All-Star Measuring Rivalries

[BlueCat]

I was kicking around a way to scale how "heated" any particular rivalry is on a personal scale.

Friendly Rivals: If you can't win, you want it to be them.

Regular Rivals: If you can't win, you want it to be anyone but them.

Strong Rival: You would rather your team get 3rd with them in 4th, than get 2nd and have them win. (You would sacrifice a spot if it meant you would beat them.)

Hated Rival: You would rather your team get 3rd with them in 2nd, than get 2nd and have them win. (You would sacrifice a spot just to keep them from winning.)

Thoughts?

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Agreed. Sometimes rivalries aren't in the same divisions...these are usually hated rivalries. You just want them to lose and you don't care who beats them.

 

[GreatWhite92]

What happens if you are the team that they want to lose? I know a gym in our area a long time ago (they have long since been out of business) that would do just about anything to beat us. We didn't really care because we only saw them at local competitions and usually beat them. I remember a girl from my school on said other team absolutely bashing me all week before a competition telling me that they were going to win and that we didn't have anything on them. Well not only did we beat them but we also won grand champs. So does that make us part of the rivalry, when we really had nothing to do with it?

 

[StarshipTrooper]

Breaks down in a division with 3 teams. Only Ricky Bobby works there.

 

[cupieqt]

I so prefer the friendly rivals. I try so hard to make that the case with our neighbor gyms. They don't always want to participate though so it becomes a regular rival.

When I was a young newbie coach I would get caught up in the mean rivalries. It stressed me out so badly I had to just let it go and be nice anyway. I find the friendly rivalries make it all so much more fun. Still hate to lose but when you can push each other in a positive manner everybody wins in the long run.

 

[Fame&Fortune]

what in your area makes a Cheer rivalry?
2 gyms close together? gyms that go back and forth taking 1st?
Just trying to see what happens in other places

 

[dawgshow]

That's a pretty good scale.

 

[addicted2cheer]

What happens if you are the team that they want to lose? I know a gym in our area a long time ago (they have long since been out of business) that would do just about anything to beat us. We didn't really care because we only saw them at local competitions and usually beat them. I remember a girl from my school on said other team absolutely bashing me all week before a competition telling me that they were going to win and that we didn't have anything on them. Well not only did we beat them but we also won grand champs. So does that make us part of the rivalry, when we really had nothing to do with it?

lol... no I don't think you are part of it. I know of a bigger gym that rarely does local comps and a small gym in my area. A friend of mine from the small gym told me oh... "that big gym. XYZ is our biggest rival." A friend of mine at the big gym had never heard of the smaller gym let alone harbor any ill feelings or even competitive feelings towards that small gym. In fact we had to look up comps to realize they were even against them! They truly had just no idea who they were! I think for it to be a rivalry, either a healthy or one or a mean spirited one at least both sides should be aware that they are part of it! lol!

 

[GreatWhite92]

lol... no I don't think you are part of it. I know of a bigger gym that rarely does local comps and a small gym in my area. A friend of mine from the small gym told me oh... "that big gym. XYZ is our biggest rival." A friend of mine at the big gym had never heard of the smaller gym let alone harbor any ill feelings or even competitive feelings towards that small gym. In fact we had to look up comps to realize they were even against them! They truly had just no idea who they were! I think for it to be a rivalry, either a healthy or one or a mean spirited one at least both sides should be aware that they are part of it! lol!

Well we were aware that they felt that way but most of us were kinda of indifferent because we didn't really have to worry about winning as much as they did. I guess maybe of a few of us with personal ties to some members of the other gym through school cared about winning against them but I didn't worry to much about them.

 

[bestbackspot]

I think the for lower level teams, its the gyms that are close in distance, where you go to school with the girls, and some girls have switched gyms, that rivalries appear.

As for higher levels, I think its whoever beat you the competition or even the year before.

 

[cspoon]

I think the most heated/hated rivals are the ones where the gyms are in close proximity, and there has been a fair amount of athletes that have left one gym to go to the other.

 

[cheeromgbre]

I think the most heated/hated rivals are the ones where the gyms are in close proximity, and there has been a fair amount of athletes that have left one gym to go to the other.

Agreed. The most heated rivalries, IMO, are the ones where kids go from one program to another or vice versa in an area. In the cases I've seen all these rivalries are the ones where the one team would want anyone BUT their rival to win.

 

[littlestALLSTAR]

I think the most heated/hated rivals are the ones where the gyms are in close proximity, and there has been a fair amount of athletes that have left one gym to go to the other.

I
I can agree with this...have seen it with my own eyes at a recent competition, and it wasn't pretty, only petty. The sad thing to me was that even the little girls on lower level teams are hyperaware of the rivaly, and are not discouraged from saying catty, meanspirited things about their rival team. I witnessed the older cheerleaders standing right up close to the stage attempting to "psych out" the performing rival team. Just so wrong. Being a relatively new cheer parent, if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed this kind of crap really goes on.

 

[whatsupWILLIS]

well, rivalries for our gym, we just want to beat them. we don't care if we are in 2nd to last as long as we are beating them, but we are usually not anywhere near 2nd to last and don't have to worry about it

 

[12mowerd]

I know I do high school cheer, but if I get second to last place I would be happy if my rival team got last. haha it's sad I know.