And they're basically competitive cheer teams. Which is fine. But it's not "acro" in the sense of USAG acro.
It is called Acrobatics and Tumbling, of which there is both.
Actually, there are 6 parts to it:
Event 1 – Compulsory - Each team competes identical pre-determined set of skills with a pre-determined starting value of 10.0.
There are four heats that include acro, pyramid, toss and tumbling.
Each heat can score up to a perfect 10, with the total combined event score of 40 points.
This is basically all of the events (compulsory version). You do what is prescribed, how prescribed.
Event 2 – Acro – In the acro event, teams compete in three different heats of 5, 6, and 7 element acro skills.
In the acro event, teams of typically 2-4 athletes will compete acrobatic movements demonstrating great strength, balance, technique and core from both the bases and tops.
Each heat may score up to a perfect 10 with a total combined score in this event up to 30 points.
THIS Event is kind of like Cheer Stunting.
Event 3 – Pyramid – In this event, teams compete in three individual heats of pyramids valued at up to 10 points per heat for a maximum of 30 points for the event.
Teams want to use as few athletes as possible to create the most unique and difficult pyramid. Each heat has a different requirement: inverted top, synchronized and open.
This is a little like a cheer pyramid… but when I see a girl in a tabletop on top of 2 other girls and a 4th girl does a press handstand on the knees of the 3rd girl, color me impressed.
Event 4 – Toss – The toss event is a high flying event with four athletes tossing a fifth athlete (top) high in the air, while completing flipping and/or twisting forward or backward.
Two of the three heats are solo tosses while one heat is a synchronized toss.
Each of the three toss heats may score up to 10 points each for a total maximum score for the event of up to 30 points.
Again, similar to cheer stunting.
Event 5 – Tumbling – The tumbling event shows the sheer power of each team.
Six heats construct the Tumbling Event with 10 points each for a maximum of 60 points for the event.
Athletes may compete in both the synchronized portion and in one solo pass.
In this event, tumbling combinations will feature difficulty, multiple flips, and twists in various passes with athletes tumbling both forward and backward.
This is straight up TUMBLING… They have to be synchronized on the group stuff (including stuck landings or step-out… which has to all be declared beforehand). Cheer, doesn't require you to tell them exactly what you will be doing and how you will land each skill.
Event 6 – Team Event – In this event, athletes perform synchronized choreographed skills in a 2 1/2 minute routine set to music.
Each team competes up to 24 athletes.
Routines are composed to showcase all skill sets that have been competed in the previous five events.
This event has a maximum of 110 points, making it extremely crucial to the outcome of the meet.
There is really no "cheering" to it, but I can see where people may get confused.
They get girls from the worlds of Artistic gymnastics (usually L8+), Acro gymnastics, T&T gymnastics, and cheer… but there are some girls with other experience (diving and track, in particular). For schools without a proper women's gymnastics team, this is a way for a gymnast to get a scholarship. They do recruit specifically for specialists, in addition to "All Arounders" in Acro and Tumbling.
