All-Star Discussion - Cheer Perfection Tlc

[rockymountainthigh]

Here's a non-popular opinion....

I feel horrible for the girl with the doctors appointment. A little editing there would've been appropriate rather than putting his comments on blast for the entire world to hear. That was TLCs fault. I also think kids being overweight is more a parental issue than a kids if it's not directly medically related (go ahead and flame for that too) kids only eat what they're parents stock from the store, make for dinner and restaurants they choose. If a family has an unhealthy lifestyle they'll teach it to their kids. That's not the kids fault.

But...

The doctor is right. Tumbling is high impact and the higher you go the more body control, muscle and flexibility it takes to do it correctly and safely. If she wants to progress upward, without injury, and with proper technique she should also work on proper nutrition and a medically approved workout program to get in shape....

...and her mother should HELP her, not blow off his comments and offer her candy an hour after a licensed medical professional just told her it would be helpful if she lost some weight. See the above about parental influence in childhood obesity.

Flame away, I stand by what I said.

I COMPLETELY AGREE! I was about to post exactly this haha but I knew I would get flack for it

 

[rockymountainthigh]

I think I figured out why this really bothers me...The name of this show is "Cheer Perfection" not "Cheer Moms" or "Cheer kids & Pom Pom's". It's name implies a serious show about competitive cheer. Go and view Patty Ann form CJA in this cheer show. This is a show that promotes the passion and dedication that was the reason we all fell in love with cheer to begin with! Is it perfect? No but it is something that would make me proud to say I am a competitive cheerleader.
episode 1

episode 2

This is a show that shows a coach with passion. She yells at her kids and not ONCE did I think she was being disrespectful or uncaring. I am willing to bet she is just as passionate about her lower levels too. If we want to be taken seriously as a sport this the image we want to project. One that shows kids and coaches with passion. A show that clearly states how hard these children work and what great athletes they really are.
If they want to market "Cheer Perfection" as a fluffy narrow view of Cheer Time Revolution of Arkansas maybe I can accept that. Call it "Tiny Cheer and Pom Pom's" or "Crazy Cheer Mom's from Arkansas" or any other name that infers it is a kitschy contrived reality show. NOT "Cheer Perfection" because there is nothing perfect about that show.

It's called Cheer Perfection because Alisha also runs a pageant program called Perfection Studios (previously featured on Toddlers & Tiaras) and a lot of her pageant kids from Perfection Studios also cheer at CTR, hence the name Cheer Perfection.

 

[CheerBank]

It's called Cheer Perfection because Alisha also runs a pageant program called Perfection Studios (previously featured on Toddlers & Tiaras) and a lot of her pageant kids from Perfection Studios also cheer at CTR, hence the name Cheer Perfection.

It should be called "Pageant Moms Do Cheer". I think that would clear up any confusion about this whole thing once and for all.

 

[newcheerdad]

I know this will sound a little cliche or derogatory but I am from NJ and CJA is in NJ. The way she talked and some of the language used is kind of a cultural thing. Bitches is not a common word used in cheerleading but I could definitely see nobody batting an eyelash here in NJ. I also don't imagine for one second that she would use language like that with a youth or junior team. I guarantee you not one parent on that team gasped one tiny little bit. I was much more appalled when coach perfection swatted that girl in the head and called her a name or shoved a girl off her head and told her to pay attention.

Having said all that I can definitely see how people from the south would view that kind of language. My daughter is going to college in the deep south and it might as well be a different country. Everything is slower and sweeter a lot like that yummy tea.

My daughter and I were waiting in line to pay for something and the cashier was having this lovely neighborly conversation with the person in front of us. After what felt like forever my daughter turned to me and said "I guess people in the south like there ice cream melted?" The two having the conversation just stopped with their mouths in this shape . Looking at the two woman I said in my best east coast accent accent "Well bless her heart...". My daughter and I cracked up laughing...they looked less amused.

Things are just much faster paced and no nonsense in the east.

I've lived on the East Coast, so you're not saying anything I totally disagree with. People in that part of the country are a lot more direct. I don't even mind the yelling so much. It's just that I just think when you're an adult dealing with kids, using words like "bitches" isn't appropriate.

But again, the point was more that for whatever complaints I have about Patty Anne, they pale in comparison to what I saw on that TLC show. I'm not necessarily saying that it's all the coaches or parents' fault, because you might not see everything in context. But what was presented was completely off-putting.

