How Far Apart Are The Lines On A Standard Competition Floor?

[Ally Cat]

I have a rec team and we will be practicing in a gym that doesn't have the lines similiar to a competition floor...so I want to put painters tape down but not sure how far apart I should make the lines. I think I read typically it's 6 feet apart...is that true?

Thanks!

 

[Cheer Dad]

Yes, 6 feet. Overall the floor is 54 feet wide with 9 panels and 7 matte connector strips.

 

[SharkDad]

How does that gym hold their mats together?

Depending on the type of mat I don't recommend putting paintrs tape down.

 

[Cheer Dad]

@SharkDad, I took it as they are on a gymnasium floor and not a padded floor at all. Never thought of still being a foam floor.

 

[CoachKelly]

We practice in our high school auxiliary gym, the floor is there old wrestling mats. We have painters tape down to mark lines and center. Now mind you, the tape is not all the way across the floor. Just about six inch increments in the front, middle and back along the mat. Enough for the girls to see where they are but not too much of a distraction for others that use the room.

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[SharkDad]

I invite you to read safety reports about suitable fall surfaces for tumbling and stunting activities.

It would definitely be a worthwhile investments for your teams safety to invest in real mats and possibly to practice in a gym on a spring floor


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[Ashley]

I invite you to read safety reports about suitable fall surfaces for tumbling and stunting activities.

It would definitely be a worthwhile investments for your teams safety to invest in real mats and possibly to practice in a gym on a spring floor

If I'm remembering correctly, CoachKelly is kind of in the boonies of PA. I think she's said before that they don't have many or any gyms with spring floors around them.

 

[SharkDad]

Sounds like maybe a good market to start one. I would hope that safety sells....


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[SarahS]

Sounds like maybe a good market to start one. I would hope that safety sells....


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You can be safe using panel mats and selecting surface-appropriate skills to teach, as well as following extended progressions (added steps between learning skills that may not be necessary if you have a spring floor.) To imply that cheer cannot be safely performed on surfaces other than spring floors is disingenuous at best. I've been coaching rec and school cheerleading since 1999, and I've never coached on a spring floor. The only injury any of my cheerleaders has ever experienced was a broken toe when a girl landed oddly doing a back handspring on a 2 inch carpet bonded foam mat surface. The injury would likely have happened identically on a spring floor. Many rec programs do not have the ability to purchase a spring floor, or the space where they might set it up. Rec programs provide a different service to the cheerleading community than allstar gyms do, and rec programs can provide this service safely.

To the OP: rock on with your painters tape. I've found that cones spaced six feet apart, set at the front of your performing surface to provide visual clues as to where the edges of the mats will be, work well also.


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[SharkDad]

@SarahS I totally appreciate your post and I'd love to offer it up to others as a great example of how to coach safely when you don't have spring floors.

Unfortunately there are many more coaches of school and Rec cheer teams that do not do appropriate levels of skills for the surface that there are on and don't do any level of safety/risk analysis of what they are asking their kids to do.

 

[SharkDad]

I don't want anyone to think I feel anyone in this thread or that all rec and school cheer coaches in general are unsafe.

To keep to the thread topic, there are safety reports out there that highlight appropriate surfaces to use for various skills. As @SarahS pointed out, there are different ways to train on different surfaces, but unfortunately I've seen many coaches attempt All Star style training on very little in regards to safe, to include the instruction.

Whenever I hear about different surfaces being used, I encourage attempting to upgrade to a better level surface, or if possible find a spring floor nearby to increase the level of safety for the athletes.

 

[WinstonsGirl]

I've used painters tape in my school gym. We ran the routine full out on our mats, but marked it a lot on the gym floor with the painters tape lines to get them used to spacing (no stunts/tumbling). Be warned that if you leave it down for the year it will not come up easily like it should. My custodians were not too happy with me until the team started having tape pulling parties at the end of the year. I believe it comes up easily for about 7 days and then begins to stick more