All-Star Practicing 5 Days A Week

[Num1Stunta]

OK, so I just got to thinking... I can remember making the switch to allstars back in 2004 and thinking it was strange to me that there were only 2 days a week of practice.

In high school cheer, we had M-F from 3-6, plus one 4 hour sunday practice in a month. We were by no means a good team, but I felt like it gave us enough time to be properly conditioned and progress stunts.

I can remember my cheer schedule in college looked something like this:
M- 6-8am practice, 4-6pm gym, 6-9pm practice
T- 11am-1pm gym, 5-9pm practice
W- 6-8am practice, 4-6pm gym, 6-9pm practice
Th- 11am-1pm gym, 5-9pm practice
F- 5-9 practice
Sa- off day
Sun- 12-5p practice

Now, I know that seems a little bit excessive (we were very injured, so yes, too excessive). But, I was in the best shape of my life, and I felt like we were able to spend HUGE chunks of time perfecting each section of our routine. We had a solid 2 hours every day devoted to stunting, a full hour of conditioning, a full hour of tumbling, etc- almost every day!

Am I the only person who struggles with trying to get everything done in only 6 hours of practice a week? I mean, if you break that down into routine sections- baskets, pyramid, standing, running, dance/motions, partner stunts, jumps, 2nd partner stunt sequence.... figure you're going to spend an hour of those 6 hours to do stretching and conditioning. That leaves about 40 min per week for each section of the routine, and you know you're going to want to focus more on certain areas, which means less than 40 min for the others. And, that's assuming that you have a full team at every practice.

My question is, other than space, why don't we aim to train our athletes more days during the week? I would personally love to see 3 or 4 days a week, and I think we would see the results out on the floor. We always complain about how kids can throw arabian through to double, but they can't hit a high-v. I see a lot of threads about why we don't see routines hitting anymore, why people are getting injured, why technique has gone out the window in favor of "fierceness" etc. Wouldn't having more practice time fix some of those problems?

Coaches- could you see this having a positive effect on developing athlete skills?
Athletes- would you still cheer allstars if it meant having to come into the gym an extra 2 days a week?

 

[F!ERCE]

Practicing 5 days a week is highly impractical for a lot of gyms. A lot of kids couldn't dedicate 2 hours to travel and 3 horus to practice everyday.

HS is different b/c you live close to your high school and are already there at the end of the day. Lots of high schools in our area do practice 5 days, but all-star 5 days a week wouldn't work for a lot of families.

 

[MissBee]

I think it comes down to scheduling. Yeah, many high schools practice 5 or 6 days a week-but look at the space they have. Most high schools have 2 gyms available, plus a cafeteria, and they could also use the gyms/cafe at their middle schools and elementary schools. So even though they have to accommodate the basketball teams and wrestlers, they can find a space for cheer 5 days a week. Most all star gyms have one or two full floors. They simply have less usable time, especially when you consider that they pretty much can work from 3-9pm and once competitions start up, the weekends are pretty much out of the question for practices.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I would LOVE it if it could be done. But like Fierce said, it just wouldn't be practical. As it is, on weekdays it takes me between 2 and 3 hours to get my girls to practice (that's all traffic--it's only 45 minutes away on the way home and on weekends!). My sanity just could not take that drive 5 days a week.

But at our old gym which was only 10 minutes away, we were there 5 days a week anyway (by choice) for tumbling, privates, etc.

 

[Alexandria_1025]

If an all star team practiced 5 days, then they better be world champions.

 

[MissBee]

Also, the level of All Star is typically higher than that of a high school team. So, higher level + more repetitions = more injury.

 

[ACEDAD]

I think it's a horrible idea. These guys need rest. With the length of the season, the body can only take so much.

And most high schools that "practice" 5 days a week, probably spend half of it painting signs.

 

[fabulousity]

what kind of program has enough floor space for this!??!

 

[cheererinIL]

A lot of high schools practice that often 'cause of how convenient it is, I think too. The kids are already there because they're at school.

I do remember a portion of high school practices dedicated to half time routines, sideline cheers, locker decorating, etc. and not only a competition routine.

 

[Hibbers]

It's not very practical considering how many people travel far for all star gyms these days. Personally I travel well over 45 minutes each way. Around worlds though we literally do practice 5-6 days a week though and it helps a lot, but it would kill the whole gym to practice that often I feel like

 

[My3KidsMom]

My daughters High School team practices 5 days a week and they spend the ENTIRE time practicing and it definitely shows. While it would be awesome to see how flawless teams were if they practiced that much it is just not feasible for gyms much less the children involved. After all not having to spend as much time in the gym is the reason alot of gymnast make the switch to Cheer

 

[ShutItDown]

you may practice 2 times a week but you are also expected to go to tumbling classes once or twice a week. some of the kids come just to hang out and stunt if they live close enough or go other places to tumble.

 

[cheerbear2x]

Like others have said, it wouldn't be very practical.
Take CA Wildcats for example-
Alot of these kids live in other states, or those who do live in TX live in cities far away from Garland, so to have excessive practice would be useless considering a lot of kids would miss, so full outs wouldn't be possible.
I do agree, an extra day a week wouldn't hurt anybody.

 

[AScheer]

My question is, other than space, why don't we aim to train our athletes more days during the week? I would personally love to see 3 or 4 days a week, and I think we would see the results out on the floor. We always complain about how kids can throw arabian through to double, but they can't hit a high-v. I see a lot of threads about why we don't see routines hitting anymore, why people are getting injured, why technique has gone out the window in favor of "fierceness" etc. Wouldn't having more practice time fix some of those problems?

Coaches- could you see this having a positive effect on developing athlete skills?
Athletes- would you still cheer allstars if it meant having to come into the gym an extra 2 days a week?

Our school practices 4 - 5 days a week and they are real full out practices, not sign painting, but I can't take offense sense more than likely the majority of school teams do that. I think on top of travel time you have to consider how expensive it would be. Gym fees would go up bc the coaches have to be paid hourly. School coaches get paid the same no mater how much they practice or don't. I think allstars also shares so many athletes with school teams, and other allstar teams that scheduling practices would be too hard for everyone. While I do agree 6 hours a week isn't a lot of time to spend together as a team, isn't this the reason levels exist? Progressions and levels are the solution to me. If a girl can't do a high V then she obviously was never taught properly from the beginning. If someone did what they were supposed to then she should be able to do a high V long before an arabian double. I personally think a lot of the kids are just thrown into high level teams because they can tumble but can't do anything else and no one takes the time to go through progressions & technique. Thats the main issue.

 

[Jillosh]

I practice 3 days a week for college and 2 for all star. There are about 7/15 girls on my college team that are on my all star team so basically half the team practices 5 days a week and its so noticeable who practices more. we're all just way more in shape and able to do the routine easier than the girls who don't do all stars!