All-Star After The Rings Globes And Titles Then What?

[cheermuse]

Speaking from a parents side. When the sport changed, the focus changed. When we started in all-star my CP was 5 and Worlds was kinda a big deal. It was kinda like the awards cliche "just happy to be nominated (earn a bid/compete) . At our old gym we had a IO5 team that competed at worlds, we all were excited they got the opportunity to compete at that level.

Then as all-star grew and became bigger (Mega-comps, better jackets, bigger medals, gym notoriety, etc) the rules started to change and guidelines for worlds started to become more challenging. It went from growing athletes from level 1-level 5 to seeking out the best level 5 athletes across the country via social media.

My CP is level 4 athlete and her goal was to compete at Worlds one day. At this stage not sure if that will even happen. Sometimes its not all about globing but the experience.

 

[MissCongeniality]

Speaking from a parents side. When the sport changed, the focus changed. When we started in all-star my CP was 5 and Worlds was kinda a big deal. It was kinda like the awards cliche "just happy to be nominated (earn a bid/compete) . At our old gym we had a IO5 team that competed at worlds, we all were excited they got the opportunity to compete at that level.

Then as all-star grew and became bigger (Mega-comps, better jackets, bigger medals, gym notoriety, etc) the rules started to change and guidelines for worlds started to become more challenging. It went from growing athletes from level 1-level 5 to seeking out the best level 5 athletes across the country via social media.

My CP is level 4 athlete and her goal was to compete at Worlds one day. At this stage not sure if that will even happen. Sometimes its not all about globing but the experience.

I was looking at the pictures/videos of this year's edition of my CP's former Worlds team and recognized very few kids--- as in most came from elsewhere versus being brought up through the gym.

 

[Beans100]

I was looking at the pictures/videos of this year's edition of my CP's former Worlds team and recognized very few kids--- as in most came from elsewhere versus being brought up through the gym.

I do have a lot of admiration for gyms that focus on home-grown level 5 athletes. I was looking through the Summit scores and I was shocked to see how low some of the mega gyms placed in comparison to gyms I'd never heard of.

 

[Amie815]

I find it incredibly sad that there are gyms out there that their focus is first place. They neglect to celebrate the achievements of their athletes and teams unless they earned first place. It is my hope that these are the gyms that parents will continue to leave and as a result will close down. That is not what cheer is about and is definitely not what should be taught to our children.

 

[catlady]

Being driven and competitive is a personality type, and to the D types, it is all about the globe and rings. A "competitive" sport is supposed to be about the "win", a "recreational" sport is supposed to be about "having fun". What I tend to notice more and more, are parents want their kids to be involved in a competitive sport but, then get upset when it doesn't work around their child's personality or their family life style.

 

[amy1k]

So true! I don't have a super competitive personality type, but two of my kids do (two of them don't). It has been extremely difficult over the years for my competitive kids to be teammates with non-competitive personalities (or teammates with parents with non-competitive parents)

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Being driven and competitive is a personality type, and to the D types, it is all about the globe and rings. A "competitive" sport is supposed to be about the "win", a "recreational" sport is supposed to be about "having fun". What I tend to notice more and more, are parents want their kids to be involved in a competitive sport but, then get upset when it doesn't work around their child's personality or their family life style.

As a coach, I'm somewhere between D and C. My husband is a D. We are working through a lot of our competitive nature in parenting our son whose special talent in soccer is being Most Valuable Grass Picker. We have learned to be okay with any day in which he is actively participating.

 

[Helen uk uni cheer]

So true! I don't have a super competitive personality type, but two of my kids do (two of them don't). It has been extremely difficult over the years for my competitive kids to be teammates with non-competitive personalities (or teammates with parents with non-competitive parents)

That as my issue for the 2015-26 season I am super competitive but hardly anyone else was so I hated it but had nowhere else to go.
My competitiveness can hold me back as it makes me so negative sometimes but im slowly working on it

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

What I tend to notice more and more, are parents want their kids to be involved in a competitive sport but, then get upset when it doesn't work around their child's personality or their family life style.

Quoting you again because I found this interesting because I have noticed this a little as well.

I'm not sure if it's just a school cheer thing or not, but I get a few folks at tryout clinics who are like:

"I really want my daughter to cheer for school and compete but she will be gone for four pageants over the summer so she will miss camp, we go to the Bahamas in August, and she takes a hip hop dance class three nights per week. Oh, and due to the dance schedule, she'll miss every game during football season and the first and last comp. Is that okay? Can she still cheer?"

HOW.

I also chair another school activity (Miss _______, our pageant.) I get a lot of "Becky wants to be in Miss ________ but she can't make any of the rehearsals, the mandatory meeting, and we will be going out of town for two days prior. Is that okay? Can she still be part of it?"

(Before anyone gets mad, I understand that kids can/will participate in multiple activities, but I find that more and more, people are less willing to give and take in order for kids to participate. Folks tend to want you as the coach to be the one to do the giving and taking, and be perfectly okay with it. It could be a school cheer or pageant thing, but I generally tell these folks that their child may want to find another thing to participate.)

 

[armycheermom]

Yes.

All you have to do is search #cheerlebrity or any number of those cheer related hashtags and you'll see:

*Spray tanned kids who are Youth aged but look 15.
*Kids doing their 23,546 cheer practice wear photoshoot in the skimpiest of shorts.
*Minis promoting hair products wearing outfits meant for 16 year olds.

You name it.

Not only do the parents love it, but they're the ones promoting their kids to try and get the sponsorships/running the instagram accounts/etc.

My girl just showed me an account for a SEVEN-MONTH old "cheerlebrity" on Instagram who had 1000s of followers. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I just cannot imagine putting my baby on Instagram.

