How To Beat A Team That Can Out Tumble You

[Joanie]

I'm a coach for a competitive team of 12, which is the max we can use in our division. We compete in about a week for a chance to advance to our National competition, and we are only up against one team. (Phew.) Needless to say, me and my girls are EXTREMELY competitive and want to win. This would be their first big victory of the season, due to who this team is.

Unfortunately, they posted a video of their routine on the internet and they are going to slaughter us in the tumbling department. 3 tucks against 7. All 7 of theirs are solid, and one of our 3 is shaky. Only 25% of your team needs to tumble to qualify for highest points, but we are barely scrapping the bottom. They will easily top us by 5-6 points in that category, and in our division, that's a pretty significant gap.

The other team is sloppy, I will say, but the tumbling just blows us out of the water. We are evenly matched with stunts. Dare I say it, our choreography is a little more interesting.

So I guess the big question is, is there anything I can do to help offset the power house tumbling? Does clean really beat difficulty, even when it's by this much?

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Put out an incredibly clean routine that is packed with energy, and you have a chance. It's really hard to say without knowing what score sheet you're on, but execution reigns supreme on many score sheets.

 

[cheermomforever]

Every little thing will matter, energy and more energy, tightness, and just over all performance!

 

[Tosh]

Master your cheer and hit.....with deductions flying around, you do not want to take that chance. even with a shaky tuck; make it a BHS, you will get a deduct if the tuck touched down. There are lots of points to gain if you can get your cheer score at the top. Good luck!

 

[Pebbles49]

Well, I really do not know enough about your scoresheet that your team will be judged on, but only based on the content of your message-it sounds to me that your team should go down a level and concentrate on hitting and max out the scoresheet in every area, as opposed to creating stress for your team like this...Having 2 solid tucks on a full squad does not sound good and I bet the person with the shaky tuck is probably not competition ready to compete this element, but is being rushed to progress quickly instead of perfecting all the skills before the tuck...

I think you should think less about beating a team and more about developing a team that can win on their terms and without all the anxiety that goes into winning like this or perhaps, getting LUCKY! You still have a whole season ahead of you to compete, so level down this year and think of the long terms and take your time when building your team for the next year... Btw, if your team does make it to National, will they be prepare to compete against those competitors and win at this level?...JMO

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Well, I really do not know enough about your scoresheet that your team will be judged on, but only based on the content of your message-it sounds to me that your team should go down a level and concentrate on hitting and max out the scoresheet in every area, as opposed to creating stress for your team like this...Having 2 solid tucks on a full squad does not sound good and I bet the person with the shaky tuck is probably not competition ready to compete this element, but is being rushed to progress quickly instead of perfecting all the skills before the tuck...

I think you should think less about beating a team and more about developing a team that can win on their terms and without all the anxiety that goes into winning like this or perhaps, getting LUCKY! You still have a whole season ahead of you to compete, so level down this year and think of the long terms and take your time when building your team for the next year... Btw, if your team does make it to National, will they be prepare to compete against those competitors and win at this level?...JMO

Very good advice, but I think this is HS cheer. Unfortunately there aren't levels in most HS cheerleading.

 

[WinstonsGirl]

Be perfect. My tiny team last year routinely beat larger teams with harder skills cos we were super clean. Our easier clean skills beat their harder, messier skills every time. I also second maybe bumping your tucks to BHS, to give you a higher number of people doing a cleaner skill, especially the sketchy one. Better to have a clean BHS over a bad tuck that doesn't hit

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

^^^^Yes.

You need to be CLEANER than them. At pretty much everything.

 

[CheerLAW]

Be clean. Flyers need to be really tight - stunts may be equal but very little bobble will make a difference. Bases and backs need to know they really have to fight to keep the stunt up. Energy from everyone. Most of all have fun! They just need to go into it knowing they have to do their best in every aspect.

 

[abbycurtisxoxo]

Changing around your opening to be clean but showy will deffinently make the judges pay attention and separate you from them on top of maybe stepping up some of your stunts. With 12 people make sure you max out these stunt groups most of the time but have a section when're theres two advanced groups doing something better. also, even with 3 tumblers you could have a tumbling section with a toss going on

 

[rrhhiannon]

My high school team was strictly competitive (no sideline at all) and we were technically a level 4 team. We won a lot. My grade 11 year we won every competition except for 1 and the only tumbling we had was team dive rolls and maybe 5 round offs. Other teams had bhs, tucks and layouts. You just need to have mad difficulty and be as clean as humanly possible.

 

[Cheermom1969]

I'm a coach for a competitive team of 12, which is the max we can use in our division. We compete in about a week for a chance to advance to our National competition, and we are only up against one team. (Phew.) Needless to say, me and my girls are EXTREMELY competitive and want to win. This would be their first big victory of the season, due to who this team is.

Unfortunately, they posted a video of their routine on the internet and they are going to slaughter us in the tumbling department. 3 tucks against 7. All 7 of theirs are solid, and one of our 3 is shaky. Only 25% of your team needs to tumble to qualify for highest points, but we are barely scrapping the bottom. They will easily top us by 5-6 points in that category, and in our division, that's a pretty significant gap.

The other team is sloppy, I will say, but the tumbling just blows us out of the water. We are evenly matched with stunts. Dare I say it, our choreography is a little more interesting.

So I guess the big question is, is there anything I can do to help offset the power house tumbling? Does clean really beat difficulty, even when it's by this much?

How did your team do?