High School Need Help! Tumbling/jumps Question

[celtics youth cheer coach]

I coach a rec team but this year they follow the high school aacca rules for competition. At our first 2 comps, 40% of our score is made up of tumbling and jumps! Tumbling is our weak spot since a lot of the girls can't afford gymnastics classes. At most we'll have 1 or 2 bhs, some good round-offs, and forward rolls. What would be the best way to up our difficulty score? Would a double toe touch followed by forward rolls score in both the standing tumbling and jumps categories? Or would the rolls not count since they're connected to a jump? Help please!

 

[SarahS]

I coach a rec team but this year they follow the high school aacca rules for competition. At our first 2 comps, 40% of our score is made up of tumbling and jumps! Tumbling is our weak spot since a lot of the girls can't afford gymnastics classes. At most we'll have 1 or 2 bhs, some good round-offs, and forward rolls. What would be the best way to up our difficulty score? Would a double toe touch followed by forward rolls score in both the standing tumbling and jumps categories? Or would the rolls not count since they're connected to a jump? Help please!

Get your hands on the score sheet that will be used, rather than just the rules. Find out if there is some type of grid that lists examples or ranges of skills so you can know what score you might expect. Talk to the event producer and get an idea of what they're looking for.

Since I haven't seen your score sheet, I can't comment about specific things that you can do to help your score, but I've taken a lot of rec teams to rec comps over the past 15 years. I can give you things to try that usually score well:
- Be CLEAN above all else. Rec judges tend to value teams that have sharp/clean motions above those with higher skills that are sloppy all around.
- SYNCHRONIZATION and TEAM TUMBLING will likely give you a higher score than one kid with a BHS running around doing 37564 BHS in the routine. Synch/team tumbling are difficult, but visually appealing if done well.
- That being said, make sure you use your tumblers, but use them correctly. Don't have them do only tumbling throughout the routine - make sure they participate in other parts. Don't have them mixed up in a line with other kids only doing round offs. Don't have your one tumbler off center.
- Tumbling connected to jumps SHOULD give you a higher score, but that isn't necessarily the case (depends on the score sheet and the judging panel). I'd definitely put it in, if your kids can do it. I've used a version of the three or four connected jumps connected to a forward roll in nearly every single (rec specific) routine since the beginning of time, regardless of rec level (some years we were forced to be the equivalent of USASF level 2 or 3 because of local youth league rules, so I'd put the kids who had higher level tumbling into other sections of the routine, but ALWAYS had a jump series connected to a forward roll, so that all of my kids could participate. Rec judges tend to like to see ALL of your kids participating as much as possible.)
- Jumps are an easy one to excel at - just take the time to make your kids excel. It doesn't take any special equipment - just hard work and an expectation of excellence.
- I'd look at the score sheet this way - tumbling and jumps are ONLY 40% of the score. That leaves 60% of the score from other things. Make sure all of your bases are covered: is a cheer required? A dance? What about tosses? (Double check the tosses, too - AACCA doesn't allow tosses for elementary or middle school cheer, so if tosses are on your score sheet, and you're an elementary aged team, don't do them, but also make sure the EP knows that you shouldn't be doing them!!! So, so so many rec competitions that use AACCA rules don't really have an understanding of them (at all) so make sure you're not punished for following the rules while other teams are rewarded for breaking them. Don't wait until the day of the competition - ask ASAP.) Don't leave anything about the score sheet up to guessing - ask as much as possible.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[celtics youth cheer coach]

Here is the actual score sheet. Not very helpful. lol. I've checked the website for more info but all it says is that rec divisions will follow aacca rules and gives the website. It's our first time attending this competition brand.

JUDGES SHEET
SCHOOL CHEER TEAMS
Cheer 10 points
Dance 10 points
Standing Tumbling 10 points
Running Tumbling 10 points
Tumbling Difficulty 10 points
Stunts/Pyramids/Baskets 25 points
Jumps 10 points
Spacing/Formations 5 points
Synch/Overall Effect 10 points

 

[Hscoach10]

It looks like tumbling difficulty is only worth 10 points so I am assuming running and standing tumbling scores are for execution. Focus on making what you have perfect and have as many girls on the team do the same skill as possible. I coached a freshman team a few years ago and we did team cartwheels, forward rolls etc, then had the few girls who did have handsprings in the middle. Work on stretching and jump exercises at every practices and use the jumps they can execute cleanest. A nice single toe touch will score higher than a double tt that is poorly executed!