All-Star Rays Rumors Questions?

[King]

did her coaches teach her to always stand clean to the front after she tumbles? or was it just a habit she formed? @kingston could answer this too :) i noticed in her KTMAI video whenever she does running tumbling, she lands whichever crazy good pass she is throwing then immediately stands tight to the front!

All Stingrays are taught to stand up clean to the front. It looks cleaner and you aren't distracted by the dance, shimmy, dust off your shoes, point at your friend, throw the call me sign to that person in the audience you really like.

In my personal opinion, there is maybe one or two passes at Worlds that would be 'ok' doing that... maybe. But overall, meh, most people end up looking sillier than they might personally think doing that. Its about the flyer equivalent of throwing awkward winks in a stunt while mouthing your vowels.

From a competitive standpoint, its also way more intimidating if you have all these passes not celebrating and just doing their job.

 

[King]

Who was that fierce center dancer on Black (09-10) when they danced to Pussycat Dolls? Does she still cheer at Rays?!

i know she's so good! and wasn't black youth 3?

I wont mention a minor's name on the boards, but she is a VERY good dancer. She competes with a dance studio as well. There arent many grown adults who moved their hips so well... let alone 3rd graders! Thanks for the compliment.

 

[King]

OK, to the voice over / picture question.

There is no way to explain it except in a kind of 'it is how it is' manner. When you win this much at all levels you expect a little bit of this. If you weren't good all the time, if you didn't have a chance at winning every division you entered, if people didn't envy you a little, they wouldn't make voice overs about you. Or take pictures of choking Rays, or shooting oranges, or sneaking them into a routine. Let's face it, if we didn't win so much they wouldn't be doing it.

So does it affect us? Or drive us at practice? Or do we read it and does it 'get' at us?

Nah. Personally I tend to find them kinda funny. (I am in charge of our 'Hit a Ray' contest the past few years and I gave an honorable mention to a team we beat hitting a Ray at worlds... yeah I'm cheeky like that).

We don't build our routines and practice to 'beat' anyone else. When you try to beat someone else you might become over focussed on just beating that one team, and not end up winning. Our gym is taught to focus on just us. Sure our coaches themselves study every team and what their strengths and weaknesses are so we can see areas we might need to improve or rethink on. But as far as coaching our teams we don't walk into practice saying 'You better hit or you wont beat XXXXXX'. And in general those voice overs, or highlights, or moments of 'fierceness' put so much pressure on a team on that eight count of the routine you will often see things fall or miss right around that moment. To me every voice over, every dig, and every picture is an advantage. It means someone else is focussing on you, and not winning.

So long answer short, not really. It is kinda like your little annoying sister trying to dig at you, but you don't really care.

 

[FierceJedi]

Still think the most appropriate response is "damn it feels good to be a gansta" by the Ghetto Boys

Well said nonetheless

 

[Keep_Believing]

Do you give your flyers drills, exercises, stretches, etc. to practice at home? If so, what does this look like & how often are they suppose to do it?

 

[Iamshannon]

why has stingrays always been all girl (aside from smoke)? personal choice or not much interest from guys?

im from atlanta (the other side, all be it... same city, two hour drive! :confused:), and a lot of other local programs have plenty of guys... just wondering why rays has never fielded multiple coed teams!

 

[King]

why has stingrays always been all girl (aside from smoke)? personal choice or not much interest from guys?

im from atlanta (the other side, all be it... same city, two hour drive! :confused:), and a lot of other local programs have plenty of guys... just wondering why rays has never fielded multiple coed teams!

The honest answer is we make boys pay. In our area boys, in general, do not pay for cheer. To exist we have to have a solid business model. If 50 boys came to our gym tomorrow willing to pay and be involved with a team we would take them.

 

[Iamshannon]

The honest answer is we make boys pay. In our area boys, in general, do not pay for cheer. To exist we have to have a solid business model. If 50 boys came to our gym tomorrow willing to pay and be involved with a team we would take them.

good for you! there was a thread on here about boys not paying, but yall have shown that you dont need to give boys a free ride to be successful :)

 

[Seeker30]

The honest answer is we make boys pay. In our area boys, in general, do not pay for cheer. To exist we have to have a solid business model. If 50 boys came to our gym tomorrow willing to pay and be involved with a team we would take them.

:eek: Boys Pay? whaaaaaa?
ahahahaha jk!

 

[King]

Do you give your flyers drills, exercises, stretches, etc. to practice at home? If so, what does this look like & how often are they suppose to do it?

We do have conditioning exercises for the flyers. In a 'perfect' world they should be done every day. I have learned from experience if it takes too long to do OR you only do it a couple times a week the drills are never done, so I try to give kids 5 to 10 minutes of 'homework' a day. 5 to 10 minutes a day is easy enough to put into your morning routine. What the kids do kinda all depends on what they need to work on. So you have to come up with stuff for 5 year old mini level 1's to work on as well as senior level 5's. There is a TON of stuff to choose from when building a program, so I don't know what all to write out for you. I will give you an easy one that helps a lot of flyers with weak ankles. I find flyers lots of times have two types of tightness, total body and ankle. You can have a flyer who is ripped and squeezes her entire body stiff as a board... but her ankles are loosey goosey. Usually the cause is the ankle itself is just not strong enough. So, an easy way to condition your ankles is while you are sitting draw the alphabet with your toe without moving your leg, just your foot. Try it both feet twice every day for a week and youll find your ankles get stronger AND more coordinated.

 

[King]

good for you! there was a thread on here about boys not paying, but yall have shown that you dont need to give boys a free ride to be successful :)

:eek: Boys Pay? whaaaaaa?
ahahahaha jk!

I just want to add there is nothing wrong with programs having boys and having that spotlight coed team. I do think in 20 years there will be more boys involved in the sport so the rules will change a bit and having boys will be a viable business model.

 

[King]

Great video from the USASF interviewing different coaches about their programs and competing at Worlds. If you skip to 1:50 they interview Roger (head coach of Orange and our allstar director). I enjoyed the part talking about keeping an athlete within themselves to perform every part of their routine to the best of their ability.

 

[Ashley]

HATED that camp. And i got stuck in the elevator once there with like 15 girls. Not fun!

Did you stay in the towers? They were like 22 floors - I lived in those for 2 years! I didn't know there was a cheerleading camp at my university

 

[Cheer4ever]

Cinamon works!?

 

[imrichhowboutu]

Did you stay in the towers? They were like 22 floors - I lived in those for 2 years! I didn't know there was a cheerleading camp at my university

I dont think it was that tall. It was one of them that was around the field.