- Dec 4, 2009
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- #46
This season the small program I coach at took the "what do you have" instead of "what will you get" approach with building our teams. We expected it to ruffle a lot of feathers, which can be scary for a program with 75 kids. A lot of kids and parents were upset after tryouts. No one was placed on a team below their skill level at all, but many kids thought that working skills or barely scraping by without a spot would get them moved up, and it didn't. Many families threatened to leave right after results were sent out. It was nerve racking but our director stuck to her guns about placements and in the end only 2 kids left because of it. I hear so many small programs say that they are not able to build teams like this because they can't afford to have people walk out- we felt that way but bit the bullet and went for it and we are thrilled with the result. We have set our teams up for success, and have set a precedent for how teams are put together in the future. I think that the chance that a greatly successful season will draw more customers to us in the future was worth the 2 we lost.
It's a very different mindset from what existed when I aged out 6 years ago. Everyone in the top of every division is in the high range for difficulty now. Execution, creativity, and performance skills are what set teams apart. It used to be, "cheerleading values progression over perfection, gymnastics does the opposite." We as an industry are getting into the perfection before progression mindset and I absolutely love it. When you have a team that has the skills they need, you are able to focus on all the other pieces you need to have a winning team. Lower levels are more impressive to watch than ever, AND it's significantly safer for all of the kiddos.
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