 

[chyeeaaa69]

A few things that I found interesting, for whatever reason I decided to think about the show again today:
- the amount of Tweets I've seen from other gym members who are downright embarrassed of the show is astounding. I feel bad for these kids, I honestly do.
- it's probably been brought up, but the bigger girl who had to go to the doctor and everything, it said from the beginning she was too old to be on youth, so why did they make it seem like that's the team she'll be trying out for.
- this show is choosing to highlight the bad cheer when they do show cheer. The owner's daughter is an incredible athlete for her age, regardless of the tumbling bust. That one girl, I believe her name was Torann, another great athlete, doing layouts, 1/2 twists, and good jumps if I remember correctly from one montage, but those girls are only shown if something goes wrong. Just a thought I had, but something I also don't understand. If you wanna show the drama, show the drama, but a big difference between this and Dance Moms is that Dance Moms praises the good and frowns upon the bad and the mistakes (not ALL the time, but often).

 

[ChoreographyInTheBack]

Everyone says the "Perfection" part of the title is because of the pageant aspect... Am I the only person who thought the title was a play on words? "Sheer Perfection"..

 

[newcheerdad]

A few things that I found interesting, for whatever reason I decided to think about the show again today:
- the amount of Tweets I've seen from other gym members who are downright embarrassed of the show is astounding. I feel bad for these kids, I honestly do.
- it's probably been brought up, but the bigger girl who had to go to the doctor and everything, it said from the beginning she was too old to be on youth, so why did they make it seem like that's the team she'll be trying out for.
- this show is choosing to highlight the bad cheer when they do show cheer. The owner's daughter is an incredible athlete for her age, regardless of the tumbling bust. That one girl, I believe her name was Torann, another great athlete, doing layouts, 1/2 twists, and good jumps if I remember correctly from one montage, but those girls are only shown if something goes wrong. Just a thought I had, but something I also don't understand. If you wanna show the drama, show the drama, but a big difference between this and Dance Moms is that Dance Moms praises the good and frowns upon the bad and the mistakes (not ALL the time, but often).

That's one of the biggest problems with the show. Dance Moms has moments where you actually like the parents and think their desire for their kids to succeed is justified. This show felt so relentlessly negative, so either this is one of the least positive gyms on earth or the show was edited to make it look that way.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ems]

I'm afraid I'm going to step on some toes here, so let me start off by saying I liked Brooke the most out of anyone on the show. She's such a sweet girl!

But (and you knew it was coming) she should not be moved on to level three. Maybe she is hiding some secret skills we don't know about, but a forward roll for standing tumbling? I'm pretty much in the same boat, recovering from an injury, and I have to face the harsh reality of not being on the teams I want to be on because my skill level just isn't there. Maybe she's too young to deal with a cold dose of reality. However, if moved up to higher level teams, she may feel like the worst on the team, and that's not a fun feeling. I dunno. It may make her happy now, but in the long run there can be repercussions. Are they always going to put her on the team she wants to be on to boost her confidence? I'm conflicted.

 

[yojaehs]

I HOPE and PRAY MOST of the parents/coaches on this board are in the minority but I will say I thought this show portrayed the MAJORITY of the cheer world.
- Coaching from the sidelines (or maybe on the ride home)
- Jealousy from one parent to another because of their childs different talent
- Sandbagging, double/triple teaming
- Coaches inappropriate relationships with parents
I hate that this show is showing cheer in a negative light, however I HOPE and PRAY that those that see these negative parts look at themselves.

Scripted? ABSOLUTELY
The only MAJOR problem I had with the "coaching" was when the girl was in the middle of a backwalkover and was THROWN to the ground and told "get up". Completely inappropriate and unprofessional.
As much as I am not a fan of having a sucker in your mouth when spotting I will say this - he spotted the girl several times on the cheese mat and SOME progression was made. Should she have been attempting it on the floor? ABSOLUTELY NOT, BUT I could see the conversation going like this btw the girl and the coach (spotter)
Kid - "I need you there" Coach - "I'm going to be there but I'm not touching you, this is YOUR try-out, I'm not going to spot you"
Should he have known better - YES, but should she/mom/head coach have known better, YES. I've seen A LOT of kids thrown their "try-out" skills that I never see the rest of the season. So to ASSUME it was possible for her isn't that unrealistic.

