All-Star What Questions Do You Want Answered About Worlds?

[SharkDad]

Thanks Les for answering.

I hope everyone can understand how much work he is doing and be patient if questions are asked. Let's discuss suggestions to make things better rather than dwell on imperfections of the past.

I'm not going to lie, I know it's going to take a lot of work and I have many things I want to see implemented. But until we are at a place where everyone can support the USASF and the USASF has a staff to address all issues equally it will be a long road. BECOME A MEMBER. . . it helps!

 

[quitthedrama]

Thanks Les for answering.

I hope everyone can understand how much work he is doing and be patient if questions are asked. Let's discuss suggestions to make things better rather than dwell on imperfections of the past.

I'm not going to lie, I know it's going to take a lot of work and I have many things I want to see implemented. But until we are at a place where everyone can support the USASF and the USASF has a staff to address all issues equally it will be a long road. BECOME A MEMBER. . . it helps!

Just went on to the site to look at the membership information. There is a membership for gym, athlete, and coach. I am none of the above. May I suggest another membership tier of "parent" or "supporter" - but in the meantime, should I just register under athlete (very scary thought!)? And if I can register as an athlete, can I say I'm on Orange?:rays:

 

[BlueCat]

2. Some divisions settled a tie by skipping places, some had the next team get the next place (i.e. IOC6 tie for first, the 2d awarded but not 3d, 3-way tie for 7th, but next team got 8th). We have addressed this situation and have made progress in our process to make sure this inconsistency does not happen again.

Please say that if teams tie, it doesn't affect the rankings below them. If team C has two teams finish with higher scores than them, they get 3rd. It doesn't matter if those two happen to accidentally tie - that doesn't change the fact that they were the 3rd highest-scoring team and should get Bronze.

Tie for first means:

1st: TEAM A, TEAM B (tie)
3rd: TEAM C

For that matter, just use the previous round score as the tiebreaker. The chances of two teams tying every round is infinitesimal.

 

[TXcheermom]

Thank you Les for taking the time to answer questions. That says alot about your characture! Thank you!!

 

[Mom Jeans]

Please say that if teams tie, it doesn't affect the rankings below them. If team C has two teams finish with higher scores than them, they get 3rd. It doesn't matter if those two happen to accidentally tie - that doesn't change the fact that they were the 3rd highest-scoring team and should get Bronze.

Tie for first means:

1st: TEAM A, TEAM B (tie)
3rd: TEAM C

For that matter, just use the previous round score as the tiebreaker. The chances of two teams tying every round is infinitesimal.

That's how they do it golf....
1st --a player, b player
4th --c player

Golf's not cheer but its the only sport that comes to mind right now that allows ties in final scores

 

[UofLStunt101]

That's how they do it golf....
1st --a player, b player
4th --c player

Golf's not cheer but its the only sport that comes to mind right now that allows ties in final scores

i'm thinking you meant 3rd

 

[King]

i'm thinking you meant 3rd

Idk. Golfs pretty weird.

Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk

 

[UofLStunt101]

Idk. Golfs pretty weird.

Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk

well if we are using golf's systems now, like lowest score wins, GT's elite next year is a toss moose jump...bring it

 

[travnation80]

@RulesGuy thanks for clearing up some things. We grow together and get better with each step. Thanks once again.

Hello all, I will try to answer as many questions as I can from the list above. Before I do, I need to put some disclaimers/notes to my answers.
1. I will do my best to answer previously asked questions but in no way am I going to engage in drawn out conversations and fight conspiracy theories.
2. I know no matter what answers I give, it will never be enough for some people. If your mind is made up, there is nothing I can do to change it. I understand that and we will have to agree to disagree.
3. I hope you will have the respect to appreciate the fact that I am willing to come on here and face the fire. I am not trying to paint myself as a martyr or say woe is me but I am asking that you be respectful as I am being to you. You have never and will never see me come on these boards and name call or insinuate things about anyone.

Here goes:

1. The Bangkok rules discrepancies (boys on the floor, pyramid, and tumbling legalities) I have covered the boy issue already. We are creating additional documentation and taking additional steps to keep this from happening in the future. I agree that the spotting of the back handspring and the two person cradle were missed by my Safety Judges. Other things perceived illegal are not accurate. I can tell you that Bangkok was viewed under the same discrepancy and rules as every other team. I wish these things were caught and I wish I could say this was the only team where infractions were missed but that is not the case. Being that Bangkok is in a high profile situation, it creates the perception of favoritism. I understand that and I can only say again that they were viewed with the same sets of eyes and under the same guidelines as everyone else.

2. Some divisions settled a tie by skipping places, some had the next team get the next place (i.e. IOC6 tie for first, the 2d awarded but not 3d, 3-way tie for 7th, but next team got 8th). We have addressed this situation and have made progress in our process to make sure this inconsistency does not happen again.

3. What, if anything, did USASF/IASF do to control underage drinking at Worlds? We have and will continue to address this every year at Worlds. It is better than it has been in the past but not complete. We have tried a number of different things including hiring more security. Unfortunately, kids will always find a way and we will continue to do our best to curb this situation. We do ask that both parents and coaches help with this as much as possible.

4. What does the USASF intend to do about the overcrowding which is resulting in becoming a safety issue? This is another issue that we work on year after year and we will continue to try and get a handle on. If you have been to Worlds for a number of years, you have seen different schedules and arrangements to try and control the overcrowding. We have already had a couple of meetings to discuss this and are working on some ideas.
Do you think that the coaches VIP event as well as the Casino party conflict with this?
It seems like we can't win on this issue. No matter what we do "for" some, others will use it to blame us for something else. All I can tell you is that we try to do the best we can to make Worlds a great experience for everyone. Is it perfect? Nope. Will we continue to make it better? Yes

5. Why do we wait until worlds to train the judges on the worlds scoresheet? All but a very few of the judges have judged Worlds for a number of years. They are very familiar with the scoring process. We never put a panel or group a category (3 judges) together that are made up of new Worlds judges.

