All-Star Competition Scheduling Thoughts

[notyourcheermom]

We have a survey at end of year, but, also, about March, HC the last couple of years has put out on Facebook, quick, name your top two favorite and one least favorite comp this year. I think she definitely took our opinion into consideration on that or heard us, anyway. The one that the majority of us said we missed was back on schedule for this year, the one the majority of us said was our least favorite was gone. A few changes for this year, but not a whole lot different from last year.

New gym this year, just have to wait and see. They did give me a heads up when we signed up that we were traveling to Dallas because you're really going to have to fly.

 

[12stepCheermom]

Yup, same reason we dropped the one at the beach. Loved that we could stay where we wanted, but too much for that little of space, and two years ago when our 4.2 was warming up and a fire alarm went on (false) it really shook everyone up. We dropped Spirit of Hope-dont know why since it is local. Loved UCA last year-but so expensive. Going to one in TN by Americheer-should be fun and maybe see new teams. Did Cheersport with whole program about 5 years ago, then just took top two teams, then last year just took worlds team. This year going with top 3 teams.
P.S. my hubby is a pilot, (and was in Air Force) so I have so much stuff with planes and such on them your gym would be a perfect fit if I was down that way!

yup. We were at both of those BATB comps. Actually American superstars does a much better job setting that venue up, it's gaining business steadily from people drooping spirit sports. I can guess why they dropped SOH, that is the single most jacked up, stupid scoresheet in the history of mankind. Example: our jr 4 had 8 standing hand hand whip hand hand tucks in the opening. We got ZERO credit for standing tumbling because the passes didn't "end in layout" and hence were "not level 4 passes". Since when are whips through legal at level three?! We hit Saturday and were in fifth because of that. So they changed those to hand hand layout for Sunday (a much easier pass) and we placed first on Sunday = third overall.

I'm not a coach but I'd lay money were only still attending that one because it is literally 30 minutes from the gym for the size it is. We get screwed by something stupid on that sheet every year. My kingdom for a universal score sheet.

 

[newcheerdad]

While we don't have input regarding the entire competition schedule at our gym, we will occasionally get polled about a particular competition that's being considered for addition/removal. I will say that it's pretty rare that we go back to a comp that we had a bad experience at the year prior.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[ACEDAD]

At ACE, Happy meets individually with each parent from all 7 gyms to make sure no one has a conflict with any competition or practice date.





/sarcasm off

 

[INeverStopCheering]

We don't solicit input, but our owners have a fairly good idea about what our parents want, which is mostly in state with a few big travels. We luck out because in Richmond alone we have the Seigal Center, Convention Center, Arthur Ashe Center and then in state is the VBCC, Ted Constant Center, Fredricksburg Convention Center, and so many stinkin others that we can get some pretty good events without having to go too far.

If we qualify for anything (this year it's the Summit) that would cause an extreme change of schedule and high costs I believe it will be discussed with the parents

 

[mommadonna]

I know it must be a daunting task for gym owners to figure out the comp schedule for the year. I wouldn't want that job. You can't please everybody all the time, and I have the utmost respect for their decisions and the thought processes that go into them. I don't know if any parents were polled on the comp schedule at our gym, but ours looks like a carbon copy of last years' with the exception of one or two small local events. That being said, I would have liked to have seen some larger nationals for teams other than levels 4 and 5. In my opinion, going to some different comps and getting to compete against some varying programs would help hold interest of younger, developing athletes. You know...give them a little taste of what's to come and maybe some motivation in the process. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, but it seems to me that kids could get bored just going to the same places and competing against the same programs year after year. I know that this could potentially add more expense, etc, and I can speculate that this may be one of the issues being considered, but personally I'd rather see one large national take the place of two small locals. Again, this is just my opinion...

