All-Star All Star Gyms With Open Teams Near Boston

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Jul 15, 2019
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Hi everyone! I'm looking to find a gym with an open team near Boston, MA. Preferably NT since i don't tumble anymore, but would be okay with a regular team if they'd accept me without tumbling. I can stunt level 5/6 and I'm a main base. If you know of any places that have spots open, please let me know!
 
East celebrity elite..
Tewksbury..
full disclosure. I’m not part of this gym. But my ex sister in laws children cheer there . Loved it!
 
IDK the area that well, and hope you find a team; I just wanted to point out "NT" and the use of "regular team" is part of a problem of growing respect for the NT division.
 
IDK the area that well, and hope you find a team; I just wanted to point out "NT" and the use of "regular team" is part of a problem of growing respect for the NT division.

Honestly, how much more respect does the NT division need? It's already popular. New NT teams emerge every season and more gyms seem to abandon working on Level 6 tumbling in favor of not tumbling at all. Years of tumbling practices/privates are wasted once the athletes reach the Level 6 Worlds team, which is quite ironic. Some gyms may have a legitimate use for a NT team (athletes may be too injured to tumble anymore, or have mental blocks, or lack tumbling ability all together, etc), for other gyms, it's inhibiting their growth and development because their athletes who actually know how to tumble have no incentive to learn Level 6 skills when all their gym ever enters is NT.

Tumbling is arguably the main thing that differentiates Allstar from school/sideline cheer (where you see some stunting, but usually not much tumbling). Tumbling might be the main thing that draws kids to Allstar gyms instead of their town competition teams (schools/rec programs often don't have tumbling equipment and spring floors, hence you don't tend to see much tumbling unless they learned it from an Allstar program). It's very important that we continue encouraging gyms to actually tumble and strive to compete in a tumbling division at Worlds instead of just settling for NT.

I have been trying to think of another sport that I can equate the NT division to. The closest thing I can come up with is a figure skating routine that has spinning/footwork but no jumping. No such division exists in the Olympics. If they were to create one, many skaters would probably abandon jumping because it's much easier and less taxing to do a figure skating routine without jumps. This might eventually lead to the decline of the sport, because without jumps, skating loses its actual identity and appeal. Likewise, without tumbling, I don't think cheer would be nearly as popular as it is today. Let's face it, some kids like being on a NT team not because they can't tumble, but because it's easier to not have to. World Championship level sports are not supposed to be made easier. I wish they'd move the NT divisions to Summit.

I don't think that person referring to NT as "not a regular division" was trying to be insulting, it's just reality. A giant chunk of Allstar cheer's identity is missing from NT routines.
 
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Honestly, how much more respect does the NT division need? New NT teams emerge every season and more gyms seem to abandon working on Level 6 tumbling in favor of not tumbling at all. Years of tumbling practices/privates are wasted once the athletes reach the Level 6 Worlds team, which is quite ironic. Some gyms may have a legitimate use for a NT team (athletes may be too injured to tumble anymore, or have mental blocks, or lack tumbling ability all together, etc), for other gyms, it's inhibiting their growth and development because their athletes who actually know how to tumble have no incentive to learn Level 6 skills when all their gym ever enters is NT.

Tumbling is arguably the main thing that differentiates Allstar from school/sideline cheer (where you see some stunting, but usually not much tumbling). Tumbling might be the main thing that draws kids to Allstar gyms instead of their town competition teams (schools/rec programs often don't have tumbling equipment and spring floors, hence you don't tend to see much tumbling unless they learned it from an Allstar program). It's very important that we continue encouraging gyms to actually tumble and strive to compete in a tumbling division at Worlds instead of just settling for NT.

I have been trying to think of another sport that I can equate the NT division to. The closest thing I can come up with is a figure skating routine that has spinning/footwork but no jumping. No such division exists in the Olympics. If they were to create one, many skaters would probably abandon jumping because it's much easier and less taxing to do a figure skating routine without jumps. I figure this would eventually lead to the decline of the sport, because without jumps, skating loses its actual identity and appeal. Likewise, without tumbling, I don't think cheer would be nearly as popular as it is today. Let's face it, some kids like being on a NT team because it's much easier to not have to tumble. World Championship level sports are not supposed to be easy. I wish they'd move the NT divisions to Summit.

I don't think that person referring to NT as "not a regular division" was trying to be insulting, it's just reality. A giant chunk of Allstar cheer's identity is missing from NT routines.
I don't want to touch most of this post, but who is saying NT is easy? That's a bit mind-blowing to me.
 
