All-Star New Age Grid Suggestions

[lakerfantlc]

I propose:
Senior: 14 - 18
Junior: 9 - 13
Youth: 6 - 10
All tiny is exhibition only. Maybe all tiny teams can compete for free at comps.

What is good about this? What is bad?

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I think it is good but with it needs to be some sort of J5 going to worlds or some other big goal for the young kids who have the skills. My daughter is like many many kids our there who has level 5 skills, is 10 yrs old and is born in Oct....4 more years waiting to get to Worlds is an eternity and it seems to me some will burn out waiting or soon after. IMO

 

[imrichhowboutu]

I think it is good but with it needs to be some sort of J5 going to worlds or some other big goal for the young kids who have the skills. My daughter is like many many kids our there who has level 5 skills, is 10 yrs old and is born in Oct....4 more years waiting to get to Worlds is an eternity and it seems to me some will burn out waiting or soon after. IMO

I think junior 5 needs a different big thing to look forward to. I still dont think it should be worlds, regardless of the age.

 

[lakerfantlc]

I think junior 5 needs a different big thing to look forward to. I still dont think it should be worlds, regardless of the age.

What about Worlds but at Epcot or the studios...then they can be at Worlds...see what its all about?

 

[yooolizzi]

I think junior 5 needs a different big thing to look forward to. I still dont think it should be worlds, regardless of the age.

I know at Twisters, Supercells treated NCA like it was their Worlds.

 

[we_stand_alone]

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).
I say ALL senior divisions have an age floor, and it be 13.
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.

Haha maybe i need to make my post a little more clear, i am aware you can already have that one year old on your senior 2, 3, or 4 team if you want to. I am reffering to worlds teams for right now (although i do believe there should be an age cap on ALL senior teams) I was talking about your idea for large gyms having to go by the 14 up rule (or 13) and small gyms not having to use that rule. I don't understand how that helps anything? Are you saying you want large gyms to have to go to worlds with their high school flyers and small gyms to go with their 7 year old flyer who is 50 pounds? That's the part i was saying was insane and could never work. It has to be even for all teams, small or large gym.

 

[yojaehs]

I like this from @imrichhowboutu
Seniors 13-18
Juniors 9-13
Youth 6-9
I would like to add Minis 8-4/5 I 100% agree that Tinys should be exhibition only.
Also, please everyone remember to look at this at what would be the best for industry on just your gym/situation. So often I read "well my daughter could do x,y,z" or "MY gym can do x,y,z" It's not about YOUR gym/situation, its about whats best for the WHOLE!

 

[thebowqueen]

I am all in favor of consolidating age divisions! Also, In our gym we see kids that want to "move up" regardless of skill level. There are a few parents who think 'my kid has been on minis for two years now and its time for her to move up to youth 2.' Not realizing her kid is only 7, can barely do a backwalkover and isn't a good base or fly. They get frustrated by being on a "baby team" again and end up quitting by the end of the summer. So - putting these age floors on divisions would help eliminate that i hope? Parents would come into the program knowing that their kid would be on a youth team for at least three years (possibly 4) before 'moving up' to a junior team.

On the other hand, it would crush our little 8 year old j4 flyer to have been stuck on youth 2 this year simply because of her age.

 

[cheermom5678]

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.

I teach jr. high, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. There is such a difference in mental capacity, social interaction, and just plain old maturity just within this age group. 11-13 year olds. The 8th graders are always commenting on how the 6th graders are such babies, etc.

Now some of these same 6th graders are 12 and can be put on a senior team?
Even worse, a Senior Co-ed team? That is such a large maturity gap. Give those
little ones a chance to stay young and have fun.

I agree with an overlap for all levels, but keep the bottom age for Senior teams at
the high school level.

Definitely need something for Juniors to look forward to, not sure what...
Or maybe as time goes by people will forget that Juniors ever went to worlds.

 

[CGAcheer]

I like this from @imrichhowboutu
Seniors 13-18
Juniors 9-13
Youth 6-9
I would like to add Minis 8-4/5 I 100% agree that Tinys should be exhibition only.
Also, please everyone remember to look at this at what would be the best for industry on just your gym/situation. So often I read "well my daughter could do x,y,z" or "MY gym can do x,y,z" It's not about YOUR gym/situation, its about whats best for the WHOLE!

I know I refer to my gym's situation in relation to this thread a lot, but it is the only gym that I have actual numbers for. the Small Gym/Large Gym split was based on the avg gym size being around 75.

So with my gym being a slightly above average sized gym, and I would have major trouble making this work, it would be safe to assume that the vast majority of the gyms would also have major problems trying to make it work.

