All-Star Prep Vs. All Star ?

[wallflower]

It's possible our gym may be shutting down and thus we will have to drive abt. 50 miles to a gym . Due to the drive I am leaning too having CP (9yrs going on 10yrs this summer) do a Prep team. She has done two years of AS and this last season we sat out (tumbled only) due to the fact I felt her 2nd season was too much on her . She was 8yrs on a small Jr 3. squad (mini 1 the 1st yr) . They where pratcing hard 5days a week and she ended up getting a mental block after the 2nd comp. She would even fell asleep the minute she arrived home from school . She regressed from being able to do a layout to roundoffs/cartwheels by the last comp (could still do a front punch). Once the season was over she did recover pretty quick (3 weeks) and even learned a whip before the end of summer. Know, if our old gym doesn't shut down, I have no issues doing a full blown AS team, even though I hate cheercations :( Thanks

 

[Lazydaisytoo]

Wow, 5 days a week is a lot for a Jr3 team! No wonder she was wiped out, and I'll bet you were too. Driving 50 miles to a gym would be a dealbreaker for me too. Is the Prep team much closer? And does that gym offer full year teams too? Or alternatively, is there a rec cheer program in your area?

 

[Jenniturtle]

This was my 13 year old CPs first year cheering and since she did not make her middle school team she tried the prep team. our gym only had a level 1 prep team so she was the oldest on the team. her team came in first 3 times competing against other prep teams. At nationals there were no other level 1 prep teams for them to compete against so they competed against regular level one teams and got creamed! they came in last place. there is a big difference in competing against a team of mostly 13 years olds when my CPs teams had 8 and 9 year oldsvon her team plus the full year teams had been practicing 5 months longer than ours. If I were you I would not put her on a prep team. She sounds too advanced and I don't think she would be challenged enough. my CP is now super excited to do a full year team.

 

[MLawson16]

Honestly, I would not recommend going from a high-intensity AS team to a prep level team. Especially not if she's that young and doing layouts and whips. I am on an AS level 4 team and I coach a prep level 2 team and the level of commitment is so different. If your child is willing to put in so much effort to become an amazing cheerleader I wouldn't hold her back. There is nothing wrong with prep teams, but if she wants to cheer level 5 one day and eventually become a college cheerleader, a prep team won't get her there.

 

[wallflower]

Wow, 5 days a week is a lot for a Jr3 team! No wonder she was wiped out, and I'll bet you were too. Driving 50 miles to a gym would be a dealbreaker for me too. Is the Prep team much closer? And does that gym offer full year teams too? Or alternatively, is there a rec cheer program in your area?

The gym that is abt 50miles away. It has prep and AS (it's the closet gym if the one in towns shuts down). It's the fact of adding in the drive that makes we consider dropping her down to prep and not having to get her their has many times a week. Even though I really have no idea how many times their prep teams practice verses their AS . Another big factor would be what time I had to have her their by, she doesn't get off the school bus until 4pm. I did think it odd they did prep sign ups at the same time has AS (in a few weeks). Prep is also cheaper and I am looking at, at-least $100 more on gas a month . She did do a rec. cheer last year (it was just sideline cheer for football). That is even up in the air has to if that will happen again :(

 

[Lazydaisytoo]

I still think 5 days a week is excessive. CP is on 2 level 4 teams, and she only practices 3 days per week. One weekday each for J and S, and then both teams practice on Saturday. We also choose to take tumbling 1 day per week at a nearby gymnastics gym. That's on top of the tumbling that her gym includes with weekday practices.

Is there anyone nearby who you can carpool with? My gym is a 20-40 minute drive depending on traffic, but we have a 4 family carpool, so I only drive all the way to the gym 1-2 times per week.

There may be some higher level rec teams in your area too. There are at least a couple near me who do US Finals, Disney, etc. There is a range. Some are sideline only, others have strong competitive programs.

Depending on the schedule at the proposed gym, I'd absolutely lean towards a regular team over prep.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

Honestly, I would not recommend going from a high-intensity AS team to a prep level team. Especially not if she's that young and doing layouts and whips. I am on an AS level 4 team and I coach a prep level 2 team and the level of commitment is so different. If your child is willing to put in so much effort to become an amazing cheerleader I wouldn't hold her back. There is nothing wrong with prep teams, but if she wants to cheer level 5 one day and eventually become a college cheerleader, a prep team won't get her there.

Dude she's not even ten yet. She has plenty of time to build skills for college and level five.


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[MLawson16]

Dude she's not even ten yet. She has plenty of time to build skills for college and level five.


