All-Star 10's Across The Board

[AndyT_T]

I hate ugly double downs so I'm much happier to see a good clean pop off lol.

Conversely, there’s nothing I love more than a beautiful clean double down.

 

[Knowcheering]

Conversely, there’s nothing I love more than a beautiful clean double down.

Yes! Just because some teams can't do them well doesn't mean we should erase them from the sport. You could take literally every skill in cheerleading and find some teams who make a mess of them, but it doesn't mean we stop doing them.

A double down really is a good skill for comparing teams, because some teams do them better than others, some teams don't get them all the way around, etc. It's harder to double down out of a heel stretch or scale than an arabesque, so any team doing the former would stand out.

But the level of stunting has gotten to such a high level that some teams are probably just too exhausted to even double down at the end anymore.

 

[quitthedrama]

Both of my kids had a nugget year, and these were thoughts from a coach when at the end of the season I told him I'd rather my kids be on teams where their skills can be utilized, even if it meant a lower level, over and above nuggeting:

1) Putting teams together always has athletes from the strongest to the weakest. To have a nugget is to have insurance, especially when you have nuggets that coaches know are in classes working on skills.

2) Putting teams together is hard, again working from strongest down to weakest, and you don't always have a place for everyone. We still have to have a competitive routine and the alternative to nuggeting isn't that they get to do everything, it's someone having to tell you we don't have a place for your athlete.

3) Cheerleading is hard. It is a game of hitting the toughest skills while maintaining enough stamina to get through an entire routine, and the routines keep getting harder. Often "nuggeting" is a coach purposely giving an athlete a breather, coaches have done this, and we can tell when athletes need more energy going into something. Tired athletes are often injured athletes.

Not that it made me any happier both kids had nugget years, but it made me look at nuggeting differently from a team perspective and placing athletes.

There are times when a coach has no choice to have 1-2 nuggets on a team. However when the industry rewards multiple athletes standing around that is a problem. I think the scoring has reverted back to more athlete utilization, but up until recently you could have more than a full stunt group stand behind the elites, pyramid, 50%+1 in tumbling and jumps, etc. It was maddening to see a team of 22 with 3 stunts in the air scoring in the high 90s.

 

[catlady]

There are times when a coach has no choice to have 1-2 nuggets on a team. However when the industry rewards multiple athletes standing around that is a problem. I think the scoring has reverted back to more athlete utilization, but up until recently you could have more than a full stunt group stand behind the elites, pyramid, 50%+1 in tumbling and jumps, etc. It was maddening to see a team of 22 with 3 stunts in the air scoring in the high 90s.

I will preface this by stating my really competitive nature agrees with you, and since I'm really competitive, my first reaction is it's ridiculous to score them that high......However,..... we all know there's that line where if they do deduct too much, it has parents/athletes screaming about every child they feel is holding the team back and has coaches kicking kids off the team for every injury, mental block or struggle.

This is a really good topic. IMO, this is Varsity providing a place for the slightly injured, blocking, or struggling and what they feel will manage an appropriate competition intensity for child athletes, as well as, overly intense coaches, parents and fans. I am all about intense competition, but it does hit me hard when Twitter anons and fans are calling out children and posting videos. That's just a level of crazy that has to be stopped.