As the role of Devil's Advocate, in the sport of AS Cheerleading, shouldn't all athletes participating want to reach for the highest level possible in the sport... the reason I initially looked this post up of progress* because exactly, is being a L5 athlete should be everyone goal in AS Cheerleading and if you know that you do not have the goods to reach that level, why not try something else... I was just wondering? IS AS Cheerleading a SPORT or just a FUN activity to do to stay fit and socialize with your friends?:D
Why on earth should everyone have the same goal? The only way for something to be considered a sport is if everyone is working towards the top level?
Just out of curiosity, why? What is the point of reaching the top level in cheer if it's not emotional/social/etc? It's not for scholarships, that's for sure. Anyone who says they put their child in a high level travel sport for scholarship opportunities is delusional. The amount of money spent on elite travel sports would pay for college flat out, with no scholarship opportunities. But cheer especially. At least with something like baseball i could see hopes of going pro. With gymnastics i could see hopes of going to the Olympics (which has financial benefits too - lots of marketing deals and appearance deals etc after that) What future are you building with cheer that's not emotional and social?
Learning to work towards a goal and achieve success? I don't think the winners of a senior 1 division at The Summit feel any less of that than a Senior 4. Any benefits kids get from cheer i think can be equally felt across all levels.
Hey njallday, I must disagree with you on the matter of whether it is failure, I will be quite concern, if my child, after 14 years in a 'Competitive' sport was only able to accomplish 1 or 2 levels in that sport...:( If we are looking at AS cheerleading as a competitive sport... Shouldn't we be pushing our children to strive to be the best at it or considered recreational forms of cheerleading... As a newbie, I would think we will want our children to strive to want that NCA or Summit recognition and not be able to say, Oh yeah, I used to be a All star Cheerleader, but we only competed against our neighbor around the corner...Just Saying!:eek:
Someone already pointed this out, but you don't have to be level 5 to win NCA or The Summit. Actually, The Summit is an alternative to Worlds for non worlds teams. Your argument would make a lot more sense if the topic was teams only competing locally and never trying to go to bigger, more prestigious competitons.
Lastly, who are you (or anyone else that has said this) to say that someone else should quit if they can't get past level 2? I don't even understand your post. "Shouldn't WE be pushing OUR children"? Um... last I checked, WE don't have any children together. You don't get to say what the best for my kids is. If my cp wants to be level 2 for life, why do you care? More to the point, if I want to pay for it, why do you care? (Hypothetical - my cp already made a worlds team and graduated and is now in college)
Do you want to know the funniest part? My cp made a worlds team and was MISERABLE. She hated it. Hated her team, hated her coaches, hated how unsuccessful they were. She went from being on very successful senior 3 and senior 4 teams the previous year (one team was undefeated, jackets, etc - a great, successful season) to being on a Senior 5 that never placed higher than 3rd. So you tell me... which was closer to failure? The properly leveled team of happy kids competing at the level they belonged in, or the miserable team that hated each other and should have been a restricted 5?
I don't think failure has anything to do with reaching the highest level (or reaching the level your mother thinks you should, which is *actually* what most of this thread is about). I think it's everything to do with knowing your skill set and achieving the highest success you can with that skill set.
Whew! That was way longer than i meant it to be. It just sounds very condescending and irked me. :oops:
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