All-Star New Take On Crossovers

[cheerfan27]

You are right. However, this specific child of mine, is NOT an incredibly passionate athlete. To be honest, I agreed to the double teaming for her because it was the ONLY thing that made her want to keep cheering. For whatever reason, she does not like to fly at all. BUT she's great at it and it's realistically the only position she'll ever have unless she grows A LOT! Basing makes her feel "older" maybe or "bigger". I think she feels like flying is the baby spot. lol I know her line of thinking is CRAZY, but she's stubborn and you cannot break her. lol So ya, for her, there is not dream goal. I'm just trying to hang on to her as long as possible before she decides to quit for good. If, however, she was at a gym where making a certain level 5 team would be hard to do, I would have a much different attitude about it. ;)

If your daughter really wants to base let her continue and she will get stronger, also daily pushups helped my daughter.

 

[socratesofcheer]

I'm a little confused by this particular phrase that keeps coming up:
"my child crosses over from level 4 to level 5 so she can continue to improve her tumbling"

I guess I just don't understand why a kid can't take a tumbling class to work on that new level 5 pass.

 

[Mo-Lissa]

Another good questions for the woman that get's to decide where and what my kid will do. LMAO Since she was 11 this past season and a backspot on Youth and front spot/backspot on Jrs, I would have to say that she'll be a base/backspot if she ever decides her dream team is Sr Elite. However, if she decides Coed Elite is her dream team then I think she has the skills and technique to be able to fly if she wanted and was needed to. (Again I'm no coach and I might and do see her through those rose colored cheer mom glasses that we all wear sometimes) I could also be totally wrong and she has no chance of making either dream team. There's no guarantee's. LOL I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I'm not naive enough to think that stunting ability is the only deciding factor. Tumbling fits in there too and she doesn't master that quite as quickly as she does the stunting part. So she probably won't be a last tumbling pass on a Worlds level team anytime soon or ever, so being more well rounded is what she brings to the table. Again, we'll see in a few years how that works out. There's no Plan B at this point. LOL (And maybe there should be....I think I'll ask her that one myself) LOL

I'll stop now, I've revealed way more about my kid than I am comfortable with in an open forum. But, I don't know who else to use as far as examples go to have an effective discussion. LOL

Wow...I have a jack of all trades kinda cheerleader...she may be point flyer on our senior team, or the last pass tumbler...then you might just catch her basing the pyramid (that was all on our senior team this year). I feel I would rather have a well rounded athlete that can contribute to our small gym....no dream teams here. Just trying to get a true blue level 5 in the gym. As my pal mstealtoyou, which knows my crazy cp, I have no idea what the future holds, or what the college team she seeks needs in 3 years. Learn all you can!!! Double competing gave her these skills!!!

 

[TheVipersMom]

I'm a little confused by this particular phrase that keeps coming up:
"my child crosses over from level 4 to level 5 so she can continue to improve her tumbling"

I guess I just don't understand why a kid can't take a tumbling class to work on that new level 5 pass.

I'm not sure who you are referring to about someone crossing up a level so they can improve their tumbling. So I'm just going to tell you why that's not my daughter...
My daughter doesn't crossover to improve her tumbling she crossed over so she can actually do her tumbling that she wants too and worked hard to learn that can't be done at her original age appropriate team because of rules for the level team that is.

Sorry you may not have been referring to me or even read my previous post I'm just saying one of the reasons my daughter does it. Which I don't know how anyone could read my previous post and not even slightly agree!

 

[AndyT_T]

I don't cross over to sand-bag, I cross over because it's enjoyable. On level 5 I just pull a full, but on level 4 I specialty pass. But in the end, I don't do level 4 because I want an easier team, I do level 4 because I enjoy being in the gym, spending time with the coaches, and just *doing* the sport. Yes, me being on a level 5 team also may be a little bit of a advantage, but I don't think me crossing over is a bad thing.
I'm doing it for *me*, not for awards.

 

[AndyT_T]

I don't cross over to sand-bag, I cross over because it's enjoyable. On level 5 I just pull a full, but on level 4 I specialty pass. But in the end, I don't do level 4 because I want an easier team, I do level 4 because I enjoy being in the gym, spending time with the coaches, and just *doing* the sport. Yes, me being on a level 5 team also may be a little bit of a advantage, but I don't think me crossing over is a bad thing.
I'm doing it for *me*, not for awards.

