High School New Program Structure Advice

[Tealxblack25]

Hi All,

I was looking for some advice on how to handle new structures that have been implemented in our hs cheer program.
I am the head coach and this past year was definitely a trying year. We are hoping to restructure our tryout process and varsity team as a whole.

This past year was mine and my assts. first year as head coaches. The previous years before that they would select majority back handsprings but would take some girls here and there even if they didn't have backhandsprings. This past year we selected them because they had good skills over tumbling.. and were on varsity before.

This upcoming season in an effort to be more competitive, we are planning to send out a memo stating that it is strongly encouraged that to make varsity that you have tumbling.

The snag we are running into is, we are scraping the barrel for backspots. All of the backspots that are supposed to be trying out do not have tumbling and have no intention on getting tumbling in the near future. (Money reasons)

What would you in a situation like this ?
and how would you handle girls making JV that were on Varsity before and received a varsity letter?

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Why is it necessary to have money in order to "get tumbling?" Do you not work on tumbling at practice? Anyone can learn to spot a backhandspring.

Also, don't forget, because it is harder to develop tumbling than it is to teach stunts, most competition formats have adjusted their score sheets to give more points in their stunting sections. Your best bet as a coach is to build a team around the scoring system you will be using. You can never know too much about the score sheet.

I'm not sure why everyone on this board insists on having varsity and JV? All of my kids letter every year because they all cheer varsity games. They compete on two different teams that often have different skill sets.

 

[Tealxblack25]

Why is it necessary to have money in order to "get tumbling?" Do you not work on tumbling at practice? Anyone can learn to spot a backhandspring.

Also, don't forget, because it is harder to develop tumbling than it is to teach stunts, most competition formats have adjusted their score sheets to give more points in their stunting sections. Your best bet as a coach is to build a team around the scoring system you will be using. You can never know too much about the score sheet.

I'm not sure why everyone on this board insists on having varsity and JV? All of my kids letter every year because they all cheer varsity games. They compete on two different teams that often have different skill sets.

We do work on tumbling at practice, but it is not enough. The demographic of girls I am coaching are not all-star cheerleaders who get free tumbling with their tuition. They have to pay to take tumbling classes. We can only dedicate so much time to tumbling at practice to focus on other things.

We are under NHIAA, and the NHIAA Scoresheet's have us scoring very high on our scores and competitive with other teams EXCEPT for tumbling so we are trying to amp up our tumbling scores.

In regards to your bold part, in NH you are only allowed to compete 20 on a competition floor. So we have JV /Varsity, much like other schools [/QUOTE]

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I have not been in this situation, but honestly, I'd take the kids that meet your tumbling requirement. It is easier in my eyes to develop backspotting skills than it is to hope someone gets the tumbling.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

We do work on tumbling at practice, but it is not enough. The demographic of girls I am coaching are not all-star cheerleaders who get free tumbling with their tuition. They have to pay to take tumbling classes. We can only dedicate so much time to tumbling at practice to focus on other things.

We are under NHIAA, and the NHIAA Scoresheet's have us scoring very high on our scores and competitive with other teams EXCEPT for tumbling so we are trying to amp up our tumbling scores.

In regards to your bold part, in NH you are only allowed to compete 20 on a competition floor. So we have JV /Varsity, much like other schools

[/QUOTE]

If you can get each kid 10-20 reps on whatever skill they are working on in practice, every practice, you will make long strides towards improving the tumbling of your team as a whole. I'm going to compete 16 all-girl this year, and 12 of those can throw a standing tuck (not all are landing them consistently). I'll compete about 14-15 athletes in coed, and about 5 more of those can throw a standing tuck (again, not all are landing them consistently). Only two athletes in my whole program are all stars. Now, that took a long time. My first year, we had 20 girls total, and only 4 or 5 of them would throw a tuck. We've taken three years to develop that tumbling.

I guess in NH you aren't allowed to compete more than one team? That stinks.

 

[Crazy Cheer Mom]

We have upped the tumbling requirement on our Varsity team over the past 3yrs. Yr 1 minimum running tumbling bh and above was required. Yr 2 standing and running bh and above. This yr running double back and up, standing bh...no tumble requirement for JV. In order to be considered for Varsity you have to throw all tumbling before the actual tryout day. Your tryout number is switched from white to a color to let judges know who is varsity eligible or not. It works well...until the new head coach took girls who didn't meet it this year. I coach JV and we are competitive with whatever girls we have but she set a precedent taking a girl who didn't have the minimum tumbling for Varsity. That's where the politics pissed me off and is making me rethink returning to the program next year. Which is too bad bc I love it but I want to coach all stars anyways down the road so

 

[Hscoach10]

We do things a little differently. We have a strong program and we describe it to girls as a puzzle that we need certain peices to fit. If there is a very strong base we feel we might need in a certain group she might make it over a base with less experience with better tumbling. At the same time we need a certain amount of girls who have strong tumbling on the team. Everyone has different roles which is why we try to keep from making requirements super specific! I say varsity it not always the best cheerleaders in the program but they are the ones who work the best together! We had great flyers on jv who had better tumbling etc then a few girls on varsity but those girls were backs and bases with a lot of experience. It all depends!! We have two strong teams which makes leaving strong cheerleaders on jv a lot easier.