I didn't think the show was near as bad as the twitter/fierceboard world is making it out to be. But then again I didn't have high expectations to begin with. Take it for what it's worth - a show about a cheer on the same channel as pageants, dance and is all about drama, what did you really expect?

 

[Jersey Cheer Mom]

For the same reason we thought that the first gym we were a part of (and the conversation in my current program was...OMG it's just like the gym we came from!!! (enter scary "the shining" music here)

I had no idea cheersport nationals existed and were a quick 4 hour drive. Never heard of NCA or UCA. I knew there was a thing called "worlds" but never saw a video and had no idea when it was held. I had never even seen a video of Cali, top gun, cheer athletics because not only did I not know they existed, I'd never even heard their names. Spirit of hope is right here in Charlotte and we didn't know that local, national, 2-day competition existed. The biggest thing we ever went to was jamfest nationals in either gatlinburg or Richmond. We did us finals one year and got killed...we were absolutely destroyed by the pythons, cheer savannah and c4 longhorns at jamfest in our last year. But our coach claimed our placements at those big competitions were all political and since we had zero understanding of the industry we believed her.

When we came to aviator....wow. What an education did we get? we'd always finished last in the cheersport regionals and I always HATED cheersport because we'd do well at all the other backyard competitions we went to I bought the "cheersport doesn't like us" excuse.

Cheersport is about CLEAN and DEDUCTIONS. NOW that aviator introduced me to what competitive cheer actually is....it makes perfect sense and nationals are my absolute favorite competition. I found an old DVD of my daughters mini 1 her first year and popped it in just a few weeks ago. We watched with our jaws on the floor. Omg is was the poster routine for the craptastic Allstars. The choreography was terrible and the execution was embarrassing...and that routine won jamfest in Richmond over 9 teams....I shudder to think what they looked like. How I ever thought that was amazing, I'll never know.

So I can totally see how they think they're the elite in the industry. We were in a very similar place and were just completely uneducated. I saw sooooo much of the same thing it was like a flashback to our first three years....even their "cheer" is similar in style and language.

Wow! Are you from Jersey? We had the same experience at our old gym. I am amazed at how many parents have similar experiences as well!! Owners like this tend to load their schedules with small competitions - in our case we went to a lot of local high school (rec) competitions where we were the only gym in the all star division - or, if there was another all star team, they were from an upstart all star program. Of course, we thought we were amazing. The entire high school gymnasium would roar for our teams because compared to no one or an inexperienced team, we are truly spectacular!! We went to nationals far, far, far away, not the big ones, sort of local nationals for teams in those states. When we did go against comparable teams, and lost, there was always one reason: WE WERE ROBBED! Judges didn't like us, they were jealous - basically insert any excuse that didn't include the routine was amazing for local high school comps, but rather ordinary for all star teams!

Just like you, I had no idea about NCA, UCA, Worlds, etc. I remember seeing all star cheer on ESPN and thought that was the college level - didn't realize it was Worlds - never saw F5, Top Gun, World Cup, ACE, CEA, Cheer Athletics, Cali, etc. Didn't even know who they were. Didn't know what to look for in a routine and basically thought if the flyer didn't fall, you won! Well, luckily a situation arose that led me to our current gym! Around the same time, a mom told me about fierceboard and that's where I began to educate myself on the sport. What people don't realize is if you are stuck on one of these teams, you are in a bubble! You don't talk or speak to other teams because you are brainwashed to believe they are your competition. You think they are jealous of you and they start to tremble when you enter the gym. (Sad!!) Glad I never felt that way. I watched the competitions and, although we want our team to be successful, I clapped for other teams too and loved the effort the kids put forth on the mat!

We love our gym. We are small, but we go against the big boys and girls - which to me is an honor! Sometimes they win, sometimes we win. One thing I have noticed is that when you are from a more respectable gym, you find that the other gyms are rooting for you too! That's awesome! When I see the kids clapping for other teams, I love it!! Our first comp of the season who was there? World Cup! I had to compose myself because I thought I was gonna lose it when the Shooting Stars walked out! What?!! The very first youtbe video of a cheer routine I watched was the Shooting Stars, not sure which year it was but it was from a Worlds performance and at the end I was actually crying. (Don't laugh!) So now we get to see World Cup, NJSE, SJS, Twisters, Marlins, etc. at our comps. We were at the Jamfest Super Nationals and watched the Majors. OMG! F5 - I videotaped them and all you hear is me and the girl next to me screaming like crazy, Top Gun, ACE, I couldn't believe it! Took my CP to Worlds this year to cheer on our two teams and of course watch the best of the best. Funny, last year I didn't know anything about Worlds and this year we were there. I still have soooooo much to learn, i.e. I hear people talking how Top Gun Large Coed is slipping and I love their routine from this past year so much - it's crazy! But I did go back and look at their 2008 and 2010 routines. I think I judge more on how many goosebumps I get, because when they are on that level, I can't imagine how hard it is to judge them.

