All-Star Changing Divisions For 1 Competition

[2yearcheermom]

How often does a it occur that a "gym" will change their division (without changing athletes) for 1 competition? Then the next competition (national) they are back to their correct and original division. Example GYM B's team all year has been competitng as JCoed5, then go to Restricted 5 for one competiton? Then back to JCoed 5 for the rest of the season?

I'm still new to this whole cheer thing... please don't hurt me.. My intentions are honorable, just curious.

On a seperate note: Isn't there age restrictions on Senior Restricted 5?

 

[garretttt]

Because theyre probably avoiding competition......

 

[Zinger_bebe]

It happens...I haven't heard of this as much as a team dropping a level. Some teams actually will compete at different levels throughout the season, i.e. drop a level at a larger competition to secure a win (it's pretty controversial and there's lots of threads on this). Sometimes teams start the season at one level and decide they are pushing themselves too hard and will drop down to a more comfortable level.

For senior restricted 5 the minimum age is 10.

 

[viralscorp]

Sometimes a team goes up an age group to ensure competition - I have seen a J4 compete as S4 because otherwise they had no other teams in their division.

 

[kristenthegreat]

Common reasons are:
*To avoid/seek competition- If there's nobody in their division, they might go up or down to have competition. Or if they're afraid to lose, they might change to be in a division by themselves. If there's nobody in EITHER division, a team might try a different level than they normally would (Junior 2 to Junior 3) just to push the kids.

Now, some teams tend to be a strong X level but a weak Y, so for local comps with no other teams, they might try for Y for the experience, but the bigger nationals be X. Where this gets into a tricky situation is: where is the line for 'competitive?' IMO- if your routine is hit and you could get top 5 at one of the major 4 nationals, you should NOT be allowed to compete down. That was a bit of an issue for a few teams last year..

*Team isn't gelling: if the team dynamic is off, sometimes they'll switch a level for a comp to get them into a better groove.

Now, in that instance in particular, JC5 isn't always the most populated of divisions. Many of those teams compete on their own most of the season minus SuperNats, NCA, UCA, Cheersport, etc (unless you're in Texas ), whereas SR5 tends to be more populated. As long as the ages match up right, it's not always THAT much of a difference, particularly if the team doesn't have strong tumbling.

 

[cheerfan27]

Common reasons are:
*To avoid/seek competition- If there's nobody in their division, they might go up or down to have competition. Or if they're afraid to lose, they might change to be in a division by themselves. If there's nobody in EITHER division, a team might try a different level than they normally would (Junior 2 to Junior 3) just to push the kids.

Now, some teams tend to be a strong X level but a weak Y, so for local comps with no other teams, they might try for Y for the experience, but the bigger nationals be X. Where this gets into a tricky situation is: where is the line for 'competitive?' IMO- if your routine is hit and you could get top 5 at one of the major 4 nationals, you should NOT be allowed to compete down. That was a bit of an issue for a few teams last year..

*Team isn't gelling: if the team dynamic is off, sometimes they'll switch a level for a comp to get them into a better groove.

Now, in that instance in particular, JC5 isn't always the most populated of divisions. Many of those teams compete on their own most of the season minus SuperNats, NCA, UCA, Cheersport, etc (unless you're in Texas ), whereas SR5 tends to be more populated. As long as the ages match up right, it's not always THAT much of a difference, particularly if the team doesn't have strong tumbling.

I think it's fine to change divisions if you really need to skill wise but stay there. I think Legends (i may be wrong) competed level 4 at NCA instead of RE 5. This was not the case for this Jr 5COED. I don't thinnk they have won a competition this season since always up against Green, who is absolutely amazing. I'm sure they are looking ahead to Dallas and know they are beat before they get there. Do the work, figure out what's not working and fix it. I think it's unfair to the restricted teams to compete against a level 5 team and unfair to the athletes to have to switch divisions just to win. I know life is unfair but given the history of this gym they are better than this.

 

[yojaehs]

I've never done this but I've heard of coaches telling their teams that if they don't step it up they will drop divisions. Once this happens team gets motivated to step it up. Just throwing this out there bc the "conspiracy" theories tend to run wild.

 

[CoachTamara]

I've never done this but I've heard of coaches telling their teams that if they don't step it up they will drop divisions. Once this happens team gets motivated to step it up. Just throwing this out there bc the "conspiracy" theories tend to run wild.

I've said this before and trust me, it works wonders.

 

[mstealtoyou]

Teams might do this when an injury occurs and their replacement is too old for the Jr division.

 

[yojaehs]

Don't get me wrong, I've seen teams run from competition, I've seen teams sandbag but I've seen an equal amount drop bc of lessons to be taught. Just wanted to curb the enthusiasm of the conspiracy theories.

 

[KDCheerMom]

kristenthegreat Thanks I always learn so much from you.

 

[tdittmar]

Teams might do this when an injury occurs and their replacement is too old for the Jr division.

This happened to cp's old team this season. They had several injuries and had to add sr aged girls to fill in so they competed s4 instead of j4. I could see how it would bother people more if it went the other way around though.

 

[AllyCat]

I've seen jr. Going sr. And seen teams that are sr.3, and sr.4 and they are two teams but the lvl 3 team is basically made up as the same athletes as the lvl 4 team but 2 different routines the athleats r only slightly different... Competed against a team that was lvl 5 and dropped to 4 because they thought try could beat us... If my memory serves me right I placed 1st and they 3rd.

 

[MaineStar234]

One year my senior 4.2 went senior 3 for one competition. There was no one to compete against in 4.2 but there was to be another team in senior 3 and it gave the girls on the team that did have tucks a chance to compete them once in the season. Sadly the senior 3 team then dropped out so we competed against no one still, but we still had fun changing up the routine a little bit for one weekend!

 

[alexamarysouza]

Many eons ago, I was on a Junior 2 team, and we were actually pretty good. There was a small gym that we saw at one of our first competitions, and they had no teams in our division. We saw them at the next few competitions and noticed they didn't have a Junior 4...they had a Junior 2. Our coaches were completely open about it and told us that they talked to the other gym's coaches and they confessed that their J4 just wasn't cutting it...so they dropped to level 2...needless to say, they were at every competition we were at for the rest of the season, and we always ended in second place. Like, if you can't handle a level, drop down a level. But if you have to drop down two levels?...you're either way out of your league in the original level, or just out to get a team because you know you can beat them.
sandbagging at it's finest. end rant.
But I have heard of teams dropping a level when they didn't have competitors in their division, or raising a level to see how a team did. I'm pretty sure CAC let a few teams go up a level for one competition last season.