All-Star Fakers.

[AllHeartxo3]

I HATE fakers. I understand if it's a couple of people, but half of a team? My coach had people doing something else while the ones who could do the skill were tumbling. My coach always told me that judges look in the back because they know that teams will try to hide people and they won't do things as well. I'd rather have a stunt or people crouching on the ground I mean, anything but someone in the back doing a tuck jump.

 

[CatsCoach113]

I totally get that some teams do it for choreography purpose's but I still think its dumb. If your a 'good choreographer' I am sure you can figure out another more visual way to get someone from point A to point B w/o faking a skill ... On another note if you have 16 kids out of 20 doing it your going to get the quantity points regardless why bother adding 4 ppl in to fake it... I guess its just personal opinion but I know when I am watching lvl 5 and they have 15 kids do h.s, h.s full, where 8 of them are h.s, h.s layouts I usually say wow, half of those were layouts. Maybe I'm the only one.

 

[AllHeartxo3]

I totally get that some teams do it for choreography purpose's but I still think its dumb. If your a 'good choreographer' I am sure you can figure out another more visual way to get someone from point A to point B w/o faking a skill ... On another note if you have 16 kids out of 20 doing it your going to get the quantity points regardless why bother adding 4 ppl in to fake it... I guess its just personal opinion but I know when I am watching lvl 5 and they have 15 kids do h.s, h.s full, where 8 of them are h.s, h.s layouts I usually say wow, half of those were layouts. Maybe I'm the only one.

i notice that too. i forgot which small senior team it is, but they have a tumble pass where it's 6 girls maybe, that are supposed do standing 2 bhs, whip, full. but it's only 3 girls in the middle that do the whip to full. so the rest are doing 3 bhs full. but it goes so fast that you don't even notice it just makes it seem like they were messy and messed up the timing. i think it's cea sharks. don't quote me on it, but i'm pretty sure

 

[cheerislove8]

i notice that too. i forgot which small senior team it is, but they have a tumble pass where it's 6 girls maybe, that are supposed do standing 2 bhs, whip, full. but it's only 3 girls in the middle that do the whip to full. so the rest are doing 3 bhs full. but it goes so fast that you don't even notice it just makes it seem like they were messy and messed up the timing. i think it's cea sharks. don't quote me on it, but i'm pretty sure

Interesting that you brought this up. Yes they have 6 girls coming from the back of the mat to the front... 4 do 3 to full/double and 2 to 2 to whip double. I never saw this as faking though... just the way it was choreographed to show the skills. If any were faking it would be the 3 to fulls, but that is still level 5 skill, so can you say its faking?

 

[AllHeartxo3]

Interesting that you brought this up. Yes they have 6 girls coming from the back of the mat to the front... 4 do 3 to full/double and 2 to 2 to whip double. I never saw this as faking though... just the way it was choreographed to show the skills. If any were faking it would be the 3 to fulls, but that is still level 5 skill, so can you say its faking?

don't get me wrong i love them, but i see faking as trying to cheat the eye. but when i first watched the BATB video i was like "oh that's a little messy the timings off" but then i watched it again. and said oh, the girl in the middle does a whip instead of an extra bhs. i kept replaying until i noticed what everyone was doing. maybe it was the angle of the video that made it seem weird, but it all happened so fast that it came off to me like they were trying to fake it.

 

[BubbleToes]

I don't consider the above scenario faking.

 

[CatsCoach113]

I consider faking when ppl do tuck jumps, or standing tucks when there in the front and clearly supposed to be doing standing fulls.

 

[LoveCheerForLife]

There is nothing more that drives me crazy than teams faking tricks. As if they're actually fooling anyone. HELLO!!! WE CAN SEE YOU. As a judge, I make it a point to clearly point it out on their score sheet and always note that there are other skills that can be performed by the other team members. A stunt, toss, other standing/running tumbling (i.e. BHS, PF, BWO, etc.) can be added. That way, you are using ALL team members. You will still have majority performing the intended skill, but at least you are covering more bases by throwing something else in.

In addition, it looks terrible when a team throws standing tucks and the back row does tuck jumps. It's just visually unapealing, especially since the height difference is usually so much lower and you can clearly see what they are doing.

My advice to coaches is, use the skills you have to your advantage, and do it well. Don't try to fool the judges. It can hurt your final score in the end. JMHO.

 

[yojaehs]

I feel like the only people complaining about "fakers" are teams getting beat by them. Call me a faker all you want, I call it smart. And again, I am dead against video review!!

 

[xtremeteal4life]

I think my biggest issue with fakers is when you have half your team faking a stunt. If that's the case, it clearly shouldn't be your stunt! Same goes for tumbling- if not everybody can do it, don't choreograph everybody to look like they're doing it because you're not fooling anybody. I mean, one or two is alright, because sometimes not every single person or stunt group has the skill. But other than that, you're only embarrassing yourself in my opinion..

