All-Star Rays Rumors Questions?

[King]

Would rays place an athlete on a level 5 team if their tumbling was at level 3/4 but they could land jumps to tuck, and base and/or fly level 5?

We call those role players. Yes, every team has them (levels 2-6). The best base in the gym who is also your point jumper might not have a full, but she excels so well in other categories you do take her on a higher level team. There are all types of role players. Some are front spots who cant do anything but twist their butts off, others are the strong people who can hold some stuff up. Though as our gym has gotten better at teaching I have noticed teams have taken less and less role players because we have so many amazing athletes.

 

[cheergirl09]

Would Rays ever open a second location in another city?

 

[PullandPray23]

When Rays coaches are putting together a routine...How do they always arrive at such a "score sheet perfect routine" like whats at the top of list routine wise? execution or difficulty or what???

What is the key to making all 500 of you kids "stingray clean"

 

[MiaMia]

from mini level 1 to senior level 5 yall are always so clean and tight...even the little ones! I've worked at gyms before and its SO HARD to get the little ones to understand being clean and tight. How do you accomplish that aspect of cheerleading?

 

[cheerymom]

Interesting way to look at it. What about all the other parts of cheer? What if she had a a double full and triple toe back, but was a bad jumper, couldnt base, bad motioner, couldnt throw a basket well? Is it just running tumbling that defines who's kid is who's? (I am not attacking, I am generally asking).

We came from another gym at age 10 with a full. After less than a year, we belonged to Rays for sure. Anyone can get a skill. Rays cleaned it up, made it more technically sound, incorporated it in a way that best hit the score sheet, improved jumps, motions, and stunting... many years and a couple of World Rings later are definitely the result of being a Ray!

 

[King]

Would Rays ever open a second location in another city?

I won't ever say no, but it would be really hard for us. We don't feel like we could buy a gym, put our name on it, and it would suddenly run the way we want it to. It takes about 2 years of coaching at Rays until you really 'get it'. You know the ins and outs, how the system works, and how to improve and push the system. That doesn't mean there are not a lot of great coaches out there, but how we specifically do things has a purpose all the way down to the tiniest detail. You can't teach that in a weekend. And we would only venture into something to succeed (were a bunch of crazy driven people like that!).

 

[King]

When Rays coaches are putting together a routine...How do they always arrive at such a "score sheet perfect routine" like whats at the top of list routine wise? execution or difficulty or what???

What is the key to making all 500 of you kids "stingray clean"

The routine that happens in February is not the routine that is choreographed in August. We have initial ideas, try them out (sometimes they fail and sometimes they succeed), and make adjustments. We are ALWAYS making adjustments. I think a lot of the times the advantage we have is that we know where we want to get to and how to get there, so even when times are tough we 'trust' in the process and it usually works out that way. We also ask a TON of questions (nicely) to figure out what is the best. If we mess something up and do not get scored well it does nothing to complain about how the score should have been higher, but instead to find out where we could have done better. In our mind you are either growing or you are dying. Even if you fail, as long as you learn you are growing.

And for making every kid clean at this point it is that it is our system. It took years to 'educate' everyone on how we want them and now that most have bought into it we see it reflected from top to bottom. The hardest part is breaking a lot of old habits when people come into our gym. They aren't always bad habits, but we don't allow individualism when their is a set way to do a skill. So people may have to relearn how to jump, motion, tumbling, basket, and even stunt. Some learn quicker than others, and some just don't like it.

 

[King]

from mini level 1 to senior level 5 yall are always so clean and tight...even the little ones! I've worked at gyms before and its SO HARD to get the little ones to understand being clean and tight. How do you accomplish that aspect of cheerleading?

This comes down to our incredible staff! What is so fun about our staff is we might be the motliest oddball different group of people you have ever met, and probably wouldn't stand out if you saw us in a room. You could not find a more different but cohesive group of people. What is fun is we have people as passionate about Mini Level 1 as there are people passionate about Senior level 5 on this board. My wife (I enjoy bragging about her) is a WAY better coach than me. She knows level 5 and 6 as good as anyone (she taught elite stunts at NCA college camps to the best universities in cheer), but really enjoys the little ones and the lower levels. When she and people like her care as much about winning Junior 2, or youth 3, as everyone does about level 5 it improves our whole gym. Kids my wife started with 6 years ago on the first peppermint are now on green (which makes me feel old). Their technique is great, skills are sound, know the Stingray way, and are just all around amazing athletes. As great as Orange, Smoke and Amber are this year (and I am pretty pumped about them) when our 1st year peppermints start being old enough for worlds teams its going to be a little silly. Strong passion in younger and little parts of cheer has paid off for our program tremendously.

 

[King]

We came from another gym at age 10 with a full. After less than a year, we belonged to Rays for sure. Anyone can get a skill. Rays cleaned it up, made it more technically sound, incorporated it in a way that best hit the score sheet, improved jumps, motions, and stunting... many years and a couple of World Rings later are definitely the result of being a Ray!

Are you still allowed to be on a cheerleading board now? hehe.

 

[cheerfan27]

Would Rays ever open a second location in another city?

Or in Atlanta?

 

[Whit_Marieee]

Cinnamon. It works!

In reality Rays is the right combination of a few things:

1. Location. We are in a really good area. Easily accessible, near a major metropolis but not so close our rent is astronomical. Plenty of local competition.
2. A set system that every coach buys into and believes in. Every athlete that comes into the gym we strive to help reach their maximum potential. For some its last pass on a Worlds team, for some its a back walkover. No team is looked at as any less than the others (we hang the mini level 1 banner next to the senior 5 banners from NCA). So our Level 1 coaches are jsut as driven to be successful as our level 5s. My wife looks at her Mini 1 team as her Smoke, Amber, or Orange. It is funny because we view this years NCA as less successful than last years, but we have heard most consider it more successful (we won ever level 5 we entered but only won 9 compared to last years 11).
3. A strong set of rules and traditions we have built over the years that we enforce. No shadiness. No funny business. And people (athletes or parents) who bring that to our gym we ask to change or leave a lot of times.
4. We aim to be as affordable as we can be. We go cheaper so we get more kids which ends up making more.

Ahahaha if you're serious about this cinnamon thing I would sooo try it! :p

 

[King]

Or in Atlanta?

Now that is a bit more possible, but there are no current plans. Maybe if our reality show takes off we could have a spinoff about a gym we could open in east or south Atlanta? haha.

 

[cheerfan27]

Think about it, there is not a dominant gym in South Atlanta, it's a gold mine.

 

[socratesofcheer]

I asked this question in the CA thread as well. Rays have won numerous titles at NCA, Cheersport, UCA and Worlds. What is the motivation at this point?

 

[garretttt]

can i nugget in the back of oranges routine just once? at maybe a small pointless competition, like worlds?