This is the best option, it looks like what we are all used to already and I would venture to guess it is what most gyms already try to follow, but since they are allowed to make exceptions for exceptional kids they do.

srs 12-18
Jr 9-14
Youth 6-11
Minis 5-8

it gives you age floors but also gives small gyms the ability to make two teams and not have to turn away some random middle age kids like a 10-12 year old in your example, or to have to spread their 30 kids across 3 teams.

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

I would like to see smaller age brackets in the younger ages, and the brackets progressively getting bigger as the division goes up.

Tiny 5 and under (exhibition)
Mini 6/7
Youth 7-10
Junior 9-14
Senior 13-18

I think having age floors and caps, especially for the younger kids, would force people to really hone their skills before moving up. Changing mini to 6&7 would also avoid the "I'm on a baby team" mentality if you were to have 6 year olds with 10 year olds. Having seniors bottom out at 13 would give kids something to look forward to, instead of reaching their goal at 8 or 9 in some cases. I also believe that it would improve the number of more advanced teams in the youth and mini age brackets, as I believe that many of those athletes are spread out among the junior and senior teams.

 

[thebowqueen]

I would like to see smaller age brackets in the younger ages, and the brackets progressively getting bigger as the division goes up.

Tiny 5 and under (exhibition)
Mini 6/7
Youth 7-10
Junior 9-14
Senior 13-18

I like this - but what about gyms that don't have enough 6 and 7 year olds to make a mini team? The 7 yr olds could go on a youth team but the 6s are left out.

 

[katstat1]

I agree a lot with what CGAcheer has said. Our gym does not qualify as a "small gym" but it certainly isn't large. Our gym tries very hard to keep kids on their age appropriate teams, but when you get into the higher levels, without bringing up some of the younger ones (and by younger, I mean Junior age kids on senior teams or youth age on jr teams) there is no way we could make teams to satisfy those kids with higher skills. I would imagine that there are a lot of medium sized gyms out there that have to mix ages somewhat to make teams that can be competitive at a certain level.

This argument comes up all the time about raising the bottom of the senior age limit. Is there something wrong with the way it is? Is it broken and needs to be fixed? I honestly don't know. The way it is now it gives those younger kids that do have the skills and maturity to be on Senior team. It doesn't mean that every 12 year old is going to be on the team, but the option is there if a gym needs to do it. Every year is going to be different for these medium sized gyms too. While this year our Sr5 team may only have 3 Jr age kids on it, next year when half of that team graduates, it will be even more important for the Jr age kids to be eligible to be on it.

Why are we always trying to change these age grids anyway, why can't we just leave them the way they are? I guess I'm not understanding why they need to change.

 

[yojaehs]

I know I refer to my gym's situation in relation to this thread a lot, but it is the only gym that I have actual numbers for. the Small Gym/Large Gym split was based on the avg gym size being around 75.

So with my gym being a slightly above average sized gym, and I would have major trouble making this work, it would be safe to assume that the vast majority of the gyms would also have major problems trying to make it work.

This is the best option, it looks like what we are all used to already and I would venture to guess it is what most gyms already try to follow, but since they are allowed to make exceptions for exceptional kids they do.

srs 12-18
Jr 9-14
Youth 6-11
Minis 5-8

it gives you age floors but also gives small gyms the ability to make two teams and not have to turn away some random middle age kids like a 10-12 year old in your example, or to have to spread their 30 kids across 3 teams.

I hear ya, and I don't disagree with your numbers. My personal opinion is I don't really care what they make it, I feel that there should be a bottom age in EVERY division and whatever they make it, we will adapt to. I just wish they would make something and stick to it.

 

[King]

Haha maybe i need to make my post a little more clear, i am aware you can already have that one year old on your senior 2, 3, or 4 team if you want to. I am reffering to worlds teams for right now (although i do believe there should be an age cap on ALL senior teams) I was talking about your idea for large gyms having to go by the 14 up rule (or 13) and small gyms not having to use that rule. I don't understand how that helps anything? Are you saying you want large gyms to have to go to worlds with their high school flyers and small gyms to go with their 7 year old flyer who is 50 pounds? That's the part i was saying was insane and could never work. It has to be even for all teams, small or large gym.

If a gym decides to compete small gym ( it would be a choice if you meet the numbers requirement) you can't go to Worlds.

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[we_stand_alone]

If a gym decides to compete small gym ( it would be a choice if you meet the numbers requirement) you can't go to Worlds.

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That makes a little more sense, although i still think we need an age cap on all senior teams. IMO i don't like the small gym division, I understand why gyms want to compete in it, so you don't have to go against the big dogs if you can't field a full team of 20 that is competitive, but at the same time, competition seems to be getting smaller and smaller.