And I've met people who think their kid needs to be in everything;I just think it's just a bragging type of thing to say "oh, my kid is sooooo busy! Between school, school cheer, Allstar cheer, competitive dance, gymnastics, pageants and modeling, we're always go, go, go!" I don't get it way people feel the need to burn out their kids and my kid is one who wants to do it all, but I made her pick, because there isn't a 30 hour day and a 10 day week and I refused to allow her to continually disappoint coaches and teammates because she couldn't give her all to whatever she was doing.

 

[purplecheer]

Being driven and competitive is a personality type, and to the D types, it is all about the globe and rings. A "competitive" sport is supposed to be about the "win", a "recreational" sport is supposed to be about "having fun". What I tend to notice more and more, are parents want their kids to be involved in a competitive sport but, then get upset when it doesn't work around their child's personality or their family life style.

I'm probably a D or C.

 

[MissCongeniality]

You can Google Disc testing and take it online. Results might surprise you. We did it for work. I walked in to learn I was one of two in our group who was not like the others...lol! They are all S! I'm high I and high D which makes perfect sense knowing my athletic and career background (former)

 

[Amy L]

Being driven and competitive is a personality type, and to the D types, it is all about the globe and rings. A "competitive" sport is supposed to be about the "win", a "recreational" sport is supposed to be about "having fun". What I tend to notice more and more, are parents want their kids to be involved in a competitive sport but, then get upset when it doesn't work around their child's personality or their family life style.

I just took this and I'm almost an even blend of D and C types. I'm the least competitive person you'll ever meet and I hate getting praised or having a big deal made out of my accomplishments. :D My job uses the Briggs-Myers so I've never seen this one. I found a lot of the DISC questions difficult to answer though because I didn't identify with any of the choices for a lot of them. Thought it was interesting at least.

My CP is level 4 athlete and her goal was to compete at Worlds one day. At this stage not sure if that will even happen. Sometimes its not all about globing but the experience.

This is us. My daughter loves competing and of course she likes to win but she didn't start cheer until pretty late. So I think she realizes it would just be a huge deal to go to Summit or something. I think she should be aiming to get full level 3 or 4 skills by the time she graduates from high school. That way if she wants to cheer in college those would still be enough to get into many programs. It's good to have stretch goals and I would never discourage her from setting a goal to compete at Worlds. But there's lots of other things for her to work on first.

Someone mentioned that Worlds is top 1-2% of all athletes and I think it's important to remember that. Just because that 1-2% is highly visible now with all the social media doesn't mean it's the norm. I think a lot of parents need to accept that no matter how many privates/extra classes/expensive gyms it still might not be their kid who goes to Worlds. Let alone win it.

We haven't been in the cheer world very long, so I don't know why cheer is like this. Most people wouldn't expect their kid who plays soccer or swims to go to like, the Olympics before they graduate high school. So it's hard for me to understand why Worlds or Summit is such an expectation for so many parents and athletes.

 

[SL&AM]

My girl just show me an account for a SEVEN-MONTH old "cheerlebrity" on Instagram who had 1000s of followers. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I just cannot imagine putting my baby on Instagram.

And I've met people who think their kid needs to be in everything;I just think it's just a bragging type of thing to say "oh, my kid is sooooo busy! Between school, school cheer, Allstar cheer, competitive dance, gymnastics, pageants and modeling, we're always go, go, go!" I don't get it way people feel the need to burn out their kids and my kid is one who wants to do it all, but I made her pick, because there isn't a 30 hour day and a 10 day week and I refused to allow her to continually disappoint coaches and teammates because she couldn't give her all to whatever she was doing.

I definitely agree with you that it's a new form of parent bragging to have their kids way too overscheduled. There is a mom at our school who is constantly throwing out sentences like that and when she finally realized I had one in AS Cheer and one in AS Dance (she didn't realize it was a SN team) around the time CP took up running (which is individual so she fits it in when she can and we let her dictate it completely) she looked at me for support one time with a, "Oh you must understand too," type comment and I shut that down really fast. I'm incredibly picky about what I say my girl's can commit to because they have to have a primary and if a secondary thing fits than we'll work around that---but it's why CP doesn't do soccer, basketball, softball or any other ball type sport because it would mean a hit against cheer and she won't do it.

 

[MomMomMamaMom]

Quoting you again because I found this interesting because I have noticed this a little as well.

I'm not sure if it's just a school cheer thing or not, but I get a few folks at tryout clinics who are like:

"I really want my daughter to cheer for school and compete but she will be gone for four pageants over the summer so she will miss camp, we go to the Bahamas in August, and she takes a hip hop dance class three nights per week. Oh, and due to the dance schedule, she'll miss every game during football season and the first and last comp. Is that okay? Can she still cheer?"

HOW.

I also chair another school activity (Miss _______, our pageant.) I get a lot of "Becky wants to be in Miss ________ but she can't make any of the rehearsals, the mandatory meeting, and we will be going out of town for two days prior. Is that okay? Can she still be part of it?"

(Before anyone gets mad, I understand that kids can/will participate in multiple activities, but I find that more and more, people are less willing to give and take in order for kids to participate. Folks tend to want you as the coach to be the one to do the giving and taking, and be perfectly okay with it. It could be a school cheer or pageant thing, but I generally tell these folks that their child may want to find another thing to participate.)

I feel like it is a side effect of an entitled generational pull towards the concept that we should no longer HAVE to prioritize anything. The world should all be ours ( or our childrens') for the taking. Individual needs take precedence over community, and God forbid we ever have to think of the impact our decisions or actions should have on anyone else. It is so discouraging....