All-Star Poor Sportsmanship At Cheer Events

[Cheermom1969]

Just curious - what other customs are you referring to?

I know recently someone posted on a different thread about teams standing to applaud the first place team and potentially taking the moment away from the winning team. Our gym did that last year - as a sportsman gesture.

My opinion, they were more stating that the spectators then couldn't see their winning team jump up and be excited and get their award. Personally, I love when teams rejoice for the winning team. I told our girls a couple weekends ago, if you don't get first, I expect smiles and clapping for the first place team. Rep your gym right. ;)

 

[KDCheerMom]

I posted that. I also clarified that I felt it was rude to stand to applaud and then remain standing. It is good sportsmanship to applaud and then sit down. I am referring to the same competition that the poster from Hot Cheer is talking about, so maybe he/she saw it, too?

And for the record, I have never seen Hot Cheer be anything but good sports. I think that maybe you notice your own gym doing things that others don't.

Yes you did clarify about the "remaining standing" part...and I did not put in my post here but I actually saw your point of view about it potentially detracting from the winning team. I had not thought of it from that perspective - just the fact that our owner felt it was a show of sportsmanship. Which honestly is why I think it is ok to have these discussions on the boards and have a dialogue about them.

I am just genuinely interested in what other sportsmanship "cheer" customs there are - that are different from other sports.

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

I'm not surprised about the topic of Pittsburgh cheerleading being brought up here.. That's where I started cheerleading and it is a whoooolle different world. Cheerleading is hardcore in Pittsburgh, and I know EXACTLY what gym and program is being discussed.

I know that cheering and clapping for a team as they fall is terrible, but I can understand how this happened. There is a lot of term oil between the two gyms from many reasons. So it's not right in any way, but I can sorta understand it happening.


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I'm going to have to disagree with you here on the part about "oil" between the 2 gyms. I think the 2 gyms show great sportsmanship between each other and welcome the friendly competition. I have many videos from last year of the teams dancing and interacting at awards. I'm sure there are individuals from the programs that may not agree, but I have always thought that there was an overall mutual respect between the 2 programs.

 

[coach12]

I still feel like this wasn't handled in the right way. If this was my gym I would rather the parent come to the gym owner and explain what she saw and her concerns. Then if you want to start a topic on here about bad sportsmanship in general without having to specifically call out your own gym would have made more sense.



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[Mamarazzi]

I still feel like this wasn't handled in the right way. If this was my gym I would rather the parent come to the gym owner and explain what she saw and her concerns. Then if you want to start a topic on here about bad sportsmanship in general without having to specifically call out your own gym would have made more sense.



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I'm sure most people would rather that. Fact is, it won't happen.
The OP is somewhat anonymous. He/she doesn't have to directly be a snitch. He/she can handle the issue in a public, albeit passive-aggressive manner, without personal backlash.
The owner will hear all about this thread and choose to deal with it as needed. OP doesn't have to address it or be associated with it.
Plus, he/she did his/her parent job by whistleblowing and kind of apologizing.

 

[alexandra_ashleigh]

I'm going to have to disagree with you here on the part about "oil" between the 2 gyms. I think the 2 gyms show great sportsmanship between each other and welcome the friendly competition. I have many videos from last year of the teams dancing and interacting at awards. I'm sure there are individuals from the programs that may not agree, but I have always thought that there was an overall mutual respect between the 2 programs.

I don't believe we are discussing the same 2 programs.. But maybe I am just confused considering I wasn't at the comp.


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[juscheerthatisall]

This reminds me of NCA where cheer updates was sitting in front of some parents (unknown to them) who were lashing another team. He not only tweeted their program but also their section and seat number. Gym owner showed up in their section like 5 min later. It was great! Moral of the story: you never know who you are sitting by. Just keep your comments to yourself until you get out of the arena. Or wait and share them on fierce board :)

 

[BlueCat]

Really? Because when a child falls, and the child hears people in an arena cheer about it, I think the child's feelings are slightly more hurt than an adult's might be.
Remind me to smugly laugh at your struggling Mini. Would that be alright?

I didn't say that every conceivable action was perfectly acceptable at a cheer event. It also wouldn't be OK to: throw a trophy you didn't want at the announcer, loudly count off-count during an opposing team's routine, purposely skip the CD of an opponent, or throw thumbtacks on the floor when a rival takes the mat, etc.