Well, just wanted to share that we had a similar experience. Glad we both moved on and are getting the real experience!

 

[CheerBank]

12stepCheermom Jersey Cheer Mom Glad to see I am not alone either! It's so funny how once others start talking about their experiences how many similarities there are amongst so many of these gyms. When my cp was new to cheer, we knew nothing about anything. My cp was on a level 2, but we thought our sr limited/restricted coed level 5 team was the tea - never mind that when they actually competed against another team they never won and usually came in last, it was never their fault! You do get brainwashed into thinking what you have is amazing, and until you see what true level 5 teams look like (or true level 3 or level 4 teams even,) you start to wonder why your level 5 team has maybe 4 fulls and they think they are robbed when they do not come close to placing. And this gym is still like that. They have even competed at Worlds with illegal athletes.
While we are not at a big name gym now, we are at a better gym for us that knows who they are and where they stand in cheer world. They hope to at some point in the future have teams which are able to get bids for Worlds, but right now they are focused on running and growing a solid program with integrity, concentrating on developing the skills needed to have solid teams at each level to take to more competitive competitions. And these kids look to the bigger gyms and well known teams with respect as it gives them something to aspire to be like, and goals for them to pursue.
And sorry to continue the derailment of the Cheer Perfection thread....

 

[Jersey Cheer Mom]

12stepCheermom Jersey Cheer Mom Glad to see I am not alone either! It's so funny how once others start talking about their experiences how many similarities there are amongst so many of these gyms. When my cp was new to cheer, we knew nothing about anything. My cp was on a level 2, but we thought our sr limited/restricted coed level 5 team was the tea - never mind that when they actually competed against another team they never won and usually came in last, it was never their fault! You do get brainwashed into thinking what you have is amazing, and until you see what true level 5 teams look like (or true level 3 or level 4 teams even,) you start to wonder why your level 5 team has maybe 4 fulls and they think they are robbed when they do not come close to placing. And this gym is still like that. They have even competed at Worlds with illegal athletes.
While we are not at a big name gym now, we are at a better gym for us that knows who they are and where they stand in cheer world. They hope to at some point in the future have teams which are able to get bids for Worlds, but right now they are focused on running and growing a solid program with integrity, concentrating on developing the skills needed to have solid teams at each level to take to more competitive competitions. And these kids look to the bigger gyms and well known teams with respect as it gives them something to aspire to be like, and goals for them to pursue.
And sorry to continue the derailment of the Cheer Perfection thread....

Ha!! I love it!! It was the same thing with us - Sr. Limited/Restricted Coed Level 5 with 4 fulls - and yes, honey, we thought that was the Tea!!! Amazing! We were at a national and Brandon All Stars and Orlando All Stars (of course I didn't know who there were at the time either) were there, I guarantee you my jaw hung from my face for hours after I watched the tumbling sequences! I remember saying to myself - "What the Hell?" All I could think of was Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. That's was at the end of our season and I knew something was very, very wrong! There should be a recovery group!! Well, I never post anything, so I hope we are not in trouble for going off course. But I just had to share. Good luck!!!

 

[12stepCheermom]

Ha!! I love it!! It was the same thing with us - Sr. Limited/Restricted Coed Level 5 with 4 fulls - and yes, honey, we thought that was the Tea!!! Amazing! We were at a national and Brandon All Stars and Orlando All Stars (of course I didn't know who there were at the time either) were there, I guarantee you my jaw hung from my face for hours after I watched the tumbling sequences! I remember saying to myself - "What the Hell?" All I could think of was Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. That's was at the end of our season and I knew something was very, very wrong! There should be a recovery group!! Well, I never post anything, so I hope we are not in trouble for going off course. But I just had to share. Good luck!!!

