All-Star What Is Important To You At An Events?

[stuntaholic]

I want the music as loud as it can be. I want my kids to hear it, I want the judges to hear every lil DING or BOING that we paid for. If the music is too loud for you, sorry, I always try to find a way to have the music guy turn it up. Nothing is worse than kids on the floor not hearing the music.

I completely agree. I don't like the competitions where you can barely hear the music. I think cheerleading is meant to be right in your face. And music is a big component in that. It is meant to be loud.

On a side note I am not a great at physics but hear me out for a second. When you play music from two speakers (like some competitions do) there are peaks where the wavelengths meet up and create a maximum in sound. On the other hand there are points where the wavelengths weaken each other and make minimums. If a competition could identify these areas and point that out to spectators it could help somewhat. Obviously the music is still loud but for those parents and grandparents that want it to be quieter they could sit in this section. If I am wrong on the physics on that sorry and somebody correct it.

 

[Dan Hawk]

It really is very constructive to hear this terrific feedback on what is important to you. It sounds like warm up is a larger topic of concern for people, and I wanted to first say that makes complete sense. All your work for an event comes down to your 2 and half minutes on the floor and warm up should be a positive contributor to your performance not a negative distraction. I wanted to take a second and outline some of the challenges we EP have in warm ups and see what is the most important aspect to you, and if you see better ways warm ups might be run. The first thing we have to have happen is the warm up times have to match the scheduled performance times or the event will not run. If you only had one spring floor in back where everyone got ten minutes each the performance times would have to be every ten minutes or else after the first few teams you'd have no one ready to perform, and events would run terribly late. Even being off one or two minutes from practice to performance can cause big delays in events. EPs use multiple stations so that teams get 15-18 minutes of warm up time, but are still coming off the last mat at the standard 5-6 minutes to match the times on the main floor. At really large events like our Midwest Nationals, Jamfest Super Nationals, Coastal BATC, NCA and Worlds their is enough practice space to do multiple full spring floors in the practice room so that you can stagger the times people come off the floor and still match the performance times, but the majority of events in the industry fall in to the 50-125 range where you are only competing on one floor and practice space is limited. An example of this is arena space. Many people love arena events, because of the great seating and how really terrific lighting and sound can be done, but many times at arena events you are using the back half of the space for practice. While this fits and works (really snugly at times) you could not do multiple large floors in this space. I know this is really common stuff, and you guys spend enough time competing that you already know how and why practice areas work. I guess I just wanted to outline some of the challenges to hear feedback on how we can improve this standard process and still provide you timely events that don't take all day and run on time. Obviously our first priority will be to always provide quality tumbling equipment that meets USASF safety guidelines, but since this is such an important area of interest is there anyway to change the "standard" 50-100 team practice procedure to provide teams the most positive experience we can.

 

[stuntaholic]

Another suggestion I would like to make to have competitions run a little smoother time wise (I am not sure if All-star competitions do this, I do know it is done at high school comps in Illinois). At some comps we have to sets of judges. And what they do is judge every other performance. That way they can still write their notes and whatever else they want in the 3 minutes that the next team is competing in. And when doing this they alternate the divisions so the same panel is judging the same division the whole time. This cuts down on the wit between performances.

 

[King]

@Dan Hawk
For warmups I think the best suggestion is required minimums. I know that different competitions face different problems where ever they are at. I think the best solution is to know you are going to get a certain number of things. For example:

You get at least a total minimum of 12 minutes to warmup skills (stretching is NOT included in skills). 12 minutes is comfortable amount with a little breathing room. 10 minutes is VERY short and almost teeters on dangerous.

You get at least 4 minutes of a full 60 feet by 12 feet spring floor for tumbling.

You get at least 4 minutes of a full floor.

All stations for skills must be at least 21x12 feet in size.

The reason I like these types of requirements is they mean you could do different stations or do just a full spring floor for 12 minutes OR be like cheersport and have an hour long warmup. The big key is that every team that walks into warmups knows they at least have 4 minutes to warmup running tumbling, or 4 minutes on a full floor.

 

[BlueCat]

While they dont handle it well don't we want it to be consistent. With the limited amount of space they use for warm-ups I think even the small competitions could follow the same structure. While it may not be an optimum way to do warm-ups it is how Worlds chooses to do it and I would like my athletes doing the same thing all year round, not something new each competition.

Consistency - good.

10 minutes of skills warmup - not good.