 

[mommadonna]

Our owners/coaches def. take into consideration parent feedback, but they also know better than us which comps are run well, and fairly. Let's face it, all comps are not created equal! Our owner said our very first year, if she wanted to make money in All-Stars, she would start a competition company! One that we have been to for years, and was in our state and the parents liked, we are not doing this year, because of issues the last time we were there. A very popular one at the beach we are not doing bc it is not run well. I think they try and take into consideration family finances also. We know our comp schedule at tryouts in May, and the owner had a chance to add a one day comp, and she said she can't do that to families who may have already made plans. I am glad, we do it that way, although I wish we had more out of town Nationals!

You're right about some comps not being run as well as others. I'm glad our owners/coaches have this knowledge and take it into account when scheduling! One cool thing this year was getting the schedule earlier! That was a HUGE help to everyone so we could pretty much plan out the year! Families are so busy with school schedules, not to mention dealing with siblings who may be involved in other sports, etc. It's so nice to be able to plan ahead!

 

[cheergoogle]

Our gym owners ask for opinions on competitions (favorite, least favorite, did we compete enough, did we compete too much, prefer 1 or 2 day comps, etc) on the end of the year surveys. I assume they take that into consideration when planning the following year's schedule.

Last year we got the schedule at the end of August. Sounds like it will be the same this year as well.

 

[coach12]

At ACE, Happy meets individually with each parent from all 7 gyms to make sure no one has a conflict with any competition or practice date.





/sarcasm off

well, of course he should do that. i mean it's only fair....:D

 

[NCCheerMama]

yup. We were at both of those BATB comps. Actually American superstars does a much better job setting that venue up, it's gaining business steadily from people drooping spirit sports. I can guess why they dropped SOH, that is the single most jacked up, stupid scoresheet in the history of mankind. Example: our jr 4 had 8 standing hand hand whip hand hand tucks in the opening. We got ZERO credit for standing tumbling because the passes didn't "end in layout" and hence were "not level 4 passes". Since when are whips through legal at level three?! We hit Saturday and were in fifth because of that. So they changed those to hand hand layout for Sunday (a much easier pass) and we placed first on Sunday = third overall.

I'm not a coach but I'd lay money were only still attending that one because it is literally 30 minutes from the gym for the size it is. We get screwed by something stupid on that sheet every year. My kingdom for a universal score sheet.

Is American Superstars the following weekend? Because our owner stopped by (it was weekend of spring break) and she liked it muuuuuuch better. Will probably add next year, because I love staying at the beach and the venue is so close. I am pretty sure the scoresheets was why we dropped SOH. Plus they really messed us up when we had an issue on our SR5 team-kept rescheduling our time to compete when we had a medical issue, and jerked the girls around, totally throwing them off. It was a hot mess.

 

[Babs]

At ACE, Happy meets individually with each parent from all 7 gyms to make sure no one has a conflict with any competition or practice date.





/sarcasm off

You mean that phone call that I just didn't get to fast enough before the caller hung up was Happy! No matter, I emailed him my thoughts anyhow! :D

 

[12stepCheermom]

Is American Superstars the following weekend? Because our owner stopped by (it was weekend of spring break) and she liked it muuuuuuch better. Will probably add next year, because I love staying at the beach and the venue is so close. I am pretty sure the scoresheets was why we dropped SOH. Plus they really messed us up when we had an issue on our SR5 team-kept rescheduling our time to compete when we had a medical issue, and jerked the girls around, totally throwing them off. It was a hot mess.

yep. As a parent I loved American superstars. Our sr coed 4 got completely sandbagged by a restricted five but that was my only complaint

 

[CoachMandiCF]

We sit our parents down at the end of the season and ask their opinions on the past year's schedule. We get really great feedback usually. We thought our parents loved JamFest Live! but it turns out they really didn't like it so we took it off this year. We also talked about extensive travel and were surprised when the parents said they trust the coaches to make the right call on what the teams are ready for and what they're not. We definitely take into account how often and how far we travel and crossovers so that parents with kids on multiple teams aren't completely swamped with weekend travel.