College One Answer To: "how Much Do You Have To Weigh To Be A Flyer?"

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BTW, is being a large coed flyer still considered far and away the most desirable position for all girls who want to go into college cheerleading? Do all of them want to be large coed flyers on UCA teams first and foremost, large coed flyers on NCA teams second and do all of them still consider it a sort of rejection and a letdown if they do not get to be large coed flyers and are recruited to a different position?
I never wanted to be a large coed flyer, just an all girl base :)


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I know this is a old thread. But just to let you guys know that this info helped a lot. My daughter is currently a base and would really love to fly. She is already 5'3" at 13 years old and expected to grow even taller. This will make her work harder for her goal. Thanks.
 
My oldest daughter is 5'2" and weighs 115lbs. She has always been a main base in all-star and school cheer, however, she has been taking stunt classes recently because she wants to cheer in college. She has been to 2 college cheer clinics and learned a back tuck basket among other partner stunting skills in a very short period of time. Last night she performed a one man rewind at a college clinic! She went with a friend that is a flyer and said the college reps were trying to recruit her friend who is smaller and has more experience. These were junior colleges that have competition teams. I asked her if she was disappointed that they didn't try to recruit her and her response was "Mom, I want to cheer in college, not go to college to cheer". I thought that was a very mature statement.
 
I'm re-posting this in a new thread to get it pinned. This question pops up every so often and at least one person thinks this answer has some merit (thanks cupieqt), so here goes...

I tend to hold the (less than popular) opinion that size does matter... when all else is equal. That means that given two athletes, both have the same level of experience, flexibility, strength, body awareness, explosive power and nerve; the smaller, lighter one will have more overall success with stunting, especially co-ed style.

However, life isn't like that and you can rarely, if ever, make such an apples-to-apples comparison between two athletes. There is nothing you can do about your height and aiming for a body that is athletically fit is far preferable to try to hit a specific number on the bathroom scale.

In my ideal world I would be significantly taller and bigger. That would be of significant advantage when partner stunting. Again, I can't do anything about my height but I can hit the gym and get as strong as possible for my size and frame, so that's what I do.

I've included a video clip of me doing a rewind with Victoria. She's actually taller than I am but after practicing with her 1-2 times a week since September (roughly 4 months total) we can do a fair number of decent skills; rewinds, full-ups, switches, double-downs, hand-in-hand, etc. That's the dedication and focus. She really works hard at being centered over my hands and lets me do my part in keeping her up there. I swear that any time we do tick-tock skills I could close my eyes because she always switches feet back into the same point in space -- directly into my waiting hands.



So, if you look at our physical stats they are something like this:

Me 5' 7" (67") and 180lbs
Victoria 5' 8" (68") and 120lbs

relative height: 100%
relative mass: 66%

That's fairly unusual for co-ed stunt partners. A more typical example (at the elite levels) is shown by @kingston in his video with Katie.



Not trying to call you out or anything there big guy, just trying to show an example. So, from looking at his video I would guess their stats to be:

Kingston 5' 11" (71") and 215lbs
Katie 4' 10.5" (58.5") and 95 lbs
(Turns out I was close, just a little off on when I guessed Katie's height to be 5' 1" -- that would have made her a giant :D)

relative height: 82%
relative mass: 44%

For me to match their elite awesomeness I would have to try to find a partner who is 4' 7" (55") tall and 80lbs to match the relative size/mass. I actually know someone close to that size and she's a lot of fun to stunt with but she prefers to cheer all-girl (sigh). I can do rewinds to cupie, one arm rewinds, double ups and all kinds of crazy stuff with her -- and that's just stunting with her a couple of times a year. I can only imagine what we could hit if we actually worked at it.

Alternately, we could see it wouldn't be as easy for him to stunt with a partner who is 5' 11" and 140lbs. I'm not saying they couldn't stunt together, just that they would be more limited in what they could achieve. kingston has pointed out that his cheer partner in college was 135lbs and he did full ups and rewinds during games with her (remember boys and girls, don't put up anything during a game that is not 100% guaranteed to hit -- I'm pretty positive that he lived by that same motto).

For the record, I never doubted that kingston can stunt with just about anyone at a high level and can probably toss anyone (many guys too) to hands and put them in a liberty, as long as they stay tight and don't freak out. I'm just pointing out that the bigger the size gap, Big Guy -> Tiny Girl, the easier it is to stunt at the elite level, e.g. multiple twists up, one arm stunts, combinations and transitions and many stunts done in a row. Let's face it, if your partner weighs 20% less then it stands to reason that you can do 20% more stunting in the same time period between rests. Heck, if she is small enough you don't need much of a rest at all. And of course the more (good) reps you get in, the faster you both improve.