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Obviously, but I've never heard of a level 5 prep team. She should go somewhere where she can reach her full potential. If she is already a level 4 tumbler, why should she be on a prep level 3 team? It just makes more sense for her to go somewhere stronger.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

Obviously, but I've never heard of a level 5 prep team. She should go somewhere where she can reach her full potential. If she is already a level 4 tumbler, why should she be on a prep level 3 team? It just makes more sense for her to go somewhere stronger.

Obviously there are no level five prep teams. I'm assuming her mom wants her to do a prep team for one year, then go back to competitive. And why force a kid to burn out at age nine? She doesn't need to be a level five tumbler by the time she's 11.


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[dawgshow]

Obviously there are no level five prep teams. I'm assuming her mom wants her to do a prep team for one year, then go back to competitive. And why force a kid to burn out at age nine? She doesn't need to be a level five tumbler by the time she's 11.


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My CP did a prep team this past season on it was just the low pressure, but still competitive, environment she needed to get her mojo back.
Know that not all gyms treat prep teams the same. Ours had the sane expectations as the "regular" all star teams. The expected commitment level was the same for every team M1 and up.


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[omgitssydthekid]

My CP did a prep team this past season on it was just the low pressure, but still competitive, environment she needed to get her mojo back.
Know that not all gyms treat prep teams the same. Ours had the sane expectations as the "regular" all star teams. The expected commitment level was the same for every team M1 and up.


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I coached a prep level 1 team this year and I treated them exactly how I treat my competitive kids. They practiced for two hours, once a week. They competed at four competitions, and took first at three of them by at least 4 points.

I wish more gyms took this division seriously, it would be so much more competitive!


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[tumbleyoda]

Obviously, but I've never heard of a level 5 prep team. She should go somewhere where she can reach her full potential. If she is already a level 4 tumbler, why should she be on a prep level 3 team? It just makes more sense for her to go somewhere stronger.

1.) Burnout - At her current age she is a prime candidate for being burned out, right when a team desperately would need her on their highest level team. It isn't about how fast an athlete can get to level 5 but are they well rounded and can they maintain once they get there? Or will she become the teenager who you have problems coaching because she has been doing all this since she was 10 and it not new or fun anymore?
2.) Perfection of skills - just because an athlete can throw skills in in the gym does not mean they are ready for a routine. Just because they are put in a routine does not mean that they are truly ready to be competed, especially when it is all on the line for them to hit or else. Also are the Level 4 skills true, strong and maxed out in every area or weak and just in running but not in standing?
3.) Maturity - physical, social, emotional - let her grow up. Some of the worst mental blocks come from young phenom athletes that we as coaches/parents/fans push too fast to be amazing for us and they end up getting injured or crack under the pressure.

Just a few reasons why there is no rush.

 

[xomckenzieee]

Here's a few differences between prep and all star routines to consider:
1. Prep routines are only 2 minutes, compared to the 2.5 minutes of All Star routines
2. No basket tosses
3. There's no coed/all girl (Although your daughter is young enough that there typically isn't a split anyway)
4. The highest prep level is 3 so depending on the gym you are going to and what they offer, you're looking at your daughter being able to throw level 2-3 skills at max
5. If your gym does travel and they bring their prep teams to 2 day comps, you will only compete once. I know some parents dislike that because then they travel all this way for the weekend to only go on for one 2 minute routine.

Hopefully some of this information helps!

 

[wallflower]

Thanks so much for all the input. It appears someone is buying or bought out our old gym. Has for one poster stating CP seems to be real motivated to have advanced that much her 1st year . I think this is where the problem lies with CP, she isn't that motivated she just catches on quick . Unfortunately I don't feel her mental level is up their with her skill level, yet coach her 2nd year didn't see it (neither did I) and burned her out (mental blocks) . That coach left a new coach came in , I didn't sign her up for AS just tumble. New coach got frustrated and refused to work with her (which led us to a different place to tumble and the setting was such she really couldn't advanced if she wanted to). This was after she overcame her mental block (spring) and a few weeks after teaching her a whip (summer) . I guess he expected her to be jump into learning her full ? Which to me, if she was happy for awhile doing cartwheels or what ever let her slow down for a tad being that if she stops all together she'll lose everything and have to work at building it all up which could be more frustrating ? Being that she wasn't on a squad, their was no push or rush for her to learn a skill so they could place her on a higher level. For example, I was talking to one mother and they skipped level 1 skills due to the gym needing level 3 girl (this was last season) . Anyway, even though we appear to have a new gym I am still in dispute over Prep vs AS . Oh, one last question even if she does prep could she preform solos before her team even starts competing (at the comps the AS competent at ). I doubt she'll want to-do solo anyway, just a thought . Thanks again :)