All-Star Asga Survey Results And Letter To Board

[Ceacoach]

Good Morning,I am writing to you all on behalf of the 1500+ members of the ASGA. It is my sincere hope that you will take the independently gathered data above to heart and read through the information with an open mind. In less than 20 hours exactly 217 gym owners/coaches took their time to take this survey in order to voice their collective opinion. What we all have in common is a sincere desire to increase not only membership, but also expand the positive influence our sport stands to offer to the next generation of youth. All politics aside, we all devote an exceptional amount of time towards what we like to call the "betterment" of our sport. Most of us have devoted our lives to it. I ask on this very historic morning of decision that you channel your 10 year old self before you make any final decisions.Tonight, I put my 8 year old to bed and ask her as I do nightly what she wants to be when she grows up...for the past few nights her dream is consistent. Carley wants to invent the first real dragon or be a fashion designer. I am reminded of a little girl I once knew who owned exactly one hand me down leotard and a used pair of grips whose father turned her swing-set into uneven bars, and made her a beam out of a 2X4. That little girl used to host neighborhood Olympic games and despite the very obvious observation that she had NEVER once taken an official gymnastics class...nevertheless whole heartedly believed that she was going to represent the US in the Olympic games if she could just save a little more money for a few months training. Quite clearly, any adult in a 10 mile radius should have set that little girl's dreams straight with a hard dose of reality. But you know what? No one did. For four straight years, that little girl who grew up to own Cheer Extreme, hosted her own neighborhood Olympics. I believed with all my heart that my dream was going to come true. I would have bet anything on that conviction. You see no one had the heart to destroy that dream, no matter how far fetched it seemed. My hope is that somewhere inside of the adult self you have become you remember your own 10 year old self. Remember when saving the world seemed like a piece of cake? Remember when you were going to be an astronaut? I ask because everyday in my gym I see athletes that enter wide eyed and poised to believe in themselves and others for that matter no matter what until the harsh reality of the real world comes crashing down. When the governing body of the sport I love makes rules that squash those dreams regardless of how unrealistic they are for most athletes, the 10 year old swing-set gymnast in me has to cry foul. How dare you? It makes no difference whether these kids will ever possess the athleticism to achieve these skills you have put on the "chopping block", in their own little minds...they don't quite realize yet that they most likely won't ever be able to compete them. Who are you or we to take their dream away from them before they are able to answer that question for themselves? I beg you as the board of directors to take a hard look at the data provided to you above that is compiled with no agenda, no preconceived reality, and no purpose other than the truth. I ask that you consider this: Now that the world of allstar cheerleading is watching with its full focus that you put faith back into the process you created. Now that we all know what the sentiments of the board of directors who carry ultimate, final decision making power are that we the people be given the opportunity to vet out our differences and VOTE in a democratic fashion towards our own destiny on each and every rule separately. I ask that you restore faith in our sport by granting the constituents that fuel the industry their rightful say so through due process. You may very well have all had the best interest of the sport long term in your heart of hearts. If that is the case, the truth will prevail as it always does on it's own in the end, an end that we will all help to write. If "together we are stronger" is to remain paramount at the forefront of the future of allstar cheerleading...then the ASGA with all due respect asks you to make decisions TOGETHER so that we can indeed be stronger.Sincerely,Courtney Smith-Pope

 

[Ceacoach]

file:///Users/courtney/Desktop/ASGA%20React%20Report%20copy.pdf

 

[Ceacoach]

ASGA React Report

ASGA Proposed Rules Survey Results​

 

[Ceacoach]

Contact [email protected] for more information

 

[mybabywantstotumble]

wow, what a powerful message Ceacoach. thank you for getting organized and advocating on behalf of my 8 year old daughter and everyone else who loves this sport.

 

[imrichhowboutu]

Few quick questions.
Do we know how many Coach and Owner members there are in the USASF? Just trying to get a perspective on what percentage of people actually had an input to this.

Second question - How many people that are in favor of this rule have actually joined your page and are involved in this movement? Coming from a marketing background, Surveys are a good indicator of what people don't like, but don't often showcase what is great. For everyone 1 person that says something positive in a survey, you usually have up to 10 that are there to express their dissatisfaction. It is the nature of the beast that those who are happy don't feel the need to speak up.

 

[Bystander]

Few quick questions.
Do we know how many Coach and Owner members there are in the USASF? Just trying to get a perspective on what percentage of people actually had an input to this.

Second question - How many people that are in favor of this rule have actually joined your page and are involved in this movement? Coming from a marketing background, Surveys are a good indicator of what people don't like, but don't often showcase what is great. For everyone 1 person that says something positive in a survey, you usually have up to 10 that are there to express their dissatisfaction. It is the nature of the beast that those who are happy don't feel the need to speak up.

Good point! I bet that applies to the survey that was used by the usasf to gather their image doctrine!

 

[12stepCheermom]

Few quick questions.
Do we know how many Coach and Owner members there are in the USASF? Just trying to get a perspective on what percentage of people actually had an input to this.

Second question - How many people that are in favor of this rule have actually joined your page and are involved in this movement? Coming from a marketing background, Surveys are a good indicator of what people don't like, but don't often showcase what is great. For everyone 1 person that says something positive in a survey, you usually have up to 10 that are there to express their dissatisfaction. It is the nature of the beast that those who are happy don't feel the need to speak up.

