All-Star Small Gym Divisions

[cheerislife1]

I was just curious to know how everyone feels about the small gym division.

To me i think its almost like a cop out for MOST teams. I think its a shot at an easy win. Just because your gym is small does not mean that you cant hang with the bigger gyms. I feel like any team has the ability to do good no matter the size of there gym. My gym that i coach at is fairly small. We have a little over 100 kids and we beat gyms with much larger numbers and have even lost to teams that are from smaller gyms than ours. I feel like it makes all the divisons much smaller at competitions that offer this division. I just dont think its right when teams say they won all these things but went in the small gym division and competed against maybe 2 teams at the most. If you really want to see where you stack up with the best of the best why go in the small gym division?

 

[AllHeartxo3]

I agree with you. I was watching the all levels awards and a lot of the in the small gym we just as good as some of the bigger gyms if not better. I think it's kind of degrading to those gyms who want to show that they can hang with the top dogs.

 

[CEAlover08]

I agree especially because some competitions, if not most/all, don't let the smaller gyms go into the large gym category. Many small gym teams want to compete against the larger gyms and show everyone what they are made of. However I do understand this category because some gyms are very small, and to compete against a large gym, (such as Cheer Extreme, Cheer Athletics, Stingrays, Maryland Twisters, World Cup, etc) is not always fair. The larger gyms have more of a population to pick from for their temas and they more then likely have many different levels so everyone would go where they belong tumbling and stunting wise. Therefore, the smaller gyms don't have as many kids to pick from so they may not all have all the requirements for that level, and to compete against a team that has all the kids with all the requirements, it isn't fair.

 

[aggie1983]

@CEAlover08. Thank you for recognizing the inherent disadvantages a small gym has when they don't have the larger pool of athletes with which to even out 'skill levels for the teams. In order to enable the higher skilled cps to advance a level, your typical small gym must include cps on a team that are not yet to that point. And there seem to be plenty of small gyms to make for a competitive field. The only time my cp's team went against less than 4 other teams was at a one day where the average # of teams per division was 2.6. At NCA, our team went against 11 teams and at UCA went against 13. However, @cheerislife1 , I do think small gyms should have the option of going against the big dogs if they wish. But why look down on a team that just wants to compete on a level playing field? That is why high school and college sports have separate divisions - to make it fair. Why should competitive cheer not follow the same policy?

 

[garretttt]

if you play by the rules its always fair. ive seen large gyms get beat by teams that had less kids than them. its possible......

 

[Num1Stunta]

There have been a lot of threads about this... use the search bar

 

[NEliteSteven]

Small Gym Small Senior 3 was actually the biggest division at UCA, if that says anything.

 

[CGAcheer]

We were a small gym (now we're "large" with about 85 kids) but we never competed in a small gym division.

Depending on how you decide what level you place your team in I think it is basically an even playing field and here is why:
Lets use small Senior 3 as an example-

at a large gym it would be all the kids that are too good for level 2 but not ready for 4, so basically everyone has standing series and round off bhs tuck

At my small gym we had 4 kids who couldn't throw a tuck yet but could do Jumps to series bhs, about 10 solid level 3's (ro bhs tuck, front tucks, series bhs etc) and we had 6 level 4 or 5 ish kids who could hit specialty passes through to tucks, amazing jumps, great stunting etc.

So no real advantage to either one in my opinion, assuming you have equal choreography, music, coaching etc. which may not always be the case

 

[aggie1983]

@NEliteSteven That was my cp's division. I think I sat with two of your moms the first day of UCA-really enjoyed talking to them, they were very nice.

 

[cheeromgbre]

I was just curious to know how everyone feels about the small gym division.

To me i think its almost like a cop out for MOST teams. I think its a shot at an easy win. Just because your gym is small does not mean that you cant hang with the bigger gyms. I feel like any team has the ability to do good no matter the size of there gym. My gym that i coach at is fairly small. We have a little over 100 kids and we beat gyms with much larger numbers and have even lost to teams that are from smaller gyms than ours. I feel like it makes all the divisons much smaller at competitions that offer this division. I just dont think its right when teams say they won all these things but went in the small gym division and competed against maybe 2 teams at the most. If you really want to see where you stack up with the best of the best why go in the small gym division?

shimmy x 100.

 

[wcsstilldeath]

Its not the name that defines the team, its the skill. A amazing gym like Top Gun or World Cup can have a team that has a rough day and get beat by a small gym. I feel like a small gym beating a large gym makes the victory that much sweeter.

 

[aggie1983]

@CGAcheer I will certainly admit I may be wrong, but I don't think your example would be the case with most small gyms. In our case we had no one ready for level 4, and only 6 solid level 3 at the start of the season. All others were level 2's, but our coaches wanted to give the girls a chance to push themselves. so again, hard to compare with a team of solid 3s across the board. Much less a team with a third level 4s to start with. But again, if a team wants to compete with the larger gyms, I think it would be great for them to have that choice, but for your typical small gym team - IMHO- it simply isn't a level field.

 

[cupieqt]

if you play by the rules its always fair. ive seen large gyms get beat by teams that had less kids than them. its possible......

Yes it is very possible. But it also takes a longer time for smaller gyms to develop those teams that can "hang". There are quantity requirements to meet in all skill levels but a smaller gym that is forced to put youth L1 on a youth L2 just to even have a team makes it very difficult to be competitive against gyms that have exhibition teams for their newbies and a seasoned team for every age and level (with full squad everything).

If tiny schools had to play football against teams that were from schools the size of some universities they'd probably forfeit just to prevent the injuries to their tiny roster. A larger pool of kids is just easier to win with because you have so much more varying degrees of talent to build teams and work with overall.

Small gyms can only grow to "hang" with the big gyms when they can offer a team for many ages & levels. In order to attract talented kids to build these teams you have to be a winning program so that takes excellent coaching, strategic team placement and careful competition/division selections. Thank God for the small gym division! It gives us a better chance while we fight and claw each year to make progress with what we have!!

 

[CharlieCheers]

I think small gym isn't fair. The gyms with 75 kids, can work just as hard as us with 200.

 

[cupieqt]

I think small gym isn't fair. The gyms with 75 kids, can work just as hard as us with 200.

We do work just as hard. Trust me!! We just don't have the numbers to be very selective!