All-Star Closed Practices

[megaroo714]

are practices are closed parents are not allowed in the gym but sometimes we leave the door open from the lobby to they gym so they can watch a little bit but mostly its closed ... Except for the new tiny or mini girls who are scared so there parents are allowed in but they sit on the couch on the side and watch

 

[TheVipersMom]

I don't think there is any way myself or my husband would allow our daughter to be at a gym with closed practices if by "closed" you mean parents can't come into the building at all.

I don't know about the other gyms but ours is closed practices but you can come in. Like I sit in my car and notice the parents start going back in 15 mins prior to get their kid. The owner doesn't seem to have a problem with this so I go in when everyone else does. When we are in there waiting for our kids to come out we see all the other kids like the ones in tumbling class and what not. There is a small door that leads to the back which is where the teams are practicing. The doorway is covered with a curtain but because people go in and out it usually is half way opened. I mean you can see like a very small section of the floor and maybe you will be lucky to see your kid but you don't dare step foot like you are going to go back there. The owner seems pretty open to anything so if there was a serious concern about that she would probably address it for you. Also when dropping her off we are usually 15 to 20 mins early and I stay with her inside until practices start. Since we get to stay for tumbling, the flyer class, and her privates I'm there enough that I see how they run other practices I can only imagine they run my daughters team that way.

 

[alexandra_ashleigh]

During choreography camp, and up to our first competition, practices are closed. As an athlete, I prefer it being closed. Nothing is more distracting than loud parents. It's extremely hard to focus, and I get a little antsy when my mom watches me. haha

 

[CoachTamara]

We had closed practices last year, and I have opened them up for the summer as a trial. The parents know their behavior determines how it goes in the fall.
With closed practices, we get more done. Parents aren't distracting their children, and not trying to coach from the sideline. The problems with closed practices were that parents sat in the lobby gossiping, and children would flat out lie about things that occurred in practice. When they were in trouble, it was always someone else's fault, and I was the bad guy. I am downright shocked at the things these kids will say and do to trick their parents. Some parents are smart enough to come to me and ask and get the truth, but some don't. For this reason, we are doing open practices. I am really hoping that some parents will come in and see how their children behave at practice and understand why their child is in the back. If your child never practices the motions or jumps correctly because they feel lazy, now you get it.

 

[mecheermom]

Last year at CCE the first 2 months I was seriously ready to pull my daughter off youth2. A lot of hateful moms that had been there for 5 years were whining and complaining that my daughter was a tiny when she was 5 in her first year cheering then the very next year she just turned 6 and made youth 2. It wasn't fair that it was a 6 year old on the team and their kid had to spend 3 years on minis and 2 years on tinys before moving up to youth2.

I SOOO dislike moms like this!! I just want to tell them this is not "fun-fair-everyone gets a freaking trophy cheer". Good for you for sticking it out! I am sure your CP proved her worth more than once on her Y2 team!!

 

[mybabywantstotumble]

Kris10boo yeah, i wouldn't like her being behind a curtain for a whole practice. if i could sit and watch the majority and then maybe they closed it at a certain point for a little bit i wouldn't mind. and i'm not a psycho bang on the window, making hand gestures type of mom. i really just sit there and watch and talk to my friends. and if for some reason the girls get a break and i am outside of the gym with some moms my cp gets pissed that i'm not watching her.

 

[12stepCheermom]

I SOOO dislike moms like this!! I just want to tell them this is not "fun-fair-everyone gets a freaking trophy cheer". Good for you for sticking it out! I am sure your CP proved her worth more than once on her Y2 team!!

There is a cadre of people I've found that division means more to them than level. I totally have never understood them. In their minds a "senior" team is better because it's "senior" and they can be with all the older kids...which somehow in their mind makes them think their kid is better. There are also ones that seem to buy into this mentality and want to get their kid "away" from all the "babies." If they're on a senior team than that means they're amazing.

This same group of people don't get that if you have a senior lv 4 and a youth lv 4 that the YOUTH team is stacked with more talent because theyre doing the SAME skills as 18 year olds, but they're 9. They don't like the team because it's "youth" and therefore not as good.

