. So they get tons of training-plus if someone on our nationals team got hurt cheering for an All-Star gym the coaches would not be happy.

Yeah our University practices 3 days a week for the same amount of time. We are just lucky that the coaches are the same. If they didn't allow the Uni athletes onto the team they wouldn't have much of a team.
 
At our school NCSU, athletes are not allowed to cheer on an All-Star team during the season. They are athletes of NCSU and that is their first commitment. Now, sometimes after NCA some will help out an All-Star program esp, for worlds. Just something that happens. At Louisville I believe they all have to cheer at Gym Tyme-if not all than the majority of the team. I cannot imagine the amount of work that involves. For my CP between practices, lifts, public appearances, cheering athletic events AND school take all the time!

I won't lie and say I KNOW that my daughter is doing Louisville AND GymTyme. She hasn't "officially" been told yet except her teammates have told her it's not a question of "if" she'll do both but of "which GymTyme team they'll put her on" I realize college is very different than high school especially because she's so far from home but she was able to handle crossing between Level 5R and level 6 last year AND Louisville All girl doesn't cheer on the floor at basketball games AND Freshman do NOT usually go to away football games unless it's in their home town. So because she's a freshman on All Girl---- I sincerely think she'll be LESS busy than last cheer season when she was at the gym 5 nights a week with Sunday's going from 12 noon to about 12:30am & Saturday 3 hours of tumbling. I was told the international all star teams at GymTyme don't start until November and only go to a Bid comp & Worlds using almost the same routine as Their NCA routine. They change uniforms, music, up the tumbling and tweak it to maximize the skills scores on all star score sheets. Maybe I'm suffering from wishful thinking but all these things have erased my apprehension about her doing both. In fact if she doesn't I'm afraid she'd have too much down time. Now after her sophomore year.....it'll be a different story hopefully she'll have the college thing down by then


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I won't lie and say I KNOW that my daughter is doing Louisville AND GymTyme. She hasn't "officially" been told yet except her teammates have told her it's not a question of "if" she'll do both but of "which GymTyme team they'll put her on" I realize college is very different than high school especially because she's so far from home but she was able to handle crossing between Level 5R and level 6 last year AND Louisville All girl doesn't cheer on the floor at basketball games AND Freshman do NOT usually go to away football games unless it's in their home town. So because she's a freshman on All Girl---- I sincerely think she'll be LESS busy than last cheer season when she was at the gym 5 nights a week with Sunday's going from 12 noon to about 12:30am & Saturday 3 hours of tumbling. I was told the international all star teams at GymTyme don't start until November and only go to a Bid comp & Worlds using almost the same routine as Their NCA routine. They change uniforms, music, up the tumbling and tweak it to maximize the skills scores on all star score sheets. Maybe I'm suffering from wishful thinking but all these things have erased my apprehension about her doing both. In fact if she doesn't I'm afraid she'd have too much down time. Now after her sophomore year.....it'll be a different story hopefully she'll have the college thing down by then


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Not going to respond to the rest of it but for a full time college student, there is not such thing as too much down time. If they have "too much" then that probably means they aren't putting enough work into their classes. Downtime is good for their mental health, especially for an athlete that is going to be as busy as your daughter. Sometimes they just need to do absolutely nothing, and that's fine.


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Not going to respond to the rest of it but for a full time college student, there is not such thing as too much down time. If they have "too much" then that probably means they aren't putting enough work into their classes. Downtime is good for their mental health, especially for an athlete that is going to be as busy as your daughter. Sometimes they just need to do absolutely nothing, and that's fine.


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I agree-Not much "down time in college" NCSU just does not have them do All-Stars bc they are athletes of the school first and foremost and that is their focus after academics of course. Freshman at our school can go to away games, do cheer at basketball games (both men and women) and a host of other sports too.
 
Not going to respond to the rest of it but for a full time college student, there is not such thing as too much down time. If they have "too much" then that probably means they aren't putting enough work into their classes. Downtime is good for their mental health, especially for an athlete that is going to be as busy as your daughter. Sometimes they just need to do absolutely nothing, and that's fine.


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*perhaps I should have said "no time to party" because truth is NO serious competitive cheerleader has more than a minute of downtime all season. Well at least not the athletes at my CP's old gym anyways. And whether it works for everyone or not isn't my business. It worked to help my daughter become who she is and turn her dream into reality. It's up to her if she continues to cheer and get decent grades her entire years in college.


