All-Star Senior Level 5 Worlds Eligible Teams- 12/13 Year Olds

[kristenthegreat]

at least make it a good reason for raising the age. because you dont like small flyers is a stupid reason...

Is 'Because I think large age gaps diminishes our legitimacy as a sport, a subset of that being that it gives the ILLUSION of utilizing younger fliers on older bases who could toss extension her with one hand' an acceptable reason? :P

 

[garretttt]

Is 'Because I think large age gaps diminishes our legitimacy as a sport, a subset of that being that it gives the ILLUSION of utilizing younger fliers on older bases who could toss extension her with one hand' an acceptable reason? :p

not really imo.

 

[carolinagirl823]

not really imo.

Agreed. If someone has the skills, they should be allowed on the team.

Also, 12 years old is not a ridiculously young age to be on a senior team. I was in 8th grade when I was 12, and I did not feel uncomfortable at all around older girls.

I don't think that the age minimum needs to change. If a parent doesn't want their 12 year old on a senior team, then switch gyms or ask to be on a different team. Nobody is forcing your child onto a senior team.

 

[aquarider]

And this is happening because stunting is being pushed to the limits right now. You just can't get a squad full of kids that can do these elite entries into stunts with 110-120 pound senior aged fliers. You use your strongest bases under your biggest girls and then your weaker, smaller bases have to lift smaller girls. Long gone are the days of straight up stunts or even switch ups and full ups at this point. Harder stunts = smaller fliers. And then you have this new coed stunting rule for coed teams and I guarantee you now you'll see even smaller fliers on coed teams in order to max out that score at worlds.

You know the situation varies from gym to gym so I can understand, kinda, the 12 to 18 spread. It's not only about gyms using 12 year old flyers. Heck we had a 13 year old, strongest girl on our small all-girl level 5 team, basing our largest flyer who was a senior. Without her that flyer would not have been in the air. And ages go through your gym in waves. More than half of our all girl team graduated this year, 3 of them flyers. If you don't give the younger, skill ready and mentally ready kids a chance to work with the older girls, who is going to mentor them so they too can be the best at what they do? Let's face it. No matter your tumbling ability, once you get to Worlds its more mental than physical. It's the ones who can pull off their awesome skills when the highest pressure is on that are successful. And if they start younger and are mentored by the older girls who have been there, done that several times, they will learn what it takes to succeed. Does that make any sense? Okay, ya I admit to being frustrated sometimes when we competed against teams who all had tiny fliers, but just felt more proud that our girls were able to pull off the same skills with larger flyers. Heck my daughter's flyer was taller than her, but an awesome flyer and beautiful in the air!

 

[The Sixth]

By 'right', one assumes there is justness or a given rightness to an ideal or concept. Neither of which applies, and also falls under a similar principle to 'fairness.'

Am I misreading what you're saying, or are you just proving exactly what I said? Being "right" does assume there is some justness for something being valid or not. Fairness, has nothing to do with right or wrong, but equality.

It's not a 'cop out', it's the truth. For whatever reason, the current age divisions are the way they are. But if they were to change, there will be a reason for doing so, and the reasoning against it ALSO can't be substantiated by 'fairness.' Fair involves freedom from self-interest, and it would be in the self-interest of 12 year olds to say they SHOULD go to Worlds.

Again, determining what is fair is a separate argument from what is right and wrong. By using the "life isn't fair" argument all one says, is objectivity doesn't matter. No matter what the end result is, every other argument can always be invalidated with no basis. And in your example, they won't substantiate it by fairness. I'm sure they'll objectively say that 12 year olds can compete mentally and physically with 18 yr olds! Which, if viewed objectively is all that matters....has nothing to do with fair.

 

[The Sixth]

Is 'Because I think large age gaps diminishes our legitimacy as a sport, a subset of that being that it gives the ILLUSION of utilizing younger fliers on older bases who could toss extension her with one hand' an acceptable reason? :p

So you're equating 12 yr olds as being tiny...got it. After we raise the minimum age to 14, what do we do next, set a minimum weight limit too, because it will diminish the athletic legitimacy if a girl over 14 happens to be small???

 

[Deleted member 11199]

at POWER we hav a lot of talented young ladies... about 4-5 of the girls are 13 or below and they all have a pretty high specialty through to double

 

[Tamzin]

I have to say you have it better than we do here in the UK.

