I Have Some Newbie Questions

[txtinymommy]

I am pretty sure our prep teams pay the same as our regular teams, except for monthly tuition. All of our uniforms are approximately the same cost, it may vary by $50 or so. I think some teams (including show) go to 1-2 fewer comps, but we all pay a flat comp fee, which I am ok with. Except for the up front costs, monthly tuition is the same as her dance and the same amount as swim and previous gymnastics. I see it as just another activity....one that takes up one or two Saturdays a month and has me sell quite a bit of stuff on ebay at registration time.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Mini prep sounds like a great idea if most of the team are that young @retiredl5cheer. What happened to them this season? Did most of them go into regular Mini 1?

Yeah, they did really well last season (5 first places, 2 second places and a third place) and learned a LOT. Those kids developed and grew like crazy, and I loved prep because I could still focus on CLEAN instead of rushing skills. This year the gym has a regular mini 1. I like to think that the kids I coached were definitely ready for mini 1 after their year as prep.

ETA: I also had two of my mini prep kids move up to Y2 this year. Both were great bases and one of them was a gym rat. She got her bridge kickover, FWO, BWO, BHS and ROBH in a span of 6 months. Now she's throwing specialty level 2 tumbling skills. I love that kid to pieces.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

How much do your Mini 1s practice per week? Do you have any YouTubes? She loves watching other little cheerleaders.
I think we have 5 competitions in all, one is out of town but just a couple of hours away. She's thrilled to be staying in a hotel with a heated pool.

Last year the gym only had a mini prep 1 that practiced 3 hours per week. This year they have a mini 1 that practices 4 hours a week, I think. I'm not coaching them this year. We did 7 local and 1 away competition last year. I think this year they have 2 away competitions and a few bigger "national" competitions.

 

[McKenna.M]

I've done some searching here and via google, but I'm still not clear on the difference between prep and regular all star. On competition schedules I see that some gyms have, for example, L2 prep and then a different L2 team.

In my gym I help coach our Mini Level 1 Prep team. The kids attend our normal spring/summer tryouts, and are placed on one of three mini teams. Mini Level 1 Prep, Mini level 1 or Mini level 2. The kids with back handsprings go to Mini 2, back walkovers Mini 1 and then we get the kids who are brand new to cheer. It's an introductory team. They can only practise for 1.5 hours a week, while our other mini teams practise 4 hours a week, and and their routine can be no longer then 2:00, while other routines can max. at 2:30. Those are the only differences between Prep and Allstar