All-Star How To Get Girls To Tumbling Class.

[eliteallstarcheerleading]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I guess it's hard as the girls know there tumbling isn't up to scratch and I even gave them the brutal honesty when I read out the scores for there routine from competitions. We came 4th but could have come 1st or 2nd if our tumbling skills were better. They were LOW. Everything else scored really well and were only a handful of points off the top position. We at the moment have one tumbler, a small bunch can do a front handspring, and about 3 close to bhs and round off bhs. One of them is coming to tumbling every week, which is amazing! But it's the ones that can even do a front handspring that should be going.
Like you've all said, its generally the determined ones that do come. I'd love to have the class as cheap as possible but unfortunately with the numbers, I have to keep it at a reasonable rate to make gym hire costs (we don't have our own gym just yet). It's still cheap as and we still aren't making ends meet with this class.

Unfortunately we put out fee prices before we decided to run the class, which meant including them in the normal fees wasn't an option. However, I really want to shift the main cheerleading session to sunday after the tumbling. Hard thing is, we are mid term and it's not an option.

 

[FamousxMindset]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I guess it's hard as the girls know there tumbling isn't up to scratch and I even gave them the brutal honesty when I read out the scores for there routine from competitions. We came 4th but could have come 1st or 2nd if our tumbling skills were better. They were LOW. Everything else scored really well and were only a handful of points off the top position. We at the moment have one tumbler, a small bunch can do a front handspring, and about 3 close to bhs and round off bhs. One of them is coming to tumbling every week, which is amazing! But it's the ones that can even do a front handspring that should be going.
Like you've all said, its generally the determined ones that do come. I'd love to have the class as cheap as possible but unfortunately with the numbers, I have to keep it at a reasonable rate to make gym hire costs (we don't have our own gym just yet). It's still cheap as and we still aren't making ends meet with this class.

Unfortunately we put out fee prices before we decided to run the class, which meant including them in the normal fees wasn't an option. However, I really want to shift the main cheerleading session to sunday after the tumbling. Hard thing is, we are midterm and it's not an option.

Ask if the girls that show up regularly parents if they can carpool some kids over and offer them free tumbling or reimburse the for gas.

 

[notyourcheermom]

You said you have level 2 team of new athletes. Does that mean new parents, too? I'm assuming it does. They probably don't know what level 2 is, but will be disappointed when they are unable to truly compete against another level 2 team when the time comes and want to know why nobody told them Suzy should have a BHS. Maybe???? You would be surprised by the amount of parents that have no idea what level 2 means. On Fierceboard, yes. But. . .

Send home a hand-out of what level 2 skills are saying if you don't have these, you should be coming to tumbling on Sunday night, or we may have a level 1 team that will better fit your needs. The cost is, but we will be amazing first comp. Sometimes the CP is reliable at conveying the info and sometimes not. Saturday for skills camp we're probably three stop lights away from gym. CP looks at dashboard clock in car, says, Oh, we were supposed to be there at 4:45. Great, it's 4:46. I was told 5. We could have been there at 4:45, but. . .

 

[CheerBank]

You said you have level 2 team of new athletes. Does that mean new parents, too? I'm assuming it does. They probably don't know what level 2 is, but will be disappointed when they are unable to truly compete against another level 2 team when the time comes and want to know why nobody told them Suzy should have a BHS. Maybe???? You would be surprised by the amount of parents that have no idea what level 2 means. On Fierceboard, yes. But. . .

Send home a hand-out of what level 2 skills are saying if you don't have these, you should be coming to tumbling on Sunday night, or we may have a level 1 team that will better fit your needs. The cost is, but we will be amazing first comp. Sometimes the CP is reliable at conveying the info and sometimes not. Saturday for skills camp we're probably three stop lights away from gym. CP looks at dashboard clock in car, says, Oh, we were supposed to be there at 4:45. Great, it's 4:46. I was told 5. We could have been there at 4:45, but. . .

Great advice!!! I'm always amazed at what other cheer parents really should know but just don't. I remember when I was a new cheer mom if you didn't spell it out for me I really did not know what the coaches were talking about. But I also bugged them and more seasoned parents with many many questions!

 

[callmecoach]

This is one of the most frustrating situations I've dealt with as a coach. I relate to so many of the above posts. Seeing the best tumblers be the only ones to show up for class time after time, cheerleaders failing to relay information to parents, parents simply refusing to take time out to get their child to tumbling. As a coach it can make you crazy, especially come competition time when your team doesn't have the skills you hoped they would.

For me, I've found that the worst thing to do is threaten. As a new coach, I tried time and again to get cheerleaders to tumbling class by telling them that if they continued to be absent, they would not compete with the team. BIG mistake. Most of them knew right off the bat that this was an empty threat, especially those who were not up to par with tumbling but were excellent stunters. I quickly learned that making empty threats or promises I can't keep is a Coaching 101 no-no.

What has worked for me recently is making the girls accountable to each other rather than to their coaches or even themselves. Tumbling was often our weakest section on the score sheet, so I made sure that after each competition, I explained to them why they received the tumbling score they did. I also calculated how many spots higher they would have placed if they had a few extra points in tumbling. At UCA Nationals at the end of last season, they would have placed three places higher and been in the top three if only they'd scored 1 point higher on each tumbling score. This was a real wake-up call for them.

Now, with the girls aware of how important tumbling is to an overall score, I have seen much improvement in attendance and tumbling. I see girls encouraging their teammates to attend. But yes, we still have attendance issues with some girls. When this happens, I've found it helpful not to take it out on the entire team, but to take those girls aside and explain to them personally why they need to be at tumbling and what the team expectations are. When I make it personal to each individual girl, it seems to hit home more for them and their attendance improves most of the time.

