All-Star Anyone Else Notice Alot Of 12 Year Old Flyers On The Floor?

[yourfavoritebackspot]

I understood you to mean you are extra fierce. Which looks like is always welcome at your location.

I think that if you work hard enough and your skill level is equal or close, with your maturity and experience a smart coach would pick you over a younger athlete. At least that's what I would do.

aww thanks Shark Dad.. I think im needed way more in the backing field and being a main. I dont mind. Its kind of been this way for a few years now. Maybe when I become senior age.. since I have stopped growing :) always hopefull. lol and my location sorry its in our junior 4 music, i dig it :)

 

[tgfam]

Finally got through this thread so I can post. . .

What this thread reminds me of is respect.

Respect for people's opinions and the points they are trying to make. If you're not sure of that that point is, just ask before you decide to disagree, get offended, or worse yet. . .call the opinon stupid. I read about many people coming from different angles but by whittling away at each other's different experiences and different wordings it can stay a comon discussion

Respect for the many decisions that coaches have to make
- What if a coach only has 60 total athletes for 3 teams so there are only a few choices as to who can be on what team? The senior age girls HAVE to be on the senior team
- What if the smaller girl is one of the only 5 girls on a team who can fly? Then the coach has to decide which group to put them on and if they are not a very skilled girl, maybe the larger, experienced bases are the ones who HAVE to base her to make the stunt successful (I am assuming we all want the kids to be successful, not just look good according to our standards)
- What if a large gym can choose larger flyers but they need to be competitive in the division and/or want to go to worlds? I think the logical choice any of us would make is to but the slightly younger (legal aged) athlete who has the better tumbling skills. If you lost your spot to that athlete, you have a choice to get in the gym and work harder.

Repect for younger flyers
- They are working just has hard as anyone else to be on the mat. It doesn't always look like we want it to , but those athletes deserve just as much credit. Many of them want it, others feel a huge amount of stress trying to impress or live up to their older cheer-sisters' expectations.

Finally respect for people coming from different backgrounds (both cheer and location)
- I've seen terms like fetus, beast, etc used in many different ways. When I see them, or anything else that can look derogatory, I look to see if the person had malicious intent--then I PM them and ask to make sure. I try not to blast them directly unless I know they are trying to be mean on purpost.

What a well thought out post. I couldn't agree more with the entirety of this post! Here's a shimmy and a bump for such a mature and well thought out comment!

 

[SharkDad]

aww thanks Shark Dad.. I think im needed way more in the backing field and being a main. I dont mind. Its kind of been this way for a few years now. Maybe when I become senior age.. since I have stopped growing :) always hopefull. lol and my location sorry its in our junior 4 music, i dig it :)

That is such a great attitude to have. There are many reasons other athletes get a spot over somebody else. Rarely have I really seen "just cause they look good" as the reason. "Works harder", "better tumbler", "better body control" are usually why IF I actually decide to ask and find the real reason.

I have seen many athletes decide they want to get back to being flyer, go to the gym, take some flying privates or attend a few clinics and get their spots back.

 

[BubbleToes]

My point is that plenty of people use the terms and have no bad intent at all. They don't bother me.

The day someone calls a baby shark a fetus you get a tail whip to the face. . . it's pup

There ya go! So for your team, they're PUPS!

 

[The Sixth]

As someone who is married to one, she always found it funny.

Ha! I guess different strokes for different folks. It just gives me flashbacks to the fierce tranny thread.

 

[yourfavoritebackspot]

That is such a great attitude to have. There are many reasons other athletes get a spot over somebody else. Rarely have I really seen "just cause they look good" as the reason. "Works harder", "better tumbler", "better body control" are usually why IF I actually decide to ask and find the real reason.

I have seen many athletes decide they want to get back to being flyer, go to the gym, take some flying privates or attend a few clinics and get their spots back.

Thank you. Merry Christmas :)

 

[King]

Ha! I guess different strokes for different folks. It just gives me flashbacks to the fierce tranny thread.

Good point.

So calling someone a tranny fetus could be REAL bad.

 

[cheermommaRN]

As a mom to a "peanut" I don't take offense to anything said in the thread. If the kid is age legal then it makes sense to put your smallest up, every other acrobatic sport does it that way...as long as they have body control and can hang with the senior kids. What I can't stand is that one 4 year old on the Open teams that is being held up like a level 2, sitting back on her bases, busted tumbling, low jumps....basically obvious that she should be on a mini 2 and not an open 5. And it's not that it makes me "mad" it makes me face palm...like why???
My "peanut" is the smallest on her Jr 2 team and she came from a mini 1, it has been a big change for her. Longer practices, faster 8 counts, more is expected from her...it took her all summer to learn the "Spirit" way of doing things. On top of that they tried to fly her...she spazzed and they pulled her (rightfully so, she was a danger to herself and her bases). Now that she has "grown" and settled in they have put her in the pyramid and she has threatened to cling to her base like a spider monkey if they try to take it away. The younger kids have learned that they have to fight for their spots and it's no longer about rainbows and unicorns like tiny/mini division.

 

[ChEeRxxLoVe]

I feel that while sometimes 12 year old flyers may be beneficial/an advantage in terms of size/ability to keep them in the air because they are smaller, sometimes (clearly not in all cases) you sacrifice a maturity level of an overall older "senior" team. I have seen in several cases where a few young 12 year olds had lead to a lot of bickering within the team as well as not necessarily being able to handle the pressure, etc.

