All-Star Prepping For The Cheerpocalypse: What Will We Do When Shtf?

[cupieqt]

Oh yes.


There will come a time when the full travel competitive all star experience will no longer be accessible to most people, and multi- location programs who make most of their money on their full year travel teams will need to diversify a little.

I honestly think that if gyms want to stay full once the "gym bubble" bursts, they need to be diversifying and focusing more on their class programs (tumbling, jumps, etc.) and limited travel/half year experiences.

Which is what we do already. If my all star program ceased to exist today, I'd still have a job. @tumbleyoda would also.

I want to be clear that I used to be a "boycott Varsity" band wagoner. Then I grew up and realized this company isn't the devil that causes all of our problems--WE are. The dirty, unwashed, consuming sinners of cheer.

If you want change you have to create change. So, like Yoda, I have ensured I am in a position to continue to work even if my chosen career suddenly vanished.


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[Lazydaisytoo]

The thing with rec though is there is no governing body to separate the "rec" teams that have a practice facility and train vs. the "rec" teams that cheer peewee football all year and compete at one competition for fun. As long as they fit in a generic set of guidelines the EP sets (which can vary by EP) anyone can compete rec.

Exactly. So real rec rec teams choose smaller comps, local comps. Higher level rec teams choose the larger, regional comps. I'm sure there's some cherry picking going on, but because there's no Summit, there's no reason for the sandbagging you see in AS. It looks to me like they've self separated into DI/DII. It's all about the kids having fun, as there's not a money machine behind it. I saw another team post their "National Title" from local blah blah comp, and the girls look ecstatic. I'm not even sure if they competed against anyone, but they're happy to win a title. It's all about the kids.

 

[SLM]

Exactly. So real rec, rec teams choose smaller comps, local comps. Higher level rec teams choose the larger, regional comps. I'm sure there's some cherry picking going on, but because there's no Summit, there's no reason for the sandbagging you see in AS.

Actually, I still see a ton of sandbagging. Without giving away where I am from totally, I've seen Penndel before. I've seen too many teams just like them compete in the same division as what I would call true Recreational cheer. This is at local comps in High School Gyms. They also enter competitions like Jamfest, Reach The Beach etc, and are put up against the rec teams. Then again, I've seen teams I know for a fact are from All Star gyms compete in those divisions.

Honestly even Rec is changing. It used to be that girls were content to cheer sideline and then compete, more and more girls are moving away from sideline and want to do competition only. These teams like Penndel fill that void. It gives kids the competition only experience without putting out the big dollars of All Star. Some of the teams near me even travel a ton. It's getting to where if local Rec programs don't evolve they lose their girls to other programs.

And Rec isn't immune to the Varsity machine, they do their uniforms too, both sideline and comp, and they are judged on the same score sheet, etc.

 

[tumbleyoda]

Which is what we do already. If my all star program ceased to exist today, I'd still have a job. @tumbleyoda would also.

I want to be clear that I used to be a "boycott Varsity" band wagoner. Then I grew up and realized this company isn't the devil that causes all of our problems--WE are. The dirty, unwashed, consuming sinners of cheer.

If you want change you have to create change. So, like Yoda, I have ensured I am in a position to continue to work even if my chosen career suddenly vanished.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exactly. We are not waiting for rules to passed, divisions to be made or taken away, or some other over reaching thing to say we can be successful. We wont close if for any reason we decided NOT to do All Stars or of rule changes within All Stars became to punitive for us as a program to continue to run that program. We are well positioned not only to remain open but to continue to serve our demographic appropriately and grow wisely.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Found two more comments that I really liked:

From @BlueCat : "For all budding gym owners out there, you would be surprised at how profitable classes are compared to teams. For that matter, rare is the gym that makes money on their elite-level teams. Most lose money on Worlds teams. You can argue loss-leader, etc. but they rarely profit from them directly. Also, Worlds success on the floor can be a brutal, quality-of-life-crushing battle. Chasing globes need not be everyone's path to success. (again - "easy for me to say")"

