High School 2018-19 Season

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Dec 9, 2012
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Anyone know when UCA usually posts their updated rules, and division changes if any?



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Last year NFHS released the updated rules in early July I believe so it will probably be around that time this year. I’m pretty sure UCA follows NFHS rules. I would imagine the skill progression charts for UCA won’t be updated until the new rules come out if they are this year.

I don’t know about divisions.
 
Last year NFHS released the updated rules in early July I believe so it will probably be around that time this year. I’m pretty sure UCA follows NFHS rules. I would imagine the skill progression charts for UCA won’t be updated until the new rules come out if they are this year.

I don’t know about divisions.

It should be sooner than that for divisions.

As for rules..

UCA follows AACCA guidelines which are much more easily updated than NFHS. NFHS typically follows suit with AACCA, albeit sometimes a year later (see also: implementation of allowing standing tucks while holding Poms became legal for AACCA in 16-17, but NFHS not until 17-18).

NFHS holds one rules meeting annually, you are correct on the approximate time of year. At that time, they look at all of the proposals and any rules surveys (example, we are sent a survey every year asking our opinion on the changes made last year, proposed changes for this year, and potentially dangerous trends we are seeing) received and basically discuss and vote.

AACCA can pretty much release their’s whenever they wish, and OCCASIONALLY release an update mid season. For most of them, changing a dangerous loophole or making a clarification is almost as simple as having a round table discussion in a morning meeting.

UCA progression grid is usually updated in August or September.
 
It should be sooner than that for divisions.

As for rules..

UCA follows AACCA guidelines which are much more easily updated than NFHS. NFHS typically follows suit with AACCA, albeit sometimes a year later (see also: implementation of allowing standing tucks while holding Poms became legal for AACCA in 16-17, but NFHS not until 17-18).

NFHS holds one rules meeting annually, you are correct on the approximate time of year. At that time, they look at all of the proposals and any rules surveys (example, we are sent a survey every year asking our opinion on the changes made last year, proposed changes for this year, and potentially dangerous trends we are seeing) received and basically discuss and vote.

AACCA can pretty much release their’s whenever they wish, and OCCASIONALLY release an update mid season. For most of them, changing a dangerous loophole or making a clarification is almost as simple as having a round table discussion in a morning meeting.

UCA progression grid is usually updated in August or September.

Do you know what rule changes they were considering?
 
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got online to look, and I'll be damned. It's earlier than I thought. Here are the changes for 18-19.

http://www.nfhs.org/sports-resource-content/spirit-rules-changes-2018-19/

ETA:

"Big Rocks"

1) Braced flips can be done to new bases/catchers now

2) Several rules that loosen up inversions, mostly allowing them to be caught by new bases/catchers who are not part of the original skill.

You still can't flip over another stunt right? Like over a group in load or anything like that.
 
You still can't flip over another stunt right? Like over a group in load or anything like that.

No stunt can travel over another stunt. I rarely say "never," but I'm going to say that you'll "never" see that legalized in high school cheer. It shouldn't be legal in All Stars. The amount of risk they allow is asinine, and basically serves no purpose. Of course, I look for the all star industry to get someone killed in the next few years, then we may all be ground bound for life.
 
No stunt can travel over another stunt. I rarely say "never," but I'm going to say that you'll "never" see that legalized in high school cheer. It shouldn't be legal in All Stars. The amount of risk they allow is asinine, and basically serves no purpose. Of course, I look for the all star industry to get someone killed in the next few years, then we may all be ground bound for life.

A double braced front flip over a load isn't dangerous at all IMO. I've seen a lot of things go wrong in allstar and terrify me but its never been a flip over a load or a shoulder sit. Especially since oftentimes that person in the load throws the flyer from hips and directs her to the catchers.

On an unrelated note, it sounds like headsprings are finally allowed in cheer now. I thought it was ridiculous it was allowed for dancers on hardwood floors who aren't trained tumblers but not for cheerleaders on mats.

I'm still waiting for flips to be allowed to be braced by double based preps.

Edit: Also, it's important to note that the vast majority of catastrophic injuries in cheer come from HS cheer, not All Star.
 
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A double based front flip over a load isn't dangerous at all IMO. I've seen a lot of things go wrong in allstar and terrify me but its never been a flip over a load or a shoulder sit. Especially since oftentimes that person in the load throws the flyer from hips and directs her to the catchers.

On an unrelated note, it sounds like headsprings are finally allowed in cheer now. I thought it was ridiculous it was allowed for dancers on hardwood floors who aren't trained tumblers but not for cheerleaders on mats.

I'm still waiting for flips to be allowed to be braced by double based preps.

Edit: Also, it's important to note that the vast majority of catastrophic injuries in cheer come from HS cheer, not All Star.

Those HS cheer catastrophic injuries are the result of coaches coaching who have no business doing so or knowledge. I call it 'youtube choreography." Kid shows up with a youtube video of some level 7.2 all star team doing some of the dumb poop allowed in allstars and suddenly it becomes a good idea for this team that can't do a basic liberty to try it. It is these coaches precisely, who FAR, FAR, FAR OUTNUMBER the ones who are qualified, who will prevent that type of skill from being allowed.

On a related note to your unrelated note: I can't imagine any situation in cheerleading where a headspring would be performed.
 
