All-Star Confessions Of An International Fierceboarder

[AllstarErin]

Every time I get to see a practice video of world champion teams, I literally note everything the coach says, how they run their practice etc. and then do the same the next time I coach.

 

[mommadonna]

Just googled £30 and its around $48! Ah okay, people seem to have privates all the time in the US, how do you guys afford to have them so often?! Wow lucky you! I'd love to have that! Yes hopefully

At our gym, some of the kids actually go in together on a private lesson. This significantly reduces the cost. My daughter and one of her friends are doing one together this weekend. Instead of paying $30, we pay $15 each and still get lots of great instruction.

 

[a_cheer_leaderxo]

At our gym, some of the kids actually go in together on a private lesson. This significantly reduces the cost. My daughter and one of her friends are doing one together this weekend. Instead of paying $30, we pay $15 each and still get lots of great instruction.

That's such a good idea!

 

[Sharkie]

-i contacted many gymnastic teams nearby to get my cheerleaders in their tumbling classes, unfortunaly nowhere it was possible because to get in the tumblingclasses they needed to do a tryout and you needed at least a BHS to get in. so several joined in their regular classes where they worked on the vault and other equipment, for the tumbling-part they worked the whole year on a roundoff. their roundoffs are close to perfection, but they only learn one pass/year.

-I often hear American coaches complain that the parents are too involved. I wish the parents of the kids I coach would be more involved. the parents here dont understand anything about it, buy their kids uniforms to wear at practise, they dont understand why routines dont have pompons,... get upset when i make a comment their kid is absent too often.

-there are only 4 teams in the country here that do cheerleading with stunts, tumbling. about 10 others call themselves cheerleaders too but only dance with hardly any clothes on.

-i wish we could do more competitions like in the usa. here we have nationals, once a year...because they never compete much, they are so nervous they mess up alot.

-I'm the only coach in my country that got educated before starting (went to some coaches camps and visited some usa-teams to get advice and learn how to teach stunts) and who only coaches the team. all others are girls between 17 and 22 years old, who learned all they know from youtube videos and they are a member of the team. so they coach themselves and their teammates. they also have hardly any knowledge on rules and safety. when i see them do another illegal stunt or a spotter standing on the wrong place, I used to tell them, but they only get angry or call me "jealous because my team doesnt know how to do that stunt"...

-some teams here dont even use the right names for stunts. they give it their own name or translate it. ex. extension: the very high tower....:banghead:

-the gym where we train gives us the leftover gymhours, because the "sportsteams" need to get priority. so we got odd training hours and not half the amount of hours I want.

-I try to teach my team something about the history of cheer and usa-teams too. only when i asked them about their favourite teams, one said: world cup. and another said: thats not a team! thats a championship! she confused it with worlds
the bad thing about it is that they try to compare themselves too much with the usa-teams, so they often feel like if they will never be good enough. i try to make clear to them not to compare with them, because kids in the usa have so many more years of experiance and are likely to get retired from cheer at the age they started.

-difference between usa and my country when it comes to the bring it on-movies. in the usa cheerleaders laugh with it, here they think thats the reality.

 

[kristenthegreat]

the bad thing about it is that they try to compare themselves too much with the usa-teams, so they often feel like if they will never be good enough. i try to make clear to them not to compare with them, because kids in the usa have so many more years of experiance and are likely to get retired from cheer at the age they started.

Have you tried showing them videos of really strong teams in their division? Like if they're a level 3 skill-wise, show them strong level 3/4s as opposed to level 5s? That way they can see a strong team in their reachable skills and the next one up- it shows them what 'perfection' looks like for where they are now, and gives them a place to strive to.

 

[Sharkie]

Have you tried showing them videos of really strong teams in their division? Like if they're a level 3 skill-wise, show them strong level 3/4s as opposed to level 5s? That way they can see a strong team in their reachable skills and the next one up- it shows them what 'perfection' looks like for where they are now, and gives them a place to strive to.

that's such a great idea!! thnx, i will try that. although i know they look up especially to those "famous" teams, at least that way they see not all teams in the USA are like that.

