Finnish Cheerleaders, Please Help Me.

[youbetterwork]

Maybe @youbetterwork knows... She knows everything there is to know about Swedish cheerleading anyways.

Haha you're cute!

Since I'm half swedish and half finnish I do know a lot about finnish cheerleading too! I'm not sure this is 100% right, please correct me if I got something wrong, but pretty much right hehe.

They have only one official level for junior and senior divisions (same level for all female and coed) - level 5 for juniors and level 6 for seniors. So they have junior AF, junior coed, senior AF and senior coed. So it'It's a lot of teams competing in for example senior all female, I was suprised when I watched the finnish championship in 2010! There are not as many teams competing in senior all female level 6 in Sweden (even though cheerleading is bigger here) because we have three different levels, so not as many teams "take the chance" since they don't have too.

There are also "unofficial" competitions, open competitions you can say, where beginner teams and youth teams compete too. So if you're not on level 6 you can choose to compete there. It's pretty much the same system in Norway.

 

[youbetterwork]

Oh and they also have group stunt and partner stunt categories. But group stunt is much more popular in Sweden and Norway. As many of you may know Finland took home the gold in the partner stunt division at ICU Worlds, with the extremely talented Mika and Mija.

Here are my favorite finnish senior teams.


HAC Elite, nordic champions 2011 (but the top teams from Sweden and Norway didn't compete..). Unfortunately they did not get first at the national championship, so they didn't compete as Team Finland at Worlds, that was Northern Lights Diamonds (who got 4th). HAC Elite was european champs 2009!


Funky Team Gorillaz, here as Team Finland. Europeans champs many, many times.


Mika and Mija, world champions!!!
Mija cheered for University of Kentucky 09-10

 

[youbetterwork]

Fun facts (lol)

- In Europe, Finland are known for their skills in level 6 pyramids.

- They never use choreographers from the US (many, many teams in Sweden does that).

- The biggest "gyms" often have two teams competiting in the same division (all female).

- The top three "gyms" are all located in Helsinki.

 

[StingraysExtremeWoC]

Since I'm half swedish and half finnish I do know a lot about finnish cheerleading too! I'm not sure this is 100% right, please correct me if I got something wrong, but pretty much right hehe.

They have only one official level for junior and senior divisions (same level for all female and coed) - level 5 for juniors and level 6 for seniors. So they have junior AF, junior coed, senior AF and senior coed. So it'It's a lot of teams competing in for example senior all female, I was suprised when I watched the finnish championship in 2010! There are not as many teams competing in senior all female level 6 in Sweden (even though cheerleading is bigger here) because we have three different levels, so not as many teams "take the chance" since they don't have too.

Thank you! So if Junior is 5 and Senior is 6, then would younger teams be like levels 1-4? And are the A, B, C levels like C is beginner, B is novice, A is advanced or something? That's what it kind of seems like it is from what I've seen on some gyms' websites. Like I've seen Junior A, Junior B, etc, so it appears to me that one must be a little better than the other. I've also seen like Junior A1 and Junior A2, etc, I think. Do you know anything about what that might mean? Do those things even apply to levels or are they just like different divisions? But thanks again for the info! And just as a sidenote here...I LOVE HAC Elite! One of my favorite Finnish Senior teams ever. Them and GS Angels. And I'm going to go ahead and guess that HAC and GS are two of those three top gyms from Helsinki.

 

[youbetterwork]

Thank you! So if Junior is 5 and Senior is 6, then would younger teams be like levels 1-4? And are the A, B, C levels like C is beginner, B is novice, A is advanced or something? That's what it kind of seems like it is from what I've seen on some gyms' websites. Like I've seen Junior A, Junior B, etc, so it appears to me that one must be a little better than the other. I've also seen like Junior A1 and Junior A2, etc, I think. Do you know anything about what that might mean? Do those things even apply to levels or are they just like different divisions? But thanks again for the info! And just as a sidenote here...I LOVE HAC Elite! One of my favorite Finnish Senior teams ever. Them and GS Angels. And I'm going to go ahead and guess that HAC and GS are two of those three top gyms from Helsinki.

Yes, but more like level 1-2 I think, not as good as level 4 (then they would probably compete level 5/6). Youth teams can only compete up to level 2.
Yes, I think they often have A as level 5/6, B competing at "open" competitions in level 1-2 and C doesn't compete at all, only practice. It's allowed to have two teams in the same division, so some gyms have two junior level 5, two senior level 5 and so on, that's why it's A1 and A2. Advanced 1 and advanced 2.

Oh, me too! And yes, they + Funky Team are the biggest gyms!

 

[youbetterwork]

Senior level 6*

 

[lucyemma]

I would guess that it probably is differnet. I think each country has their own governing body for the sport, like we have the USASF and it is only for the United States. Finland has the Suomen Cheerleadinglitto.

In the UK we have different governing bodies, but most competition companies follow IASF. These are the companies that send our teams to worlds from the UK. The only company that doesn't follow IASF is UKCA, this follows the same rules as that of ICU which I think the majority of european teams follow. Just so you guys know

 

[StingraysExtremeWoC]

Thanks again, everybody.

 

[elsa]

Fun facts (lol)

- In Europe, Finland are known for their skills in level 6 pyramids.

- They never use choreographers from the US (many, many teams in Sweden does that).

- The biggest "gyms" often have two teams competiting in the same division (all female).

- The top three "gyms" are all located in Helsinki.

i know this is a old thread, but since i'm finnish, i get excited everytime i see something finland-related in the boards

in finland, we don't have gyms like in usa, so we have to practice in schools and random halls. but now there is one hall that is like a cheer gym, it has airtracks, spring floor and stuff like that, it's in helsinki, so i guess it will be very popular on our gym and in ftc and gs (yeah i'm in hac)

 

[StingraysExtremeWoC]

i know this is a old thread, but since i'm finnish, i get excited everytime i see something finland-related in the boards

in finland, we don't have gyms like in usa, so we have to practice in schools and random halls. but now there is one hall that is like a cheer gym, it has airtracks, spring floor and stuff like that, it's in helsinki, so i guess it will be very popular on our gym and in ftc and gs (yeah i'm in hac)

What team are you on at HAC?

 

[elsa]

What team are you on at HAC?

extempore, but when we have tryouts in the end of the year i'm going to tryout for excel or electric

 

[StingraysExtremeWoC]

extempore, but when we have tryouts in the end of the year i'm going to tryout for excel or electric

Cool!

 

[youbetterwork]

i know this is a old thread, but since i'm finnish, i get excited everytime i see something finland-related in the boards

in finland, we don't have gyms like in usa, so we have to practice in schools and random halls. but now there is one hall that is like a cheer gym, it has airtracks, spring floor and stuff like that, it's in helsinki, so i guess it will be very popular on our gym and in ftc and gs (yeah i'm in hac)

I've been there in 2010. I think it's really great that you all can share gym

 

[elsa]

I've been there in 2010. I think it's really great that you all can share gym

yeah, and i think it's a great progress that we now have a cheergym in finland, since cheerleading is not so popular in here.