All-Star Parents, Coaches, Athletes: What Are We Paying For?

[justpeachy]

I'm curious what our similarities/ differences of opinion are over what we feel we are paying for in the all star world. I assume there will be differences between parents, coaches, and athletes perspectives. Curious if there are differences within those groups too.

For me, as a parent, it's individual progression, a routine solid enough that there is the possibility to win competitions (what the team does with that is up to them), and a positive social experience. In that order.

Your thoughts?

 

[pailum520]

When you really boil it down, to me, as an athlete, it's the team sport that I enjoy. My parents are paying for me to participate in it and enjoy my childhood while getting exercise.

 

[acxjags]

What I think you should look for in a cheer program....(What you are paying for) is a program that offers a positive learning atmosphere and teaches kids in a safe progression. I'm not saying they have to sugar coat everything they critique. They need to be real. They need to subject your athletes to some pressure (To prepare them for the real world) (Trust me---I am an extremely hard coach)

I also believe you need to be in a program that experiences victory at one point of another, not necessarily wins all the time, but they need to at least put a routine on the floor that they can be proud of. Constantly crashing skills, losing, or getting last place many times; with all the hard work, sacrifice, and time makes the athlete lose interest and doesn't help their confidence.

Also, they need to teach them about accountability, team work, hard work, and good sportsmanship. Stay away from gyms who breed hate towards another program. This is horrible for the kids. You also want to look for a gym that doesnt force kids to compete skills that they are not confident in. This leads to mental blocks and making the athete suffer from unnecessary Anxiety. Im not saying they shouldnt be pushed...but when its competition time---its not time to see if they will hit the skill. BAD BAD COACHING.

I truly believe cheerleading is one of the few sports that really prepares your children for the real world, jobs, relationships, college, etc. If you are in a gym that doesn't encompass this you need to spend your hard earned money elsewhere. Sorry to get on my soap box here....but I am VERY passionate about the above information and it breaks my heart when I see kids not getting to experience all the positive life lessons from cheer. It gives the industry a bad name. Feel free to message me if you have questions or concerns about your gym, even if you are in another state. I will offer any advice I can to maximize your Cheerleading experience.

 

[Mamarazzi]

I think I'm paying for life coaching, counseling and physical fitness in one sparkly little package.

Life coaching - cp learns the importance of organization, time management, dedication, self-discipline and sacrifice for the sake of the greater good.
Counseling - cp learns self-reliance, trust, gains confidence, acceptance (of people and situations,) and learns how to channel aggression appropriately.
Physical fitness - well, that's obvious.

Funny enough, I've had to learn a lot of these lessons with her, so it's helped me too.

 

[samantha says]

Strength of body and mind, confidence in self, team and gym family as well as desire to exceed in performance.... Which translates much further than blue (in our case black and red) spring floor.

 

[ufomom]

Good question. It came up while my husband and I were discussing our 401k contribution for next year. We do this because our kid likes it. I started it because she got a cute little white uniform and wore curly pig tails with white bows. It then became that I liked to watch her tumble. Now I have good friends I found on ProX that I visit with at competitions. Sure there's all sorts of stuff I could say, but that's it in a nut shell.

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

[quote="(To prepare them for the real world) (Trust me---I am an extremely hard coach)"
[/quote]

I do agree with everything you said, but can you elaborate on what you mean in the above statement?

 

[Zinger_bebe]

I think I'm paying for life coaching, counseling and physical fitness in one sparkly little package.

Life coaching - cp learns the importance of organization, time management, dedication, self-discipline and sacrifice for the sake of the greater good.
Counseling - cp learns self-reliance, trust, gains confidence, acceptance (of people and situations,) and learns how to channel aggression appropriately.
Physical fitness - well, that's obvious.

Funny enough, I've had to learn a lot of these lessons with her, so it's helped me too.

Couldn't agree more with ALL of this. In addition to all of the above, hopefully this will keep cp grounded, busy and out of trouble, and more focused on hitting personal goals (esp. with regards to school).

 

[yojaehs]

I really like this thread, cool idea. I am a coach and I tell my parents and kids that they are paying for the moment the music ends. Preparation mentally, physically and emotionally should prepare confidence in the individual and in the team. To focus on the "win" in my experience is dangerous because there are often times variables that are out of athletes, parents and coaches control, I focus on being "competitive". Year round training, proper safety progressions and having fun will often times result in an amazing feeling as soon as the music goes "boom". That is the feeling that I will never forget as an athlete and as a coach. Awards ceremonies are just proof of the feeling. I hope parents do their research in the program they choose to attend bc there are many different ones that each focus on slightly different things. Finding the right fit for you and your family will result in more confidence when you do have to sign that monthly check.

 

[pinksparklybow]

What I think you should look for in a cheer program....(What you are paying for) is a program that offers a positive learning atmosphere and teaches kids in a safe progression. I'm not saying they have to sugar coat everything they critique. They need to be real. They need to subject your athletes to some pressure (To prepare them for the real world) (Trust me---I am an extremely hard coach)

I also believe you need to be in a program that experiences victory at one point of another, not necessarily wins all the time, but they need to at least put a routine on the floor that they can be proud of. Constantly crashing skills, losing, or getting last place many times; with all the hard work, sacrifice, and time makes the athlete lose interest and doesn't help their confidence.

