All-Star Opinions On Really Small Teams

[azmom]

Shine Allstar, I think they are out of California, had a small sr2 team that had nine members. They won summit this year against a ton of teams. We saw them at a few comps this year and they were always really good.

 

[Boughetto]

Shine Allstar, I think they are out of California, had a small sr2 team that had nine members. They won summit this year against a ton of teams. We saw them at a few comps this year and they were always really good.

Shine All Star Cheer - Chrystal Chrome [2016 L2 Small Senior Day 2] | Varsity.tv

Great routine!

 

[FaithOverFear!]

Our Y1 had only 6-9 girls. I say that because due to kids quitting and people moving, the numbers fluctuated between those few. They did have a pretty difficult routine for level 1, and only one girl didn't tumble. The rest had pretty beautiful tumbling as well and they did hard stunts. They definitely could've added more difficulty but a lot of the kids were little (almost mini age). We only had another senior team and all the girls were too old to cross to Y1 obviously so they did what they could. They typically placed second to last or last all season, with the exception of a tie for 3rd place. They just got hit hard in pyramid scores because they had to change it frequently, and it was hard to get all those skills in with only two stunt groups (sometimes only really 1 but split up into things like shoulder sits, two man preps, etc) It broke my heart. It's definitely harder but you cannot get away with any tiny mistakes, execution issues, or non tumblers.

 

[Cheergrandma]

Was at a very small gym. Our Mini 1 won Cheersport nationals with a 10 member team. Our Jr 3 won US Finals Champions Round (and got the rings) with only 10 members. They were a "dream team" in the fact they gelled from the beginning. 10 seems to be our lucky number. Both teams were very clean, sync'd and maxed out skills.

Of course, I love to see a large team hit a perfect routine with a gazillion stunts going up in sync. I wonder how the judges keep track of how many didn't tumble and who did double and triple tumbling passes to make it look like everyone tumbled. Any judges out there?

 

[quietmom]

I think a small team of athletes with solid, level appropriate skills would be way better than a team with kids who are not on level. Pretty, clean, solid tumbling is always nice to see.

 

[Melissa Starke]

Cheer time revolution has a tiny 1 team with only 5 kids. They were regional grand champions at rockstar and won 4 national titles,including us finals.
Every time I see a video of them performing, I'm amazed.
I say kudos to those kids and coaches for maxing out on at the very least tumbling skills,cause I can't even do half of it!

 

[Boughetto]

Is there no minimum number of athletes required to for a team?

Why did U rate this as bullying?? @Charolais

 

[Charolais]

Why did U rate this as bullying?? @Charolais

Because I have fat fingers.

 

[acecheermom]

Wow I guess it is more common than I thought. Our gym has just never done the small team thing outside of like a tiny or mini level 1 team.

This year it looks like my daughter's Sm Coed R5 team will have 12-14 athletes. But they will have squad fulls and squad two to full. So I guess we will see how this new way of doing it works out for them. I hope well. There are some truly talented kids on this team.

 

[Boughetto]

CP made Y3...team of 10 but it's a team of full squad level appropriate tumbling skills.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Cheer time revolution has a tiny 1 team with only 5 kids. They were regional grand champions at rockstar and won 4 national titles,including us finals.
Every time I see a video of them performing, I'm amazed.
I say kudos to those kids and coaches for maxing out on at the very least tumbling skills,cause I can't even do half of it!

I believe they came in 2nd at NCA as well (to Rays Grape.)

 

[TheVipersMom]

CP made Y3...team of 10 but it's a team of full squad level appropriate tumbling skills.

Congrats!!
My daughter was on y3 last season and it was by far her most enjoyable year. She loved every minute of it! I hope your daughter has the same experience! Good luck this season!

 

[SparkleSpankies]

I have an issue when teams only have 1 stunt group. Technique includes synch spacing timing etc, and if that one skill is the most perfect skill, there is still no synch to worry about, so they max out?

 

[Boughetto]

Congrats!!
My daughter was on y3 last season and it was by far her most enjoyable year. She loved every minute of it! I hope your daughter has the same experience! Good luck this season!

Thank you! This will be her 3rd year at level 3. year 1 Y3, year 2 J3, and now back to Y3. LOL

 

[njallday]

I'd prefer a smaller team with full squad, appropriate level skills to a team that was filled with 5-10 higher level crossovers to make the team look full any day. If you're against crossovers AND complaining about small gyms making small teams, I think you need to reevaluate your thought processes (general you, no one specifically.)

The only time I raise an eyebrow at it is with mega gyms who you know have the athletes to fill the team... but those just may be the only J3 kids that showed up to tryouts. Even then, it's more worlds teams with the mega gyms, when you know they have alternates/turned kids away and are still competing with smaller teams. Otherwise I'm not too bothered and some of my favorite routines are of extra small teams because they have no choice but to be creative.