All-Star Your Daughter Won't Fly Forever

[BlockHead]

How about gyms stop taking experienced flyers out of the air just because they're 5'6. Understanding Height may play a role but if the experience, cleanliness and HIGH skill level is there.... why should they get out of the air? If the stunts hit, why replace? I feel like they should give the taller flyers a chance before they just make them a base.

Yes! I love when I see gyms that have age appropriate flyers on their squads. I am not a fan of bringing youth kids to senior teams to fly. It looks so beautiful to see these age appropriate kids flying.

 

[CLynn]

Yes! I love when I see gyms that have age appropriate flyers on their squads. I am not a fan of bringing youth kids to senior teams to fly. It looks so beautiful to see these age appropriate kids flying.

Well if they are following the guidelines gyms should always have appropriately aged flyers on their teams, and I do not believe youth kids are eligible to fly on senior teams....

 

[njallday]

Well if they are following the guidelines gyms should always have appropriately aged flyers on their teams, and I do not believe youth kids are eligible to fly on senior teams....

Non level 5 youth aged kids are... 1o year olds are eligible for youth, junior and senior levels 1-5R this season (will change to 11 next season, but still overlap)

 

[these girls]

Okay. If you finished your season and you want to go to XYZ because they may have flyer opportunities, go for it.

Big but:

I would caution any kid or parent re: any owner or coach saying "Come on over, you can fly." Or really anything that says they're guaranteeing you anything.

It's easy for someone to say, but they can't promise it, typically.

Gyms (and schools too) generally have more flyer talent than they need. For example, in 8 seasons at my school, I have never been hurting for flyers.


They never really know what could happen with teams/levels. Kids get burned that way at times.

Example: Suzy is placed on J3 as a base at Example Elite. Not happy. They go tour Not Real Athletics. Owner says there is a flyer opportunity. They switch. She is initially told she'll be flying on J2. Four practices in, the team adds some new kids via late private tryouts and she becomes base. Or they start her out flying and after summer practices, the coaches decide she is better as a base.

They switched because they thought she'd be flying? Now what?

I've totally seen this happen. It was all bad.


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[BlockHead]

Well if they are following the guidelines gyms should always have appropriately aged flyers on their teams, and I do not believe youth kids are eligible to fly on senior teams....

Unfortunately, my CP is on a Senior team and she is only Junior aged. So she, in my opinion, is not on an age appropriate squad. Hoping she can make a Junior squad next season.
She also has 5 youth aged kids on her squad as well.

 

[Natalia5]

How about gyms stop taking experienced flyers out of the air just because they're 5'6. Understanding Height may play a role but if the experience, cleanliness and HIGH skill level is there.... why should they get out of the air? If the stunts hit, why replace? I feel like they should give the taller flyers a chance before they just make them a base.

Nailed it.

 

[cheer25mom]

How about gyms stop taking experienced flyers out of the air just because they're 5'6. Understanding Height may play a role but if the experience, cleanliness and HIGH skill level is there.... why should they get out of the air? If the stunts hit, why replace? I feel like they should give the taller flyers a chance before they just make them a base.

From the parent of a base, I don't blame the gym one bit for not forcing my 5'1" daughter to base a 5'6" flyer who cannot accept that her flying days are done. In a lot of cases, it keeps people from getting hurt.

Bottom line is that it's harder to hit with a taller, heavier flyer, assuming both flyers do their job. It's simple physics. The smaller girl with the same high skill level gets the job.


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[cheermom02]

I've been talking with cp about this a lot. She is on a senior team this year but is still actually youth age ( jr age next season). She has probably grown 2-3 inches this season. Everyone is shocked when they find out how old she is because of her height. But her arms are the size of a noodle and she is slim and muscular. I honestly think she may have 1-2 more years to fly depending on how she fills out during puberty. To be honest I will be torn between feeling sad and being relieved when she is taken out of the air! It is so stressful. All the pressure of a stunt is basically on the flyer. I have told her numerous times "you can't actually fly so just do your best if your stunt isn't hitting." I know everyone says it takes all 4 to stay in the air but all anyone remembers is which flyers stunt fell. It's definitely not a cakewalk!


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[Lisa Seye]

My girl finally got to base this season on her junior team but slowly they started putting her back up in a few stunts in the routine. So now she bases only one stunt, but flies in two baskets, a partner stunt, and pyramid. Her little tiny arms lolol trying to base.... she flies on her senior team in everything. Some of the bases in her stunts are shorter than her and some the same height or taller. In her case, being taller doesn't always mean heavier. She's 5'2" but weighs about 80 pounds. There are flyers shorter than her that weigh more. We joked that she at 13 could wear some of the junior team flyers clothes. Yep, they tried it. She put on sweatpants of another flyer who is about a foot shorter if not more. The pants looked like capris but they fit lol. The flyer is 8 and wears YM Nike pros while my kid is still in YS. Do I think she will always fly? Mostly yes but she enjoys basing and definitely needs to learn more so she can be well rounded as a cheerleader. I dont think she will crack 90 pounds haha

 

[nicolee]

I'll say what I've said many times before about this issue: size is a factor in a flyer, but it's not the only factor. If a stunt is hitting perfectly with a 5'5 flyer, why take her out of the air? But if two equally talented flyers are trying to fill a vacancy, and one is 5 inches taller than the other, why would a coach not pick the smaller girl?

Bottom line is, kids grow. Tiny little nuggets can grow into tall teenagers. And this may or may not affect whether they can fly.

