Parents Cheer and Tumbling

[Panda-girl's Mom]

Daughter had another cheer competition this weekend. Both my daughter and I were getting very fustrated with her cheerteam. They were going to be missing several girls so they dropped out of the all around (where they do stunts and tumbling) they were just doing a cheer dance, daughter was not at all happy with this. On top of that they are having trouble getting time in the school gym so they have been practicing in the school cafeteria and the last practice the coaches were not able to make it ( they are basically volunteers) so the older 8th grader lead the practice. Daughter likes cheer I think basically because it is a socail thing with her school friends which is fine she is having fun but I am so used to watching gymnastic meets which were at a whole different level than this cheer. I mentioned several times about daughter trying out for an all stsr cheer team but she says she does not want to. I think she likes the fact that she can do other activites and she likes being a part of the school team.
So we are at the competition I am waiting for her team to do their dance(daughter say she is not allowed to tumbling) when they come out to do their dance on the floor daughter leads them in with a ROBHSBHS that looked pretty good. I quess because it was before the dance so that was permitted. Daughter had the biggest smile on her faceface. This is surprising since this was the gymnast last year who hated floor and had a lot of trouble tumbling due to pain growing and I also believe fear issues. So after the competition daughter announces she wants to go back to her old gym for tumbling classes so she could get back her back tuck and other things. I said well maybe you want to go to cheer class at a gym that has all star cheer, she says why would I go back to a different gym. Then I reminded her it would just be tumbling she would not be able to do the other events( she really liked bars and beam not floor). For now she says she wants to go back to help her cheerleading so I told her she can ask her old coach if they have any room in the tumbling class. So we will see, I can not figure her out I had thought one of the reasons she quit gymnastics was because of that back tuck. She is certainly not getting any pressure from the cheer coaches to do this since she and another girl are the only ones who can even do a backhandspring but I have seen girls in the cheer competitions do them most land on their knees funny the ones who do them well are girls who were former gymnasts ( I know a lot of them from being on my daughters former gymnastic team. Stay tuned to see if she gets that back tuck back.

 

[CreateMagic]

Good luck to your daughter getting that tuck! Maybe she will have better luck now that the pressure is off and she has chosen to get the skill herself.

I would be very wary of this cheer program though--having an 8th grader run practice? HUGE red flag. That is a safety and liability issue. They should not be practicing without a coach or at least someone over the age of 21, at the very least, and the AACCA recommendation is not to practice without appropriate matting either. Would you let your daughter participate in a gym practice with a 13-year-old running the practice? Probably not.

Could you take her for a trial to the all-star gym? Just try it out and see what she thinks? If she really wants to cheer, this is the safest way to go, especially these days. Ask about their certifications. Coaches should be USASF certified at least to the level they are coaching, which can be from level 1-6. AACCA certification is also good, and of course, First Aid and CPR certification. Stay to check out their coaching methods and progressions. See how they place at competitions--lower level teams particularly (it is nearly impossible to place well at big comps without very solid basics and maxing out the difficulty of that particular level).

Sorry if I just went off-topic. That scenario of the squad scares me a bit. Seems like an accident waiting to happen.

BTW, if they had entered as a non-tumbling, non-building squad, that robhs would have been a major deduction, probably a disqualification. If you were told something different, the coaches are either lying to you, or they don't know what they are talking about.

 

[bogwoppit]

Cheer coaches here have to be fully qualified by the national federation of coaches. Even teachers cannot run cheer teams in Quebec.

I also wouldn't be happy with a grade 8 student running cheer practices.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

Just to clarify they were only doing the dance with the 8th graders leading the practice and daughter said because she tumbled before the music started that there was no deduction. I am wondering if because it is regulated by the archdioses catholic youth program that the regulations are more lax. I know that the other sports that my daughter does through school are run by volunteers mostly parents, they might not be great coaches but they are generally very kind and p shositive with the kids. This seems okay for the other sports but cheering is so dangerous that it makes me very unconfortable which is why I probally held off my daughter doing this for so long. I would much more prefer her to go to a regular all star cheeer gym but she wants to be with her school. I also asked her again why does she really want to go back to her old gym and do tumbling. She told me she wants to try out for the high school team this is the one that is the best in the area and nationally known I believe you need certain skill such as tucks to even make the team. I am wondering is high school cheer more regulated. She still has 2 more years so she has time but she is still insisting that she wants to do tumbling at her old gym and she wants to talk to her old coach. Do you think maybe she just misses her old gym I know a lot of team girls go back and do tumbling since the recr classes at the gym are beyond their skill level. I do not know if this is a good thing or bad thing but at least I know she will be in good hands there.

 

[GymnastJoy]

My dd does school cheer (along with gymnastics) to be with her friends. Her program is also run by volunteers- parents, college age, and even high school age girls. Although my dd is younger, her program sounds pretty similar to yours. She is the only tumbler and depending on the rules of the competition (and floor) she may tumble before the music into the routine. Or else she does a forward and a backward pass while the rest of the team is getting in formation. Dd enjoys it but now that she is moving up the levels in gymnastics not sure how much longer she can do both. But I do like it for her being with school friends and as a back-up in case she quits gymnastics one day. If I were in your shoes, I would also hope that dd would pursue a more structured program but that is probably because we are both used to the structure of gymnastics. If your dd stays with cheer in any capacity, it probably makes sense to pursue a tumbling class. It leaves the door open if she does try out for all-star or high school cheer one day. Glad to hear that there is life after gym. Thanks for sharing her story.

 

[DbacksMom75]

I don't know where your located but I would look for a reputable all star gym to take her to. They are safe and will train her tumbling to cheer (everything from slap/clap to landing is different). We moved from gymnastics to cheer almost 3 years ago, back in the Fall she had a moment where she thought she wanted to go back to gymnastics but one class made her realize that she really didn't miss it that much. When we moved to cheer she had to relearn her tumbling because 1. she didn't want to wear shoes and 2. she would finish every pass. If she really likes cheer but is getting frustrated with the lack of commitment, then she would really enjoy the competitive nature of all star. With a roundoff backhandspring tuck she would be level 3 which involves fully extended one legged stunts, so you want to make sure they check out credential wise. Good Luck with whatever she decides!