All-Star No More Double Downs In High School

[level5diva]

Honestly, I like this rule. I backspot for High School and All Star. My flyers on my HS team honestly have no business doing double downs. Do they try them? Yes. Did we compete them?! YES. Did one.single.flyer make it all the way around? No. My coach did not know the right way to teach them, so as you can imagine, they were atrocious. At CEA, I have never been hurt catching doubles. At HS I have had a cracked collarbone, busted lip, black eye, severe bruises etc. The reason HS teams think its okay to try these is because.. simply, they are legal. Just because you can, does not mean you should, but many people do not see this. And to be competitive, many teams (my team included) feel like they need to compete this skill to stand a chance, so they rush learning them. And from what I have seen, (IMO) the coaches arent qualified/educated enough to know when a flyer is ready to try this skill. My coach had my flyer learn an elevator 360 and areobesque 720 in the same week. It was disasterous. Personally, as a high school cheerleader, I agree with the rule merely out of safety. If a flyer wants to learn how to double, have your stunt group get together 30 minutes before every practice. Or, go take a stunt private at a local gym, they arent expensive. This rule should have no effect on someone being able to make a college team.

Also, I see this as different issue than tumbling restrictions, because tumbling is only by yourself. You and only you do the skill. You are not putting someone elses safety in jeprody. No one else is at risk. In stunt, you have 3/4 other you could injure in the process

 

[cheerKT]

Perhaps I'm just not a fan of limiting the sport to cater to the uneducated.

 

[level5diva]

Perhaps I'm just not a fan of limiting the sport to cater to the uneducated.

I do not want the sport to be catered to the uneducated, but unless they require coaches to be certified and/or practice on proper surface, I feel like its not good judgement. If the force the two ideas I just mentioned as rules, then by all means, bring back the doubles!

 

[cheerKT]

I do not want the sport to be catered to the uneducated, but unless they require coaches to be certified and/or practice on proper surface, I feel like its not good judgement. If the force the two ideas I just mentioned as rules, then by all means, bring back the doubles!

I agree there! I just wish the latter was the choice made.

I still wish they would consider keeping doubles from 2 legged stunts, level 4 style.

 

[cheer coach k]

I am both a high school coach and an all star coach, and this rule upsets me for one reason and one reason alone....it is pushing my hs girls to leave and go to all star. Cheer is not very popular at the school I coach at, even though the team makes it to state every year. Numbers are dwindling left and right because of the restrictions being put on high school competition cheer.

I am very knowledgable in teaching skills and was required by the high school to complete a class on how to handle injury (and it was not an easy class by any means). Forcing Proper certification and teaching skills is the way to handle this.

Not to mention, let us compete on a spring floor. Just MO

 

[yojaehs]

cheerKT I am for the rule ONLY because in my area MANY of the coaches are unqualified. I agree that it confuses me that "safety" is the reason double downs are removed but braced flips (equally as dangerous being taught by the uneducated) were added. I agree with acxjags in that until education is REQUIRED I see more "dance moms" in the future. Extremely unfortunate for those that put in the time to educate themselves and properly train their athletes.

 

[King]

I think we have to look at the environment as a whole and create rules based on those. Allstar weeds out most bad coaches OR pushes teams to be created at a level they can master. It in of itself is self regulating. Looking at high school it is one giant free for all. Level 1 or 2 kids in allstar are expected to be competing skills that are level 5 in allstar, but fit just the one giant overall category for high school.

Again, I think high school should be capped at Level 3.

 

[Ja-Mez]

okay, so I found the 2013 ACCAA Rules, but are the NFHS offcial 2013 rules posted? I know that there are articles on the website, but it doesn't talk about braced flips in pyramids being legal. Is there a link to the 2013 official rule book.

Thanks,
Ja-Mez

 

[laughAlittle]

Level 1 or 2 kids in allstar are expected to be competing skills that are level 5 in allstar

Where do you come up with this? Anything to prove it? Data or stats?

 

[Deleted member 15]

okay, so I found the 2013 ACCAA Rules, but are the NFHS offcial 2013 rules posted? I know that there are articles on the website, but it doesn't talk about braced flips in pyramids being legal. Is there a link to the 2013 official rule book.

Thanks,
Ja-Mez

The only way I know of to get official NFHS rules is to order the book from their website. NFHS not having a freely available version that can be downloaded is asinine in my opinion.

 

[alexamarysouza]

RIP Erica Englebert & Molly Gibbons kick doubles on Ledford.

 

[King]

Where do you come up with this? Anything to prove it? Data or stats?

We have level 1 and 2 kids on our Allstar teams that also cheer high school. Their coaches expect them to do switch ups and double downs from 1 leg and kick double baskets. I've seen it happen a lot. As well our level 5 kids are usually the best on their high school team. I've seen their coaches throw them in a group and ask this one athlete to carry the group and do skills they saw on YouTube from worlds. I have talked to quite a few coaches from our area at other gyms and they have reiterated the same concerns. As well just by judging people's reactions to the high school routines from our state (who aren't allowed to compete out of state) we would not represent the lower end of high schools and competition. I believe we have teams that are near the top of the high schools.