At the moment there is no minimum OR maximum age for Senior Levels 1-5 (just one person over 16/17 years). It is suggested that there be no more than a 10year age gap between oldest and youngest members but this is in no way policed.

This results in some VERY odd squad dynamics. I have previously seen a mother AND daughter competing on the same allstar squad!!!!!!

On our squad we have a mother and daughter on the same team (it could've been us that you saw :P) also our youngest is 12 or just about to turn 12 and the oldest is 40(but still really amazing at cheer)the 12 year old is now a flyer for the reason 'she's tiny so it'll be easy to put her in the air' however she doesn't yet have the technique to hold herself in the air or the skills a flyer should have like our 'bigger' flyers, I think it really depends on the skills of that individual and agree with others that just because they're young doesn't mean they're smaller etc. If you're eligible to compete on a senior team and have the skills then there should be no problem, but the downside is when they're only just 'senior' age and have been put on the team to make up numbers or if they're smaller to fly regardless. Just my own opinion. xx

 

[xcourtneylynnex]

We usually don't have anyone younger than 14 on our senior 5 team but this year we have a few younger ones because they are exceptionally tallented and we don't have a junior 5 team.

 

[newcheerdad]

If you hit the age date correctly you can. In 09, Mckenzie Rutan from stingrays was on youth and junior5, then filled in on orange at worlds. Voila, it's possible!

If you have to be 12 on August 31 to be on a senior team, and the age maximum for youth is 11 on August 31, then I cannot see how this is possible. Were the rules different a couple of years ago?

 

[newcheerdad]

MAJORITY of Sr teams are 14-15, which actually means the 12 yr old is closer to the average age than an 18 yr old. I think for the sake of argument, lowering the Max age would be better than bringing UP the min age. Now does that really even sound right!? No, if the few Max age kids don't wanna hang out with the 12 yr olds I completely understand but to eliminate the 12 yr old who has busted hers as hard as the 17 yr old isn't fair. The difference in your "Olympic" analogy is that there is NO MAX. So on soccer teams you have 16 yr olds with 40 yr olds and gymnastics you have 15 yr olds with 25+ yr olds. Sorry your arguments carry no weight, if its only "I don't wanna hang out with a 12 yr old" then don't, feel free to hang out with kids your own age, no one is forcing you to. Also if you feel your team is too young then at age 17 you can cheer on on Int 5 OR 6 team. I'm in no way trying to attack you, you just happened to speak up on this topic, I just don't see what the problem is. The only thing I care about for the sake of this argument is what it affects on the floor, I am yet to hear on negative that having a 12 yr old on the floor and until I do, I'll continue to feel the way that I do. Let me ADD, ONLY Worlds Level 5 teams have minimums, Levels 1-4 tiny, mini, youth, junior and SENIOR divisions have NO minimum age. So be thankful your on a level 5.

Actually, Olympic men's soccer is U23, with the caveat that countries can choose to have three overage players on their squad. It's a real funky rule.

I agree with having a minimum age for Worlds teams. I'd personally prefer it be 14 rather than 12, but understand why that would be harmful to smaller gyms.

 

[xcourtneylynnex]

If you have to be 12 on August 31 to be on a senior team, and the age maximum for youth is 11 on August 31, then I cannot see how this is possible. Were the rules different a couple of years ago?

Yes, the minimum age for senior teams used to be 11.

 

[Deleted member 1556]

If you have to be 12 on August 31 to be on a senior team, and the age maximum for youth is 11 on August 31, then I cannot see how this is possible. Were the rules different a couple of years ago?

I think so, or at least that's what people have said in this thread. I didn't know that before posting that though haha.

 

[PCMKarma]

I think it's okay to have a 12 year old on a Sr team but only if they deserve to be on it... If youve got a super talented 12 year old with a double, standing full etc... Why hold them back for 2 more years? There talent should be seem and they should be allowed at worlds but the one thing I like about stingrays is they have bigger flyers and they look really good in the air... If a program has enough talent to make a senior 5 but there flyers are 12/13 and smaller that's not their fault... Smaller gyms don't have all these choices of girls but they should still be allowed to compete in the senior division at worlds !