I don't want to touch most of this post, but who is saying NT is easy? That's a bit mind-blowing to me.

It's definitely not easy, Level 6 stunting is hard. But it's easier and less draining to stunt when you don't also have to do, say, a couple running passes, a standing pass, and a standing full in between all the stunting. If you took all the tumbling out of my routine, I could have gotten through it a lot easier and wouldn't have had to work on my stamina as much. I could have spent less time at the gym too if I didn't need to bother working on an entire aspect of the sport anymore. Overall, it would have been an easier route to Worlds. The NT crowd is not going to like people saying a routine without tumbling is easier to get through, but I figure for most people who have experience tumbling it's an accurate statement.

ETA: I can understand some of the reasoning for having the NT division, but its growing popularity and the way we allow this division at Worlds seems a bit concerning for the future of the sport as a whole. I've seen some good tumblers stop tumbling, not because they can't or don't want to do it anymore, but because their gym only enters NT. There's no way of knowing, but I'd be curious to know how many athletes have Level 6 tumbling on some of these NT teams (or could have obtained Level 6 tumbling had there been more incentive to).
 
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It's definitely not easy, Level 6 stunting is hard. But it's easier and less draining to stunt when you don't also have to do, say, a couple running passes, a standing pass, and a standing full in between all the stunting. If you took all the tumbling out of my routine, I could have gotten through it a lot easier and wouldn't have had to work on my stamina as much. I could have spent less time at the gym too if I didn't need to bother working on an entire aspect of the sport anymore. Overall, it would have been an easier route to Worlds. The NT crowd is not going to like people saying a routine without tumbling is easier to get through, but I figure for most people who have experience tumbling it's an accurate statement.

ETA: I can understand some of the reasoning for having the NT division, but its growing popularity and the way we allow this division at Worlds seems a bit concerning for the future of the sport as a whole. I've seen some good tumblers stop tumbling, not because they can't or don't want to do it anymore, but because their gym only enters NT. There's no way of knowing, but I'd be curious to know how many athletes have Level 6 tumbling on some of these NT teams.
Stunting was always significantly more tiring than tumbling, and it wasn't even close. Tumbling was like a break from all the energy stunting required.
 
Stunting was always significantly more tiring than tumbling, and it wasn't even close. Tumbling was like a break from all the energy stunting required.

I always get extra nervous during stunts. Stunt falls usually means a big deduction and the raw goes down.
 
Stunting was always significantly more tiring than tumbling, and it wasn't even close. Tumbling was like a break from all the energy stunting required.

I could see that. That will differ per person based on the level of difficulty of the tumbling and stunting you're doing, stunt position, etc.

But what is easier, putting up a stunt as soon as the music turns on, or putting up a stunt right after doing a standing full and a two to double? The NT divisions exist because of the general feeling that Level 6 stunting is easier to obtain than level 6 tumbling. Overall, I think it's fair to say a routine where you don't have to tumble is easier than one where you have to both stunt and tumble.

I'm not saying a NT routine is a walk in the park and that everyone is talented enough to stunt at Level 6. But I don't think the original poster was insulting the NT division by referring to it as not a regular division. Tumbling divisions and NT are not the same.
 
As someone who has recently moved from tumbling to a NT team (I'm very old and am happy to be done with tumbling), NT is a different beast. I've had up to 5 tumbling 'passes' (jumps, standing, running) but still had a few chances to breathe while others tumbled, or while I moved from finishing a pass to the next section while others had already stunts. In NT, there are no breaks where someone else is tumbling and you're waiting your turn. It's a shorter routine, but if I get 4 counts to breathe at some point, I'm ecstatic. Tumbling routines feel like interval training. Go hard, 8 count break, repeat. NT is 2 straight mins sprint with no breathing time. Both are hard, just in slightly different ways
 
Honestly, how much more respect does the NT division need?

Just my opinion; it could have been worded better. Like most things, sometimes education in speaking terms is key. I personally think the NT division is great and am at about a 50/50 stance that it could maybe be a Summit division vs Worlds division.

I'm too old and injured to ever compete in an elite tumbling division, despite being an extremely elite tumbler in my prime; but I would join a NT in a heart beat if I had the time. Its HARD to stunt at an elite level that long, and I think it does deserve respect as a division. I don't disagree it may not be AS elite as a tumbling division, but still an athlete division.
 