 

[coachbd]

-i contacted many gymnastic teams nearby to get my cheerleaders in their tumbling classes, unfortunaly nowhere it was possible because to get in the tumblingclasses they needed to do a tryout and you needed at least a BHS to get in. so several joined in their regular classes where they worked on the vault and other equipment, for the tumbling-part they worked the whole year on a roundoff. their roundoffs are close to perfection, but they only learn one pass/year.

-I often hear American coaches complain that the parents are too involved. I wish the parents of the kids I coach would be more involved. the parents here dont understand anything about it, buy their kids uniforms to wear at practise, they dont understand why routines dont have pompons,... get upset when i make a comment their kid is absent too often.

-there are only 4 teams in the country here that do cheerleading with stunts, tumbling. about 10 others call themselves cheerleaders too but only dance with hardly any clothes on.

-i wish we could do more competitions like in the usa. here we have nationals, once a year...because they never compete much, they are so nervous they mess up alot.

-I'm the only coach in my country that got educated before starting (went to some coaches camps and visited some usa-teams to get advice and learn how to teach stunts) and who only coaches the team. all others are girls between 17 and 22 years old, who learned all they know from youtube videos and they are a member of the team. so they coach themselves and their teammates. they also have hardly any knowledge on rules and safety. when i see them do another illegal stunt or a spotter standing on the wrong place, I used to tell them, but they only get angry or call me "jealous because my team doesnt know how to do that stunt"...

-some teams here dont even use the right names for stunts. they give it their own name or translate it. ex. extension: the very high tower....:banghead:

-the gym where we train gives us the leftover gymhours, because the "sportsteams" need to get priority. so we got odd training hours and not half the amount of hours I want.

-I try to teach my team something about the history of cheer and usa-teams too. only when i asked them about their favourite teams, one said: world cup. and another said: thats not a team! thats a championship! she confused it with worlds
the bad thing about it is that they try to compare themselves too much with the usa-teams, so they often feel like if they will never be good enough. i try to make clear to them not to compare with them, because kids in the usa have so many more years of experiance and are likely to get retired from cheer at the age they started.

-difference between usa and my country when it comes to the bring it on-movies. in the usa cheerleaders laugh with it, here they think thats the reality.

Oh my goodness, that sounds crazy, what country are you from?

 

[Aussiekat]

Oh my goodness, that sounds crazy, what country are you from?

She's from Belgium and brings chocolate to share at worlds! Absolute sweetheart. Hopefully this year I find you early enough to get some Sharkie

Absolutely dying at "the very high tower" lol!

 

[Sharkie]

BowCat I'm so sorry but I wont be at worlds this year I started college in september and ill be doing my internships in april + i quit my job so i need to watch my expenses for a while...boohooo! anyway, I'll make it up to you by sending you a package from belgium as soon as the aussie weather is a bit less hot, otherwise it will arrive all melted

Belgium indeed is crazy! the sport is just coming up here, so it's normal things are not going that well yet. Dont get me wrong, I dont look down on those other coaches here, it's hard to get all the right info and you need to start somewhere. But it's frustrating sometimes how some seem to think they already know all, while they obviously dont and do one illegal stunt after the other and dont loose points because the national championship is not very strict on following the rules.

