As efforts continue to make acrobatics and tumbling a new NCAA collegiate sport, a recurring and important question arises that speaks to the NCAA, OCR and Title IX mission. If part of the cooperative goal between these three is to create equal and new athletic opporunities for women in college sports, at what point did it stop mattering what sport female athletes want to play?
Acrobatics and Tumbling eliminates all the stereotypical trademarks of traditional sideline cheerleading and focuses the most athletic gymnastic and acrobatic elements around a head to head true sport format that meets the standard the OCR, NCAA and Title IX define for a sport. That same skill set is used in all star, high school and college level teams throughout the US and around the world. It has become a top 10 most popular high school girls sport and is one of the fastest growing sports around the world.
At double, triple and quarduple or more times the participation and interest rates among young girls than several other NCAA sports, why is there not more support to materialize this avenue of opportunity for female athletes.
Showing posts with label acrobatics and tumbling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acrobatics and tumbling. Show all posts
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Scoring Big In The NCATA
As competitive cheerleading grew more and more creative and intricate with the amazing stunts, tumbling patterns and innovative choreography, the scoring systems attempted to adapt as well. With no unified governing body for all competitive cheer (and there still isn't one), no one scoring system was in place. There are at least 5 or so major competitive systems with their own different scoring systems. It's a wonder that teams can be successful from one company to the next with so many differences in how they are scored. It's easy to see the difference between first and 5th, but are these systems really accurately separating the teams with similar talents and skill levels?
The true problem is not the varying systems; the real issue is that unlike most other sports, the scoring is overwhelmingly subjective. The industry boasts technique camps, seminars, clinics and training for all stunting and tumbling skills. How can there be so much specific technique involved, but so little adherence to that technique with regard to objective measurement. Gymnastics defines the exact technique for every skill. Thus, the officials evaluating routines simply give deductions for anything not done exactly according to the defined technique. This is what is missing from competitive cheer.
Have no fear, the NCATA is here! This was a no brainer. When the NCATA evolved competitive cheer as a true sport, the very first scoring principle was to eliminate the subjectivity in officiating. Borrowing from other judged sports like diving and gymnastics, the concept of exact technique and deductions resulting from variance from that technique was a purposeful and much needed step.
Acrobatic and tumbling teams submit a worksheet for 5 of the 6 events. The worksheet is a calculation page that the coach lists each of the skills in each heat. Every skill has a set value. Sequences or multiple skills receive combined values from each of the component elements. The resulting value is called the Start Difficulty Value or SDV. This number solely reflects the difficulty of the skill or sequence of skills being performed. With an SDV in place, officials do not have to consider difficulty in their score. They focus solely on the execution of the skill. In other words, the official can be very critical whether the skill was performed according the exact technique that is defined and expected of that skill and not be cluttered with the consideration of difficulty. Traditional competitive cheer scoring systems use difficulty to put a performance into a 1 or 2 point range but leave it up to the judge to rate the execution of the skill(s) within that range. This is where the subjectivity overwhelms the process. Since the difficulty determines the point range, poorly executed high level skills still leads to starting in a higher point range and actually encourages teams to just "throw" skills regardless of technique. This can promote injuries from unsafely executed skills.
In acrobatics and tumbling, the SDV or difficulty is the starting point. An official watches the skill(s) and then assesses deductions for anything that is not precisely executed according to the appropriate technique. The set deduction is taken off of the SDV. For example, if a stunt sequence has an SDV of 9.5 and there are 7 mistakes at .05 each, then the deduction will be .35 and the final score will be 9.15 (9.5 - .35). There is no limit to the number of deductions so the worse the technique is, the lower the score will drop. With other teams having the same, higher or very close SDV's, every hundredth or tenth of a point is a big deduction. Thus, teams are encouraged to only perform more difficult skills if they have the technique and ability to do so at a high level of execution which encourages safety. Teams are very accurately officiated according to set objective standards with extremely little areas of subjective interpretation. Feet apart, bent knees, incomplete rotations, unlocked arms and other technique issues are clear mistakes. There's no opinion. Either feet were apart or they we not.
This old concept of scoring, renewed in acrobatics and tumbling, vastly improved the scoring of skills by eliminating subjectivity. Finally, there's a clear answer whether a sloppy hard skill beats a well perfected less difficult skill. After meets, A&T coaches don't have to wonder if the officials liked their style or thought the other team had more difficulty. The SDV's and the scoring system solve all these subjective issues before one single score is awarded. Because acrobatics and tumbling teams are varsity scholarshipped sports at their universities, the talent level is very high and similar from team to team within divisions. Each team will have very similar SDV's. Now more than ever, in this sport, it comes down to objective evaluation of each teams' execution. This season's first ever national championship between #1 Oregon and #2 Maryland was decided by twelve hundredths of a point. It wasn't a matter of opinion, it was decided by the numbers. The NCATA scores big with this system!
