All-Star How Is A 12 Y/o On Wildcats?

[DropAndRun]

U drive 3 hours each way for cheer? Wow!

Yep, season 9 has us giving up a 7 minute commute for a 3 hour one. I think the rules say year 3 is peak crazy parent year but I’ve always considered myself a trendsetter. ;)

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Yep, season 9 has us giving up a 7 minute commute for a 3 hour one. I think the rules say year 3 is peak crazy parent year but I’ve always considered myself a trendsetter. ;)

I know you said she was on Coed at one point this past season. New gym this year?

 

[DropAndRun]

I know you said she was on Coed at one point this past season. New gym this year?

We had four wonderful seasons at CEA and have all the love in the world for the program and coaches, but Droplet is a Rockstar Beatle now. :cloud9:

 

[Lisa Seye]

U drive 3 hours each way for cheer? Wow!

Been there, done that, over it. lolol
@DropAndRun ya gotta do what ya gotta do for kiddo to have her dream. It's hard but worth it.

 

[Cheermama77]

My daughter is one of those 12 year olds on an open/international team. She'll be 13 in a few weeks. Some athletes are close to her in age and some aren't. I don't worry about that. If she didn't have the skill or maturity to be able to handle it the coaches would have put her on a different team.

 

[coacha]

This topic comes up a lot. As a HS coach, there are times I’d love to have a teeny 12 year old. But I’m also the coach who sees freshman sometimes struggle around seniors. A 7th grader? No.

As a mom? I don’t care if I have a level 6 cheerleader on my hands, she will not be on ab open team with older kids at 12 or 13. There is just too much down time to be around that age group. She can wait. Let them be little.

 

[SL&AM]

I have found that the older teenagers/younger adults have far more tact and the ability to censor certain conversations than the mid-range teenagers when it comes to younger kids. Although we have left the cheer world, for what appears to be for good, oldest is still apart of a sport that has no real bottom or top age. The group her coach takes on also doesn't have a top or bottom age. I am far more comfortable stepping away when she is around the senior's/early college age group than I am some of her peers only a few years ahead of her.

I'm not saying every 12 year old can hang on a 'college aged' team---but I do think it should be looked at on a case by case basis. In our experience, being the baby on a junior's team did her in. But being the baby on an open team, probably wouldn't have yielded the same results.

 

[Manc_Cheer_Mum]

We've still got a couple of weeks until team placements are confirmed but looks likely that 12-year-old CP will be on a IO Worlds team along with another girl who's also aging out of youth this season. They'll both be 14 by the end of 2020 so within the age grid.

She's good friends with a couple of girls who are currently the youngest on the team at just turned 14 and they tend to be very focused on cheer. The older ones from 18 up to mid-20s seem to be quite good at closing down any inappropriate conversations.

Our gym also insist that they compete in their lowest age group before crossing over so she'll also be on a junior team. That's where she'll have her friends for sleepovers, hanging out, etc.

 

[quietmom]

I am very uncomfortable with this young lady being singled out like this. The thread topic mentions her team and her age, so she's easily identified. She's not a cheerlebrity and deserves to have her privacy respected. This is discussion hasn't been negative, but think about how this athlete would feel reading it. She deserves privacy and to not be discussed like this.

 

[Keep_Believing]

@quietmom agree, wish the initial post was worded differently. With that said I feel the discussion has been about the general age grid and rules.

 

[quietmom]

@quietmom agree, wish the initial post was worded differently. With that said I feel the discussion has been about the general age grid and rules.

I have no problem about the discussion that follows.

 

[Keep_Believing]

@fullinitup did you mean to rate mine as gossip?

 

[CLynn]

And raise the "senior open" age too! As far as I know, USASF sets the ages for Senior teams and Senior Open teams, so I think they could fix this in theory--it just doesn't make sense that a 12 year old (who used to be allowed on a senior team not too long ago!) can be on a Senior Open team first.

Right, it really isn’t the open age that is the issue by the date used to calculate the age. I understand that competition seasons are different outside the U.S. and perhaps the date makes sense there, but it does not at all in the U.S.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

I think we have a sport that is a team event. You need to develop peer relationships and each athlete do their part.

Can a young child do that on an open team ? They may have the skill but their life path and brain development and general hormonal body development has not provided them what they need to really be a peer.

Each parent has to do what they feel is right.

Looking at it from a psychosocial and physical developmental aspect it can be detrimental and at the very least create potential opportunity for detriment. Just because one is physically appropriate (skill wise) for a team does not mean it is right socially, intellectually, developmentally, mentally and that is not meaning off the mat time but on it as well those bonds are created.

When dealing with co-ed teams - again not saying older athletes would take advantage of that opportunity - but you have fully developed men with still emerging young women. In some gyms the Open teams includes coaches the USASF has now created rules against social media and messaging between adult coaches and athletes but allowing a child be on a team with the same coach???? It seems like a missing component there.

Again this is not judging any parents choice to have their child on such a team - each parent must look at what is best and each scenario is unique I am talking in general sense based on known psychosocial development of children. It is concerning to me as an organization that is moving to protect our athletes for these reasons that this area does not seem to match up.

 

[Cheermama77]

I think we have a sport that is a team event. You need to develop peer relationships and each athlete do their part.

Can a young child do that on an open team ? They may have the skill but their life path and brain development and general hormonal body development has not provided them what they need to really be a peer.

Each parent has to do what they feel is right.

Looking at it from a psychosocial and physical developmental aspect it can be detrimental and at the very least create potential opportunity for detriment. Just because one is physically appropriate (skill wise) for a team does not mean it is right socially, intellectually, developmentally, mentally and that is not meaning off the mat time but on it as well those bonds are created.

When dealing with co-ed teams - again not saying older athletes would take advantage of that opportunity - but you have fully developed men with still emerging young women. In some gyms the Open teams includes coaches the USASF has now created rules against social media and messaging between adult coaches and athletes but allowing a child be on a team with the same coach???? It seems like a missing component there.

Again this is not judging any parents choice to have their child on such a team - each parent must look at what is best and each scenario is unique I am talking in general sense based on known psychosocial development of children. It is concerning to me as an organization that is moving to protect our athletes for these reasons that this area does not seem to match up.