All-Star New Age Grid Suggestions

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I propose:
Senior: 14 - 18
Junior: 9 - 13
Youth: 6 - 10
All tiny is exhibition only. Maybe all tiny teams can compete for free at comps.

What is good about this? What is bad?

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my opinion, this is an excellent idea. the tiny teams are just having a fabulous time doing what they do out there. They don't need the extra pressure of placements, ,nor do they totally understand it. I especially agree with the sr. age change you propose, having a child that cheered on a sr team when she was 11( b4 age change to 12) My child had all the skills necessary to be there, I also thought my child had the maturity level. It turns out my child really didn't have the maturity level to be on a team with 18 yr olds, not at 11, or 12.
 
Can exhibition teams have older kids on it?




-what I'm getting at is PrimeTyme had a team that came on after our tiny's. The were called chicks or some type of cute bird name I think or maybe im confused. Anyways they had little kids like ours but then they had like older kids I'm not talking like Sr 5 girls but probably like 10yr olds competing with them too & I'm not talking about stunt helpers. These girls really performed with them and first let's say I wasn't prepared I knew nothing about it not being a real competition. So me and every other parent from our tiny team was like whattt this ain't fair saying it to ourself..

Which it's cool and I knew afterwards it wasn't a real competition but I was still baffled with the whole thing. However, I never found at what they were so I do wonder if they were an exhibition or maybe some other kind of team? Do you know what type of team this may be?

Our senior 5s sometime go to comps as exhibition just to get the performance experience. Any type of team can be exhibition. Our half year rec teams are multi-aged but are categorized by the oldest athlete (if the oldest athlete is 12 it would be junior team even though there may be athletes as young as 6)
 
I totally agree that all skills need to be executed in a safe manner. I also believe that cp's should cheer with teammates in the same age range. This is where I have an issue - pushing the age for seniors to 14 means that talented younger cp's will have to wait even longer to get their chance to cheer at worlds and they have worked hard to gain their L5 skills.
 
Our senior 5s sometime go to comps as exhibition just to get the performance experience. Any type of team can be exhibition. Our half year rec teams are multi-aged but are categorized by the oldest athlete (if the oldest athlete is 12 it would be junior team even though there may be athletes as young as 6)

Oh I guess that makes sense- there pretty good though! some of those girls look younger then 6 to me but they seem to be the best ones!

Here is a video I found on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w-dMKcTZbU&sns=em
 
They could be as young as that program allows, so they could have been younger than six.

Aww- thanks!!!! I mean I assumed that later it just scared me before I knew anything thinking omg they are so much better then our tiny's!
 
As much as I'm tired of seeing tiny 12 year olds fly I think 14 is too old for a bottom age in Senior. Some high schools allow exceptionally talented middle schoolers on their Varsity sports teams so I would do the youngest age in relation to that whether its sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. I think 12 or 13 would be more appropriate.
 
I feel like this is going to lead us back to Senior and Senior Open (back in the day when the difference was the youngest person on the floor) Senior had a age floor, Senior Open didn't. Maybe there can be ages floors for all divisions. Then Possibly have a Senior Open with no floor for the tiny gyms. OOO. Spark. Senior Open Small gym.

I know we are trying to reduce the number of divisions and crossovers within them, but I think it will upset people.

Perhaps the bottom range of one level will be the top range of the level below it.

Seniors 13-18
Juniors 9-13
Youth 6-9

If we go this way, I would also like to see 1 boy be allowed on all girl teams in levels 1-4.
 
As much as I'm tired of seeing tiny 12 year olds fly I think 14 is too old for a bottom age in Senior. Some high schools allow exceptionally talented middle schoolers on their Varsity sports teams so I would do the youngest age in relation to that whether its sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. I think 12 or 13 would be more appropriate.

Also, highschool is different depending on what state you live in. I know some places where highschool is only 10-12 grades with 6-9 being middle school. I also know a school where 8-12 is high school. This is why i am in fan of sharing 1 age, but not a big overlay. If juniors are up to 14 and seniors are down to 12, that is 3 years of overlap which is quite a bit.
 
I am hoping my gym has a J5 next year, but since the juniors are eligible to be on the senior 5 I don't see that happening. If they bumped the Senior age to 14 though, J5 would be their only option (though the juniors would be miffed that they couldn't be on a worlds eligible team)
 
Developmentally 6-10 is too wide of an age spread for the very young kids. I currently have a little one turning 6 in September, and I think a MINI is very appropriate for her (8 and under as it is currently). 9-10 year olds are a lot more mature than kids just entering into first grade, so I would not be fan of trying to lump them all together. I would want to continue with a Mini, Youth, Junior and Senior. Also, she is only 5 right now and misses the age cut off by 3 days--but she has multiple back handsprings and fits great with a mini 2 group--since there are a lot of 5 year olds in her position (late fall birthdays but still going into 1st grade) I would be an advocate of 5-8 for minis IF a lower age limit was placed on this.

I would support moving the lower age to senior of 13 and having it "overlap" with Junior. But, moving it to 14 period does not allow gyms to make the decisions they feel best for their individual kids. I am personally a huge fan of Junior level 5 divisions (our gym has both a Jr and Sr Level 5 team)--but there are some kids definitely better suited for Junior and other better suited for Senior (mostly the kids who have been doing this for 7+ years already).
 
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What if we use my age suggestions for ONLY large gyms. Small gyms have no floor. With the new athlete registration system this would be easily enforceable.

THEN there is no separation between small and large gyms division. Each division gives out a 1st place for large gym, 1st place for small gym, and then 2nd through last for everyone else (but on the breakdown sheet it highlights placements for all the small gyms so a small gym that got 10th can know they actually got 3rd among teh small gyms).

how about that?

@CGAcheer would that be fair?
 
Can exhibition teams have older kids on it?
As far as I know, any team can choose to expo, regardless of the age. However, as far as I know, this means that normal age and skill rules don't apply. Like you could have kids ages 3-13 on the same team (not that there's a rule that currently prevents this). But it's not like they say "in level 2 expo...." You can do what you want. I've seen it done before, like a Youth Expo team or a Mini Expo team
 
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The thing about tiny's competing is it also is terrible PR. Whenever I watch toddlers and tiaras and they have competitions for 3 year olds or 1 year olds and they just sit their like lumps or wander around stage I tend to think negative thoughts. If someone hears a 3 or 4 year old is cheering I imagine they will have a similar reaction if unaware of how things can be. By saying you have to be 6 to start cheering (but their is exhibition for the younger ones) it does bring a bit of legitimacy to what we do.
 
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