It's not popular to say, but we can't be everything we want to be; no matter what the motivational posters and our mom's tell us. We CAN be that which we work at diligently and for which we have some natural aptitude/talent. In some respects we can make up for the lack of natural skills by working extremely hard but there will be limits. At my size I would never have been a pro basketball player no matter how long I trained or how dedicated I was to the cause.

let's go back to the original poster's question that started my reply... is 5'4" and 120lbs too big to fly? No, but you may be more limited in what you can achieve than someone who is 4'10" and 85lbs.

Whatever your size, take a realistic assessment of your build; are you athletically fit and strong or soft and flabby. Change what you can, improve flexibility and body awareness and decide to what extent you can dedicate yourself to becoming the best you can be in this activity. And it never hurts to look for big, strong bases to put you up in the air. And for every girl in the air that thinks she should be smaller, there are bases on the ground that think they could be bigger too.






Wow, this was very nicely written... I of course am one of those girls that knows she bigger then most fliers and would do anything to be that petite little thing, but with that being said I worked my booty off and made the best out of what I had and am proud to say that I competed with cheer extreme at worlds 2012 as the center flier for all stunts and baskets, and still to this day have a struggle dealing with being that girl that is 5'5 125 pounds and thinks no one wants to stunt with her because she's the biggest flier. "And for every girl in the air that thinks she should be smaller, there are bases on the ground that think they could be bigger too".......that is so true, and I have never thought of that. It opens my eyes to a whole new prospective of even my own team mates, and how they work and why they excel in some areas and aren't the greatest in others! Thanks for this!
 
It should be noted that for all girl height isnt AS big a deal for lots of stunts.

I tell that to people all the time! Everytime I hear a girl say shes too tall to fly I remind her that there is a reason small coed exists;)

My flyer is 5'8 I think? but the is a boss at pulling up.
 
Old thread but I am a flyer on a small coed team and am one of the tallest at 5'1/2". However, I am the lightest at 90lbs. We have a girl who's 4'7", 2 girls around 4'10", me and another girl are around the same height, and our tallest is at 5'5". We do a mixture of all girl and coed stunts. My bases can get me up but my flexibility is no where as good as it needs to be :p
 
Old thread but I am a flyer on a small coed team and am one of the tallest at 5'1/2". However, I am the lightest at 90lbs. We have a girl who's 4'7", 2 girls around 4'10", me and another girl are around the same height, and our tallest is at 5'5". We do a mixture of all girl and coed stunts. My bases can get me up but my flexibility is no where as good as it needs to be :p
Totally off topic, but we go to the same school :)
 
I'm considering college cheer next year and have based all my life which would make me a little heavier due to muscle mass. Currently I'm 5"3 but I'm 130/135 lbs due to basing for so long. Would I be able to make the transition to flying or would I have to give up the idea of cheering in college because I don't think I'll be able to cope another season after this one basing due to a wrist problem from an old injury rearing its ugly head again.
 
I'm considering college cheer next year and have based all my life which would make me a little heavier due to muscle mass. Currently I'm 5"3 but I'm 130/135 lbs due to basing for so long. Would I be able to make the transition to flying or would I have to give up the idea of cheering in college because I don't think I'll be able to cope another season after this one basing due to a wrist problem from an old injury rearing its ugly head again.

I know several girls your size that fly on various college teams (all girl, small coed, and large coed) but I also know girls that cheer at the same schools on the same teams (that are roughly the same size as the top girls) that base. It wouldn't hurt to get a group together and give it a try though!


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Old thread I know but are there some good tips for flyers to get good body control or improve body control. My cp has grown quite a few inches in her legs and has trouble coping with this new amount of limbs she has lol. She had decent body control until this growth spurt. Now she sometimes looks like spaghetti noodles flying lol. She has very long legs now but is still a very tiny girl weighing 65 pounds. She's 12 y/o this week and I guess due to her young age and lack of experience dealing with huge growth spurt can't seem to gain her good body control back. For instance when she tries kick full/ or kick double her bottom leg rises slightly when she kicks. She can't seem to get it. It's not clicking. I know she's frustrated because she can't seem to do things she used to do. As a mom, I don't know what to tell her except improve her muscle tone and keep trying. :) any tips?
 
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