Statistically speaking (sorry, finishing a dissertation at the moment) for a voluntary open survey like this if you get in the neighborhood of 20-25% you can generally assume the results to be a reliable reflection of the sample as a whole. That's how CNN can successfully "call" a winner from an exit poll with only 3% reporting. I don't know what the total membership is, but an. N=217 is a good number. Outside of the fact it's a voluntary sample rather than a randomized one, it should be fairly valid as well.

 

[kristenthegreat]

Few quick questions.
Do we know how many Coach and Owner members there are in the USASF? Just trying to get a perspective on what percentage of people actually had an input to this.

Second question - How many people that are in favor of this rule have actually joined your page and are involved in this movement? Coming from a marketing background, Surveys are a good indicator of what people don't like, but don't often showcase what is great. For everyone 1 person that says something positive in a survey, you usually have up to 10 that are there to express their dissatisfaction. It is the nature of the beast that those who are happy don't feel the need to speak up.

I would agree in some aspects, but there were a few rules I noticed that people were MORE in favor of (basically mandating skirt/short length, makeup restrictions, and eliminating youth 5 abilities).

 

[TheUltimateFan]

Few quick questions.
Do we know how many Coach and Owner members there are in the USASF? Just trying to get a perspective on what percentage of people actually had an input to this.

Second question - How many people that are in favor of this rule have actually joined your page and are involved in this movement? Coming from a marketing background, Surveys are a good indicator of what people don't like, but don't often showcase what is great. For everyone 1 person that says something positive in a survey, you usually have up to 10 that are there to express their dissatisfaction. It is the nature of the beast that those who are happy don't feel the need to speak up.

Since USASF hasn't shown any great interest in soliciting industry-wide positive (or any) feedback for their imposed rules, this is what they should expect to get. They have the same opportunity A.S.G.A. does to gather, produce and publish contradictory findings. Personally, I doubt they exist to this extent.

 

[imrichhowboutu]

Respondents indicate that they have seen very few injuries resulting from elite-level tumbling. THIS IS COMPLETE BS.

First - Out of the 217 people that responded, how many have athletes that are capable of the elite level tumbling??
Next - it says people reported anywhere from 0-57 injuries. If one person is reporting 57 injuries, that is way too many.

Lastly - If out of 198 programs/owners, the average person reported 3.4 injuries because of elite tumbling, that is A LOT. How many athletes from each program are even attempting this sort of tumbling. At a gym like Cheer Athletics, CEA, World Cup, etc where there are more than 30 kids attempting this type of tumbling that number is still high. 10% of athletes attempting elite-tumbling are getting injured.

I bet that less than 10% of elite gymnasts are injured. I bet less than 10% of any elite pro sport have injuries like this.

 

[viralscorp]

To be fair, the report makes no mention of the nature of the injuries. A large portion of the upper/lower extremity injuries could be broken fingers and toes... they don't all have to be catastrophic or severe. I personally would bet that more than 10% of elite gymnasts have had some injury training elite skills, when we include these more minor types of injuries.

There is also no comparison here to non-elite tumbling. Perhaps the numbers might be similar?

My conclusion is in general, that the information needed to make appropriate decisions doesn't exist. Until we require mandatory injury/incident reporting to a regulatory body, then every survey, poll, or study will have major flaws.

 

[Ceacoach]

I do not know the current stats on USASF gym membership.
The ASGA as of last Wednesday had roughly 20 members. Today the closed group of gym owners and coaches is at 478. 217 of those took this survey. The open group has almost 1600 members... the link to the survey was only available to closed group members.
Elaine Pascale and I spoke yesterday at length, she agreed to bring the document to the attention of the board of directors today on their conference call.
Up to this point, the proposed rule changes were made on "anecdotal evidence". At the very least, the ASGA has provided a platform for coaches to be heard collectively on these issues. Whether or not the board chooses to consider the information is out of our hands.

 

[Rudags]

I too come from a marketing background (I have my degree in business with emphasis in marketing) as well I commit to a full time job in the sales/marketing field. Its no doubt, this survey was not specific enough in certain areas. However, its a START! You can not create a Facebook page, crate a survey, and expect the whole worlds to be ready for it. The survey was JUST posted a few days ago and was asked to be completed for results for a meeting today.

Despite results being skewed a bit - It should at least be a heads up to the USASF that this might have been a better process than the one they chose. At least they got coaches input... and I mean more than just 4 of them. I agree that for every positive on a survey, there are 10 negative. Kind of the mentality of Would you call a restaurant manager when you had phenomenal service? Or would you call them when hair was in your food and your waiter was rude? Working in the cheer world the past several years, I must say, I am lucky enough to have worked with colleagues that liked to give compliments, can I can sure in the hell tell you, I don't get compliments from kids or parents.... And when I do.... I remember every instance.

I think instead of trying to pick out what FLAWS may have been in the survey, we should be supportive someone is even putting something together to present. It seems some gyms parents have drank the USASF kool-aid and seem to fine with how everything went down - or at least that is what I am getting out of the social media publishings of some programs.

 

[viralscorp]

I definitely agree that this survey is a start, and at least it is way more transparent than the USASF and whatever data they might have used. Huge, huge kudos for getting 217 responses and releasing the survey results. I just think that fair criticism of both sides will go a long way in opening our eyes to the data we don't have.