All-Star Words Of Advice For Gym Party Reveal

[elisekc9]

Another different perspective about this:

Everybody wants their kid to be on Youth early, until they're 11 on Youth and not a flyer anymore because they are the tallest kid on the team (and the flyers are all 7-9.)

YUP! Don't even get me started on this. Also we've been dealing with 13 year old bases on Junior 2 that want to be "moved up" to senior 2 in the WORST way. Saying to me, "What do we have to do to be moved up to senior 2?" To which I answered, "Ummmm . . . be 2 years older and 20 pounds bigger." Why do people STILL not understand that different age divisions of the same level do the exactly the same skills?! Just lifting bigger people??

 

[SL&AM]

@elisekc9 I'm the mom who if our gym was doing what you described, I would have attempted to have CP see the light of this being a good thing because she's be the best advantage. Unfortunately, that isn't what this gym was doing. And it has been confirmed, it is a show team.

The new gym we're looking at, however, is doing what you described.

I can understand the concept of wanting the kid to be on Youth when they could be Mini...we knew a mom who moved gyms and it was, "Well (name) is on YOUTH this season..." with her chest out, "Um, it's still a level 1, slow your roll, Sparkle." Those are the mom who drive me batty.

I know coaching isn't easy, and I would never pretend for it to be---however, if you have an athlete who for 3 months tells you she wants to move up to the next level, would you tell her that wouldn't be possible or let her go into try-outs thinking it *could* happen? CP hasn't been shy about wanting to be on Mini's and not once were we told there would be NO Mini's. If so, she wouldn't have gone to try-outs...period.

 

[newbiemom]

I want CP on the age appropriate teams, but I completely get wanting your CP moved up to Mini instead of Tiny, especially if one is an exhibition team.

My CP was just saying last night how she hopes to be on Jr next year. I just shook my head because that's part of why we left our previous gym- she would have had to be on Jr and she's 8- will be 9 this next season. I reminded her that the levels are by skill- the division is my age. She honestly doesn't get it, she just thinks Jr sounds cooler than youth. lol

 

[darlingsmomx4]

One of my younger daughters has started cheer this year. She's a new 5 and we couldn't get a tiny team together so our gym has bumped her up to the mini (maybe prep) team. We are still in the wait and see mode. She's so young and has NO prior experience. Most of these girls are 6-8 and have cheered at least 1 prior year. She loved the first practice but then hated the first specialty class because it was larger and she had no skills to compare to the other kids in it. She has her first tumbling class tomorrow night and it is supposed to only be 4 kids to 1 coach so I guess we will see if her feelings swing back after that. I think she was just overwhelmed in a larger class with different age groups and her being so little she just didn't understand what was going on or how to perform what she was being asked to. It's all a learning curve at this point I guess.

Don't under estimate those new 5 year olds my daughter had just turned five when she started last June and she was placed on a mini 1 team and now 11 months later she has a BHS series plus a lot of front tumbling. I cannot believe how quickly they can learn at this age. At speciality classes she started off just jumping on the trampoline the whole time to running all over the gym tumbling. She will have a good year!

 

[acecheermom]

Don't under estimate those new 5 year olds my daughter had just turned five when she started last June and she was placed on a mini 1 team and now 11 months later she has a BHS series plus a lot of front tumbling. I cannot believe how quickly they can learn at this age. At speciality classes she started off just jumping on the trampoline the whole time to running all over the gym tumbling. She will have a good year!

You are so right. I totally forgot I never updated this after her class. So she had her first tumbling class on thursday night and then her second team practice on Friday evening. She did so much better! She was already pushing up into a good bridge (vs week before was on her head lol) and was so much more focused and following the directions and while not correctly performing skills you could still see a much better attempt at them all. She is again in love with it. So I guess I'm a two team mom this year. I've got a beginner on mini level 1 and then my older on Senior 5R. Should make for some really long comp days for me lol.

 

[mollymags]

I know coaching isn't easy, and I would never pretend for it to be---however, if you have an athlete who for 3 months tells you she wants to move up to the next level, would you tell her that wouldn't be possible or let her go into try-outs thinking it *could* happen? CP hasn't been shy about wanting to be on Mini's and not once were we told there would be NO Mini's. If so, she wouldn't have gone to try-outs...period.

They probably didn't know for sure that there wouldn't be a mini team until after tryouts. Speaking for my gym- we project teams for each season, but we can't possibly know until evaluations are done what we are going to be able to put together. You never know who is going to show up to tryouts, what they can actually do, and which kids are going to return or not return (it changes daily- Suzy wants to leave for school cheer on Saturday, on Sunday she wants to come back next season instead).

 

[hawkeye87]

I seriously don't understand why USASF changed the tiny ages when there are so many other issues they could spend their time on. There is such a big difference in terms of development from the ages of 3 to 6. Its absolutely ridiculous. There are 3 year olds at my son's daycare who aren't even potty trained for goodness sake! We experienced something similar to this when son who is 2 did his pre-sport class. The class was for 2-4 year olds and was filled with older kids. My son was running around like a crazy man and it was a struggle for not only us but the other parents and kids were too because they wanted to learn. Now my son is in a soccer class for only 2 year olds and he is still running around like crazy but so was everyone else's kid.


I can totally understand why your kid would be frustrated. She sounds like she is a very self motivated and very determined kid and those kids tend to not like be held back. When my boss and I work with CEOs and entrepreneurs we often see that their kids are like this. With parents who don't have kids like this, the kids can appear like drama queens, perfectionists or whatever because they don't act other kids their age but in actuality these kids are the ones who become successful in later life.

You definitely don't sound like a Suzy's mom but a mom working to advocate for your kid. Hopefully you can find a workable solution for her because she sounds like loves cheer!

 

[CookieMomster]

@SL&AM any more news on the the new gym and its possibilities?

 

[SL&AM]

@SL&AM any more news on the the new gym and its possibilities?

She is visiting this week.

 

[SL&AM]

Final update: CP tried the new gym today and I spent non-CP's entire dance practice filling out paperwork. She's been placed on their mini LVL 1 team.

She's now at her second open gym for the day.

My summer just got booked!