From @tumbleyoda : "I agree with everything here, especially the last paragraph. This is something else I stress to smaller gyms, yet sadly it falls on deaf ears at times. IMO it is because this is not something the industry highlights as important, so it isn't a major focus of many programs. You have to have people teaching classes that genuinely like to teach classes and see the long range worth of the classes, not just trying to pick up a few extra hours between coaching teams. Nothing worse than a coach going thru the motions teaching a class while they are looking at the teams on floor marking their routine or wishing they could be over there rather than teaching a tumbling class. (I say that as a class director and tumbling director. We have tumbling coaches that just teach tumbling - no coaching teams at all - because that is our focus and why we were hired, not to coach teams) Very few smaller gyms focus developing their class program as a program, instead of a mere supplement to the cheer teams. And they suffer for it. Having a strong class program is one of the best ways to insulate a gym against the ever fickle All Star market"

 

[tumbleyoda]

^^^ The point I want to make on this is Bluecat, and many others along with myself have been making this point for many years. Many years. This is not something new we came up with. This advice is not heeded or taken seriously IMO because it is not the glamorous side of what we do until athletes get at the highest levels.

So my question is always...why?

 

[catlady]

@tumbleyoda my guess is it is solely perception and social media. The banners and trophies are gym bling, classes don't provide them, even though they are a huge key to achieving them. Gyms receive praise (or criticism) for their higher level teams and their gym gets mentioned on social media, unlike the gym's tumbling program.

The same happens in soft line retail, everyone wants and talks about the designers but, it is the imports that sustain the jobs and provide the profit. It's more exciting to work for or shop in a Saks versus a Walmart but, everyone would rather have Walmart's bottom line.

 

[Official OWECheer]

^^^ The point I want to make on this is Bluecat, and many others along with myself have been making this point for many years. Many years. This is not something new we came up with. This advice is not heeded or taken seriously IMO because it is not the glamorous side of what we do until athletes get at the highest levels.

So my question is always...why?

I really think more people should read BlueCat's comment... Worlds teams are not a definite indicator of a gym's success.

 

[tumbleyoda]

@tumbleyoda my guess is it is solely perception and social media. The banners and trophies are gym bling, classes don't provide them, even though they are a huge key to achieving them. Gyms receive praise (or criticism) for their higher level teams and their gym gets mentioned on social media, unlike the gym's tumbling program.

The same happens in soft line retail, everyone wants and talks about the designers but, it is the imports that sustain the jobs and provide the profit. It's more exciting to work for or shop in a Saks versus a Walmart but, everyone would rather have Walmart's bottom line.

I really think more people should read BlueCat's comment... Worlds teams are not a definite indicator of a gym's success.

The issue I have in the past is that before it really truly was promoted hard thru social media it was Varsity/USASF that promoted and pushed it and made it seem to be that "all the cool kids and gyms" were going to Worlds. Remember that I am initially talking about before it was common knowledge that Varsity/USASF was one and the same. So we were pushed to go to this "non affiliated event" which really has always been an affiliated event. Even when doing so often comes at a major loss for the gym. Having "street cred" for going to Worlds rarely turns into $$$ in the gym's bank account. I have often said that our R5 team could go to Worlds, place top ten and we would not gain one new member because of it. Not one. We would gain a lot of spotlight and notoriety especially being a small gym in a state that battles losing cheerleaders to school cheer and they cant do both, but that would be it.

Industry people vested in Worlds would say that would be because we didn't market it right, publish it and promote it. We would say that they don't know our demographic nor are we willing to scholarship the majority to an entire team just to say we will place well at Worlds. We would never undermine the strength of our gym for one competition.

The second thing and full disclosure as I sit here working on our class schedule for next session that one of my pet peeves is that tumbling has never really been promoted by Varsity/USASF. Simply put because they had no way to profit off of it. It is said money can be made of stunt camps but not off tumbling. There was very minimal interest in tumbling by Varsity/USASF IMO except on the scoresheet. Until...now when they can promote cheerlebrities that they helped create that work for them to go out and host tumbling camps. Early copies of magazines that I read trying to learn about cheer when I first came into the sport in 2004 encouraged gyms to just get some football guys and teach them how to spot (not teach but spot) and how the girls would feel safe with the big football guys and the program would grow. Not because of the teaching or training but because of the cute guys. It specifically advised against coaches like myself with strong gymnastics backgrounds because we were deemed too expensive to hire for a cheer gym, did not understand the cheer world and would slow down learning skills. Athletes were encouraged not to go to gymnastics gyms to learn to tumble with proper technique. That a spotting program was better than a teaching program. That a tumbling program should only supplement the All Star team program, but the team program must be the priority. Because that is where "they" make the money and so would the gym owner. Eventually. Maybe. Smh.

