All-Star New Age Grid Suggestions

[mom24girls]

I don't like youth being 6-10 yr olds. I have an 8 yo and the difference in stage presence and tightness between 6 and 8yos is huge I wouldn't want to be 10 and on a squad with 6yos. Then there is the maturity level also since I think making friends is one of the most important things in cheer.

 

[mom24girls]

I understand the desire for (especially) older athletes to compete. Maybe what I see a lot of isn't common, but I see many level 1 and 2 athletes that haven't cheered before, ever. @kingston , I don't think the competition part of all star makes all star, all star. I think it's the routine. I would like to see more of an ease into full-blown, travel-the-earth, spend 5-10 grand a year and every waking moment in the gym, all star for those parents and kids who are newer than just dropping them into the middle of everything. Half-year teams don't exist everywhere, and there are a lot of kids who might like to try it, but on a smaller scale.@cheeeeer93 , If they could "try" it without having to give away their life, it might actually help business.

I don't think level 1 and level 2 not competing would work. If they didn't go to competitions at all I know my daughter would never do it. She loves to show and would never do all that work if she didn't get a reward (the competitions). If they only did competitions as exhibition that wouldn't work either in my opinion. Most parents aren't going to pay for their kid to go to a competition and exhibition and competitions would never be able to afford having all those teams exhibition for free. Who would foot the bill? I know I wouldn't pay for exhibition. I think if people want to try competition on a smaller level they should try rec or school competition squads then cross over if they like it. Most of our cheerleaders came from rec or school competition squads where they got their feet wet for a lot less money.

 

[newcheerdad]

I would prefer more divisions instead of less, but there isn't the critical mass of athletes to make that work. So I think our current grid is fine, really.

 

[timmis]

I love this age grid, but I think maybe level could be somehow incorporated, too. Especially for level 5 teams. While there are of course exceptions where young, 12-13 year old girls have amazing skills, you can wait another year or two to be on a senior 5 team. The pressure is huge, especially at Worlds, and quite frankly the immaturity of some of the younger athletes is not what a team needs :/ But of course, it's not fair because some 12 and 13 year olds are mature, skilled, and can handle the stress and social aspects of being on a team with high school seniors, ect.

I think tiny's just exhibitioning is a good idea, as well! They're so cute and while I love to watch them, I think half of them don't really know what's going on.

It's all such a grey area for me but I like this:

Senior 5: 14 - 18
Senior 1, 2, 3, 4: 12-18
Junior: 9 - 13
Youth: 6 - 10

We could always bring back J5 at Worlds to fix the attitudes of 12 year olds who don't end up on S5 teams And make it harder to get a bid. If you have to work harder to get to Worlds, all of the awful, awful, teams that are scary to watch and don't really deserve the bid won't be there. And there will be more room for the younger athletes who truly deserve to experience it!

 

[BlueCat]

I would really like to see a breakdown of the teams that are already in the current division structure, then consolidate/eliminate based on some actual numbers.

 

[we_stand_alone]

Why no mini? Although the age range for each of the divisions is about the same, a 6 year old with a 10 year old is a big gap in maturity. Not to mention the potential lack of experience. Maybe a 6-8 and then the 9-13?

I dont understand why so many people have a problem witht he 6-10 age gap.
no one has a problem with the 12-18 age gap which is much worse..this is what upsets me
(and by the way tdittmar this is NOT directed at you) the age gap was mentioned about 4 times in this thread, because everyone is like no, that's just to much a 6 and 10 year old. Well in my opinion it's to much for a 12 and 18 year old. And you may say, but thats only fair if they have the skill, well then the 6 year old probably has the skill to. All im getting at is the 6 to 10 age gap is the same thing as a 12 to 16 year age gap. Not imagine your 6 year old competing with a 12 year old. Because that's what is happening to these 12 year olds now, they are competing with 18 year old kids.
Senior needs to change to 14 and up bottom line. 12 is just to young. they need to be on junior for a while before they just start seniors straight out of youth.

so i propose seniors 14-18
juniors 11-14
youth-7-11 (mind you this is the same as 14-18)
minis that compete 4-7
tinys exhibition only

and for kings idea about small gyms getting no age cap that is just a horrible idea haha.
Then people would be fighting to get into that small gym group to compete, then you would have them throwing their 7 year olds on the squad to do double ups, while the senior level teams with real senior flyers can barely do the one a half up..