I will never "get" these people. They clearly don't "get" cheer.

 

[TheVipersMom]

I SOOO dislike moms like this!! I just want to tell them this is not "fun-fair-everyone gets a freaking trophy cheer". Good for you for sticking it out! I am sure your CP proved her worth more than once on her Y2 team!!

I was so disappointed in them too. Luckily the hatefulness of the moms didn't seem to carry over to the kids. Those kids were awesome. Only 2 of the 15 came from youth 2 the previous year so it was a lot of kids who aged out of minis put on the team and then some new kids who never cheered before.

I will say this, they had an awards banquet on Saturday. Since we moved and everyone was not that happy about the move so I didn't think my daughter would get anything but a team trophy.

The previous year my daughter got her team trophy for Tinys and received the coaches award. (which is what I would consider the best overall award) This is the one of the few awards you get another trophy for. They usually give certificates for a lot of the other specialty awards.

Anyways this season she did youth 2 and minis. Mini's had 25 kids on it and she received the coaches award again!!
So I was super ecstatic because she worked hard all season, she was always there, she listened and did not play at practice, and she was a leader on that team for sure. So it felt good to get the top award 2 years in a row.

I didn't expect a lot on youth2 but one of the sr kids told me she got 2 awards and since I knew she got coaches award on minis I was left speculating what other award she received. Well I found out yesterday that it was "youth rookie of the year" and yes this is one of the good ones as well because they gave her a trophy for this one too. I honestly am shocked out of the 13 new kids on youth and my daughter got it. It just felt good to be able to tell her that and she was so excited! I hope she can use everything she has learned to bring something to the table at our new gym. I also hope she can take away even more from the new experiences she has here so it should be a great season with a lot less crazies... Lol we can only hope since we have closed practices at this gym.

 

[Babs]

When my cp was in dance several years ago they had a 2nd, smaller dance room that had a door and a window. The window was in a horrible place for the dancers because there should've been a full length mirror there. I asked the owner about it and she said she was required by law to have the window there, or anywhere that minors are with an adult teacher.

Do rules like that apply to cheer gyms or was that merely because the dance room was a single enclosed room where there was usually only a single adult in there?

Come to think of it, I believe school room doors usually have a window in them but I also remember some teachers covering the window with construction paper because it was a distraction for the kids in class.

 

[Cheer Observer]

Our Gym has closed practices once the teams are set and they start officially "practicing" as a team. Although I would like to see practice sometimes I completely understand why the doors and curtains are closed. Although I have never coached All Star Cheer I have coached many other sports and I feel that having the full attention of the athlete is very important. There are enough distractions with the other kids and teams there in the gym and you don't need anymore with Parents and siblings gawking in windows and open doors. Our gym does not have an area where a bunch of people can view at one time anyway so everyone would be crowded in a doorway or around one large window.
But I feel like the real reason our practices are closed is because of SOME of the parents. This one complaining that their daughter is not flying, my daughter is not center flyer, why is "she" in the center, why is my kid all the way in the back during the dance.....Should I go on? I've seen it, I've heard it and I've seen parents grab their kid the second they came out of practice to ask them why they were not flying, why they did not tumble and so on. It's not ALL parents but you know what they say, it only takes one to ruin it for everyone. I figure the coaches feel it's easier without the distractions and the DRAMA and I agree.

 

[TheVipersMom]

There is a cadre of people I've found that division means more to them than level. I totally have never understood them. In their minds a "senior" team is better because it's "senior" and they can be with all the older kids...which somehow in their mind makes them think their kid is better. There are also ones that seem to buy into this mentality and want to get their kid "away" from all the "babies." If they're on a senior team than that means they're amazing.

This same group of people don't get that if you have a senior lv 4 and a youth lv 4 that the YOUTH team is stacked with more talent because theyre doing the SAME skills as 18 year olds, but they're 9. They don't like the team because it's "youth" and therefore not as good.

I will never "get" these people. They clearly don't "get" cheer.

I get what your saying and yes people seem to think that the upper division teams are better and I love watching them but I'd rather watch youth 4 over Sr 4 any day of the week because those kids amaze me.

