Senior Teams Vs Junior/youth

[Nellie Mae]

do most gyms put more emphasis on senior teams vs the younger kids? Even though our junior kids are super talented and VERY successful...

I was just wondering if this is the norm...

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

No.

In theory, you WANT to place emphasis on quality coaching and attention for/to your Levels 1-4, Youth, and Juniors because that:

1. The majority of revenue generated for a gym comes from lower levels.

2. Strong lower levels make for strong Level 5s.

They definitely shouldn't be an afterthought.

If you feel as thought your gym doesn't attend to lower levels (ex: you always get the younger and more inexperienced coaches, last ones to get routines, etc) you may want to look elsewhere.

 

[TheVipersMom]

We go to the same comps, we fly in the same amazing choreographers and just as much work is poured into our youth and junior teams as our senior teams!

All 3 of our youth teams won NCA! (Y1, Y2, Y3) we are the future of our program and I'm so thankful they put in just as much work to make everyone successful.


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[Pebbles49]

My statement and analogy may sound simple, yet,
I definitely agree with @oncecoolcoachnowmom and @TheVipersMom,
I used school as an example, as a teacher of ms children, I expect more emphasis should have been placed on teaching of basic skills in reading and math, which should occur in the 1st through the 4th grade levels... After 6 grade, the ms teachers are simply building and elevating on the basic skills, and become angry, if we must teach these basic skills...

I believe cheerleading is similar to school. The divisions(Jr and Youth) with the lower levels (1-5) are learning the fundamentals and imo, the best coaches are needed in these level, as oppose to Senior 5/6 levels, these athletes have learned the basic skills and are building and elevating on these skills...

PS: Just like cheerleading, I believe the very best teachers should be teaching 1st-4th grade students too...
Ms=middle school

 

[mamabear]

do most gyms put more emphasis on senior teams vs the younger kids? Even though our junior kids are super talented and VERY successful...

I was just wondering if this is the norm...

We just switched to a gym that has several elite teams and I expected that my cp's J1 team would be among the lowest on the totem pole, but I have been pleasantly surprised. We have a Worlds coaches teaching team tumble 2xs a week and a well known coach as our head. I love how so many of the coaches and the program treat her level.

 

[SL&AM]

I would say that hasn't been out experience with any program we've been at.

 

[StephlCurry]

We have been at a gym where all focus was on higher level teams while lower level/age groups were barely considered. Our current gym is not at all like that and they have very elite Worlds teams, etc.

 

[cheer25mom]

Wish our gym thought like some of yours. Lower level teams are low man on the totem poll for everything. Coaches, practice times, but particularly money spent on things outside choreo ect. All of our coaches are competent to coach, don't get me wrong, but it seems like more time, energy and resources go into higher level teams, particularly when you only have 1 level 5 team in the gym. That's where the money is spent for flashy choreo and music, outside guest coaching ect.


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[randomactsofcheer]

Wish our gym thought like some of yours. Lower level teams are low man on the totem poll for everything. Coaches, practice times, but particularly money spent on things outside choreo ect. All of our coaches are competent to coach, don't get me wrong, but it seems like more time, energy and resources go into higher level teams, particularly when you only have 1 level 5 team in the gym. That's where the money is spent for flashy choreo and music, outside guest coaching ect.


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We definitely see more time, energy, and resources put into the higher age/level teams at CP's gym. Granted, everyone gets the same choreographers and guest coaches at the beginning of the season, but the buck seems to stop there for the younger teams. This has been something that bothered me more and more as the season wore on. CP did not notice the difference in treatment last year or at the beginning of this year, so we let it go. The preferential treatment given to the older teams has become especially noticeable at competitions this season. CP has been disappointed several times in the last couple months because of the preferential treatment of the older teams and it has caused her to no longer want to stay at the gym.

I will say that this gym lost a noticeable amount of athletes from the younger teams from the 14/15 to 15/16 season, but the majority of the athletes on the older teams stayed. I believe this is a direct consequence of the gym's treatment of the younger and lower level teams.

I agree with the previous posters, the lower levels and younger age divisions are the ones that will feed into the older teams. If you can't provide a good foundation for these kids, many of them will not make it to the older or upper level teams.