All-Star We Need To Talk.

Welcome to our Cheerleading Community

Members see FEWER ads... join today!

quietmom

Cheer Parent
Jul 12, 2012
1,451
5,322
Parents, coaches, gym owners, we need to talk with athletes about how to handle social media and about what is ok to put on social media. I don't think that the U$A$F needs to make another policy they won't truly enforce. But we need to have honest and real conversations with athletes about how to treat not only people in our own gyms but others on other teams in other gyms on social media. Stuff like this is just not ok. And if this stuff is coming from a parent, may karma give you exactly what you deserve in life.


 
i just wish twitter and instagram would take these ridiculous anon accounts more seriously and ban them from having an account. But the bigger problem is that its easy to change your email or create multiple email accounts and just start all over.
granted they probably are more worried about bigger threats of violence, etc.
not to mention a lot of these anon instagrammers and twitter people put there profiles on private which makes it a little harder to monitor.
 
Last edited:
Those cheer anons can be absolutely disgusting at times. Some of the twitter and youtube comments I have seen make me lose faith in humanity.

Many (I would guess most) are not on upper-level teams and could never do any of the skills these kids do. I would guess they think they are "punching up" so, they think it is OK.

I get that it is sort of different, but I used to get far more angry at pro athletes / coaches on "my" teams for "mistakes" they made. Now that I have seen those mistakes happen on cheer teams and what it can do to the people who make them, my attitude has changed pretty dramatically. Lack of effort will still make me angry, but honest mistakes just happen.

People don't screw up on purpose. I could show you all kinds of charts and simulations that would show you that with the insane number of skills thrown in elite, worlds-level routines - there are bound to be mistakes on skills that are incredibly consistent. Many times it is a one-in-a-thousand type thing that has never even fallen in a single practice that will keep you from a title.

We had 4-5 different teams at Worlds who had incredibly rare mistakes keep them from finals, medals, or golds. It was one of those years for us. Sometimes (like last year) it kind of breaks the other way. Nothing fell or busted (that I know of) that hit less than 95% of the time in practice. Most were probably closer to 99+% skills. That doesn't mean those kids weren't trying or weren't concentrating or even deserve criticism, it just is part of the inevitable math/science of all star cheer.
 
Last edited:
Parents, coaches, gym owners, we need to talk with athletes about how to handle social media and about what is ok to put on social media. I don't think that the U$A$F needs to make another policy they won't truly enforce. But we need to have honest and real conversations with athletes about how to treat not only people in our own gyms but others on other teams in other gyms on social media. Stuff like this is just not ok. And if this stuff is coming from a parent, may karma give you exactly what you deserve in life.





I saw that and I’m not a parent yet but it truly breaks my heart that these kids have to go through that. It is really nasty at the moment. It’s a shame that they can’t even enjoy their moment or process their pain in peace.

ETA: I hate that the anons hide behind gyms names and pictures that they probably are not associated. I can’t imagine having so much hate for gyms and people o have never met. I don’t have as much dislike for my ex than what some of these kids and adults have for some teams and he cheated. ☹️
 
I work in counseling at a HS.

98% of the physical fights that end in suspension or the arguments that end in ISS or kids in my office are all because of something someone said on IG or Snap.

Any time a parent comes to me about bullying, 99% of it is coming from online.

That is not an exaggeration.

Any time you give children with reasoning-related brain areas THAT ARE STILL DEVELOPING a platform that allows them to be somewhat anonymous or at the very least, be in the comfort of their own homes (not saying it to someone's face) you're going to have a problem.
 
Last edited:
Further:

I once read a Jay-Z quote in regards to his critics of how he does business:

"Everybody can tell you how to do it, they never did it."

So true.

So easy for Tina the Twitter Warrior on Prep Level 1.1 to be a anonymous critic of someone's performance at Worlds. They've never been there or performed at the elite level.
 
I saw that and I’m not a parent yet but it truly breaks my heart that these kids have to go through that. It is really nasty at the moment. It’s a shame that they can’t even enjoy their moment or process their pain in peace.