Also, they need to teach them about accountability, team work, hard work, and good sportsmanship. Stay away from gyms who breed hate towards another program. This is horrible for the kids. You also want to look for a gym that doesnt force kids to compete skills that they are not confident in. This leads to mental blocks and making the athete suffer from unnecessary Anxiety. Im not saying they shouldnt be pushed...but when its competition time---its not time to see if they will hit the skill. BAD BAD COACHING.

I truly believe cheerleading is one of the few sports that really prepares your children for the real world, jobs, relationships, college, etc. If you are in a gym that doesn't encompass this you need to spend your hard earned money elsewhere. Sorry to get on my soap box here....but I am VERY passionate about the above information and it breaks my heart when I see kids not getting to experience all the positive life lessons from cheer. It gives the industry a bad name. Feel free to message me if you have questions or concerns about your gym, even if you are in another state. I will offer any advice I can to maximize your Cheerleading experience.

I agree with a huge majority of this and didn't want to repeat it all. (Coming from a coach) As a parent, I would be paying for coaches that I can trust not just from a safety and reliability aspect, but also those who are going to guide my CP as a positive role model. We all know that cheer takes up many weekends of which only 2min30sec are spent on the actual floor. There are many life lessons to be learned in between.

I whole heartedly agree that a child should not be competing skills that he/she is not confident in. It's a huge risk to hurting the team and puts a tremendous amout of pressure on one small portion of a routine that could let the entire team down. 95% of the time when I see this happen with other teams, I immediately cite this as a coaching error because the coach did not make the best judgement on whether or not the kid was going to hit the skill. I think you are paying for the knowledge of the coaches. They should know the skill development of the children as well as the capabilities of the teams in the area/at upcoming competitions. No one wants to go into a comp and get slammed and on the flip side, I've had a team compete their hearts out a national and at the end of the day after awards, I told them I was extremely proud of their third place finish because they worked hard and it was what they deserved. THAT was a better lesson that any "easy win first place" could have given them.

I'd be paying for any types of progression both physically and socially. I am a HUGE advocate that parents SHOULD NOT remove their child from a gym once a year begins (unless safety is an issue). You make a committment to a team and should follow through. It is the parent's job to resesearch the gyms prior to signing up.

 

[Underestimated]

if you really sit down and think about it, it doesnt just go for cheer its for ANY sport!

- you pay for great coaching so your kid grows as an athlete and progresses!

- believe it or not you're paying for your childs confidence and self assurance (it take ALOT to go out on that floor and perform whether the team is good or not.. and that helps your child in their future if they choose to see that or not)

- you're paying for competition.. TEACHING YOUR KID TO COMPETE NOT ONLY IN CHEER BUT ALSO IN LIFE.. COMPETE FOR WHAT YOU WANT, BE COMPETITIVE AGAINST YOUR SELF, NEVER SETTLE FOR LESS!

*sportsmanship
*team work
*dedication
*hard work ethic

 

[justpeachy]

Love all the great responses. And I agree with each of them.

Now, would it help legitimize the sport if there was some kind of uniformity where expectations are concerned? I saw a contract recently that spelled out the specific service that this gym felt it was providing, which sparked these questions. That was something I had not seen before. Is it common for programs to discuss these expectations openly before contracts are signed and money is paid?

 

[Katybugmom]

I had been with a program and loved it. I don't know why but the coaches started changing their style and safety became an issue and I had to pull my child after I had already signed up and paid lots of comp fees. I wish there was a specific contract so I could have recovered some of the money for them not fulfilling their end of the contract

 

[acxjags]

[quote="(To prepare them for the real world) (Trust me---I am an extremely hard coach)"

I do agree with everything you said, but can you elaborate on what you mean in the above statement?[/quote]

I think you need to apply pressure on these kids, in the appropriate dosages, to prepare them for life. Things they will endure one their own later in life like College final exams, huge school projects, presentations in front of crowds, their first job out of college and they have a overbearing boss who puts a lot of stress on them, stress of having a family, hard economic times, etc. Having your child exposed to it little by little as they grow up will prevent them from getting slapped in the face with reality once they leave the nest. I am a huge advocate of this.

As far as the "I am and extremely hard coach." I put a lot of pressure on my athletes at practice. I believe kids are very resilient. I have had a mini level 3 team for the last 2 years. These are kids who cant count to 8 at the beginning of the year and by competition season we are doing stunts and tumbling passes that varsity girls can do. I yell, in a constructive manner, I teach them if they make a mistake the whole team suffers on the score sheet so we practice that way. (i.e.---if a girl doesnt throw her pass in a full out run thru I'll make the whole team do push ups while that girl stands up and watches. Not to torment that child but to let her actually see her team suffer for her mistake. This works wonders. I did this last year and my MINI level 3 (5-8yr old kids) dropped one time in 9 competitions last year doing high level - level 3 skills. Obviously we make it fun too but they know when its practice time---its time to go to work and its going to be a hard practice.

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

You sound like a great coach! I asked the question because we left a gym where the coaches were "hard". Unfortunately for us, hard resulted in screaming at and belittling children. Completely different from what you're saying.