All-Star New Varsity Scoring...

[cheermommaRN]

The score difference in difficulty between having 75% of your team do a skill and 100% of the team doing a skills was already pretty minimal anyway. This isn't as huge a change as people are making it out to be.

I feel that this true for the higher level teams but not so much the very competitive lower levels. In Large Junior 2 full squad tumbling made the difference between 1st and 2nd. There are so many teams in the lower divisions and each one is amazing, so it comes down to tumbling and transitions into stunts/pyramid (not even the stunts themselves because there is only so much you can do at level 2). I think 75% should get you into the upper score range (7-8) but a full squad should get the higher score (9-10). Now if there is a way they are still going to award those teams like in the Overall Impression score, I'm okay with that to. I just don't like mediocrity celebrated.

 

[cheermommaRN]

Let's not blow things out of proportion. How many teams actually had 100% tumbling anyway?

In Texas? Almost every team is working at their highest potential. Many comps we went to last year our win came from our full squad having roundoff backhandsprings and our inversion pyramid.

 

[TheVipersMom]

I agree, I have just watched several videos from our new gym. I see full squad tumbling for the most part.
At our old gym no we did not have full squad tumbling....but her team this season does! It is nice to see every girl on the team deserves to be there and kids aren't getting free rides on a higher level teams when they shouldn't be there!

 

[SheCheers]

Seriously, our full squad on J3 had punch fronts and RO tucks. We had full squad tumbling. If someone didn't tumble it was due to a transition or injury.
The only one on our J2 last season that didn't BHS was because she had a mental block with standing BHS, but she still did running.
I think even our Senior Restricted 5 had full squad tumbling. I don't have video to confirm, so I don't want to say with 100% certainty, but I really think they did.
It's like a foreign concept to me to not have full squad tumbling.

 

[Brooks44]

I reallly do not like this rule. This year at my gym we took a break as a level 5 team due to the fact only 12/20 had fulls or doubles and maybe 14/20 couldn't do jumps to tuck. Another main reason, is we graduated and lost almost 35 members of a 60-70 member gym, most of those girls were levels 4&5. So we became a great level 4 and worked so hard on everyone getting those full who didn't have them, and doubles for those with fulls, and those 3 jumps to tuck. I can't even tell you how many circle of deaths we had during weekday practices with those.. currently 20 out of 20 girls are doing the skills. and thats a huge accomplishment for us.. and now its like wow we worked so hard and now teams that have jumpers in the back that don't do the tuck, or the bum layouts on a level 5 are going to be able to do just as well... okay.

 

[tucknduck]

Let's not blow things out of proportion. How many teams actually had 100% tumbling anyway?

What I don't understand is why there are guidelines for skills at each level yet athletes are placed on levels they clearly aren't ready for. That's the real problem. The solution is not to dumb down skills so everybody can move up to a higher level easier. If you have a Level 5 team that has 25 of 30 tumbling at level 5 and the other 5 don't, then those 5 should be moved down. It sounds more like reinventing the wheel.

 

[xpressjag]

What I don't understand is why there are guidelines for skills at each level yet athletes are placed on levels they clearly aren't ready for. That's the real problem. The solution is not to dumb down skills so everybody can move up to a higher level easier. If you have a Level 5 team that has 25 of 30 tumbling at level 5 and the other 5 don't, then those 5 should be moved down. It sounds more like reinventing the wheel.

Well its a lot more complicated than that. I am sure every coach and gym owner would gladly fill a level 4 team with layouts and standing tucks if they had it. Many gyms have to sometimes field a team that doesn't have the tumbling because they want to challenge some of their kids or some of those higher level athletes leave for gyms that do offer those levels. There are usually more teams without the 100% tumbling, than those with the full team skills. I just blame score sheets, because cheerleading wasn't always like this. Now that EP's, coaches, and even some athletes/families are pushing for a skill based sport, this is what you get.