 

[AndyT_T]

Another part of it I think is that being a flyer can be a golden ticket for a 12 year old who doesn't tumble onto a beloved worlds team. I'm not saying there aren't great tumblers who are flyers, obviously that's not true, but anecdotally I think your chances of getting on a worlds team as a flyer without a full are much higher than as a base without a full. At least on every team I've ever been on.

If you're a main base with a double and you're asked to second, you're spot is still secure so you're not too pressed. But if you're a flyer who only has a toe back and you get told you won't be flying, it's reasonable that this would lead a young girl to have an existential crisis.

If you don't tumble then you know that what you contribute is you're flying. So it's understandable that when you're told you're not flying anymore and you suddenly don't know what you contribute that you would be devastated.

Edit: this could actually apply to any level. I couldn't count the number of times I've seen flyer X on level 4 get hurt and flyer Y from level 3 who has standing two and is working on tucks gets pulled up and ends up going to summit with the level 4 team.

 

[CheerBank]

I've been talking with cp about this a lot. She is on a senior team this year but is still actually youth age ( jr age next season). She has probably grown 2-3 inches this season. Everyone is shocked when they find out how old she is because of her height. But her arms are the size of a noodle and she is slim and muscular. I honestly think she may have 1-2 more years to fly depending on how she fills out during puberty. To be honest I will be torn between feeling sad and being relieved when she is taken out of the air! It is so stressful. All the pressure of a stunt is basically on the flyer. I have told her numerous times "you can't actually fly so just do your best if your stunt isn't hitting." I know everyone says it takes all 4 to stay in the air but all anyone remembers is which flyers stunt fell. It's definitely not a cakewalk!


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From the perspective of a "base for life", the bases are equally if not more blamed when a stunt does not hit. If my daughter's flyer comes down in a stunt, it is the 3 below her who get first blame. They should have kept her in the air, they should have made the adjustments for what was going wrong above them, whether it was to change their hands, their body position, pull/push/shove her back in place, anything you can think of.

In the same regard that people remember which flyer's stunt fell, they also give the credit to the flyer when it hits. It is just easier to label the stunt with the one flyer's name than the other three.

Every single position is stressful. Every single one of those kids wants that stunt to hit. But to say all of the pressure of the stunt is on the flyer is inaccurate and unfair.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Another part of it I think is that being a flyer can be a golden ticket for a 12 year old who doesn't tumble onto a beloved worlds team. I'm not saying there aren't great tumblers who are flyers, obviously that's not true, but anecdotally I think your chances of getting on a worlds team as a flyer without a full are much higher than as a base without a full. At least on every team I've ever been on.

If you're a main base with a double and you're asked to second, you're spot is still secure so you're not too pressed. But if you're a flyer who only has a toe back and you get told you won't be flying, it's reasonable that this would lead a young girl to have an existential crisis.

If you don't tumble then you know that what you contribute is you're flying. So it's understandable that when you're told you're not flying anymore and you suddenly don't know what you contribute that you would be devastated.

Edit: this could actually apply to any level. I couldn't count the number of times I've seen flyer X on level 4 get hurt and flyer Y from level 3 who has standing two and is working on tucks gets pulled up and ends up going to summit with the level 4 team.

Yes!

This is why being as well-rounded at level skills as you can is so important.

There are some fantastic kids who are on teams just to fly. They're specialists and that's awesome.

But if you suddenly took them out of the air, they can barely do anything else.

Of course they're going to want to quit.

Same with Tracy Tumbler who is on a Worlds team just to tumble.

If she gets hurt or gets a mental block, of course it is going to devastate her because she doesn't do anything else in the routine.

 

[cheer25mom]

From the perspective of a "base for life", the bases are equally if not more blamed when a stunt does not hit. If my daughter's flyer comes down in a stunt, it is the 3 below her who get first blame. They should have kept her in the air, they should have made the adjustments for what was going wrong above them, whether it was to change their hands, their body position, pull/push/shove her back in place, anything you can think of.

In the same regard that people remember which flyer's stunt fell, they also give the credit to the flyer when it hits. It is just easier to label the stunt with the one flyer's name than the other three.

Every single position is stressful. Every single one of those kids wants that stunt to hit. But to say all of the pressure of the stunt is on the flyer is inaccurate and unfair.

This 100%. My kid is the base that the count on to "get it done" no matter where they put her. Inevitably, if a stunt is having problems and it isn't getting better, she ends up under it, and is expected to fix the issue. She's also the first one called out when it doesn't.


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[Cheer Dad]

Overall, I really like the article. This will be very unpopular and is just my opinion, but if the season is over: current gym A says CP needs to learn to base and gym B needs experienced flyers and has an opportunity for CP to continue flying, go wherever you want.

@oncecoolcoachnowmom "It's easy for someone to say, but they can't promise it, typically."

I agree with you. I will say I have seen some gyms that have an abundance of flyers (more than they need) due to offering flyer, stretch, CoEd classes/privates, etc. Where other gyms may not have enough experienced flyers. I have a friend whose CP was placed as base. Another gym offered her a flyer spot and she took it. She is now going to Worlds on a paid bid and has a great shot at medaling. They are very happy with their decision. Nothing is guaranteed, but I stand by "if the season is finished, do what you feel is best for your family."

Yes, the key thing is waiting until the season is done but we all know that doesn't happen. some parents are so fly or die mentality they are embarrassed and ashamed if their snowflake gets grounded and will gym hop within the same season until Susie gets to fly or Susie will suddenly retire all together.






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