All-Star Question For Parents - At What Age?

[KikiD22]

Okay, so a question for some of the parents out there, particularly the ones with youth, jr, or sr age athletes that have been involved in allstar cheer for a while. At what age did you start to notice your CP start to take the sport seriously? I'll explain what I mean... My CP is 6 years old and going into her 3rd season of allstar cheer, 1 season as a tiny and now her 2nd season as a mini. Literally up until 2 months ago, cheer for her was going to get to see her friends at the gym, dancing, tumbling, and occasionally getting to put on her uniform and makeup and perform. My CP was also, dare I say, not always the best behaved in practice in that she's the one talking to her teammates, not paying attention, etc. Nothing outright bad, just a bit of a spaz at times.

Not exagerating when I say overnight, my CP is now super focused and obsessed with cheer. It's like some sort of switch flipped in her head, it was that sudden. Now she's doing things like making me list for her everything she needs to do for level 2 tryouts in the car on the way to school this morning. She's been working her little behind off trying to perfect her back handspring, when, in the past, it was a battle to get her to practice anything outside of team practice. She even had me record NCA nationals for her on our DVR and wants to watch it all the time.

Is it typical at this age that they start to get more of a focused concept of cheer as a sport and this "obsession" begins? I don't think this is a bad thing, and I'm curious if others have experienced this with their CPs.

 

[CheerCritic]

My CP started at 3 as a tiny but is 7 now. It just kicked in this season that she wants to practice and has gotten more interested in her team's placement at competitions. She's still teetering between being super focused and nonchalant about the sport. In her defense (or detriment), her personality in life is very laid back. She's gotten excited about tryouts (which did not happen in the past) but she'd like to remain a Mini 1 next season if it was up to her. She started doing her BHS 2 years ago but wasn't super confident with them until this season. It finally clicked. It may be the age and maturity that's leading to the obsession. Good luck with tryouts.

 

[Hi! It's me!]

Mine is 8 turning 9 this summer, she is going into her 6th season and well it depends on the day you catch her. When she was a tiny and her first 2 years as a mini she too was a total spaz. But starting about year 4 she started paying attention more and last year we had the occasional bad practice but mostly she was on point. Unfortunately with this came an awareness of winning and losing (she was blissfully unaware before!) and with that came the stress before she went on. So with more focus comes more stress. Just be glad that that she is more focused, these are the big learning years.

 

[5-6-7-8]

The shortest answer I can give is, "ditto!" It sounds like you wrote the post about my CP. The switch flipped this year (and she always enjoyed it in the past) taking it to a new level.

 

[John Butler]

I have 3 in cheer. I would say that it totally depends on the child. All three of mine are soooo different. Even now, at 20, 13 and 11, each of them have their own levels of "dedication" when it comes to cheer. I will say this, your post highlights EXACTLY why cheer is such an incredible sport. Not only does it teach children about respect, dedication, and trust in others, it also focuses their energy on something that is productive. I can tell you without question that idle hands make for future trouble when it comes to raising children.

I would say my best advice is to simply support your CP no matter how their interest varies from moment to moment. It will change periodically, and you must change with it. This is about your child learning about themselves as much as it is about them doing something fun and character building. It's about them "finding who they are".

My guess is that your CP has peers who are starting to desire to get to the next level, so for her it has opened her eyes to her own potential and desires to succeed. This is an awesome thing... and for her to be learning this at age 6 is an incredibly valuable life lesson!!

Good luck!

 

[cheergoogle]

My CP also started at 3. Tiny for 2 seasons. Mini 1 and then Mini 2. This season she is VERY focused on placement. She sets her goals. She practices on her own. She knows what skills she needs. From my experience I don't find it to be too uncommon.

 

[all4cheer]

my youngest is 11 and this was her 8th competitive season.....she started at 3 1/2 on an exhibition team and i still to this day remember that every night before practice she would say "I quit" lol....yet at the end of practice you couldn't get her out of there!! She probably fell in love with it by the time she hit 5 or 6 as well and her skills really took off...by age 8 she was on a jr level 5 team.....my suggestion is to enjoy her eagerness but also encourage her to try other things as well so she doesn't get burnt out.....most of the time when these kids hit high school their interest fades off a little and they don't want cheering to be their whole life

 

[KikiD22]

I'm definitely going to be 100% supportive regardless of her level of interest at any given time. I expect that she'll still have "those days" because she is 6 years old after all. I definitely think that her friends starting to gain skills and progress has played into this though, since almost all of her Mini 1 teamates from this past season have gotten their BHS in the past few months.

There's that, and an interesting point that was made to me after my original post is that her dad just started being supportive of cheer going into this season. He and I are divorced, and up until very recently, he was very against allstar cheer. He said that our CP "convinced" him that she loves this sport, and now he's on board (a day I never thought I would see). My CP is very much a people-pleaser, so I'm wondering if she had also been holding back a bit for fear of upsetting him in the past.

 

[ErinS]

My niece is 5. This season will be her first season cheering. Shes known shes wanted to cheer for years now and has brought it up constantly, so its something she actually wants and not an activity that her parents are just going to force on her. Shes been to Cheersport twice now and always questioned why there were other kids her size that got to compete. Shes only 5 but shes done tap and ballet for 3 yrs, tumbling for 1 and karate for 1. Cheer is something she seems set on so hopefully itll click with her quickly and she will excel.

 

[Seeker30]

im not completely sure if it has to do with cheer but with child devolpment. >.<
but as early as 6 years old children begin to want some sort of independence! not only that but there most active at this time

 

[soFIERCE08]

i started cheer at age 7 and it didn't really kick in for me until age 9. i don't think the dedication comes with age, but more with exposure to the sport. once i began realizing that hard work could help me get better tumbling and focus at practice meant winning a competition, i became completely determined to work as hard as i possibly could.

 

[CheerMomNTx]

My little one started at 5 on a tiny/mini team. She has always been a focused child, learns fast but very laid back and goes with the flow.

This year on mini 3, she became determined to improve her skills and all of a sudden had a goal to get level 4 skills by the time she turned 8. I don't know what turned 'on' but she even wants to be able to do more difficult stunting. She loves watching videos on youtube but hasn't become obsessed yet.

I think it's because these kiddos have been doing this for a few years and they have seen the bigger kids/skills and want to be like them.

 

[not.a.guest]

youth level...she wanted to go from a youth team directly to a senior team...it was her obsession and and she did it! And its a great team too - (maybe they will win worlds!)

 

[Mamarazzi]

Maybe not with every athlete, but with mine, she puts her "Worlds Goggles" on. Every year, around this time, she starts really pushing herself harder than usual so she can, one day, be with the rest of the teams in the Milk House.

 

[cheermommaRN]

My oldest started at 5 on a "mini" team (it was called something else back then), most of the time they were the only ones in their division, but they thought they just won first place all the time and didn't even notice the lack of competition in their division. At about 7 she started getting more aware of practice leads to competitions leads to awards. She was a spaz in practice up until her last season though.
Pheebs is a different story, her 1st season at 3 as an expo tiny she would curl up on the mat and sleep during practice. She walked off the mat during one competition and sat down next to the coaches. We finally ended up taking her out because it didn't seem like she was into it. She was the same way during gymnastics until she got pulled to be in TOPS and start up training. Then I had a hyper focused 5 year old. This came in handy when she started at Cheer Athletics. She was probably one of the most focused kids on the team that year next to the 8/9 year olds.
I do know that when other kids on her team get new skills it ups her determination in practice. The last few weeks leading up to tryouts, most of our kids had HUGE advances in tumbling and stunting. It really pushed her to start throwing her level 2 skills consistently.