Plus, on the different teams I work different things, on 4 my stunt only has two people under it, on 5 it has 3. The teams let me work different aspects of the sport so I can be a more well-rounded athlete.

 

[xtremeteal4life]

My husband says put her on as many teams as possible (mostly when she gets older) bc that way between cheerleading and school she won't have time for boys! ;)

 

[xtremeteal4life]

I think the jack of all, master of none analogy is true in every sport. Especially in gymnastics when competing as a team. Not everyone needs to be an all around contender. There are half that can do every aspect. And then half that have their specialty. That's how you great a strong team.

True..they may not need to, but maybe they want to
Cheerleading has individual comps too and some people want/desire/strive to have it all. It's not for everyone by any means, but theoretically if everyone on a team is an "all around contender", "jack of all trades", etc...wouldn't that make the team stronger than having half and half?

Also, in reference to this issue and crossovers..I think it benefits an athlete (especially cheerleading) to experience what it's like to do a little bit of everything. If you've never flown for instance, you've don't have the unique opportunity to experience what it's like for a flyer, what's required of them, how things they do can hurt/help stunts and their bases...and the same for basing. It's great to have a flyer learn to base and gain that experience so that she/he has their unique perspective of what it takes to put up that stunt, etc....I think it truly makes them both better individually AND as a team.

 

[proudcheermomma]

My cp wants to crossover this season we will see if she gets the chance. She was on the junior 3 team last season (placements have not been announced) We think she will be again this season and we have heard that one of the senior teams will be 4.2 this year. She is the tallest on the junior team and is a back (a good one too) she has all her level 3 and most of her level 4 tumbling but she did not have a pass on the junior team because all passes are sycronized and she just does not tumble as fast as the little girls. She wants to try and compete for the 4.2 for 2 reasons she would like to have a chance to have a pass and she would like to work on level 4 stunting so her stunting will match her tumbling. She is also a gym rat so I think the idea of being in the gym as much as possible is a factor too. I love her and she loves cheer so I support her I hope she gets the chance and it provides what she is hoping it will. BTW I do not agree with team stacking at all IMHO the 2 level limit sounds good to me.

 

[USACats]

I think that it is a positive that most gyms in our area do not make excessive use of crossovers.

I think that it is a positive that Worlds does not allow extensive crossovers.

I think that it is a positive that NCA only allows 5 per team.

I do agree with all of the above except NCA. Allowing only 5 crossovers is a great thing in my opinion. It stops people from stacking teams and forces people to use crossovers as little as possible. The problem I have with my gym is this. We only have one team of each level, mini 1, youth 1, junior 2, Large sr 3, ju Co 4 and sr ltd 5. so if we wanted to compete with more than one team we would have to drop a level with one of our teams and I dont want to fly all the way to Dallas to sand bag so we just dont go. If Im going to go to Dallas I would want to compete in the division that I compete in all the time and choose not to drop divisions and also choose to have my teams travel together. Therefor Dallas is out of the question for us. Which is really sad because we would love to go.

 

[aubreysheffield]

More workout time, Building your stamina and endurance. I was a cross over last year and loved the fact that I could be there and support two teams every competition- support like... Pumping them up backstage before we go on. I'm really energetic, definetly something I love and would do again!

 

[tumbleyoda]

I'm a little confused by this particular phrase that keeps coming up:
"my child crosses over from level 4 to level 5 so she can continue to improve her tumbling"

I guess I just don't understand why a kid can't take a tumbling class to work on that new level 5 pass.

The things I commonly hear in regards to this are:

My child can't do the things she has already learned on her current level team due to age or level restrictions ie on a level 3 or 4 team but has some level 5 skills but maybe not enough to be considered a true level 5.

If my child is on a higher level team they will be forced to do the higher level skills and the coaches will have to make them work on it or else it will show in the score sheet. This is usually not just a level 4 to 5 issue but every level.

There are no higher level tumbling classes that fit my schedule or my cp's due to her practice days.

Some people feel like it doesn't matter working on it in a class if you won't even have the opportunity to do it on the floor until next season. (instant gratification) These seems to increase if the tumbling instructors are outside contractors/vendors and have little connection to the cheer program other than that class they teach or privates they teach.