This is my biggest pet peeve...faking stunts, especially for level 5 teams. If a flyer can't do it, find another one who can. It's not even like it's an injury issue for some people, as I've seen the same ones do it the entire season.

I said this after battle at the capital. I saw a lot of Level 5 teams with girls in the back faking toe backs and its not even like the full team was in the formation, there were some girls walking across the back to corners already. And then in standing full formations. I really believe that F5 and shooting stars are the only 2 large senior 5 teams that dont fake standing fulls. And i don't consider 1 person at 1 comp not throwing it as being faked. Majority of the time, the entire formation throws it.

Yeah, but I've seen one of those teams consistently fake stunts this year and I was watching one of their past worlds routines recently and saw them faking a different stunt!

 

[xtremeteal4life]

I feel like the only people complaining about "fakers" are teams getting beat by them. Call me a faker all you want, I call it smart. And again, I am dead against video review!!

Do you realize that what you're saying sounds like "it's not really about our skill or athletic capabilities with regards to the integrity of the sport, just so long as I win bc I fooled you into thinking I did"?

You can't win a track race by pretending to run faster, ya know what I mean?

 

[tdittmar]

Coaches do this bc they are trying to get the quantity points they need. They know the judges aren't usually fooled but if you highlight the fact that half the team isn't doing the tumbling skill by putting stunts in the back then they DEF aren't going to be fooled and you DEF wont get the quantity points. It's a catch 22. I'd rather go with choreography and show some cool stunt action but those scoresheets demand that they all tumble. Yes it's ideal if everyone on the team has the correct level abilities but this is harder with senior teams so you see a lot more faking with them (IMO).

It is annoying but it's the nature of the beast

This is how I can instantly tell how many tumblers you have. I don't always catch the fake tumbling, but you put two baskets in the back with front spots while everyone is tumbling, I know instantly that 10 people on your team aren't. My other issue are teams that have the same 4 tumblers go 3 times to make it look like you have more than you really do.

 

[garretttt]

don't get me wrong i love them, but i see faking as trying to cheat the eye. but when i first watched the BATB video i was like "oh that's a little messy the timings off" but then i watched it again. and said oh, the girl in the middle does a whip instead of an extra bhs. i kept replaying until i noticed what everyone was doing. maybe it was the angle of the video that made it seem weird, but it all happened so fast that it came off to me like they were trying to fake it.

thats def not faking. 3 girls throw 3(4) girls throw 3 to double. only 2 throw 2 to whip double. they did the same thing last year. they arent faking it, its just choreographed that way.

 

[imrichhowboutu]

This is my biggest pet peeve...faking stunts, especially for level 5 teams. If a flyer can't do it, find another one who can. It's not even like it's an injury issue for some people, as I've seen the same ones do it the entire season.

Yeah, but I've seen one of those teams consistently fake stunts this year and I was watching one of their past worlds routines recently and saw them faking a different stunt!

But both of those teams are putting up 9 girls. Other teams in the division put up 8 or less. They could easily have 8 do the whole thing. But both teams have 9 and if one fakes it then they do.
And i really think it depends what happens in warm up. I've seen one of these teams have no one fake one day and have someone fake the next. I think its completely different when you have people that are choreographed to fake the whole season.

 

[specialtpass]

There is nothing more that drives me crazy than teams faking tricks. As if they're actually fooling anyone. HELLO!!! WE CAN SEE YOU. As a judge, I make it a point to clearly point it out on their score sheet and always note that there are other skills that can be performed by the other team members. A stunt, toss, other standing/running tumbling (i.e. BHS, PF, BWO, etc.) can be added. That way, you are using ALL team members. You will still have majority performing the intended skill, but at least you are covering more bases by throwing something else in.

In addition, it looks terrible when a team throws standing tucks and the back row does tuck jumps. It's just visually unapealing, especially since the height difference is usually so much lower and you can clearly see what they are doing.

My advice to coaches is, use the skills you have to your advantage, and do it well. Don't try to fool the judges. It can hurt your final score in the end. JMHO.

I appreciate your perspective as a judge. From my view in the stands I do see more and more faking, especially in stunting. I see the fakes placed in such a way as to make us believe the skills were taken out in warmups. In reality they are already choreographed that way. There is something in the way a fake tick tock and or full up etc tends to look when it's pulled out in warmups. The flyer can look wobbly and unsure, even with the stunt watered down. Why? Because their confidence is possibly shaken from warmups. In stark contrast choreographed fake stunts are usually very solid with a clear confidence by the flyer. Why? because it was practiced that way. That's why we're fooled. I am not suggesting it is never caught and penalized. I just feel it may put judges in a position to have to give the benefit of the doubt because they may not really be sure.