I am thankful that the last few sentences about tumbling have finally changed, but the attitude of it still remains in many places. I deal with cheer coaches that call or text me almost daily that just don't get why it takes so long to get a skill or fix a skill or correct a skill learned with bad technique or why the athlete can do one trick easy but cant add on to it. And as I grit what teeth I have left and explain the reasons why, I muse that this is a problem we did not need to have.

 

[Official OWECheer]

The second thing and full disclosure as I sit here working on our class schedule for next session that one of my pet peeves is that tumbling has never really been promoted by Varsity/USASF. Simply put because they had no way to profit off of it. It is said money can be made of stunt camps but not off tumbling. There was very minimal interest in tumbling by Varsity/USASF IMO except on the scoresheet. Until...now when they can promote cheerlebrities that they helped create that work for them to go out and host tumbling camps. Early copies of magazines that I read trying to learn about cheer when I first came into the sport in 2004 encouraged gyms to just get some football guys and teach them how to spot (not teach but spot) and how the girls would feel safe with the big football guys and the program would grow. Not because of the teaching or training but because of the cute guys. It specifically advised against coaches like myself with strong gymnastics backgrounds because we were deemed to expensive to hire for a cheer gym, did not understand the cheer world and would slow down learning skills. Athletes were encouraged not to go to gymnastics gyms to learn to tumble with proper technique. That a spotting program was better than a teaching program. That a tumbling program should only supplement the All Star team program, but the team program must be the priority. Because that is where "they" make the money and so would the gym owner. Eventually. Maybe. Smh.

I am thankful that the last few sentences about tumbling have finally changed, but the attitude of it still remains in many places. I deal with cheer coaches that call or text me almost daily that just don't get why it takes so long to get a skill or fix a skill or correct a skill learned with bad technique or why the athlete can do one trick easy but cant add on to it. And as I grit what teeth I have left and explain the reasons why, I muse that this is a problem we did not need to have.

WTH?

THIS MAKES ME WANT TO LAUGH, SCREAM AND SLAP SOMEBODY ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

TOO EXPENSIVE TO HIRE? WELL THEN, I GUESS THAT MEANS THAT YOU SHOULD CUT DOWN ON UNIFORM SPENDING!

GOOD GAWD.

 

[dance_extreme_94]

WTH?

THIS MAKES ME WANT TO LAUGH, SCREAM AND SLAP SOMEBODY ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

TOO EXPENSIVE TO HIRE? WELL THEN, I GUESS THAT MEANS THAT YOU SHOULD CUT DOWN ON UNIFORM SPENDING!

GOOD GAWD.

That will never happen. Way too many gyms seem to care more about how many sparkles they can put on a single uniform and bow then hiring qualified/certified tumble instructors. They're definitely some around that are affordable, or willing to work with you on pricing.

 

[Official OWECheer]

That will never happen. Way too many gyms seem to care more about how many sparkles they can put on a single uniform and bow then hiring qualified/certified tumble instructors. They're definitely some around that are affordable, or willing to work with you on pricing.

You are DEAD ON. People call us superficial... and here we are, upholding the stereotype.

 

[dance_extreme_94]

You are DEAD ON. People call us superficial... and here we are, upholding the stereotype.

I agree and a lot people in this industry get mad when we tell them that they are upholding the stereotype, but look at that uniform, look at the big Texas style bow, look at your sparkly practice wear and take a look at your tumble instructor who isn't even certified causing your students to get injured every week. I realize not every gym is like this but a lot of them are. Especially those that ran by younger people who seem to care more about the fashion side then the quality of instruction their students receive.

 

[Official OWECheer]

I agree and a lot people in this industry get mad when we tell them that they are upholding the stereotype, but look at that uniform, look at the big Texas style bow, look at your sparkly practice wear and take a look at your tumble instructor who isn't even certified causing your students to get injured every week. I realize not every gym is like this but a lot of them are. Especially those that ran by younger people who seem to care more about the fashion side then the quality of instruction their students receive.

Please tell me you plan on running a program someday. I love the way you think.

 

[dance_extreme_94]

Please tell me you plan on running a program someday. I love the way you think.

lol Thank you I don't I will be opening a gym any time soon! not enough experience on my end. They're already enough bad coaches who open gym with little to no experience. I don't want to be in that category. If I can get good quality help from certified people then maybe one day :) but even that is hard to find.