 

[Aussiekat]

What I don't understand is why there are guidelines for skills at each level yet athletes are placed on levels they clearly aren't ready for. That's the real problem. The solution is not to dumb down skills so everybody can move up to a higher level easier. If you have a Level 5 team that has 25 of 30 tumbling at level 5 and the other 5 don't, then those 5 should be moved down. It sounds more like reinventing the wheel.

Because they are guidelines, not mandates. Cheer isn't just tumbling.

 

[CheerBank]

What I don't understand is why there are guidelines for skills at each level yet athletes are placed on levels they clearly aren't ready for. That's the real problem. The solution is not to dumb down skills so everybody can move up to a higher level easier. If you have a Level 5 team that has 25 of 30 tumbling at level 5 and the other 5 don't, then those 5 should be moved down. It sounds more like reinventing the wheel.

I don't think the 5 who aren't tumbling at level 5 should be moved down - they might be beast bases, have fantastic level 5 jump sequences and be great dancers. But the level 5 team with 25 out of 30 tumbling at level 5 simply should not be scored the same as the team with 30 out of 30 tumbling level 5.
I do like argument made several times in this thread for greater emphasis in scoring on the actual execution of tumbling.

 

[Ashley]

What I don't understand is why there are guidelines for skills at each level yet athletes are placed on levels they clearly aren't ready for. That's the real problem. The solution is not to dumb down skills so everybody can move up to a higher level easier. If you have a Level 5 team that has 25 of 30 tumbling at level 5 and the other 5 don't, then those 5 should be moved down. It sounds more like reinventing the wheel.

Tumbling is only one part of cheerleading, there are lots of other parts to level 5 skills. As it's a team sport, not everyone on the team HAS to have level 5 tumbling.

 

[BamaCheerGuy]

Simple. Have it broke down where if you throw 75% (15 out 0f 20) then you can score between a 9.5-10 range. IF say 18 throw it then you will get a 9.8. Execution still counts and should be half. So if you have 15 perfect tucks then it would be 9.75 after average while if you had 20 blah tucks you could score 9.5 average. Universal scoring system, would make this all go away. Then gym owners and coaches would get back to teaching basics and not worrying about changing for this or that competition.

 

[BamaCheerGuy]

I agree with dumbing down as well, however when they tried to push a international senior 4 rule, people whined about too many divisions. it's a self interest business. You have a few making rules for the whole. SAFETY and QUALITY first! I can't believe how many times I wanted to stab myself in the eye last year hearing the pros of youth 5!

 

[BamaCheerGuy]

Tumbling is only one part of cheerleading, there are lots of other parts to level 5 skills. As it's a team sport, not everyone on the team HAS to have level 5 tumbling.

So true, but if you are all about the tumbling then do an individual tumbling routine. IT is a a TEAM sport. All aspects are graded and counted, not just the ones we are interested or good at. It is the same for all accredited sports. To make cheering legit we as an industry have to recognize all facets!

 

[tucknduck]

You all make valid points about ALL skill sets that go into a particular level and I can see where it would be a lot of work to try and place these athletes on the proper teams and at the same time, have competitive teams that closely matches the skills of the athletes that are at a particular gym. However, I can't see scoring teams equally when 100% of a team can execute all theiir skills while 75%

 

[newcheerdad]

Think of cheer like other team sports. Not every person on a football team needs to be a great quarterback. Not every player on a soccer team needs to be a great goalie. I actually like the idea of being able to diversify cheer so that different types of athletes can participate, and taking some of the hyper-focus off of tumbling is a good idea.

These rules don't eliminate tumbling as a requirement - rather it says that the 75% of your team needs to do it. It doesn't seem outrageous to me at all, and might start putting focus back on other areas of cheer - like stunts, dance and jumps.

I get why it's frustrating to teams that have put a lot of focus on tumbling over the years, but maybe that's the point. In the quest to make everyone tumbling experts, we've forgotten that cheer performances are multi-faceted.