You have to look long and hard to find a sport that allows one coach to choose the plays for the other team. You will have to look even harder to find a sport where each team does exactly the same thing as the other team for 75% of the competition. Better yet, find me a sport where you learn your material from a video made by the competition producers of the sport. Put your search off until later because you'll be looking for a while.
The freedom of acrobatics and tumbling is based on the principle of competition. In competition, the best athletes that execute the best skills in the big moments usually win. In order to prove you are the best athlete, you must perform the more advanced skills with a high level of perfection. This starts with selecting skills that meet the abilities of a team or individual. In other words, if you are great at spinning and not so great at flipping, you would incorporate more variations of spinning skills than flipping skills. In acrobatics and tumbling, coaches have the freedom to choose the skills that best match their team's abilities. It's pretty simple. Do what you are good at and get better at the other skills. Then be good at everything. As a coach, I would never want to be trapped into doing the same skills all season with no leeway or reason to expand and develop other skills. I also want to make sure I select skills that I know my athletes will progress and excel through practice and development. That is my job to determine, not someone else.
Acrobatics and tumbling also allows for coaches to adjust and adapt throughout the season. Changing up skills and developing more advanced or creative skills throughout the season presents a motivating challenge for the athletes and coaches. A team should be more capable of executing more difficult skills at the end of their season rather than at the beginning. This progression and growth is not encouraged unless the opportunity for that growth is present. If a team is forced to do the same set of skills all season, they only get better at that particular skill and don't necessarily develop as an athlete or as a whole team. Athletes are not motivated to be good at the same thing. Athletes are driven my new and constant challenges.
The freedom of acrobatics and tumbling also encourages safety by putting the complete responsibility for athlete safety squarely in the coaches hands. The coach is responsible for moving the team and inviduals forward according to proper progression, performance and readiness. While the desire to compete at a higher level is inherent in sports, the freedom to recognize the team's abilities and work within those limits is also an inherent responsibility of the coach. When competition skills are dictated by the other team's coach and imposed on a program at the beginning of a season, the coach shares responsibility for athlete safety with the organization running the sport. That coach will naturally try to push atheltes to achieve all the skills required to compete with potentially at the risk of working beyond the appropriate readiness or experience level of the team. The freedom to focus on the abilities and safety of the team is partially limited when it's a get-this-skill-or-lose situation. The freedom acro allows the coaching staff to progress the team forward safely is one of the sport's tell tale signs that the focus is on the good of the sport and the athletes invovled.
As an Acro athlete, I would imagine there is a great inner challenge and drive to have the best tumbling pass, the top stunt group or the most amazing basket toss group. While the fun of being on a team are the times when you depend on each other and come through for each other in group skills, there is always a more individual pride to be fostered as well. Acrobatics and tumbling allows for national rankings as stunt groups, basket toss groups, group tumblers or solo tumblers. The freedom to excel at your strength and facilitate that inner drive is encouaraged even in such a great team sport. If every team is doing the exact same choreography that was predetermined, there can be no individual. It is only about the team. That's not a bad thing, but why not have the best of both worlds? Add to that search list, to find an athlete who wants to do the same stunt all year that every other team is doing. Now you're really gonna need some time to find all those things.
For the first time in the history of college athletics, competitive cheer or women's sports there is a choice for athletes that embodies the competitive cheer skill set. For the first time, there is an option to receive a college scholarship and solely compete for your university. Be a great tumbler, be a phenomenal stunter, be 5'8" 145# and be the star on your team. Be the number one ranked stunt group in the nation or compete for a national title as a team. Because of Acro and Tumbling, you are free to experience all these things.
The freedom of acrobatics and tumbling is based on the principle of competition. In competition, the best athletes that execute the best skills in the big moments usually win. In order to prove you are the best athlete, you must perform the more advanced skills with a high level of perfection. This starts with selecting skills that meet the abilities of a team or individual. In other words, if you are great at spinning and not so great at flipping, you would incorporate more variations of spinning skills than flipping skills. In acrobatics and tumbling, coaches have the freedom to choose the skills that best match their team's abilities. It's pretty simple. Do what you are good at and get better at the other skills. Then be good at everything. As a coach, I would never want to be trapped into doing the same skills all season with no leeway or reason to expand and develop other skills. I also want to make sure I select skills that I know my athletes will progress and excel through practice and development. That is my job to determine, not someone else.
Acrobatics and tumbling also allows for coaches to adjust and adapt throughout the season. Changing up skills and developing more advanced or creative skills throughout the season presents a motivating challenge for the athletes and coaches. A team should be more capable of executing more difficult skills at the end of their season rather than at the beginning. This progression and growth is not encouraged unless the opportunity for that growth is present. If a team is forced to do the same set of skills all season, they only get better at that particular skill and don't necessarily develop as an athlete or as a whole team. Athletes are not motivated to be good at the same thing. Athletes are driven my new and constant challenges.
The freedom of acrobatics and tumbling also encourages safety by putting the complete responsibility for athlete safety squarely in the coaches hands. The coach is responsible for moving the team and inviduals forward according to proper progression, performance and readiness. While the desire to compete at a higher level is inherent in sports, the freedom to recognize the team's abilities and work within those limits is also an inherent responsibility of the coach. When competition skills are dictated by the other team's coach and imposed on a program at the beginning of a season, the coach shares responsibility for athlete safety with the organization running the sport. That coach will naturally try to push atheltes to achieve all the skills required to compete with potentially at the risk of working beyond the appropriate readiness or experience level of the team. The freedom to focus on the abilities and safety of the team is partially limited when it's a get-this-skill-or-lose situation. The freedom acro allows the coaching staff to progress the team forward safely is one of the sport's tell tale signs that the focus is on the good of the sport and the athletes invovled.
As an Acro athlete, I would imagine there is a great inner challenge and drive to have the best tumbling pass, the top stunt group or the most amazing basket toss group. While the fun of being on a team are the times when you depend on each other and come through for each other in group skills, there is always a more individual pride to be fostered as well. Acrobatics and tumbling allows for national rankings as stunt groups, basket toss groups, group tumblers or solo tumblers. The freedom to excel at your strength and facilitate that inner drive is encouaraged even in such a great team sport. If every team is doing the exact same choreography that was predetermined, there can be no individual. It is only about the team. That's not a bad thing, but why not have the best of both worlds? Add to that search list, to find an athlete who wants to do the same stunt all year that every other team is doing. Now you're really gonna need some time to find all those things.
For the first time in the history of college athletics, competitive cheer or women's sports there is a choice for athletes that embodies the competitive cheer skill set. For the first time, there is an option to receive a college scholarship and solely compete for your university. Be a great tumbler, be a phenomenal stunter, be 5'8" 145# and be the star on your team. Be the number one ranked stunt group in the nation or compete for a national title as a team. Because of Acro and Tumbling, you are free to experience all these things.
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