Most important... don't drive yourself crazy! There will always be a select few who can't be swayed, whether it's on the end of the cheerleader or the parent. Stressing yourself about each and every girl on your team (I know I have!) makes for an impossible solution and more frustration on your end. Do what you can and let go of what you can't change! Hope this helps :]

 

[oldcheermom]

Thinking like a parent, there are two reasons I might not bring my daughter to the tumbling class. First is cost, no matter how low it might be. As much as I might want my daughter to go, if I don't have the extra money to pay for it, she can't go. Second, it's Sunday night.

 

[CoachMandiCF]

We've taken a completely different approach this year to our practice schedule because we were having the same issues as your gym. Our kids wouldn't come to the tumbling on the weekends or even open gyms if we offered them free. We dominate in stunts but our tumbling was severely lacking in form and execution.

So we now have a practice schedule that includes 2 practices per week per team (S4 does 3 practices). Each team has a 3 hour cheer practice on the weekend and a 2 hour tumbling practice during the week. S4 tumbles twice and does regular practice once. It has done unbelievable things to our athletes in just 3 months! We figured if the kids wouldn't do the classes themselves, we'd force them by making it one of their practices. The parents had major push bact at first, but are now thrilled with the progress.

 

[eliteallstarcheerleading]

Thanks everyone. I certainly do appreciate hearing similar situations, good to know I'm not alone!

I tried to have a conversation with the girls about there tumbling last training, I passed around the score sheet and they all looked at it and went "seriously, that's all we got for tumbling?" It seemed to hit home to them really hard, and they were all so pumped to get there tumbling amazing for next competition. Unfortunately this was short lived and out of the 30 that said they'd attend the tumbling session only 4 did.

My top tumbler even said to the girls "I used to train 5 days a week, 4 hours each day for gymnastics, if you want to get better tumbling you are going to have to work hard!"

Like everyone has said, Sunday night isn't at all ideal. Unfortunately it was the only time the gym was vacant to run a class. I guess I'll just have to include it into practices next term or next year :)

 

[Aussiekat]

I think you're also up against a wall of attitude because tumbling isn't pushed as much in Australia. I would introduce more conditioning to their usual training time so they at least build muscle and body control for when they decide to get off their bootys and go to tumbling class (then when they complain you can say, "if you came to tumble class you would be building the strength there instead of taking it out of your normal training time"). The more strength you have, the less terrifying it is to try and throw your body around. The next thing I would consider is sitting them down and explaining that because they aren't going to tumbling classes, you are going to bump them down a level. As much as it probably pains you to do so, cheer is about more than just stunting. If they cannot at least TRY to fulfil all elements, then bump them down. OR disband the team and just do stunt groups, no dance, no fun team bonding. Give them the choice to work for the gold option or silver option.

 

[eliteallstarcheerleading]

Do you think introducing a skills sheet would work? As in, kinda like what gynmastics have (at some gyms), where you have to get every skill in that level to progress. But instead, the girls aim to get as many skills as they can from that level, which get ticked off once achieved and upon them getting all the skills in say tumbling get given a certificate or something? or medal?

 

[auscheerflyer]

Do you think introducing a skills sheet would work? As in, kinda like what gynmastics have (at some gyms), where you have to get every skill in that level to progress. But instead, the girls aim to get as many skills as they can from that level, which get ticked off once achieved and upon them getting all the skills in say tumbling get given a certificate or something? or medal?

I think a skills sheet is a great idea! I've noticed one gym I go to has a skills sheet/poster on the wall, and I LOVE the idea of certificates or medals, especially for younger girls.
I know some gyms also ring a big bell when new skills are achieved, which is something exciting for the kids because they get to ring the bell and let everyone in the gym know they have achieved something new.

However I definitely also agree with BowCat that unfortunately in Australia we just don't have a great attitude towards tumbling. A lot of athletes have the attitude that if they can stunt a certain level then they should be guaranteed a spot on that level even if they can't tumble...

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

I think a skills sheet is a great idea! I've noticed one gym I go to has a skills sheet/poster on the wall, and I LOVE the idea of certificates or medals, especially for younger girls.
I know some gyms also ring a big bell when new skills are achieved, which is something exciting for the kids because they get to ring the bell and let everyone in the gym know they have achieved something new.

However I definitely also agree with BowCat that unfortunately in Australia we just don't have a great attitude towards tumbling. A lot of athletes have the attitude that if they can stunt a certain level then they should be guaranteed a spot on that level even if they can't tumble...

Which is ironic because in the US many feel the same way about tumbling ;)

 

[CaptainoftheCheerocracy]

At our gym Open Gym is FREE for all team athletes. Of course, they are welcome to bring their friends ($5 each=) Parents love it because it i s cheap way to keep their kids busy and burning energy for 2 hours. We are always packed!

 

[eliteallstarcheerleading]

At our gym Open Gym is FREE for all team athletes. Of course, they are welcome to bring their friends ($5 each=) Parents love it because it i s cheap way to keep their kids busy and burning energy for 2 hours. We are always packed!

My problem with that unfortunately is that we hire our gym, so its close to 50 dollars per hour to rent that out, plus I have to pay staff to help spot skills.

I'd love to run open gym, but without having my own facility, I'd be losing so much money per week.

When we finally get our own gym I'd definitely be doing that though!

 

[putri]

As a parent, Sunday night for tumbling practice is a bad idea. I just want my daughter to have dinner and go to bed early for school. Sorry! I like the open gym idea though. I know she goes to open gym every Friday night, and she loves it.