All-Star Is It Worth It?

[cheerisloving]

My mom and I have two different views of what parents who want to put their kids in cheer should do.

I think cheer first just so they can learn about being on a team and if it's what they really want to do, they'll stick with it. My mom thinks gymnast can easily go the cheer route, so gymnastic is the better option. This way even if they stay in gymnastics they can get a scholarship.

I advocated the fact that cheer is being retooled and looked at and by the the time Tiny aged girl are my age, cheer will have more oppurtunities with STUNT and Acro and Tumbling. But she believes that the stories of schools cutting cheer is the more accurate portrayal of the sports future.

What do you all think?

 

[retiredl5cheer]

If you're in it for the scholarships, it's not worth it. If you're in it for a team focused sport, totally worth it.

 

[CheerBank]

I think the kids often make the decisions for themselves which they prefer. My oldest was in gymnastics for 3 years when she started youth league town cheer. She started taking gymnastics twice a week because she wanted to get her bhs for cheer, and then we were directed to an all-star gym by the youth league coordinator where cp took one class, came out with a huge smile on her face, and said THIS is what I want to do, and never looked back.

@retiredl5cheer doesn't every athlete go into a sport to get a scholarship? ;)

 

[cheerisloving]

I chose cheer for myself, and my mom totally agrees that every activity you do doesn't have to end in a scholarship, but I think now that I'm older she thinks gymnastics would've been the safe route, and more profitable one.

 

[Keep_Believing]

Very few gymnast make it to the Collegiate level. It is very hard on the body and the time commitment involved for elite gymnast is insane.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Gymnastics is also not an "I'll start with cheer and I'll get into gym later" sport. Far easier to cross into cheer than it is to do the opposite. The elite level gymnasts are all 15-17 years old and have been training since Kindergarten.

 

[Pebbles49]

Gymnastics is also not an "I'll start with cheer and I'll get into gym later" sport. Far easier to cross into cheer than it is to do the opposite. The elite level gymnasts are all 15-17 years old and have been training since Kindergarten.

I definitely agree with your statements, it seems that my cp benefitted a lot by starting in gymnastics before switching over to cheer... Gymnastics, in my opinion, teaches the athletes a lot of discipline and even tumbling basics (which I believe, helps salved off the tumbling mental blocks that too many cheerleaders suffer)...

TBH, I have not even considered the scholarship aspects of my daughter switching to cheer and that can be because she is still so young (11yo) and plus, I have met plenty of young women(aged out) at the gym who received full or sizable scholarships for cheer and in that new sport, Acro and Tumbling or Power Tumbling, which is a big thing now in the East Coast... Frankly, cheer is definitely worth it to my daughter... Even though, It has taken me some time (2 years) to realize it, those years my daughter was involved with gymnastics, I think, it only prepared her to be the best cheerleader ever. Yes, it is totally worth it, It is about what the child loves to do and frankly, I believe all the good things will follow, if it meant to be...
Using the euphemism from baseball, "Just let the kids play ball"...

 

[Lazydaisytoo]

If you put a kid into gymnastics or cheer with your eye on scholarships 12 years down the road... Yeah, just take that $3k (and up) a year and put that in the college fund.

 

[cheernerd5678]

If you put a kid into gymnastics or cheer with your eye on scholarships 12 years down the road... Yeah, just take that $3k (and up) a year and put that in the college fund.

Yes! My mom teaches at a private school that costs $14K a year. Parents send their kids there from kindergarten to get scholarships for college... Or you could send them to public school and use the $182,000 you're spending on a mediocre k-12 experience to pay for their college....

 

[chyeeaaa69]

My mom and I have two different views of what parents who want to put their kids in cheer should do.

I think cheer first just so they can learn about being on a team and if it's what they really want to do, they'll stick with it. My mom thinks gymnast can easily go the cheer route, so gymnastic is the better option. This way even if they stay in gymnastics they can get a scholarship.

I advocated the fact that cheer is being retooled and looked at and by the the time Tiny aged girl are my age, cheer will have more oppurtunities with STUNT and Acro and Tumbling. But she believes that the stories of schools cutting cheer is the more accurate portrayal of the sports future.

What do you all think?

Definitely not cheer first gymnastics later. Gymnastics at its most basic level will do more for a child than being on a tiny team and taking a tumbling class a week. Even a kid who only does rec gymnastics until 8 or 9, maybe only has a back handspring tuck or something similar, will have benefited much more from those years in gymnastics. Very few cheerleading gyms will be able to provide the foundation as well as a gymnastics gym tends to.