ETA: I hate that the anons hide behind gyms names and pictures that they probably are not associated. I can’t imagine having so much hate for gyms and people o have never met. I don’t have as much dislike for my ex than what some of these kids and adults have for some teams and he cheated. ☹️

The type of person that would do that online is the same type of person that would make up affiliation with a gym they do not go to. Please don't assume that because someone has CA/BABS/etc in their username that they go to our gym (or the same for TG, CEA, etc.)
 
This is all true, but I think it’s worth remembering that trolls like this are in the minority. Pretty much all the comments under this tweet are from people with something positive to say who understand cheerleading and would never dream of placing the blame on one kid from a 38-girl team.

Every once in awhile you get some entitled keyboard clown trying to be relevant by targeting a cheerleader, but the backlash is always quick and merciless. Last year a boy on Reckless had some anon telling him he didn’t deserve his spot on the team, and the response to defend him was immediate and hugely positive. And I’m always — always — pleasantly surprised at how little body shaming there is online. Especially on YT — which can be a racist, sexist, inbred cesspool — where if anyone even tries to say a cheerleader gained weight from one season to another, it is not tolerated. It just isn’t. Cancelled. Done.

I agree social media can be a nightmare and full of spineless cowards who hide behind anon accounts saying hateful things they’d never utter in public, but I also think the cheer community proper is overwhelmingly supportive. You could see it on the mat during awards this weekend. It was one big love fest this year as it is every year because everyone knows how hard it is to reach that level. There’s simply no room for hate among the people who are actually relevant enough to be there, and thus whose opinions actually matter. Which is good, because unfortunately there will never be a shortage of Twitter trolls. But there WILL ALWAYS be more of us to outnumber them.
 
Third:

I think we have generalized discussions about team performance here and that is okay, but when you start pointing out individuals, that's not okay.

This is different from critiquing say, Steph Curry who is part of a team but is a grown man.

These are kids. Some of them aren't even in high school. This is a youth sport. This level of criticism is ridiculous.
 
The type of person that would do that online is the same type of person that would make up affiliation with a gym they do not go to. Please don't assume that because someone has CA/BABS/etc in their username that they go to our gym (or the same for TG, CEA, etc.)


I came to the conclusion early that 99.9% aren’t affiliated with the program they use. I’m not really a CEA fan but I applauded CSP when she was able to reveal a couple of the anons true identity.
 
I came to the conclusion early that 99.9% aren’t affiliated with the program they use. I’m not really a CEA fan but I applauded CSP when she was able to reveal a couple of the anons true identity.

OOOH really? How do you even do that? She’s so talented on so many levels.
 
Gyms and coaches can have real talks with their athletes and parents on how to handle social media crap and how to be leaders in good online behavior. Parents can reinforce that at home as well. It's not just the kids. There are some parents who have questionable online behavior as well. Teaching the athletes composure and how to handle trolls is something that can translate into life skills beyond the mat. I'm just sorry it is needed now.
 
Also, the anon in question seems to be motivated by being a fan of a particular athlete?

I know that we are all fans of some pro athletes to some degree. Ex: OBJ, Steph, etc.

But being a fan of what amounts to a little kid playing a youth sport (fan pages, etc.) is a bit weird.

I know we've talked on the boards about it and there are some moms who know these people and say they actually like the attention their kids get. Or actually tried to get "cheer famous." I don't understand that. I can tell you if I opened social media and saw a soccer fan page for my son I would be livid and freaked out.

(Yes, some of us may know of names of some specific kids and may be like "awww she won Worlds." and that is different. We aren't fan page makers.)
 
Not sure how she did it but I remember it blow up because people were upset that she exposed a minors information and I believe she contacted the gym she was with too.

Yeah that seems like an oversight on her part but also... if it’s my (hypothetical) kid that someone is bullying because she’s good at something, then they’re going to get my worst. And yeah I might get some side eyes for it but if it’s not a civil or criminal offense that I can be prosecuted for, then I don’t care. It honestly seems like something I would do in a moment of frustration and anger. I don’t blame her.
 
Back