All-Star Outside Of Scoring What Do Coaches Find Frustrating About Competitions?

[socratesofcheer]

I wish deductions were bigger. Enforce hitting routines.

Politics. Politics with companies have been HUGE! We can act like they don't exist.... but they do.

Could you elaborate? I always hear politics or that company is political, but, can you give some examples of what you are seeing? (obviously, don't need to say a team name unless you feel the need)

 

[Rudags]

Its not with teams so much as it is EP's or Head Judges or someone of that 'power'

Ive done judging for several smaller events and a few National. The stories that the judges around me tell are horrendous, and yes, I have experienced it first hand as a judge myself, so its not hearsay.

In my experience, the EP let me know that he changed my score so that team A could win because they brought a lot of teams to the event. Ive also had numerous judges 'threaten' to judge me and my programs poorly due to personal differences outside of cheer. As much as I have heard and seen it, I can only imagine how much it truly happens.

 

[DJ]

Thank you.

I should have been more specific. Meanj mentioned "mistakenly applied legalities that affected the outcome" and I would like that explained.

Sorry. Just saw your post.

Teams particularly in a Worlds division had a legality in performance 1.

They made the adjustment however the same deduction appeared on performance 2. In error. It affected placement, bids, and grand champions

 

[CoachMandiCF]

Its not with teams so much as it is EP's or Head Judges or someone of that 'power'

Ive done judging for several smaller events and a few National. The stories that the judges around me tell are horrendous, and yes, I have experienced it first hand as a judge myself, so its not hearsay.

In my experience, the EP let me know that he changed my score so that team A could win because they brought a lot of teams to the event. Ive also had numerous judges 'threaten' to judge me and my programs poorly due to personal differences outside of cheer. As much as I have heard and seen it, I can only imagine how much it truly happens.

Wow, that is so disturbing to hear first hand. Ahhhh makes you wonder about some things....

 

[Rudags]

Wow, that is so disturbing to hear first hand. Ahhhh makes you wonder about some things....

I agree. I have only been judging 'professionally' for about two years now. I have been coaching for many many years. So many times I have been at a competition placing second wondering how in the hell that happened. But then I look at the check that my gym wrote a small comp company, then I look at what the other gym did, and I felt I had my answers.

There are so many smaller regional events that get absolutely NO business. I can't tell you how many competition companies have begged me to bring my teams to a comp. last minute just so there is competition. Furthermore, if a larger numbered gym brings a ton of teams to a smaller event, what if that larger gym decides to not come next year.... they won't have an event....

 

[CoachMandiCF]

And it's so hard to try to explain that to the kids who worked so hard for their performance. We recently went to a bigger nationals competition and it was the first time our S4 went up against bigger name teams. We thought we were in the clear for front runner because we were the only team who kept everything up, no tumble touches and had the difficulty. Come to find out we lost...and the team who won dropped 5 stunts and had 3 tumble touches. I didn't even have the words to explain to my team.

 

[xpressjag]

Warm ups is a HUGE issue, especially the time allotted. You should get time to stretch, stunting mat, tumbling and full floor. Some competitions just do tumbling and then big floor. Some places give you less than 5 minutes on each mat and some stunts and tumbling take much more time to get through, especially if you have a large team.

Also, lack of First aid/trainers around is a HUGE annoyance to coaches and athletes.

Lack of knowledgeable stuff, can't EP have meetings prior to event starting. I know its cheap to pay college kids to work events, but its not great for customer service.

I would say American Championships and NCA have it down to a science, in regards to warm ups, many other companies need to step it up.

 

[xpressjag]

AMEN!!!!

Yes some of these "coaches rooms" are very low budget. A bag of M and M's and water is pretty much as cheap as you can get. Have a little bit more class in your events and give something to the coaches.

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

I agree. I have only been judging 'professionally' for about two years now. I have been coaching for many many years. So many times I have been at a competition placing second wondering how in the hell that happened. But then I look at the check that my gym wrote a small comp company, then I look at what the other gym did, and I felt I had my answers.

There are so many smaller regional events that get absolutely NO business. I can't tell you how many competition companies have begged me to bring my teams to a comp. last minute just so there is competition. Furthermore, if a larger numbered gym brings a ton of teams to a smaller event, what if that larger gym decides to not come next year.... they won't have an event....

This I am curious about... when they solicit your business like this, last minute, will they often reduce or eliminate fees for your teams just to get someone in there?

 

[imrichhowboutu]

This I am curious about... when they solicit your business like this, last minute, will they often reduce or eliminate fees for your teams just to get someone in there?

Most of the time yes.


What I am concerned about, Did you tell the Event Producer about questionable ethics of other judges?

 

[taytaydaubs]

I'm not a coach but I hate it when your at an event and your team is just trying to warm up your bodies and stretch before warm ups and the security won't let you do that virtually anywhere.

 

[Tealxblack25]

Me being a cheerleader... I think that there needs to be longer warm up times.. We have to cram in a warm up in 5 minutes.. and it goes by FAST ! Then were rushing around and it just stresses us out and then were flustered to perform !

 

[ilikebigbows]

I've always wondered why some comp's warm up times aren't longer. The team with 18 level 2 girls can warm up all of their passes in 5 minutes, but for the senior 4 team with 32 kids with 3-4 skills each, 5 minutes isn't going to cut it.

 

[AScheer]

There are so many smaller regional events that get absolutely NO business. I can't tell you how many competition companies have begged me to bring my teams to a comp. last minute just so there is competition. Furthermore, if a larger numbered gym brings a ton of teams to a smaller event, what if that larger gym decides to not come next year.... they won't have an event....

Its so true. I've also seen so many small competitions cater to gyms that bring in multiple teams. In the past few years there have been a few companies that have called and begged me to bring teams, even offering half priced entry fees, etc. We even competed free at one of the big national events last year.

Maybe I'm one of the few but as a coach, my team receiving first, doesn't determine wether we return or not next year. I love to win, but I don't want first given to me because they want to keep us happy. If we don't deserve it, whoever does should get it, regardless of how many teams they have. I don't care what place they give, if it's a poorly ran event or we have issues with the company I'm not coming back. If you have a great event, great staff, etc I'm coming back even if I get 12th place! I think some companies forget that if they run a respectable, on time, organized event that people will return and they won't have to beg anyone. Off my rant now...:D

 

[AScheer]

This I am curious about... when they solicit your business like this, last minute, will they often reduce or eliminate fees for your teams just to get someone in there?

With my experience yes. It depends on how close the event is. Last year for example one regional offered us $5 off per athlete, a week before the event they were offering half price. When I still said no (we weren't ready) they finally asked us to come exhibit for free.