All-Star What Is Important To You At An Events?

[newcheerdad]

Announcing scores soon after a team competes would be great. And make people think there is less shenanigans going on. And awards would be just that, handing out awards. This was done in college cheer forever. Not sure why it wasn't adopted anywhere else.

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I like that a lot. Even beyond that, I think if we want to grow the fanbase for cheer beyond "friends and family", there has to be at least an attempt to explain the rules and scoring to people.

So then when a score is announced, people have a frame of reference for it, rather than it being just some arbitrary number.

 

[AllHeartxo3]

errr i wish each competition had a 'standard' warm up. i went to a competition this past season where the warm ups were 3 mats.....in the parking lot.

you're kidding? i can't even imagine.

 

[garretttt]

you're kidding? i can't even imagine.

it was awful, and it was right in the sun and there were leaves all over the mats. and the competition was at six flags in this little tiny arena thing. there were WASPS everywhere. uhh it was awful.

 

[AllHeartxo3]

it was awful, and it was right in the sun and there were leaves all over the mats. and the competition was at six flags in this little tiny arena thing. there were WASPS everywhere. uhh it was awful.

i would flip if i found out i had to warm up in a parking lot.

 

[cheerlove]

dark arena with lots of stage lights, a good warm up area with enough time, perfect time between warmups and performing(not too long but not right away), kids in free or cheaper, enough stands/kiosks to look at after competing, quick awards, specialty awards, good music to run out to, fair judging, and my dad seems to like it when there is a TV somewhere for him to watch games while im not competing

 

[kyyyyyyxo]

What I value at a competition:
- actually having competition there (which may mean having less competitions so everyone are at the same ones)
- Properly trained judges who thoroughly know their distinct score grid / score sheet
- Running on Time
- Staff in the warm up room to keep that team from going "one more time" on the stunt floor
- Not having to wait a half hour between warm ups and competing (try keeping 15 minis under control when they have to just stand there and wait, not fun)
- Not having to sit at awards for coaches dance offs, the cha-cha slide, or a blow up doll. Make awards 20 minutes later if you have to and just announce my scores.

As a company, I would also appreciate having only 1 nationals all year. It keeps it more prestigous. The rest of the competitions can be regionals, or whatever you want to call them - but they arent nationals if there is 50 that month.

 

[CGAcheer]

Things I liked about competitions this past year,

WSA if you have to filler time between competing and Awards, they had a Jump Off, which is WAY better than the cupid shuffle or Jammy.

NCA got awards over with quick, got your plaque and left the floor til it was down to two, it built suspense while moving quickly. and had several throughout the day

Production Value can make a tiny competition seem Big, again WSA did a great job with this. There were only 20 or 30 teams at a first year event we went to in Jax, but it felt big because of the lighting and production value and being in an arena.

WSF had great lights and staging as well.

Medals or individual gifts of some kind for 1st thru 3rd

Having Grand champs/level champions, judges choice, a few speciality awards are nice.

and Cash awards are always nice.

flash drive with video and judges comments

Things I didn't like.

Make sure you have a big enough venue. and have priority seating.

$15 admission for a 1 day COA event is way too much plus paying for Parking

having to wait through dance and individuals to have awards was terrible.

being rushed through warm ups and then having to wait for 20+ mins after you've warmed up before you go out on the floor.

Questionable judging

Unfortunately for COA, all of the things I didn't like happened at the Jacksonville, FL COA event last year. It was my least favorite event last year but we will be back, because it happens to fall into our schedule perfectly.
Hoping for a better experience!

as for swag, at least for our kids, they like winning stuff more than just getting it for showing up, if you're looking to save money somewhere or make money by selling the stuff.