I don't think it is off course. I think this discussion answers the questions that a lot of people have over "how" certain programs can really have an alternate reality of how "good" they really are. It's from gyms like the ones were all describing that do a great job of setting up their competition schedule in a bubble so the people that are with them don't really see the real world and on top of that OWN the world they're in. I'm not saying CTR is that way, I don't know their schedule and haven't seen them or know their background to know if that's the case, but especially in my case (and apparently yours...and by the way your and my original gyms are clearly clones of each other) it makes sense to me how a parent can have such a distorted reality.

It took multiple seasons to get over that with aviator. There were teams we'd see with the first gym that as soon as I stalked the competition before a competition I said...well, if we hit and they fall we might make it! There were a few gyms that stuck out as being... "oh dear god, such and such is coming...."

When we got to aviator I had the same heart failure when I saw those same gyms. Then realized after we left....we'd placed 2-4 slots higher than them. Even now I don't "fear" anyone, I just have a healthy respect for the teams that we see. Brandon jr 4 beasted everyone at cheersport including us. When they finished, we just shook our heads, chuckled, clapped for them and said, enjoy the jackets girls you totally just earned them. And they had.

My old gym, the owner herself would've killed us herself if she ever saw us clap for the "enemy." now I'm sortof excited to be counted among those people.

 

[CheerBank]

I don't think it is off course. I think this discussion answers the questions that a lot of people have over "how" certain programs can really have an alternate reality of how "good" they really are. It's from gyms like the ones were all describing that do a great job of setting up their competition schedule in a bubble so the people that are with them don't really see the real world and on top of that OWN the world they're in. I'm not saying CTR is that way, I don't know their schedule and haven't seen them or know their background to know if that's the case, but especially in my case (and apparently yours...and by the way your and my original gyms are clearly clones of each other) it makes sense to me how a parent can have such a distorted reality.

It took multiple seasons to get over that with aviator. There were teams we'd see with the first gym that as soon as I stalked the competition before a competition I said...well, if we hit and they fall we might make it! There were a few gyms that stuck out as being... "oh dear god, such and such is coming...."

When we got to aviator I had the same heart failure when I saw those same gyms. Then realized after we left....we'd placed 2-4 slots higher than them. Even now I don't "fear" anyone, I just have a healthy respect for the teams that we see. Brandon jr 4 beasted everyone at cheersport including us. When they finished, we just shook our heads, chuckled, clapped for them and said, enjoy the jackets girls you totally just earned them. And they had.

My old gym, the owner herself would've killed us herself if she ever saw us clap for the "enemy." now I'm sortof excited to be counted among those people.

Triple shimmys for bringing this thread back on track. Think the moms at CTR know of elite gyms and comps? This show and the response from the cheer world may actually open their eyes to it if they do not know already.

 

[newcheerdad]

I don't think it is off course. I think this discussion answers the questions that a lot of people have over "how" certain programs can really have an alternate reality of how "good" they really are. It's from gyms like the ones were all describing that do a great job of setting up their competition schedule in a bubble so the people that are with them don't really see the real world and on top of that OWN the world they're in. I'm not saying CTR is that way, I don't know their schedule and haven't seen them or know their background to know if that's the case, but especially in my case (and apparently yours...and by the way your and my original gyms are clearly clones of each other) it makes sense to me how a parent can have such a distorted reality.

It took multiple seasons to get over that with aviator. There were teams we'd see with the first gym that as soon as I stalked the competition before a competition I said...well, if we hit and they fall we might make it! There were a few gyms that stuck out as being... "oh dear god, such and such is coming...."

When we got to aviator I had the same heart failure when I saw those same gyms. Then realized after we left....we'd placed 2-4 slots higher than them. Even now I don't "fear" anyone, I just have a healthy respect for the teams that we see. Brandon jr 4 beasted everyone at cheersport including us. When they finished, we just shook our heads, chuckled, clapped for them and said, enjoy the jackets girls you totally just earned them. And they had.

My old gym, the owner herself would've killed us herself if she ever saw us clap for the "enemy." now I'm sortof excited to be counted among those people.

I can relate to a certain extent - my daughter's first year of cheer was on a mini 1 team that did all local competitions. Because of the nature of our program being the "big fish" in our area, we tend to do very well at these comps. The next year she moved up to mini 2 and we did a lot more regional and national comps, and it was an eye opener. Our best teams didn't win every time out, and at the biggest competitions were as likely to be in the middle of the pack than near the top.

Now mix in the fierce board and other sites where you can see the "best of the best", and you quickly realize that as good as your gym is, you're not elite. At least not yet. But honestly, I'd rather have our teams go up against the best and lose than win every time out against weaker competition.