All-Star Age Changes?

[these girls]

The flip side of that is when your younger aged athlete is working hard and your older aged athletes complain and are lazy because they went to a party or stayed out late. It cuts both ways.


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[SthrnCheerMom]

I kind of chuckled at that but my daughter was on a junior team that was split between middle school kids and HS freshmen and then a bunch of really little kids. The team dynamics were a little weird and the team honestly didn't bond very well.

This was my daughter's team this year. They certainly didn't have the bond her Y2 team had the year before.

 

[FloridaFlya]

I had a comment I intended to write. But I've heard they're already in the works of changing this age grid? Unless I misread the time stamps.

 

[Melissa Starke]

Never mind...

 

[AndyT_T]

I agree 100%. It's like they're making rules to compensate for a small percentage of our sport.

Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if small gyms didn't make up the majority of our sport, or at least close to half. There are A TON of gyms we never talk about or see who only have a few teams that never get above level 3.

 

[DonnaM]

I really hope CP's team is mostly tween/young teen aged kids. One reason for moving from NYAA was that they relaxed the age grid, and several kids were moved up at the ages 7-9 because they had their walkover, to an 18u team which had previously had no kids under 11. Between the little ones who would shut down and literally just flop down on the mat (realistically, practice started at 7:45, so even the middle school girls were often tired by then) and the older teens who were only there because doing an outside sport let them skip school PE, and basically spending the time talking and not paying attention it was not a fun season. The choreography all ended up dumbed down to the youngest kids.

 

[dat.jpp]

The youngest one on the team was a girl who was 7 maybe she was 8. But the oldest was 15. I was 14 at the time.

 

[dat.jpp]

Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if small gyms didn't make up the majority of our sport, or at least close to half. There are A TON of gyms we never talk about or see who only have a few teams that never get above level 3.

haha funny thing is was that the first year I did allstar, my gym only had a J2 and a S3 team. (There were probably either 5 or 6 crossovers between the 2 teams including me.)

 

[AndyT_T]

haha funny thing is was that the first year I did allstar, my gym only had a J2 and a S3 team. (There were probably either 5 or 6 crossovers between the 2 teams including me.)

There are a ton of programs who have a cheer prep team, a tiny/mini1, and two other teams in level 2 or 3. In every city I have ever lived in I can think of at least 3 programs like that within a one hour drive.

 

[alpaca]

I find the age grid in general a little ridiculous. 10 to me is too young for senior. I even think 12 is still a little young for a Worlds team, would prefer 13-14. I think youth is okay starting at 5 but junior should be 8-9.

I agree with this. 10 year olds on the same team as 18 year old is far too wide of a spread for my tastes. Put another way, it's 4th graders with high school seniors.

Someone else mentioned that they didn't know of any other sport with that much of an age spread. Can anyone think of one?

 

[luv2cheer92]

I agree with this. 10 year olds on the same team as 18 year old is far too wide of a spread for my tastes. Put another way, it's 4th graders with high school seniors.

Someone else mentioned that they didn't know of any other sport with that much of an age spread. Can anyone think of one?

Asking because I don't know the answer. Other sports that have an "insert whatever age" and under, is there a technical bottom age limit? I know I played "up" in soccer for several seasons. I know it was just one or 2 years difference, but I'm not sure if there is a limit with how young someone could be.

 

[CheerBank]

I agree with this. 10 year olds on the same team as 18 year old is far too wide of a spread for my tastes. Put another way, it's 4th graders with high school seniors.

Someone else mentioned that they didn't know of any other sport with that much of an age spread. Can anyone think of one?

How about kindergarteners with 10th graders? Who actually thinks these things through?

 

[alpaca]

Asking because I don't know the answer. Other sports that have an "insert whatever age" and under, is there a technical bottom age limit? I know I played "up" in soccer for several seasons. I know it was just one or 2 years difference, but I'm not sure if there is a limit with how young someone could be.

As a family, we have tried almost every sport out there available to our kids. And as far as I know, "x-under" teams are extremely rare where we live. The age brackets are usually strictly defined , or they are x-under in name only. I live in a major metro area with a large pool of potential kids to field almost any kind of team. That probably makes a difference.

 

[luv2cheer92]

As a family, we have tried almost every sport out there available to our kids. And as far as I know, "x-under" teams are extremely rare where we live. The age brackets are usually strictly defined , or they are x-under in name only. I live in a major metro area with a large pool of potential kids to field almost any kind of team. That probably makes a difference.

Yea I also grew up in a huge metro area where numbers definitely weren't lacking in the major sports. That's likely another issue with cheer, there tends to be far fewer athletes in a program/club compared to other sports that would require larger age spreads in cheer.

 

[CLynn]

Asking because I don't know the answer. Other sports that have an "insert whatever age" and under, is there a technical bottom age limit? I know I played "up" in soccer for several seasons. I know it was just one or 2 years difference, but I'm not sure if there is a limit with how young someone could be.

I don't know the real answer to this either but outside of a phenom I do not think sports such as lacrosse, basketball, football, softball, etc would even have to contemplate mixing 7 yo's with 14 year olds. The sheer size and strength difference would be virtually insurmountable.