The whole crossover, sandbagging, stacking issue is so hard. I have been thinking a great deal about the topic this season. We started in a very small gym that would not have been able to field even one team given the new age restrictions. They simply wouldn't have been there. Forget about the skill level. There were about twenty nine athletes total from the ages of 8-16. They had enough bhs to have a majority and they competed as a S2. They did well. They were mainly doing good sized one day comps and they held their own at two day comps.
Now we are at a much larger gym (I don't know what classification they would really fall into) and there are many athletes of all ages and skills. We have crossovers but it isn't through the roof. Many people just aren't willing to pay for it. There are always instances of an athlete filling in due to illness or injury. For the most part the teams seem to be put together very well in terms of the skill set and without a crazy amount of crossovers. A team that is large this year may very well be small next year depending on the athletes that try out. Sometimes crossovers are needed to fill one or two positions. For example if you have two males that should be on a coed four but you really need four to be competitive in that division. My CP is crossing this year. She is a flyer on a SR5 and she is a side base on a Y4. She wanted to learn to base because she hopes to compete on a Worlds team one day and she knows she will keep growing (as she should) and may eventually be too large to continue flying. She knew that if she had to go from flying to basing at a higher level it would be a big learning curve if she hadn't based before. So when they opportunity came for her to base L4 she jumped on it.
I feel that our gym does a very good job of building their teams based on the talent they have. They seem to place athletes on the appropriate level. There are minimum tumbling requirements they use for each level but they are also building teams based on stunting, jumps, base, backspot, flyer, etc. Just because an athlete has a running tuck and two standing bhs that doesn't automatically place them on a L3 team. The coaches are looking for all of the necessary skills performed with good execution. Sometimes there is a need for an athlete in a stunting position that maybe isn't quite there yet on the tumbling. Maybe they are still working that full but are needed for stunting on the R5.
This season I have seen so many amazing teams on all levels. I have been feeling though that there is a new trend upon us that maybe everyone hasn't realized. Not anyone in particular but just sort of as a whole. Or maybe I am the one that is really late to the party. I have seen so many teams that really could be a higher level team but the gym is choosing to compete a level lower so the team is highly competitive. I don't know that I think that is stacking. Maybe, maybe not. I am not talking about a team that is competing two or more levels down based on the majority of the athletes. I am talking about a team that has a majority of layouts that are more piked than hollow that chooses to compete as a L3 because they know it, they own it, and they want to put a high technical quality team together.
I am now thinking that those gyms are the most forward thinking of them all. They obviously are aware of the score sheets and how to build the most competitive teams they have based on the skill set of their athlete pool. They clearly know their athletes' abilities and I think maybe they have the best understanding of how to put those abilities to work for the best advantage for the team. For whatever reason the coaches have basically made it clear to the Suzie's Moms and Dads that even though Suzie can chunk a janky (insert tumble skill of choice here) that doesn't make her a true level (insert corresponding level here) athlete. Does that make sense? If the parents don't like the philosophy they are welcome to go elsewhere. The coaches themselves also have to be very realistic about which levels their teams can truly be to remain competitive. I have met coaches that are every bit as delusional about the level teams they can truly field as Suzie's parents are about the level Suzie should truly be.
I feel like this creates an environment that nurtures a realistic expectation for everyone involved in the program in terms of what it takes to be successful and what the end goals are. Proper progression, great technique, confident athletes, trusting parents, strong level appropriate routines that are competitive in the competitions the gym attends. It seems that realistic expectations across the gym are one of the foundational keys for a strongly successful program. The parent/coach/athlete/gym owner delusions about what needs to happen and what should happen have to be dealt with. That isn't to say an athlete shouldn't work and hope to reach a team level of their dream or that a coach/owner shouldn't work and hope to build a team level of their dream. I think it means that those goals are not going to be reached if the plan to reach them is based on delusion and not reality. Strong structures are not built on shaky soil.
Personally I would much rather my CP be on a team where she (and everyone on her team) is strong in those level needed skills.