OT Why So Much Hate?

[Official OWECheer]

I am in agreement with you. I started gymnastics in the mid 70's up thru college and coached exclusively in gymnastics programs up until 2004. Even in recent years when we shared a program location with a gymnastics program, that mindset was there. One of my drawing points is because I have the gymnastics background and I am allowed to run the tumbling program how I want, we draw in quite a few gymnasts that want less time in the gym but not less emphasis on technical instruction.

Perhaps they draw that conclusion because they haven't been exposed to other sports that involve tumbling.

 

[amanda-flips]

I've thought pretty extensively about this.

I don't think most gymnasts go out of their way to hate on cheer. You just see hate more often because people are more likely to express their dislike than their respect. (Also if you see unprovoked hating, it might just be a bored drama queen. One of the easiest ways to create drama on the gymternet is to rile up the cheerleaders.)

Form probably is a big issue as well.

I think the reason that some people might see cheer as "lesser" than gymnastics is because it's more... Inclusive (?). To be a competitive gymnast (in the JO program, anyway) you have to be under a certain age and be handpicked by the coaches in your gym. You can start cheer at any age, and most gyms tryouts are just assessments for placement.

Of course I don't speak for all of the gymnastics community. But I really hope that whatever this is between the gym and cheer communities comes to an end. Obviously both sports are difficult and worthy of respect. I think that we could learn for each other.

 

[amanda-flips]

I don't really think it's about cheerleading all together. I think the issue comes into play when people say that gymnastics and cheerleading are the same things. They're clearly are not. Cheerleading is a mixture of acro and dance. But when you clearly try and compare dance and cheer or gymnastics and Cheer, gymnast get up set because all they do is strictly tumble. May do a few stunt tricks here on the beams and such, but it's still tumbling only. Maybe with a little dance when it comes to floor routines.


So to me, I think it lies more with comparing one another, then actual hate.

Go watch Katelyn Ohashi's beam routine at the 2013 American Cup. She has a two to full.

 

[Helen uk uni cheer]

In my area there are 2 gymsnastics gyms one quite small and relativley new and one extremely established program the smaller gym lets cheer hire their space but doesnt have much respect for it. I go to their open gyms and they won't give me any help and told me I will never get some of the skills I want.

The bigger gym has a very good outlook of cheer because one of their staff cheers, understands the commitment and they help me alot because I said I want proper technique

When im at uni I go to an open gym there and they are super supportive and help us alot. The coach there is amazing and is one reason why I go so hard in training.

During my summer break before nationals I was doing 2 1/2 hours extra ontop of 3 hour practice every week while it may not be the same amount a gymnast is doing Cheerkeaders work hard in their own ways

 

[gymnastyetafanofcheer]

Is there a thread I've missed? (no, seriously, I'm not in ALL the threads - lol!)

My question is why gymnasts would be on the board, since they would think cheerleading isn't their thing.

So I have noticed that in the gymnastics community there seems to be a very strong cheer bashing tradition. Obviously it's not ALL gymnasts, but I feel like so many people in the gym community have take any and every opportunity to insult and stereotype cheerleaders (all the while getting offended when ignorant people insult gymnastics and stereotype it as easy and girly). I understand that the tumbling on a lot of cheer teams is bad, and that lots of coaches aren't properly trained, and lots of cheerleaders aren't well conditioned. We know. Lots of us are the opposite of that. I'm asking our gymnast/ex-gymnast friends on Fierceboard, why the hate from so many gymnastics people?

Perhaps I'm being too sensitive but I really don't get it.

No thread that I am aware of,

And I joined this board because I love watching cheerleaders, and some cheerleaders had helped me with tumbling, (tips and they encouraged me on) and that's when I started watching cheerleading. Obviously I am a gymnast. I would never switch sports however, because I wouldn't be able to bear loosing my friends and I have been in gymnastics for almost 10 years. Also, tumbling is my week point, and I don't have a lot of stamina so I wouldn't do well in cheer.

I love watching cheerleading however, and let me say this, the girls who encouraged me and helped me go to World Cup, but tumbled at my gym before I moved. I love the team aspect of cheer I must say.

honestly, I haven't really met anyone that bashes cheerleaders besides a few girls who I must say were very stuck up and not nice In general. I think the bashing if anything stems from jealousy however.

that's my two cents.

 

[Official OWECheer]

No thread that I am aware of,

And I joined this board because I love watching cheerleaders, and some cheerleaders had helped me with tumbling, (tips and they encouraged me on) and that's when I started watching cheerleading. Obviously I am a gymnast. I would never switch sports however, because I wouldn't be able to bear loosing my friends and I have been in gymnastics for almost 10 years. Also, tumbling is my week point, and I don't have a lot of stamina so I wouldn't do well in cheer.