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*perhaps I should have said "no time to party" because truth is NO serious competitive cheerleader has more than a minute of downtime all season. Well at least not the athletes at my CP's old gym anyways. And whether it works for everyone or not isn't my business. It worked to help my daughter become who she is and turn her dream into reality. It's up to her if she continues to cheer and get decent grades her entire years in college.


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Don't worry about her partying too much. after the cheerleader OD'd in 2014 they started including the cheerleaders in random drug testing and guessing cracked down on parties a bit more. Such a sad story.


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I have to sit on my fingers a bit here and filter my response. I'll just say that more times than not, the college experience is far different than all star and will vastly differ than what your expectations are - even with the top programs.

This is what I tell all kids that I coach that think about cheering in college, it is also different from high school. Every athlete handles the change differently, and some really love it and some don't feel it fits them at all. It is so hard to assume that someones experience, even if well prepared for the tryout will match the actual experience that is assumed. College workloads are very different, some easier then others but its not as structured as high school, and there is more then just the school and cheer aspect of college, there is social, other activities, group projects, etc. In addition with cheer, Athletes sit, athletes don't cheer games, athletes don't compete, athletes are required to attend study halls and weight room etc. These top tier programs are so stacked and what is best for the team at that moment is who will be on the mat, there is no assumption. Also, I am sure some manage school cheer and a secondary cheer team, but it also may not be your typical full time student. :) @luluscamom Let your daughter have the experience and allow her to make it hers and let it unfold how it will unfold.
 
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I have to sit on my fingers a bit here and filter my response. I'll just say that more times than not, the college experience is far different than all star and will vastly differ than what your expectations are - even with the top programs.

One week in and learning FAST! Per my CP it's the norm as far as practice goes(long & late) as for the rest of it.....who knows, LOL! I REALLY do understand & have from the beginning that it's gonna be different than ALL STAR and I'm more than ok with that. I guess I didn't express what my REAL concern/issue is plainly. It's not will she take the mat at NCA etc because I know she's got 4 years to get there and she IS a freshman. Plus, she's pretty realistic and Happy to be there yada yada. And if she's happy I'm happy. My reason for I guess the words would be "wishful thinking it was gonna be predictable & laid out like a syllabus" is it kills me to admit the sport I love doesn't seem to change for the better when CP moves to college cheer AND THE DAMN AIRFARE is killer the closer it is purchased to travel dates! Of course we want to be there for her 1st home game, competition & family weekend and I was naive enough to believe the info given at 1st meeting would be 100% accurate. I thought(but I should have known better) Cheer in college would be so organized and clear cut. So I BELIEVED the info was accurate and firm. Nope! Dorms changed due to cheerleaders need to being in same complex, move in day changed LAST MINUTE due to cheer practice/camp with specific date unknown until VERY LAST MINUTE etc., etc.,
I have Zero Problem letting my kid "find her way" on her own. she's my youngest NOT my only. Can you blame a 13 year broke cheer parent for dreaming that she'd "graduated to a more Organized version of cheer" Damn! I'll admit I believed with college cheer came better communication (not with me because you know us parents just pay, NOT communicate) and set schedules for comps etc...they DO try hence move in day back to back with practice. But truth is they care even less than AS Cheer if their changes screw up YOUR plans. It's simply that the unknown info & last minute changes are driving me insane, costing me ridiculous airfare AND making my family think I'M unorganized or flaky OR lying about not knowing answers to anything. I had my calendar all notated and plane tickets for the 1st trip bought and paid for. Whelp! I should have been on this board WAY b4 I was. Believe me it's the reason I didn't buy the other sets of plane tickets. I read the "it's not exactly what you think it is" comments and because I believed my reasons for saying what I said were misinterpreted I didn't pay much attention to exactly WHAT was said but they gave me a hitch in my giddy up with their theme of "you're gonna be surprised"
I WAS surprised just not about what people thought I'd be. SO....LESSON LEARNED! And wisdom earned. I No longer expect the admin part of cheerleading to change much no matter where you go or how many titles the team has. AND SAVE the money you thought was now not needed for cheer FOR AIRFARE! Smile and be proud your kid reached her goal, shut up and pray Frontier has a sale when you need it!
Got it!


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