At our gym the parents who were complaining weren't just complaining because my cp made youth but it was the level too.

Our tiny and mini teams have always been level 1 and we have never had a level 2. So our first level up team has always been youth 2.

So they weren't just mad she was put on youth and it took them 5 years they were also mad because my cp made level 2 in one season. A specific mom said it was not fair because my daughter didn't have to "do her time as a mini" and move up.

I will say all season my daughter was great tumbling, was great stunting but her biggest problem was timing. It was not completely noticeable and she was on time for a lot of it but the opening and jumps were where her timing issues came in. It was hard to differentiate because on minis she was too fast for the kids, but on youth they keep telling her to speed up. I think if she only did youth last season she would have been fine but the adjustment between the 2 was where she struggled. I can not tell you how many times the coaches would tell her speed up Jaylen but she got it figured out and I'm very glad she did it. She was not a weak link on that team and brought a lot to the team as a whole. After a few months in the summer my daughter proved herself to these parents and the chatter stopped. (thankfully because i don't know if i could of handled it all season) Moms that initially weren't happy about it warmed up to her and they seen that she deserved to be there.

 

[tdittmar]

When my cp was in dance several years ago they had a 2nd, smaller dance room that had a door and a window. The window was in a horrible place for the dancers because there should've been a full length mirror there. I asked the owner about it and she said she was required by law to have the window there, or anywhere that minors are with an adult teacher.

Do rules like that apply to cheer gyms or was that merely because the dance room was a single enclosed room where there was usually only a single adult in there?

Come to think of it, I believe school room doors usually have a window in them but I also remember some teachers covering the window with construction paper because it was a distraction for the kids in class.

See this is what comes to my mind first and foremost. Why would a gym subject themselves to possible allegations and rumors? I taught a child abuse prevention course for the employees of the company I worked for and the biggest point I tried to drill into their heads was that anyone, anywhere, can say you did everything and anything to them whether you did or not and not to put yourself in a position for that to happen. Now I'm sure that most gyms have a whole team of witnesses and other adults around but if parents are psycho enough to bang on windows and talk about other girls, etc what's to say they won't be just as passionate if something negative were to happen?
I think a two way mirror is a perfect way to have the best of both worlds.

Also,as many psycho moms are yelling and screaming at their kids to fix something there are just as many cheering when the main stunt finally hits after 4 months of dropping. I enjoy celebrating those successes with the team as they happen and love to see the hard work pay off at practice.

 

[Born2Tumble]

There is a cadre of people I've found that division means more to them than level. I totally have never understood them. In their minds a "senior" team is better because it's "senior" and they can be with all the older kids...which somehow in their mind makes them think their kid is better. There are also ones that seem to buy into this mentality and want to get their kid "away" from all the "babies." If they're on a senior team than that means they're amazing.

This same group of people don't get that if you have a senior lv 4 and a youth lv 4 that the YOUTH team is stacked with more talent because theyre doing the SAME skills as 18 year olds, but they're 9. They don't like the team because it's "youth" and therefore not as good.

I will never "get" these people. They clearly don't "get" cheer.

OMG, that happened to us this season! A girl made our Junior 4 team and allt of her friends made Senior 4! She decided in her mind that Senior 4 was the better team and Junior4 had all the babies on it, so she left and went to abother gym. This is sad because this season our Junior 4 team which does have young girls on it, is going to rock!!!! That Senior 4 team is looking A little sketchy LOL, but i can totally relate and understand where you are coming from because I have witnessed it with my own eyes!

 

[MaineStar234]

The moms at my gym are only allowed to come in and watch the last 15 minutes of practice. I think its especially good for the little kids because they get distracted so easily and want to say hi to mom and such.

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

Our previous gym had closed practices, but there really was no place the parents could observe from anyway. Our current gym has open practices, and I do like that I can watch if I choose to. However, my daughter has told me a few times that she doesn't really like it when I'm there because I make her nervous. I have to admit that I recognized myself in the above posts about the well-meaning moms who try to offer tips. I am guilty of that. I only go into watch now if she speficically asks me to. But I do like that I am allowed to if I want.