if you've never cheered allstar before, i'd say you're right on target
It takes about 2 to 3 years to really start to understand everything that's going on around you. Here is my personal breakdown.
First year: not sure about what's going on outside your own gym. In fact, you're not even sure other cheer gyms exist other than your own, until your first competition. This is when you get hooked.
Year Two: You start to recognize other gyms and their abilities and start getting more and more into your own gym and your own performances. The parent starts to see it too and gets more involved. Sometimes even looking up videos of other gyms in your division, just for comparison sake. The parent starts to get hooked at this point.
Year three: There's no turning back. You've tasted victory, dealt with defeat and you CRAVE more victory. You push yourself more and notice you pay less and less attention to other gyms and start to become extremely focused on self.
The parent becomes super involved. They cheer stalk each competition schedule. (guilty!)
I'd go on and on but I believe there is already a thread that explains the yearly breakdown of an allstar career for both cp and parent. Besides, you only mentioned up to 3rd year :-D lol
i cheered allstar before i had my kids (Spirit Xplosion out of Virginia Beach). Now my cp is an allstar. Her first year was mini's and her coach was my former allstar coach!! small world hah? So needless to say, I've always been interested in everything cheer related. But it wasn't until my cp started cheering that i really truly started getting into it. I'm not psycho, I'm dedicated...that's my story and I'm sticking to it lol.