All-Star Summer / Early Fall Attendance Policies

I totally understand the importance of having other activities outside of cheer, especially during the summer. But at the same time it is very frustrating when you have someone that pretty much shows up only once or twice all summer, makes an appearance at choreography, then still proceeds to be MIA for 4-5 practices in a row after we are told practices are mandatory. Our gym says they have a strict policy (mandatory after choreo) but it is never enforced as far as I can tell. We are now 4 weeks after choreo and there are still girls out all the time. My daughter's stunt pod is struggling to keep up with new skills due to the same girl missing over and over again for one reason or another. I'm sure attendance will improve now that school has started (my daughter's pod has had all girls there 2 practices in a row! :cheering but I still don't think it's fair to the girls that are dedicated to see the girls that consistently miss practice suffer no consequences. Vent over. :banghead:

Little's team absence policy makes a ton of sense to me, and there are 2 weeks in the summer that the gym is closed completely:

From June 1-Labor Day, an athlete may miss 3 practices.
Labor Day-December 31st, 2 practices.
Jan 1-Spring Break, 1 practice.
Spring Break-Worlds, 0 practices.

Mamarazzi said:

Little's team absence policy makes a ton of sense to me, and there are 2 weeks in the summer that the gym is closed completely:

From June 1-Labor Day, an athlete may miss 3 practices.
Labor Day-December 31st, 2 practices.
Jan 1-Spring Break, 1 practice.
Spring Break-Worlds, 0 practices.

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out of curiosity, what are the punishments if you miss practices? in writing it all does make sense but are they understanding for certain circumstances? i can understand why they would like to have 0 absences near worlds but coming from someone with a poor immune system that can get extremely sick (especially with weather changes) that would make me nervous

Cheeranswers said:

out of curiosity, what are the punishments if you miss practices? in writing it all does make sense but are they understanding for certain circumstances? i can understand why they would like to have 0 absences near worlds but coming from someone with a poor immune system that can get extremely sick (especially with weather changes) that would make me nervous

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The "punishment" is losing your spot on the team. Yes, it's harsh. No, there aren't exceptions. When 1 person misses, 4 people miss. An injured or "not feeling well" Worlds team athlete is still expected to be at the gym during practice.
Little's immune system is just fine and it still makes me nervous. But the athletes become very conscientious about hand-washing, staying healthy and all that, when comp season rolls around.

Mamarazzi said:

The "punishment" is losing your spot on the team. Yes, it's harsh. No, there aren't exceptions. When 1 person misses, 4 people miss. An injured or "not feeling well" Worlds team athlete is still expected to be at the gym during practice.
Little's immune system is just fine and it still makes me nervous. But the athletes become very conscientious about hand-washing, staying healthy and all that, when comp season rolls around.

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very interesting! are the athletes expected to fully preform when sick/injured? ive gone to practices extremely sick or injured, but was really only expected to stunt, and run my passes for tumbling, which was a life saver because i wouldnt have the energy to tumble safely!

Cheeranswers said:

very interesting! are the athletes expected to fully preform when sick/injured? ive gone to practices extremely sick or injured, but was really only expected to stunt, and run my passes for tumbling, which was a life saver because i wouldnt have the energy to tumble safely!

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No, if the illness/injury limits participation. Obviously, the main goal is to keep the athlete aware of any routine changes.

Cheeranswers said:

out of curiosity, what are the punishments if you miss practices? in writing it all does make sense but are they understanding for certain circumstances? i can understand why they would like to have 0 absences near worlds but coming from someone with a poor immune system that can get extremely sick (especially with weather changes) that would make me nervous

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Just out of curiosity, do you drink/eat a lot of milk products?

catlady said:

Just out of curiosity, do you drink/eat a lot of milk products?

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lactose intolerant

Athletes are charged for unexcused absences, and no matter what the reason is, missing practice earns you 100 toe touches and 3 miles. Excused or unexcused. If a kid is sick then they must still come in and support their teammates from the sidelines. The only real reason that they can miss is if someone dies, they have a contagious decease like strep throat, or if its jesus's birthday.

