All-Star Difficulty These Days

[Iamshannon]

Has anyone else noticed how HARD all star cheerleading has gotten over the past few years? In 2008, you could have won worlds in any all girl division with straight full-ups, or toss-hands (2 bases of course) in large coed. Now, every team needs full up to body position and tick tocks (switch ups aren't cutting it) to even place top 3. Tumbling wise, triple toe backs are a thing of the past. Most teams are having 4+ jumps to tuck, with a pike or l/r hurdler or two thrown in there. Just a full isn't going to guarantee you a spot a team that is going to finals. If youre only throwing a full, you better be a fierce stunter or have incredible jump/dancing abilities. This doesnt just apply to level 5 either; the best level 4 teams are basically doing level 5 stunts (the only difference being dismounts) and tumbling their butts off, the best level 3 teams have squad triple jump double handsprings, and so on.

With that being said... where is cheerleading headed? I guess you could say that cheerleading in general has "peaked". If routines are as hard as they can be, what can teams do to have that extra edge to win? I think the new divisions will change stuff up. I want to know what y'all fiercers think, because most everyone here has a lot of insight and really interesting points of view :)

 

[wcsstilldeath]

Well we cant really say it has peaked because we dont know what the future brings, but out of all the past years cheerleading is at a alltime high. In the future I see the rules needing to be changed. Skills are getting so difficult and different that rules will be made to accommodate them, since the current skills will get boring quickly if that is the limit of the level. Im not sure if my ranting is really making sense but in general I think cheerleading will become much more popular and innovative in the future.

 

[imrichhowboutu]

Perhaps you can say the top teams have maxed out the difficulty in aspects of the score sheet, but cheerleading will continue to get harder. In the 80s, a gymnast doing a straight double full was considered olympics worthy.

Rules will change, scoresheets will change. There will always be room for improvement.

 

[blunchin]

we are already pushing for these rules changes yet we have another thread where everyone is preaching about the push for execution. although the masses may be getting "bored" with skills being thrown, the majority of teams are still lacking technique all the way around so i think instead of rules changing we need to focus on technique, reducing injuries, etc.

 

[wcsstilldeath]

Perhaps you can say the top teams have maxed out the difficulty in aspects of the score sheet, but cheerleading will continue to get harder. In the 80s, a gymnast doing a straight double full was considered olympics worthy.

Rules will change, scoresheets will change. There will always be room for improvement.

Thank you Rich, thats exactly what I was trying to say but I didnt know how to word it. Long day already and its only 11 :help:

 

[King]

Difficulty is an asymptote. We are WAY farther up the curve than we were 5 years ago, and I think we will see less and less revolutionary skills come along (there are only so many non flipping ways into a stunt). You will know when we have hit that limit because we will measure worlds teams by if they have squad doubles or not. The first team to perform squad (or 90+ percent) I would guess is 5 or less years away.

 

[Rudags]

Difficulty is an asymptote. We are WAY farther up the curve than we were 5 years ago, and I think we will see less and less revolutionary skills come along (there are only so many non flipping ways into a stunt). You will know when we have hit that limit because we will measure worlds teams by if they have squad doubles or not. The first team to perform squad (or 90+ percent) I would guess is 5 or less years away.

I bet some gyms COULD have a team with squad double fulls.... they just choose to spead the tumbling talent out amounst ALL of their teams, and not just one. Plus, just because you have a double, doesnt mean you can stunt. It would be nice, but you know.

How about you set the precedent and rearrange oranges roster to have ALL doubles. I know you already have quite a few, whats a few more? You can do what World Cup did where they tumbled to the front. Have everyone tumble in a space and have 9 go at a time. Then have the next 9 go next. They have the two left over go side to side. Or take the old Cheer Athletics approach with their rippled standing fulls several years back. Ripple your doubles so everyone sees you have all 20.

I would die.

 

[King]

I bet some gyms COULD have a team with squad double fulls.... they just choose to spead the tumbling talent out amounst ALL of their teams, and not just one. Plus, just because you have a double, doesnt mean you can stunt. It would be nice, but you know.

How about you set the precedent and rearrange oranges roster to have ALL doubles. I know you already have quite a few, whats a few more? You can do what World Cup did where they tumbled to the front. Have everyone tumble in a space and have 9 go at a time. Then have the next 9 go next. They have the two left over go side to side. Or take the old Cheer Athletics approach with their rippled standing fulls several years back. Ripple your doubles so everyone sees you have all 20.

I would die.

You will not be left wanting in any part of Orange this year.

 

[imrichhowboutu]

Difficulty is an asymptote. We are WAY farther up the curve than we were 5 years ago, and I think we will see less and less revolutionary skills come along (there are only so many non flipping ways into a stunt). You will know when we have hit that limit because we will measure worlds teams by if they have squad doubles or not. The first team to perform squad (or 90+ percent) I would guess is 5 or less years away.

i would say stars and f5 could throw 90% + doubles within the next 2 years. If everyone with a double was put on stars, for example, there would still be a lot of girls left over. But, 90% skills in tumbling doesn't necessarily matter. I think having 90%+ throwing specialty fulls and doubles is fine on the scoresheets we have now. And this goes back full circle to @kingston 's thread about, would you be rewarded for doing something way harder than your competition(p.s. at worlds i think that answer would be yes since most all girl teams had at least 30 points to go to the perfect mark)

 

[uwont4getme]

I bet some gyms COULD have a team with squad double fulls.... they just choose to spead the tumbling talent out amounst ALL of their teams, and not just one. Plus, just because you have a double, doesnt mean you can stunt. It would be nice, but you know.

How about you set the precedent and rearrange oranges roster to have ALL doubles. I know you already have quite a few, whats a few more? You can do what World Cup did where they tumbled to the front. Have everyone tumble in a space and have 9 go at a time. Then have the next 9 go next. They have the two left over go side to side. Or take the old Cheer Athletics approach with their rippled standing fulls several years back. Ripple your doubles so everyone sees you have all 20.

I would die.

Being at World Cups senior tryouts yesterday (without shooting stars) you could definitely have a small team of all doubles from what I saw. and again this is excluding shooting stars.