 

[cheermom5678]

I don't like youth being 6-10 yr olds. I have an 8 yo and the difference in stage presence and tightness between 6 and 8yos is huge I wouldn't want to be 10 and on a squad with 6yos. Then there is the maturity level also since I think making friends is one of the most important things in cheer.

Exactly how I feel about having 12 year olds on a senior team with 18 (19) year olds.

 

[cheermom5678]

I think gyms would keep their athletes on Junior teams longer if they were still bids for Juniors at Worlds.
I don't think Juniors should be at Worlds, but if that is what it would take to keep teams age appropriate maybe
it is worth it. There would have to be a better system of judging which teams get the junior bid.....

 

[tdittmar]

I dont understand why so many people have a problem witht he 6-10 age gap.
no one has a problem with the 12-18 age gap which is much worse..this is what upsets me
(and by the way tdittmar this is NOT directed at you) the age gap was mentioned about 4 times in this thread, because everyone is like no, that's just to much a 6 and 10 year old. Well in my opinion it's to much for a 12 and 18 year old. And you may say, but thats only fair if they have the skill, well then the 6 year old probably has the skill to. All im getting at is the 6 to 10 age gap is the same thing as a 12 to 16 year age gap. Not imagine your 6 year old competing with a 12 year old. Because that's what is happening to these 12 year olds now, they are competing with 18 year old kids.
Senior needs to change to 14 and up bottom line. 12 is just to young. they need to be on junior for a while before they just start seniors straight out of youth.

so i propose seniors 14-18
juniors 11-14
youth-7-11 (mind you this is the same as 14-18)
minis that compete 4-7
tinys exhibition only

and for kings idea about small gyms getting no age cap that is just a horrible idea haha.
Then people would be fighting to get into that small gym group to compete, then you would have them throwing their 7 year olds on the squad to do double ups, while the senior level teams with real senior flyers can barely do the one a half up..

No offense taken!

 

[JulieP]

I dont understand why so many people have a problem witht he 6-10 age gap.
no one has a problem with the 12-18 age gap which is much worse..this is what upsets me
(and by the way tdittmar this is NOT directed at you) the age gap was mentioned about 4 times in this thread, because everyone is like no, that's just to much a 6 and 10 year old. Well in my opinion it's to much for a 12 and 18 year old.

The difference in mental capacity between a 6 year old and a 10 year old is so much bigger than the difference between a 10 and an 18 year old. I have 11-16 year olds on my senior team and I don't see as big a difference as there is between some of our young minis and 10 year old youth kids. The grade difference between 6-10 is 1st grade and 5th grade and not 7th to 12th (or freshman in college for super seniors. Plus, at least for us, we don't put the 11 and 12 year olds on seniors unless they have the skills and the focus. Ultimately, I would rather be able to have the option of putting those kids on the senior team. On the flip side, I think that putting 6-10 together would be way different, because you would have to set up teams that way if the age grid changed- it wouldn't be like having the option to put a talented younger kid on an older team.

 

[Mamarazzi]

I would really like to see a breakdown of the teams that are already in the current division structure, then consolidate/eliminate based on some actual numbers.

How would you like to see the breakdown of the current teams in the divisions?

 

[Katybugmom]

I say we just average the age of all the kids on the team- haha

 

[we_stand_alone]

The difference in mental capacity between a 6 year old and a 10 year old is so much bigger than the difference between a 10 and an 18 year old. I have 11-16 year olds on my senior team and I don't see as big a difference as there is between some of our young minis and 10 year old youth kids. The grade difference between 6-10 is 1st grade and 5th grade and not 7th to 12th (or freshman in college for super seniors. Plus, at least for us, we don't put the 11 and 12 year olds on seniors unless they have the skills and the focus. Ultimately, I would rather be able to have the option of putting those kids on the senior team. On the flip side, I think that putting 6-10 together would be way different, because you would have to set up teams that way if the age grid changed- it wouldn't be like having the option to put a talented younger kid on an older team.