6. With all the talk and requests about limiting bids, especially in a division like small senior, what is the possibility of this happening? If not this year, next year? The year after. Im not a fan of giving bids away even though this is a big money making event. I could name a company that emailed us and said "if you come to (insert competition here) we will give your team a bid...." Thats not exactly earning it in my opinion.
Please email me and let me know which event producer said this. This is NOT acceptable!

7. What is the punishment/rule on a team member that was not released and still competed at Worlds? We dealt with released/not released athletes quite a bit at Worlds. If you know of something that was not brought to our attention, please do so.

I hope this clears up or at least helps some of your questions about the Worlds event. I look forward to putting this year behind us, learning form the event on what worked, what didn't and how we can improve so that we can make each year better and better.
To give you a heads up on what is new.
1. We have finished our conference calls on the new rules and they should be up "relatively" soon. There are a few new things that should make some levels happy.
2. Athletes that leave one gym and join another will only be regulated if attending Worlds (same as last year). We used Worlds as the test model last year and we are SO glad we did. There are so many details and variables to consider before this is moved to a national rule.

I hope you all had great tryouts and you have a successful 2011-2012 season.
Stay safe this Summer,
Les

 

[JessicaL]

It would be a benefit if the person running the judges meeting was the same as the person running it at Worlds and the judges were the same caliber as the judges at Worlds. If not you'll have an incorrectly implemented scoring system that could give poor or misleading feedback.

All judges from this events Worlds panel could be found on the stand at this years Worlds. I agree that the potential exists for situations such as this to be more beneficial if the training were provided by the actual person developing the score sheets but think it can also be pretty effective when that's where the training info is coming from. I still think it a situation that would benefit teams if implemented by other EP's.

 

[The bow lady]

Well, if it's a USASF sponsored event, I'm not sure the coaches should have to supervise. You could argue (I'm not by the way) that technically the season is over, so the coaches may not be responsible for them. In situations like this, everyone is at fault. The kids are representing their gyms, the gym is at fault. The kids are at a USASF sponsored event, USASF is at fault. They are on Disney property, Disney is at fault. The kids are acting in a moronic fashion, the kids are at fault. The parents are either unaware or not interested, the parents are at fault. The only way I can see things changing is if the punishment is severe enough to cause the kids to not want to behave that way.

If the team got a full paid bid they are most likely rooming with their team mates. That being said the coaches should take responsibility. The parents if they came, see them at lights out and thats it. The coaches are the ones who are doing the room cks. I also wouldn't say the parents are not interested, I know I was checking my cps room half the night to make sure all was ok. If your organization is allowing the cheerleader's to attend the block party, the cheerleaders should have to sign a waiver of some sort that if they engage in any unacceptable behavior they will have to deal with the consequences.

No thank you! lol. The only issue I see with the social host laws is the USASF did not provide the alcohol. The athletes (in most cases I'm sure) got it themselves. My guess is they brought it from home. Not sure what impact that has. Regardless, if something happened to anyone because of the actions of an intoxicated kid, you better believe that all 3 entities would be held responsible. Civil suits can do just as much damage (if not more) than a criminal one.

 

[ztaprincess]

Not sure if this thread can have additional questions asked but why I forgot about this question until now I have no idea:

With releasing athletes for worlds, does the USASF ever intend on adding an appeals process or overturning decisions made by gym owners/coaches if the situation was not handled correctly? Basically is the USASF going to moderate this rule to make sure it is properly used or will they just let all gym owners/coaches make final decisions?

 

[newcheerdad]

Two things I have questions about:

1. What are the barriers to mandating the use of the Worlds scoresheet at all Worlds bid-giving competitions? (in applicable divisions) If nothing else, it would allow teams competing for a Worlds bid to know where they stack up on the scoresheet. It would also give judges experience in judging to the scoresheet in real-life situations, and the USASF would have the ability (in theory) to evaluate the performance of potential judges before Worlds.

2. Is there any thought to enforcing some kind of standard criteria for obtaining a worlds bid, rather than leaving it up to the discretion of the event producer?

 

[heart33]

Besides obvious reasons, How Do The Lights Go Out During a Performance? It sure made for one AMAZING weekend, but just wondering ...

Really curious....was it a circuit breaker, wrong button got pushed, etc? Everything worked out and Tsunami made finals but what happened?

 

[NJ Coach]

If the team got a full paid bid they are most likely rooming with their team mates. That being said the coaches should take responsibility. The parents if they came, see them at lights out and thats it. The coaches are the ones who are doing the room cks. I also wouldn't say the parents are not interested, I know I was checking my cps room half the night to make sure all was ok. If your organization is allowing the cheerleader's to attend the block party, the cheerleaders should have to sign a waiver of some sort that if they engage in any unacceptable behavior they will have to deal with the consequences.

The majority of teams at worlds are not going on a paid bid. I agree, the coaches should take some responsibility. However, they can't be everywhere. Everyone needs to take responsibility. The USASF who is sponsoring the party, Disney who is hosting the party on property, the coaches who have these kids representing their gyms and the parents whose children belong to them.

Signing a waiver is all well and good, but what are the consequences? You're thrown off the team? The season is over, so I don't know how effective that is. There need to be real consequences. Like disqualification, unable to receive a bid for a year ect. These kids won't think it's fun and games when they've ruined the experience for the rest of the gym. The coaches will take a stand and make sure their kids are behaving with something like that looming over their heads. Everyone is responsible, everyone is to blame.