Obviously there are mature 12 year olds, and very immature 18 year olds, but i'm just saying with all the advantages, there also comes some disadvantages in any situation.

 

[soFIERCE08]

I feel that while sometimes 12 year old flyers may be beneficial/an advantage in terms of size/ability to keep them in the air because they are smaller, sometimes (clearly not in all cases) you sacrifice a maturity level of an overall older "senior" team. I have seen in several cases where a few young 12 year olds had lead to a lot of bickering within the team as well as not necessarily being able to handle the pressure, etc.

Obviously there are mature 12 year olds, and very immature 18 year olds, but i'm just saying with all the advantages, there also comes some disadvantages in any situation.

i agree with this. from experience, i know that it can be difficult to be 17 years old and have to be on the same team as kids that are way younger than that. it leads to a divided team with separate cliques rather than a completely bonded team. it made it hard to plan team outings . and then the little girls would get upset when one of the older kids would yell at them.

in my opinion, senior needs to be 14 and up. the maturity difference between 14 and 18 is a much smaller difference than 12 and 18.

 

[King]

Maybe sometimes the trends I see are leading to situations I dislike more than what is currently happening. So, with it being said that their are exceptions to every rule, the thing I like least is when a younger individual is used for building skills to make up for lack of technique (like cheermommaRN said). A small girl who is 18 (my wife is 4'10.5 [and let me tell you how important that .5 is] and 91 pounds soaking wet) is in no way shape or form cheating, wrong, or against anything in cheerleading.

So what I do see happening is girls will start entering the 'flyer zone' when they hit about 12. Their flying career might be brief, but the fact that they are little allows teams to compete certain skills in a much faster and easier fashion than learning the proper technique. It reminds me of how gymnasts scorn cheerleaders for cheerleader tumbling. They find ways to learn it faster and throw it faster, possibly skipping a couple vital steps. Cheerleading in the past couple years has finally come around to tumbling with technique... but now we are leaving stunting with technique. I would prefer not to make this journey and end right back where we are.

And a couple points:

Someone said making this age change would lead to many gyms struggling to put together Worlds teams. At the same time other individuals say Worlds has too many teams as it is. Would this not solve the problem?

What about the other divisions? Keep them open. Worlds is the carrot that most gyms will aspire to. If they continually use 8 year olds to fly on their open 4 they will never be able to achieve Worlds status. It is one competition out of the year. Most middle gyms can maybe send one team. Worlds will become like the Olympics and people will truly have to push and aspire to be there.

Last: it is a lot like IOC5. Things will not change if you keep the situation setup to stay the same. If you want people to stop flying little (because of age) girls make the rules change. If you are fine with it, don't be upset when everyone begins doing it. Because there are plenty of those who choose not to do it in hopes things make a turn for the better. But if they decide nothing will change and they join in on the trend it could be like the US using pro players for the 96 Olympics.

QUICK ASIDE - I do think it is quite wonderful that we have a sport were short and littleness is celebrated. It means there are a place for those that are more pocket sized.

 

[BlueCat]

Edited out . . .

 

[ShoWStoppeR]

You cheer with a blonde wig? I learn something new everyday on here.

you got me, i'm a natural ginger.

 

[ShoWStoppeR]

Maybe sometimes the trends I see are leading to situations I dislike more than what is currently happening. So, with it being said that their are exceptions to every rule, the thing I like least is when a younger individual is used for building skills to make up for lack of technique (like cheermommaRN said). A small girl who is 18 (my wife is 4'10.5 [and let me tell you how important that .5 is] and 91 pounds soaking wet) is in no way shape or form cheating, wrong, or against anything in cheerleading.

So what I do see happening is girls will start entering the 'flyer zone' when they hit about 12. Their flying career might be brief, but the fact that they are little allows teams to compete certain skills in a much faster and easier fashion than learning the proper technique. It reminds me of how gymnasts scorn cheerleaders for cheerleader tumbling. They find ways to learn it faster and throw it faster, possibly skipping a couple vital steps. Cheerleading in the past couple years has finally come around to tumbling with technique... but now we are leaving stunting with technique. I would prefer not to make this journey and end right back where we are.

And a couple points:

Someone said making this age change would lead to many gyms struggling to put together Worlds teams. At the same time other individuals say Worlds has too many teams as it is. Would this not solve the problem?

What about the other divisions? Keep them open. Worlds is the carrot that most gyms will aspire to. If they continually use 8 year olds to fly on their open 4 they will never be able to achieve Worlds status. It is one competition out of the year. Most middle gyms can maybe send one team. Worlds will become like the Olympics and people will truly have to push and aspire to be there.

Last: it is a lot like IOC5. Things will not change if you keep the situation setup to stay the same. If you want people to stop flying little (because of age) girls make the rules change. If you are fine with it, don't be upset when everyone begins doing it. Because there are plenty of those who choose not to do it in hopes things make a turn for the better. But if they decide nothing will change and they join in on the trend it could be like the US using pro players for the 96 Olympics.

QUICK ASIDE - I do think it is quite wonderful that we have a sport were short and littleness is celebrated. It means there are a place for those that are more pocket sized.

king, you said pocket sized. hehehe. i immediately thought of polly pockets. just saying.

 

[King]

king, you said pocket sized. hehehe. i immediately thought of polly pockets. just saying.

Names I have said in relation to small flyers (all with a sense of kidding and praise):

Pocket Size
Peanut
Sesame Seed
Polly Pocket
Travel Size
Fetus