Putting girls on jv who were on varsity last year is tough but worth it if you feel it will make program stronger. We did it a few years ago and had rebuilding year and haven't had to do it since.

 

[Tealxblack25]

We do things a little differently. We have a strong program and we describe it to girls as a puzzle that we need certain peices to fit. If there is a very strong base we feel we might need in a certain group she might make it over a base with less experience with better tumbling. At the same time we need a certain amount of girls who have strong tumbling on the team. Everyone has different roles which is why we try to keep from making requirements super specific! I say varsity it not always the best cheerleaders in the program but they are the ones who work the best together! We had great flyers on jv who had better tumbling etc then a few girls on varsity but those girls were backs and bases with a lot of experience. It all depends!! We have two strong teams which makes leaving strong cheerleaders on jv a lot easier.

Putting girls on jv who were on varsity last year is tough but worth it if you feel it will make program stronger. We did it a few years ago and had rebuilding year and haven't had to do it since.

Thanks for the advice, we are a little nervous for reactions from some people who might make JV after being on Varsity but we know its best in order to change the direction of the program. Its going to be one of those things where they asked for it.. but when they get it they are going to complain. I'm trying to prepare myself.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Thanks for the advice, we are a little nervous for reactions from some people who might make JV after being on Varsity but we know its best in order to change the direction of the program. Its going to be one of those things where they asked for it.. but when they get it they are going to complain. I'm trying to prepare myself.

It's NEVER easy.

A competitive program means that what used to cut it isn't going to anymore.

I also find that those who are most vocal about upping requirements are ironically the parents of kids who WOULD NOT MAKE IT if the requirement was upped.

 

[Official OWECheer]

It's NEVER easy.

A competitive program means that what used to cut it isn't going to anymore.

I also find that those who are most vocal about upping requirements are ironically the parents of kids who WOULD NOT MAKE IT if the requirement was upped.

That's really funny. Delusional about their kids' ability, perhaps?

 

[SparkleSpankies]

It's NEVER easy.

A competitive program means that what used to cut it isn't going to anymore.

I also find that those who are most vocal about upping requirements are ironically the parents of kids who WOULD NOT MAKE IT if the requirement was upped.

Dealing with this now. And the kid, royal suck up.

 

[Tealxblack25]

We had a girl tryout (freshman, no tumbling) make JV and then quit because she made JV
then she tried out basketball season and one coach wanted her still on JV and one coach wanted her on Varsity - she ended up being put on Varsity but -- still no tumbling

So its going to be really interesting with our new structure whats going to happen with some of these kids

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

That's really funny. Delusional about their kids' ability, perhaps?

Some are just illogical. "If you up the requirements, my kids will push herself to meet them." No she won't. If your kid was going to push herself, she would push herself regardless.

 

[gymcatmomx2]

In my opinion, stunting is much, much easier to teach than tumbling. We've had gymnasts make the cheer squad who have never stunted in their lives, but after a couple of practices, they get it. Our school doesn't even have a stunting score on the tryout sheet. As for tumbling, our program will go to one of the local all-star gyms a couple of times before the season starts but that's it. If they don't have the skill before tryouts, they will have to get it on their own since none of our coaches are trained in tumbling. To add, there are always a couple of non-tumbling girls who make the Varsity squad every year because they score high enough on the other sections of the score sheet to be above the natural break.

To put an athlete on the squad based on the fact that you need a good base/backspot, but they don't have the minimum tumbling may put you in a sticky wicket with the other girls who may think they are a good enough base/backspot to be on Varsity too. This is taken from experience...a scorned cheer mom can turn into one ugly situation, with grievances and, dare I say it...lawsuits.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

In my opinion, stunting is much, much easier to teach than tumbling. We've had gymnasts make the cheer squad who have never stunted in their lives, but after a couple of practices, they get it. Our school doesn't even have a stunting score on the tryout sheet. As for tumbling, our program will go to one of the local all-star gyms a couple of times before the season starts but that's it. If they don't have the skill before tryouts, they will have to get it on their own since none of our coaches are trained in tumbling. To add, there are always a couple of non-tumbling girls who make the Varsity squad every year because they score high enough on the other sections of the score sheet to be above the natural break.

To put an athlete on the squad based on the fact that you need a good base/backspot, but they don't have the minimum tumbling may put you in a sticky wicket with the other girls who may think they are a good enough base/backspot to be on Varsity too. This is taken from experience...a scorned cheer mom can turn into one ugly situation, with grievances and, dare I say it...lawsuits.

I'll agree about stunting being easier to teach initially, but the truly elite skills take a long time to develop. Having a base or a back with significant strength is a commodity.

I don't know what's going on in my area, but all the incoming kids I've had for two years have been average to pint-sized. I need some big-bad-mamas, and I'm not getting them from anywhere.

I blame it on Michelle Obama's scholastic nutrition travesty.