 

[nataliamxc]

Okay first of all I'm happy I found this thread haha it's great and I relate to a lot of things with you guys!!
I live in Mexico and from what I've been reading cheer here is kinda more advanced than in other countries, but it's nowhere close to us cheer; here high school cheer and all star a pretty much mixed up, they're considered the same thing.
When I first started cheerleading it was so hard trying to explain that I was on an all star team that didn't "cheer" for anyone but now it's more common to see all star teams so normal people understand it more.
I had the best coaches ever while I was a cheerleader, they were like the ones that started the sport in my small town; now they're all split and they have other teams.
I quitted cheerleading two years ago and I regret it so much!!
Here levels and age divisions are so weird hahaha for example when I was 12 I was on a open team with people that were in college.
For me it's normal to see teams with awesome level 5/6 stunting but level 3 tumbling, but I think it has been improving with the years.
One thing I hate is when teams copy US teams haha like once I saw a weird copy of CA's claw hahaha lol.
Also I hate when they think they're the best team in the world and they didn't even placed for nationals (here you have to do regionals and place in the top 3 for some competitions) like really??
Aggh I once had a coach that didn't knew a thing about cheerleading and she was the worst coach ever.

Okay that's a lot I'm sorry hahaha





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[Katryyyn]

I'm from Finland and I hate it in my country that if you aren't on a national winning-team, you get to compete only 1-3 times a year. If you aren't good at cheerleading, you don't get to compete, because there are no levels. Only mini, junior and senior. And senior is basically level 6, so if you want to continue cheerleading after you turn 15, you must to start doing those level 6 pyramids. When I was a junior, i loved basket tosses, especially kick-fulls and kick-doubles. No I don't get to do those
Also I hate that we don't have a spring floor so tumbling is the weakness of every team. Teams barely have full squad BHS but they do level 6 stunting. But luckily things are changing and in 5-10 years spring floors should be common in Europe

 

[BamaCheerGuy]

I'm from Finland and I hate it in my country that if you aren't on a national winning-team, you get to compete only 1-3 times a year. If you aren't good at cheerleading, you don't get to compete, because there are no levels. Only mini, junior and senior. And senior is basically level 6, so if you want to continue cheerleading after you turn 15, you must to start doing those level 6 pyramids. When I was a junior, i loved basket tosses, especially kick-fulls and kick-doubles. No I don't get to do those
Also I hate that we don't have a spring floor so tumbling is the weakness of every team. Teams barely have full squad BHS but they do level 6 stunting. But luckily things are changing and in 5-10 years spring floors should be common in Europe

We have hosted two girls from Germany. I also know that Jamfest has the Jamfest Europe event. Four years ago in Munich, it was mostly gymnastics, now I know for a fact that there are at least 25 cheer gyms in Germany. It is growing. I am sorry you are having problems, it s growing though because of athletes like you! I hope you find a great gym!


This post is verified by Chad Mulkey!

 

[Katryyyn]

We have hosted two girls from Germany. I also know that Jamfest has the Jamfest Europe event. Four years ago in Munich, it was mostly gymnastics, now I know for a fact that there are at least 25 cheer gyms in Germany. It is growing. I am sorry you are having problems, it s growing though because of athletes like you! I hope you find a great gym!


This post is verified by Chad Mulkey!

I know cheerleading isn't that big here, so if you live in x-city, you go to the gym in the x-city. Only our capital city has 3 gyms to choose from, but I don't live even near there so I'm stuck in our mediocre gym. But yes, we've had past years some dramatic rule-changes, so anything is possible in the future I hope someday Finland can put out All-Star-type teams!

 

[CEAisstronger]

If it helps... I'm American and we played 20 questions today during practices once my group finished the activity. Some girls don't even know who Cheer Extreme is.... We live a whopping 20-30 minutes away from it.
So even American Cheerleaders don't know their stuff


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[louxlouxlou]

I regret not learning more about All-Star cheer - and joining a gym - before I put on so much weight and before I got badly injured. Now I wouldn't be able - or allowed to do any tumbling or jumps haha!
I do find the time zone/time differences really annoying and the fact that because my parents don't understand cheerleading and I don't have a job it means that I can't get the live feed of Worlds/Majors/anything.
Also as a general thing it annoys me that to download cheer music I have to go from my current laptop, send it to my mums laptop, convert it to iPod then put it on my iPod with my mum's laptop. But that's a whole different thing