 

[rockymountainthigh]

I hate hate hate when competitions have to stall before awards because they're not done calculating scores yet. Really, I'm tired and anxious and I don't want to dance to Crank That for 45 minutes- so please stay on schedule and skip the fluff! Also, please take out the rediculous cheer parent dance competitions or jump offs.
I also would appreciate a more relaxed warm up area. It's one of the most stressful times, and being rushed off the floor doesn't help my out of control anxiety. I love how at Jamfest Supernationals they have an open warm up room that you can practice in before your actual warm up. Takes so much stress off when someone gets injured and stunts have to change.

 

[stuntaholic]

A lot of people are mentioning warm-ups. Mainly the time of the warm-ups. I think the timeline of warm-ups should follow the timeline of Worlds warm-ups. I am not sure of what the time on each mat is exactly at Worlds, but every competition should follow this schedule. Simply because this is what we are ultimately competing for so why not try to make warm-ups the same. Its frustrating for coaches to have to make sure their athletes know that the time on each mat will be different at each competition. Some teams even practice warm-ups for each competition because they vary so much. So in my opinion make the time on each mat the same as Worlds. Then in my opinion 10 minutes is a reasonable amount of time to put between warm-ups and performing.

 

[Katybugmom]

I don't understand why it should take so long for awards to be ready. Teams register in advance so they know how many they need. It should not take long to order the results. After each team performs their score should be inputted into a spreadsheet and it would automatically rank them.
I would love a MC that we could understand- most the time we aren't sure which level they are announcing
Don't like the dance party- the stunt competition is more fun if they need to waste time but I would rather get home earlier
Comps on Saturdays rather than Sunday- hard to travel home then have school the next day
Lights and glamour are fine at the nationals, but local comps could be in cheaper venues to save money.

 

[Angelica]

I'm usually a happy camper as long as they have a pretzel place at the comp.

 

[hannahx0xbananaa]

Announcing scores soon after a team competes would be great. And make people think there is less shenanigans going on. And awards would be just that, handing out awards. This was done in college cheer forever. Not sure why it wasn't adopted anywhere else.

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kinda like the jam LIVE! competitions? minus the whole going to rule the "leader lounge" until your score is beaten thing.

 

[hopskipandjump]

I would love to see one competition who places creativity HIGH on their score sheet. It may just be a specialty competition, but it sure would be a welcome change for me.

 

[anythingforcheer]

Nice spectator gifts
JAMBRANDS - please change the jackets this season, please, please
Announcing of scores after competing
Have competitions end earlier - competing at 9, 10 or 11 p.m. is just to late
Free parking
Quality vendors/food variety

 

[fullpass]

1. Please have good, safe competition floors and warm up areas.
2. Personally I like dark arenas, lighted elevated stages and priority seating. If you are having two performance areas, please have them be equally good unless you are charging youth teams less for entry fees!
3. Please have plenty of competent medical staff on site. I once spent 10 minutes of warmups looking for someone with a bandaid. Imagine if something had really been wrong!
4. This year WSF brought encore to our area. At awards they replayed some routes and winning choreography etc. It took longer (a negative) but at least teams could see the routines that beat them etc
5. I agree about having replay right off the floor-super helpful to see and fix things for day 2.
6. Personally I have started steering friends and family toward the comps with no admission fee. I hate saying 'come see my kid' and then telling them to each bring $20 cash to get in so I end up buying their admissions and that really adds up. For non cheer people $20 admission to watch 2:30 is a bit steep!
7. Parent dance things are silly and are usually a cover for slow score processing. Same for trivia questions.
8. I would be your best friend if you got concession stands to offer some kind of breakfasts!
9. My cp wants to say that there can never be enough dippin dots!
10. Please make sure your photographers know what thy are doing if you intent to restrict parent photography. Expensive pics stink but crappy expensive pics are the worst!
11. Videos as competitor gifts are awesome. Your logo, brand and the money you've invested in your stage dressing will live on with every replay! Whereas an itchy scarf will die a slow death at the bottom of a cheer at until mom tosses it out.

Thanks for asking! It means a lot that you care