While first graders and fifth graders are entirely different people, so are 7th graders and seniors in high school. I understand where you are getting at, but from what i usually see with the younger teams, the age is much tighter than on a senior team. Usually the youth 1 teams are all compromised of the same age group, but then you have a senior 2 team with girls ages 9-18. That's just not right. And just because a child has a skill doesn't necessarly mean they should be put on that team. While a 6 year old may be working on her backhandspring tuck, has she even learned to base yet? There is always room for improvement, and if the child is just turning 12 it won't kill he or she to wait two more years to be on that senior team. In fact, they will just become a better cheerleader in the meantime.

And please excuse my post from earlier, because it has more grammer errors than i care to count. I was in a hurry.

 

[CGAcheer]

I would really like to see a breakdown of the teams that are already in the current division structure, then consolidate/eliminate based on some actual numbers.

Here are the number for my gym that I pulled from another thread

We (after some major switching this weekend) now have:
Large Sr 3 with 28
Small Jr 2 with 20
Large Jr 1 with 26
Small Mini 1 with 12 (and growing)

Those teams are made up with the following kids (jr here will mean too old to be youth but still young enough to be jr)
8 Srs (1 L5r, 2 L4, 3 L3, 2 L2)
34 Jrs (2 L5r, 3 L4, 7 L3, 12 L2, 10 L1)
28 Youth (8 L3, 8 L2, 12 L1)
14 Mini (1 L3, 1 L2, 12 L1)
2 Tiny (2 L1)

Here is an even further break down of team with ages of team members: (quantity-age)
Large Sr 3- avg age=13.6
2-10, 4-11, 2-12, 5-13, 7-14, 2-15, 3-16, 2-17, 1-18
Small Jr 2- avg age=11.3
1-7, 3-9, 2-10, 4-11, 4-12, 3-13, 2-14
Large Jr 1- avg age=10.7
1-7, 2-8, 7-9, 1-10, 5-11, 5-12, 2-13, 3-14
Mini 1- avg age=7.1
2-5, 1-6, 3-7, 6-8

Things you don't get from just the numbers-
the 7 year old on the Jr 2 team and the 2 10 year olds on Sr 3 have been with us since we opened in 2008.
All of the Minis are brand new to cheerleading.

Let me know if you want it broken down another way.

 

[King]

and for kings idea about small gyms getting no age cap that is just a horrible idea haha.
Then people would be fighting to get into that small gym group to compete, then you would have them throwing their 7 year olds on the squad to do double ups, while the senior level teams with real senior flyers can barely do the one a half up..

You realize this already happens, don't you? Except for Worlds eligible teams you are allowed to use 6 week old babies if you wanted.

I think an age minimum for cheer is highly needed (6 seems like a good starting place).

As for age divisions in a perfect world with TONS of participants we would just do two year pairings (11-12, 13-14, 15-16) like a lot of other sports. Our numbers are not that high and our sport has too many idiosyncrasies for that to work. There are no true alternates in cheer. Size DOES matter and as 10 year old flyer and 14 year old flyer of equal skill are not the same if that 10 year old is tiny (of course the 14 year old will probably perform better).

Cheer is BIG... but not THAT big. You need to look at all the divisions in cheerleading that are highly successful, figure out why, and then change all the other divisions as needed to make the rest that successful.

I say ALL senior divisions have an age floor, and it be 13. I was for 14 but I do realize there are 'young' high schoolers and 13 is a bit more appropriate to encompass 99.9 percent of the kids in high school. Every kid on the team will be a teenager. There 'may' be some middle schoolers, but this age range looks good on paper and is easier to sell to parents.

We can do one year overlap for all divisions. Since senior would be 13 and up let us make Junior 9-13. This seems to be the largest group of cheerleaders. No one has hit high school yet. In fact I would be the largest loss in participants happens when middle schoolers get to high school. Not allowing middle schoolers to compete with high schoolers in allstar might bolster their participation because it is something they were not allowed to do before. When you compete in high school you are only around 'older' more mature kids. (yes I am using the term mature loosely).

The next group would be youth, 6-9. All those kids would be in elementary school.

That would be the age floor for competing. If you wanted to create a team that has a bunch of tinys you could exhibition.

For small gym status competing in separate competitions or divisions is silly to me. It further divides the pot that is not very large already. If we took away age floors for all small gyms there would be little excuse they have trouble 'fitting' into a division. Remember this ALREADY exists (as someone tried to point out this was a terrible idea.... but that's how it already is???) and would actually be enforceable with the athlete registration system (did that go live yet?).

So now instead of 4 age groups you have 3. Pooling together more teams.