Those HS cheer catastrophic injuries are the result of coaches coaching who have no business doing so or knowledge. I call it 'youtube choreography." Kid shows up with a youtube video of some level 7.2 all star team doing some of the dumb poop allowed in allstars and suddenly it becomes a good idea for this team that can't do a basic liberty to try it. It is these coaches precisely, who FAR, FAR, FAR OUTNUMBER the ones who are qualified, who will prevent that type of skill from being allowed.

On a related note to your unrelated note: I can't imagine any situation in cheerleading where a headspring would be performed.

You're right, but "youtube choreography" is the fault of the HS cheer industry not the allstar one. If they weren't copying allstar cheer they'd be copying Acro gymnastics. The burden of responsibility for ensuring safe coaching falls on the high school cheer industry, you can't blame all star for correctly executing skills above the level high school teams should be performing.
If you want someone to blame, you should blame varsity for fighting tooth an nail for years to keep cheer from becoming recognized as an official sport because they knew coaches becoming properly credentialed and the sport becoming safely run would cut into their bottom line.
Varsity's president didn't meet in front of the Supreme Court to say cheer isn't a sport because he believed it or because saying so was best for athletes all over the country. He did so because he cared more about his bank account than he did the safety of adolescents.

Lets not misplace the blame onto successful high level teams in all star. Lets call a spade a spade.
 
You're right, but "youtube choreography" is the fault of the HS cheer industry not the allstar one. If they weren't copying allstar cheer they'd be copying Acro gymnastics. The burden of responsibility for ensuring safe coaching falls on the high school cheer industry, you can't blame all star for correctly executing skills above the level high school teams should be performing.
If you want someone to blame, you should blame varsity for fighting tooth an nail for years to keep cheer from becoming recognized as an official sport because they knew coaches becoming properly credentialed and the sport becoming safely run would cut into their bottom line.
Varsity's president didn't meet in front of the Supreme Court to say cheer isn't a sport because he believed it or because saying so was best for athletes all over the country. He did so because he cared more about his bank account than he did the safety of adolescents.

Lets not misplace the blame onto successful high level teams in all star. Lets call a spade a spade.

Cheer isn't a sport. It's a fun, athletic activity, so was freeze tag when I was kid, but it's not a sport.

All Star cheer has historically performed skills with less than adequate technique. Even now, there is absolutely zero translation between the lower level skill of a "prep level single leg stunt" and the extended single-leg stunt. In most cases, those lower levels do nothing more than allow thousands of kids to feel like they're doing something that sort of looks like the real deal. This is at the expense of learning proper technique. It's like doing "girl" pushups on your knees. Knee pushups do not translate from a biomechanical standpoint as a progression towards regular pushups. You're better off doing pushups on your hands and toes with your hands elevated. The angle reduces the load without altering the mechanics of the movement. A proper progression would be one that rewards braced extended one-leg skills and kids are never taught to perform one at prep level.

Only in the last year or two has All Stars placed an emphasis on any kind of technique stunting or otherwise. Up until about 2 years ago, it didn't matter what a tumbling skill looked like, as long as you landed on your feet. You can throw/spin a cat off a 12 foot balcony and he'll do a double twisting double back onto his feet, but I wouldn't exactly call his body position correct. Now all of a sudden it's ALL about technique, and it's causing a lot of frustration for a lot of all star coaches. I'm glad to see the change, but it was about 20 years too late IMO.
 
So our varsity team is doing a sticker chart for new skills at tumbling practice. Our JV team wants to do the same -however usually whenever we do something like that one team gets angry at the other for 'copying them'. What are some other ways to make it exciting to gain new skills (tumbling or stunting - tumbling ideas preferred) that is not the average sticker chart.
 
So our varsity team is doing a sticker chart for new skills at tumbling practice. Our JV team wants to do the same -however usually whenever we do something like that one team gets angry at the other for 'copying them'. What are some other ways to make it exciting to gain new skills (tumbling or stunting - tumbling ideas preferred) that is not the average sticker chart.


I remember a few years ago when varsity followed LSU Tiger Girls. The coach mad a skills board/chart with a list of skills in their routine. Every time a girl mastered a skill she got a check in the box. Maybe something like that and an extra incentive once they have a complete skill check off can be a motivational factor to work hard.
 
So our varsity team is doing a sticker chart for new skills at tumbling practice. Our JV team wants to do the same -however usually whenever we do something like that one team gets angry at the other for 'copying them'. What are some other ways to make it exciting to gain new skills (tumbling or stunting - tumbling ideas preferred) that is not the average sticker chart.

You have a much bigger issue if something as simple as a sticker chart is enough to cause strife within the culture of your program.

Tell them you’re going to do the progression chart for both teams, but allow each team to choose the form of their own. Maybe one team wants to make it a grid, and the other wants to do a bar graph, etc. This will allow some unity between the two teams while also giving each group their desired bit of individuality.

You might also consider taking responsibility for “stealing it” on yourself. “I thought this was such a great idea, I told JV you guys were doing one and they should too. They’re going to make theirs a “skill ladder” though because they don’t want to steal your grid.” You might find that taking this approach results in the original team just saying “they can have a grid, we don’t care.” Sometimes it’s all in the presentation.
 
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