I dislike it when people bash programs here for relatively harmless things. There are times when a public scolding is appropriate, but those are few and far between. I was also talking much more generally than any specific example given here.

 

[Mamarazzi]

I didn't say that every conceivable action was perfectly acceptable at a cheer event. It also wouldn't be OK to: throw a trophy you didn't want at the announcer, loudly count off-count during an opposing team's routine, purposely skip the CD of an opponent, or throw thumbtacks on the floor when a rival takes the mat, etc.

I dislike it when people bash programs here for relatively harmless things. There are times when a public scolding is appropriate, but those are few and far between. I was also talking much more generally than any specific example given here.

I still dont think the OP bashed the entire program. He/she called out some bad apples. Ideally, this would be handled at home, but as a parent, I understand why it wasn't. That's some backlash parents fear.
My friends might be mad at me, and the coaches might take it out on my Susie. Irrational fear or not, that's how many parents would feel.

 

[BellaCheerMom]

Pollyanna here! (I am the geek clapping for every team at every event. :)) Best line I heard in a long time recently at a game: "Enjoy watching your child ,stop judging mine "

 

[Cheermom1969]

I didn't say that every conceivable action was perfectly acceptable at a cheer event. It also wouldn't be OK to: throw a trophy you didn't want at the announcer, loudly count off-count during an opposing team's routine, purposely skip the CD of an opponent, or throw thumbtacks on the floor when a rival takes the mat, etc.

I dislike it when people bash programs here for relatively harmless things. There are times when a public scolding is appropriate, but those are few and far between. I was also talking much more generally than any specific example given here.

Hmmmmm, I haven't seen any of your examples happen at a competition. But getting a little too excited at a competitors mistakes? Yeah, I'ven seen that happen several times.
Look, you're a gym owner so you're taking it from that perspective. I'm a parent who can understand the OP's frustration. Right, wrong, or otherwise for posting it on here, they are frustrated at some folks from their gym. And that's ok.

But throwing shade at them for bringing it here and posting, I don't agree with that.

 

[NEliteSteven]

1. Nobody is saying that they're OK with their kids cheering when their competitors fall. Clearly some people missed the points of the conversation being brought up.
2. Next, we all know which 2 programs in Pittsburgh are being referred to. I have a hard time believing that the intention of the original post was innocent with all the drama going on there. I would not be happy right now if I was a HotCheer gym owner right now.

 

[Cheermom1969]

1. Nobody is saying that they're OK with their kids cheering when their competitors fall. Clearly some people missed the points of the conversation being brought up.
2. Next, we all know which 2 programs in Pittsburgh are being referred to. I have a hard time believing that the intention of the original post was innocent with all the drama going on there. I would not be happy right now if I was a HotCheer gym owner right now.

2. Not everyone. I'm way over here on the West Coast and have zero knowledge of any of it. :)

 

[Just-a-Mom]

1. Nobody is saying that they're OK with their kids cheering when their competitors fall. Clearly some people missed the points of the conversation being brought up.
2. Next, we all know which 2 programs in Pittsburgh are being referred to. I have a hard time believing that the intention of the original post was innocent with all the drama going on there. I would not be happy right now if I was a HotCheer gym owner right now.

Nope. I don't have a clue. And maybe the Hot Cheer owner should worry about what parents are doing at comps as much as on fierce board. Then there wouldn't be a thread to be so unhappy about.

Sorry. But I'm tired of people getting fried for posting stuff on here. It's a message board. It's what it's for. And my experience has been that gym owners are AWFUL at keeping people's names out of these things, which is why people post it here instead of going to the owner. (my experience has also been that owners don't usually address these things when they're told one on one in private. But when it's blasted on fierce board it seems to get handled. I can't say this about Hot Cheer, because before today I'd never even heard of them. But as a general rule, I've found that owners don't care one whit about these things unless they're forced to)

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[eliteathletics]

I believe in Karma- and if you have to win because another team fell then you are not truly a champion- you won by default. Id rather loose to a better team than win because they made too many mistakes- as a parent and coach wiahing bad or cheering for another teams mistakes will only come back to bite you where the sun don't shine!