 

[King]

10 minutes of skill warmup is a bit dangerous, IMO. Warming up a large team needs about 12 minutes (which allows for some breathin room). Any more is good too.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[topthat143]

1.judges that know what they are doing (not telling me that if i add baskets to my youth 1 i could increase my diff. score!)
2.warm-ups that you can build your stunts even when your on the "tumble" floor ( i love cheersports warm-ups)
3.fun awards for mini and youth maybe ? but cut to the chase when its 11:30pm on a sunday night
4. when its a "national" comp. i would love jackets !!! or bags!! even a tee-shirt!! .. something my girls can wear the next day to school lol
5. oh and judges who know what they are doing :)

 

[aquarider]

I completely agree. I don't like the competitions where you can barely hear the music. I think cheerleading is meant to be right in your face. And music is a big component in that. It is meant to be loud.

On a side note I am not a great at physics but hear me out for a second. When you play music from two speakers (like some competitions do) there are peaks where the wavelengths meet up and create a maximum in sound. On the other hand there are points where the wavelengths weaken each other and make minimums. If a competition could identify these areas and point that out to spectators it could help somewhat. Obviously the music is still loud but for those parents and grandparents that want it to be quieter they could sit in this section. If I am wrong on the physics on that sorry and somebody correct it.

I've NEVER been to a competition where the music is not loud enough, especially by the stage and the judges. Rather when I leave priority seating after having watched my team I leave with my ears ringing! I just don't see why it has to be that loud all the way to the highest seat. It doesn't matter how far away I sit I leave every comp with a headache. So now I only go in to see my own team and then I go outside. And after 9 years of cheer I have a child who can't hear half what I or anyone else says. But hearing loss is okay so long as the judges hear every ding and boing. Hazard of the sport, I guess?

 

[King]

I think its less about the volume but more about the clarity of the music.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[stuntaholic]

I think its less about the volume but more about the clarity of the music.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

I would have to agree with this to an extent. It can be extremely loud but if I cant here the words its worthless. To where on the other hand I still want it loud enough because for some of my athletes hearing that music bumping gets them in the zone.

 

[King]

I would have to agree with this to an extent. It can be extremely loud but if I cant here the words its worthless. To where on the other hand I still want it loud enough because for some of my athletes hearing that music bumping gets them in the zone.

I don't mean it is quiet, but if the music is strong and clear and everyone can hear it then going louder than is comfortable is not necessary.

 

[AScheer]

As a coach I took my team to one COA event and never returned. Here is why based on our experience:
1. We were the first team of the day and the competition was already 30 minutes behind schedule.
2. The people working the warm-up room were clueless as to where we needed to go and how long we had.
3. The warm-up room was inadequate (no spring floor - not even a tumble strip) and the full out floor had no music system so we had to count the routine. They let each team go out to the arena to warm-up tumbling on the main floor which created an unbelievable amount of issues. I can elaborate if you would like.
4. After warm-ups we waited for a LONG time before we took the stage.
5. The staging was poorly done and the lighting was non-existent. Just us on a floor in a huge arena with the crowd a good 50 feet away. It was not excited or fun for the girls at all.
6. Since it was a smaller event there was only 1 award ceremony for the event. Since we were the first team we had to wait more than 5 hours until awards. The parents and kids were restless.
7. We received medals for first however they're weren't enough for the whole team.

A plus is the girls did enjoy getting their gift (a hanging make-up bag), there weren't enough of these for our whole team either - please make sure the number of gifts matches the number of participants, otherwise its a headache for the coach to try to track down the person to get more and then prove we're not lying and trying to get more gifts/medals than allowed!

 

[AScheer]

As a spectator, I want to feel like I'm at a sporting event, and that I have a decent idea of what's going on.

One of the things that has always exasperated me about cheer events is that you attend them, and other than knowing when your team performs there's nothing about the sport itself. No explanation of the rules, levels, scoring. Most events don't even announce scores. I remember when our area got a minor league hockey team - the first couple of years of the team's existence they would hand out "cheat sheets" that explained rules, penalties, etc. I'd love to see that kind of information handed out in a program, just once, rather than expecting me to dig it up on the internet.

What if the video screens in between teams had a slideshow with a rule or a fact, or something that educated the audience (or at least gave them something to read) while they waited. For example all coaches know that when you go to cheersport they want you to connect your jumps to tumbling. The parents and some athletes however don't know that. If it were on a slideshow as a tip or fact or something then the audience would see why a team that had an amazing jump sequence with no tumbling scored lower than another that did a simple toetouch backhandspring, etc.

 

[King]

What if the video screens in between teams had a slideshow with a rule or a fact, or something that educated the audience (or at least gave them something to read) while they waited. For example all coaches know that when you go to cheersport they want you to connect your jumps to tumbling. The parents and some athletes however don't know that. If it were on a slideshow as a tip or fact or something then the audience would see why a team that had an amazing jump sequence with no tumbling scored lower than another that did a simple toetouch backhandspring, etc.

That is a great idea I think. But needs to wait for a universal scoresheet. Would raise the education of everyone.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[peytonnmariee]

JAMMY!