Personally I think it depends on how the gym is structured. Where i go you have one mandatory practice each week in the summer and two optional practice days (the days of training in all) but with our team we focused on more individual skills during the summer.For example at mine over the summer, though we did stunt, on mine we focused a lot of our time on jumps and tumbling. We are a lower level team which is probably part of the reason why so many people didn't show up.

At our gym if you're level one or two other athletes tend not to show up and treat competitive like it's rec program. If you're 3+ the athletes come during mandatory and optional practices since they're so dedicated and because the gym treats them differently. Level 1/2 athletes at our gym get little to no punishment if they're absent or late during summer and school time unless you aren't a coaches favorite, this coming from someone who's there 96% of mandatory and optional practices I've seen the blatant favouritism, whereas on 3+ teams if you're slowing everyone down you're removed immediately. The 3+ teams also have their choreo dates and routines set up sooner because they're taken more seriously in ways other than attendance like coaching.

Usually I see it as if you don't show up at all during the summer for any of the three days you have to practice than you won't be dedicated for the rest of the season. It's a personal pet peeve of mine too when the people who don't show up stay in their spots and the committed people don't get a chance to get moved up.

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense I'm not that great at writing out what I think.


They call me a flyer, but first you have to throw.

Carmen said:

If you're 3+ the athletes come during mandatory and optional practices since they're so dedicated and because the gym treats them differently.

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The proverbial chicken or egg. Are they more dedicated because they're treated differently.... Or are they treated differently because they're more dedicated.

I think a lot of the disparate treatment argument (regardless of gym) is more based in perception than anything else. I've had a coach tell us they have "favorites" before. They said, "I absolutely have favorites. The ones who seem to live here, never miss, work hard, stay humble and listen to me when I coach them. They're absolutely my favorites."

I could find no fault in this whatsoever.


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12stepCheermom said:

The proverbial chicken or egg. Are they more dedicated because they're treated differently.... Or are they treated differently because they're more dedicated.

I think a lot of the disparate treatment argument (regardless of gym) is more based in perception than anything else. I've had a coach tell us they have "favorites" before. They said, "I absolutely have favorites. The ones who seem to live here, never miss, work hard, stay humble and listen to me when I coach them. They're absolutely my favorites."

I could find no fault in this whatsoever.


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Differently in the sense that they get gym certified adult coaches whereas we get teenagers on higher levels who need to get their volunteer hours in. (Which I kind of get-giving higher levels better coaching). But also because they're stricter with removing athletes from the level 3+ teams. I think they're more dedicated, not only because they love the sport and have worked hard to be on a higher level which I do think is a factor, but because the gym puts more pressure on them to follow rules especially the attendance policy. But I think it's a bit of both- they're dedicated because they worked hard to get there but I do think the gym could spend more time one giving the lower levels incentive to be dedicated so that the naturally dedicated athletes don't suffer.

With my team, I'm not sure about the others in the gym, working hard doesn't guarantee you that kind of favourite spot. Our coaches are mostly teenagers so you see a lot of friendship favouritism going on.


They call me a flyer, but first you have to throw.

I think at my daughter's old gym, they were allowed to miss 3 practices during the summer. I really liked this policy. At her new gym, they seem to be relaxed about absences, which irks me a bit.

Sherry said:

I think at my daughter's old gym, they were allowed to miss 3 practices during the summer. I really liked this policy. At her new gym, they seem to be relaxed about absences, which irks me a bit.

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My situation is a bit similar to yours. I switched to a new gym recently, and at my old gym, you'd get pulled from a competition if you had excessive absences (more than 1 per 6 week session) unless it was for something mandatory like an orchestra concert or if you were injured/sick. At my new gym, there are a ton of girls who have been missing almost every practice since I've started, and it's only now that they're talking about pulling them. We compete in a little less than three weeks. D: