@MissCongeniality and
@Dixie yes! These are big parts of why my kids don't cheer anymore.
World's team? Yes. You need to be dedicated and be there. Want to be on a worlds team in 5 years? No, you don't need to be in the gym that much, yet.
Youth 1? Get over yourselves! No youth 1 team is doing anything that requires them to be in the gym 4-6 nights a week. If they are, then the coaching might be the problem, not the kids and their parents.
I do not understand this mentality at all. As others have said - doing a variety of physical activities is actually more beneficial than just one. Cross training in other sports is beneficial to the child's "main" sport. The fact that people are more upset about concussions and broken backs making their child miss cheer, than that cheer caused this kind of injury in the first place is also really disturbing. These injuries are inceeasing because of too much pressure to get skills and too much time at the gym. Even young bodies need rest.
Way too much trying to force kids who are way too young to decide what they want to do as their main activity. Can you imagine if you'd had to choose your college major by 5th grade and you couldn't change your mind? Let them try a few things! I know, I know...your princess was born to cheer and doesn't want to do anything else. Sorry - I don't think 8 year olds actually know what they want to be doing for the next 10 years.
Interesting note: of all the professional dancers I work with and/or that teach my daughter, NOT ONE of them started dance before the age of 10. Every single one of them started between the ages of 10 and 19. And they're plenty successful. It is not necessary to start something at the age of 3 to be good at it - as a matter of fact, I'd bet money that the success rate is actually significantly lower for kids who start at these young ages. They burn out long before they ever have a chance to get really good.
Truth: dance teachers and coaches laugh at people putting their kids in these things at such young ages. Their take? "Hahaha Well, if she wants to waste her money like that, it's OK by me!"
Lastly, and i always ask this and never get an answer... what on earth are yall going for? Why does your child have to have a double at 9? So you can brag to another mom? And ok, they want to go to worlds. I get that. But why do they need to go by their 12th birthday? And what is the ultimate goal? Why would you sacrifice your child's academics, their chance to do other things, friendships, basically their childhood, so they can go to worlds? Yes, by all means, teach your child to work towards a goal. But at the end of the day it's still just cheerleading (or whatever other youth sport they do). Take it down a notch. Unless you have some kind of prodigy (and I hesitate to even say that), relax.
Sorry. Rant over. Just drives me crazy to see the expectations of little kids, just to do one activity.
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