All-Star Different Tryout-formats

At our gym .. It's a large gym but not a mega gym.



You decide what tryouts you go to..
So if you want to be level 1 go to level 1 tryouts and if you want to be level 2 you go to level 2 tryouts and so forth.

They set guidelines like you *must* have this tumbling required to even be considered for this level. So you can't go to level 4 tryouts if you don't have a layout. Now you may get there and they see that you lied or embellished on the tumbling you thought you had then they would just tell you straight up. You need to go level 3 or level 2 or whatever.

Each level of tryouts goes to 2 practices each week for 2 weeks. (So 4 practices total)


In the first day of your level tryouts they put you with a stunt group/ if you want to fly or base or whatever.
They then put together a routine .. Maybe like 1.5 mins with music and you stunt, tumble, jump, and dance.

The 4th day of tryouts you will be called in by stunt groups and perform this routine you learned, after the routine they just ask each individual athlete to do their hardest tumbling standing/running pass of there choice. The routine that was put together has tumbling but no specialty tumbling just a few synced tumble passes with the groups.


Like the stunt they make you do is semi difficult, like the stunt for level 3 tryouts this year was the same stunt our j3 did in there routine this year. So it was rather difficult.


They are judging you those 4 days, they look to see improvements and who is struggling. So by falling on finals day isn't ideal but I'm real sure they use finals day to pick the last of the members to fill out a perfect team. Im sure they already know their core by what they see the first 3 days but day 4 is show off day. Either you can cut it or you don't!

I like putting together a mini routine. That way you get to see memory and how well they clean and transition.

@Kris10boo what if you have like a standing tuck but not a layout? Would they make you go to the level 3 tryouts?


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The first 2 days are split up solely on age and they do standing tumbling, running tumbling, and jumps. At the end of the 2nd night the coaches then form groups based off of age/skill level. Then the last 2 days there are callbacks to see how the athletes mesh and stunt together so they can get an idea of teams/number of flyers/bases/backspots, etc. Many kids are called back to 2 callbacks to see which "team" they fit better with.

First day: Mini/Junior age
Second day: Youth/Senior age
Third/Fourth day: Callbacks with tentative "groups" (don't want to call them teams because there are ALWAYS adjustments after these callbacks).

BuegeSmalls said:

@Kris10boo what if you have like a standing tuck but not a layout? Would they make you go to the level 3 tryouts?


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Click to expand...

We were at the same gym and, it's Sometimes yes, sometimes no...depends on their other strengths. Our level 4 last year had 3 without standing tucks, but they had layouts. I think the "MUST HAVE" stuff was to discourage a couple of susie's dads/moms who wanted their kid to move up before they were ready.

My daughters' gym has initial evaluations, a few weeks of group practices, then a second evaluation. Team placements are given at the following practice, which will be this week. I think it's a good idea to take some time and evaluate the kids, watch them in a group setting, and allow those that are close to a new skill the opportunity to work on it a bit more, but as a parent, it's complete torture. Also baffling to me is that stunting was only worked on during one practice and not part of either "tryout." I'm not sure how it all works out every year, but it does. I guess the coaches know what they're doing.


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Our gym four weeks of tryouts. Week 1 by age 11 and under; 12 and over
Not the coach, of course, but you have to have level tumbling to be on that level, so end of first week levels are posted.
3 weeks of two nights a week levels. CP is level 3. Last week at day four of the two week levels we had some that had been at L2 come to 3's level practice. At first it was mainly tumbling, then stunting the majority of the practice of levels, but always both. Pretty sure I have a good idea where CP is going. Her SG has not changed since the first level practice, but there are some that keep getting tried here and there. We don't learn a routine, which is good, because CP usually is a fierce dancer, but not the first to remember the dance for sure and would spend a bulk of her time stressing out that she wouldn't remember rather than focusing on remembering.

We did our placements by level this year. We used to go by age. So this season we went by skill level - you had to have the required running level appropriate skill to attend that tryout. We also offered "level up" spotting at the end of each level tryout so we could evaluate how close each athlete was to level up skills.


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My gym does 2 days of tryouts and you go to both. Its divided by age. Day one is jumps and tumbling and you do your highest skils day two is stunting and they make groups by level


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We have a whole month (3-4 weeks) of coached open workouts during the week where we work on jumps, motions, conditioning, and then split up for stunts and tumbling.

Then for the evaluation day kids come in during a designated time according to age where we take notes on their jumps and tumbling. Our teams are strongly based on tumbling and how they did stunting wise at the open workouts. We occasionally have a couple kids coming in for evaluations that didn't come in and if they want, can be based by some of the coaches.

It's a pretty low-key tryout process since we typically haven't had more than 50 kids in the gym. This year we are currently sitting at 75 and are getting a couple calls every week so we might be changing this up for next year because it does have alot of holes in there for kids to get lost if they are really good flyers but not tumblers.

CP's gym had 2 days of tryouts. The first day they learned a dance, did a jump sequence, and threw their best tumbling (running and standing). Day 2 they did stunting. They had the girls pick who they wanted to try out with and were given a few minutes to warm the stunt up. When athletes were called up for tryouts, the other girls in the group could say this group was their tryout or it wasn't. That way each athlete, whether main base, secondary, backspot, or flyer could chose what kind of stunt they wanted to do and who they wanted to do it with. There were certain girls that were in 4-5 groups, but only one of those groups counted as their tryout. I thought it worked really well and no one was complaining that Suzie messed their tryout up since they chose their groups.

Old gym: practice in groups based on age (not skill for 4-6 weeks) usually at the half way point they would start to narrow it down by skill. during the practices, they work on tumbling, stunting and conditioning.

Current gym: offered tumble/stunt classes 3-4x's per week for the month. Last week of the month tryouts done by age into 2 days, (tryouts was closed to parents) based on CP, there was jumps, standing & running tumbling stations all judged by panel of coaches.

Our gym does tryouts by age, not level. They are 2x a week for 2 weeks and include tumbling, jumps, stunts, and a short dance (2 8 counts, I think). By the second week, the kids start shifting into level groups, though unofficially.