I love watching cheerleading however, and let me say this, the girls who encouraged me and helped me go to World Cup, but tumbled at my gym before I moved. I love the team aspect of cheer I must say.

honestly, I haven't really met anyone that bashes cheerleaders besides a few girls who I must say were very stuck up and not nice In general. I think the bashing if anything stems from jealousy however.

that's my two cents.

Thanks for your input! I definitely think the attitude depends on the person. Perhaps I had just seen too many people with the same attitude (like a previous poster said, people are more likely to talk about dislikes than likes). I had no idea you tumbled at WC. Did you meet anyone on Shooting Stars (had to ask because I love them)?

 

[blyndreamalum]

The gym I tumbled at is five minutes down the road from me. It's also where my all star team practiced before they got their own building. One of the instructors at the gym is the mother of one of owners of the all star team and she grew up as a gymnast, so our tumbling at practice was a lot of technique because that was her background. The gym also offered tumbling classes aimed at cheerleaders and dancers that cut out beam, bars, and vault and strictly focused on floor. It was the best of both worlds because it focused on the skills that cheerleaders and dancers wanted/needed but it was taught with the same progression ( tumble trak, crash mat ect) that gymnasts use and there was always conditioning thrown in.

 

[SL&AM]

CP's Team originally started out of a gymnastic's gym. Due to the military PCSing the two founding coaches, one of the gymnastic team coaches took over mid-season last year and disaster was an understatement. I've let CP do gymnastics class for fun and because the tumbling aspects have helped CP with cheer; but having a gymnastic coach as a cheer coach was very eye opening to the differences in methodology. And, as cheerleaders, it really hurt them because she refused to push them.

Needless to say, she was replaced at the end of the season; which was a great decision because she rocks as a gymnastics coach, just not cheer.

As for the elitism, I hear it and see it from the others mom when I'd sit in the gym during times where cheer and team were practicing at the same time, but always ignored it. In fact, I get more flack over CP's cheer from a dance teacher than I ever have from a gymnastic affiliated person.

 

[gymnastyetafanofcheer]

Thanks for your input! I definitely think the attitude depends on the person. Perhaps I had just seen too many people with the same attitude (like a previous poster said, people are more likely to talk about dislikes than likes). I had no idea you tumbled at WC. Did you meet anyone on Shooting Stars (had to ask because I love them)?

I didn't tumble at World Cup, they tumbled at my gym, in fact one of the girls is on Shooting Stars this year, and 1s on suns, 3 on starlites, and 2 on twinks. Aswell as some other level 5 teams. World Cup was an hour and a half away, so that's why they tumbled at my gym.

 

[Ally13]

I see plenty of cheerleaders on social media hating on gymnasts as well. Just some snarky comments about how cheer has longer routines so it's harder and just overall cattiness. Most of the gymnastics blogs I follow poke fun at cheerleaders because a majority have bad tumbling form. I love both. But I'd say both sports can hate on each other and it's not just coming from the gymnasts.

 

[DaniV]

I've been sitting on this for a couple days now trying to figure out to put into words my experience and thoughts because it definitely is true and has been for year.

I grew up as a gymnastics. I did it for 12 years and I made it to a pretty high level (back then it was level 9, which I know is something slightly different now). We had a cheer tumbling class that overlapped with one of our practices and I distinctly remember we all thought they were a bunch of silly, unathletic/untrained? girls. Mostly it was ignorance on our part not knowing anything about the skill-set that is required in cheerleading. The cheer girls would be bouncing on the trampoline practicing their front hurdlers and we made so much fun of their horrible "Wolf" jumps (knees are supposed to be kept together) or they would pretend to run into the low bar and fall over but only if the boys team was right next to them practicing on rings.

I honestly cannot tell you any real specific reasons that I hated cheerleaders, I just did. Maybe it was a deep down jealousy that I believed they were all the "cool kids" at school who actually had friends and lives outside of their sport. They had a glitzy and glamorous sport whereas I spent my life in the gym and only had the medals on my wall to show off and scared all the boys away with my unfeminine muscles. I did end up replacing gymnastics with cheer as soon as I quit due to burnout and was ashamed and excited at the same time of my new sport. I quickly found that all the stereotypes were not true and high school cheer wasn't all it's cracked up to be from an outsiders perspective. I switched over to all-star and collegiate cheer and haven't ever looked back. If anything, I wish I switched over years earlier.

 

[cupieqt]

@tumbleyoda can you post that publicly? Please? It needs to be published for all to see. I wanted to shimmy every paragraph. Every sentence.