I have been trying to think of another sport that I can equate the NT division to. The closest thing I can come up with is a figure skating routine that has spinning/footwork but no jumping. No such division exists in the Olympics. If they were to create one, many skaters would probably abandon jumping because it's much easier and less taxing to do a figure skating routine without jumps. This might eventually lead to the decline of the sport, because without jumps, skating loses its actual identity and appeal.
I know you weren't going for an exact comparison, but I just wanted to point out that Ice Dancing is an olympic sport. It's literally figure skating footwork/spinning without jumps. And it's just as fun and appealing, at least to me.
 
I know you weren't going for an exact comparison, but I just wanted to point out that Ice Dancing is an olympic sport. It's literally figure skating footwork/spinning without jumps. And it's just as fun and appealing, at least to me.

You’re right, I didn’t think of ice dancing. Except ice dancing is classified as a separate and very different discipline from singles skating— there are many lifts in ice dancing, and the footwork is more complicated/detailed/difficult than singles skating. So I’d say singles skating is mainly jumps and spins, whereas ice dancing is more of a literal dance routine on ice with difficult footwork sequences and lifts.

So I guess I’d equate the Non-Tumbling division to an ice dance routine that leaves out the lifts (or the footwork sequences) and just does half of the expected elements.

As I said before, I can’t think of another sport where I can make a perfect direct comparison to the NT division. NT feels like a somewhat watered down version of a “regular” division, and many NT athletes will readily admit that. They’re in this division because they can’t handle doing the tumbling, for whatever reason, so I get why the division exists.

The question is, should NT be at Worlds and placed on an equal pedestal as regular divisions that are indeed tumbling and doing the full set of expected skills for a Level 6 cheer routine. And by having NT at Worlds, how many athletes end up on these teams that actually can tumble but stop doing so because they don’t need it anymore. I’m sure there are many athletes on NT teams with at least Level 4 tumbling. And will this have an impact on the future of the sport. Is this a reason why there are so few Level 5 teams, because kids are just going from Level 4 to a NT Level 6. And by giving them this easier road to Worlds, is this possibly going to lead to an eventual decline in the number of “regular” Level 6 teams. It poses many questions.
 
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Hi everyone! I'm looking to find a gym with an open team near Boston, MA. Preferably NT since i don't tumble anymore, but would be okay with a regular team if they'd accept me without tumbling. I can stunt level 5/6 and I'm a main base. If you know of any places that have spots open, please let me know!
CheerSport Sharks New England has an open NT team. They are just south of Boston in Weymouth. Great coaches.
 
As I said before, I can’t think of another sport where I can make a perfect direct comparison to the NT division. NT feels like a somewhat watered down version of a “regular” division, and many NT athletes will readily admit that. They’re in this division because they can’t handle doing the tumbling, for whatever reason, so I get why the division exists.

The question is, should NT be at Worlds and placed on an equal pedestal as regular divisions that are indeed tumbling and doing the full set of expected skills for a Level 6 cheer routine. And by having NT at Worlds, how many athletes end up on these teams that actually can tumble but stop doing so because they don’t need it anymore. I’m sure there are many athletes on NT teams with at least Level 4 tumbling. And will this have an impact on the future of the sport. Is this a reason why there are so few Level 5 teams, because kids are just going from Level 4 to a NT Level 6. And by giving them this easier road to Worlds, is this possibly going to lead to an eventual decline in the number of “regular” Level 6 teams. It poses many questions.

In the Olympics you have Nordic Combined, however, they have the events of Ski Jumping and Cross Country separate, as well. I can't speak for everyone, but I have never watched a Ski Jumping event and said, "Wow, that's really water downed, they don't deserve to be on an equal pedestal as the Nordic Combined athletes."

As a parent, now fan perspective: #1, AS is primarily a youth sport. #2, sports evolve and expand for a multitude of reasons such as: athlete safety, long term health, insurance, cost, individual preference/enjoyment, global participation #3, youth sports have to fill the venues in which they compete to be profitable versus pro sports that have sponsors paying millions for ad spots. If youth sports have to increase or decrease divisions to fill those venues one more or less day to accommodate sport growth.... well, there you go. Lastly, NT lifts and tosses people for a couple of minutes, with absolutely no breaks or breathers while their team mates go tumbling by, meanwhile, I can barely get a 40 lb bucket of kitty litter in and out of my grocery cart. I'm one of the many that is extremely impressed with these athletes, whether there's tumbling, or not.
 
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