The true problem is not the varying systems; the real issue is that unlike most other sports, the scoring is overwhelmingly subjective. The industry boasts technique camps, seminars, clinics and training for all stunting and tumbling skills. How can there be so much specific technique involved, but so little adherence to that technique with regard to objective measurement. Gymnastics defines the exact technique for every skill. Thus, the officials evaluating routines simply give deductions for anything not done exactly according to the defined technique. This is what is missing from competitive cheer.
Have no fear, the NCATA is here! This was a no brainer. When the NCATA evolved competitive cheer as a true sport, the very first scoring principle was to eliminate the subjectivity in officiating. Borrowing from other judged sports like diving and gymnastics, the concept of exact technique and deductions resulting from variance from that technique was a purposeful and much needed step.
Acrobatic and tumbling teams submit a worksheet for 5 of the 6 events. The worksheet is a calculation page that the coach lists each of the skills in each heat. Every skill has a set value. Sequences or multiple skills receive combined values from each of the component elements. The resulting value is called the Start Difficulty Value or SDV. This number solely reflects the difficulty of the skill or sequence of skills being performed. With an SDV in place, officials do not have to consider difficulty in their score. They focus solely on the execution of the skill. In other words, the official can be very critical whether the skill was performed according the exact technique that is defined and expected of that skill and not be cluttered with the consideration of difficulty. Traditional competitive cheer scoring systems use difficulty to put a performance into a 1 or 2 point range but leave it up to the judge to rate the execution of the skill(s) within that range. This is where the subjectivity overwhelms the process. Since the difficulty determines the point range, poorly executed high level skills still leads to starting in a higher point range and actually encourages teams to just "throw" skills regardless of technique. This can promote injuries from unsafely executed skills.
In acrobatics and tumbling, the SDV or difficulty is the starting point. An official watches the skill(s) and then assesses deductions for anything that is not precisely executed according to the appropriate technique. The set deduction is taken off of the SDV. For example, if a stunt sequence has an SDV of 9.5 and there are 7 mistakes at .05 each, then the deduction will be .35 and the final score will be 9.15 (9.5 - .35). There is no limit to the number of deductions so the worse the technique is, the lower the score will drop. With other teams having the same, higher or very close SDV's, every hundredth or tenth of a point is a big deduction. Thus, teams are encouraged to only perform more difficult skills if they have the technique and ability to do so at a high level of execution which encourages safety. Teams are very accurately officiated according to set objective standards with extremely little areas of subjective interpretation. Feet apart, bent knees, incomplete rotations, unlocked arms and other technique issues are clear mistakes. There's no opinion. Either feet were apart or they we not.
This old concept of scoring, renewed in acrobatics and tumbling, vastly improved the scoring of skills by eliminating subjectivity. Finally, there's a clear answer whether a sloppy hard skill beats a well perfected less difficult skill. After meets, A&T coaches don't have to wonder if the officials liked their style or thought the other team had more difficulty. The SDV's and the scoring system solve all these subjective issues before one single score is awarded. Because acrobatics and tumbling teams are varsity scholarshipped sports at their universities, the talent level is very high and similar from team to team within divisions. Each team will have very similar SDV's. Now more than ever, in this sport, it comes down to objective evaluation of each teams' execution. This season's first ever national championship between #1 Oregon and #2 Maryland was decided by twelve hundredths of a point. It wasn't a matter of opinion, it was decided by the numbers. The NCATA scores big with this system!
STUNT Proves It's Just a Game!
April 9, 2011- Daytona Beach, FL
STUNT proves that it's just a game. The University of Louisville, Georgia Southern University, NC State University and Framingham State University all competed in the STUNT national championship in Daytona Beach on Saturday after having competed the previous day in the NCA National Collegiate Cheerleading Championships. Less that 24 hours separated cheerleading teams from their traditional cheerleading competition and their miraculous overnight transformation into STUNT teams or "varsity sport teams" as USA Cheer would have you believe. All the same athletes who were merely cheerleaders the day before became athletes the following day and participated in a new sport proving that it is just a name game from one day to the next.
Speaking of games, the 4 team game took place in the Band Shell ampitheatre which was packed wall to wall the previous day from floor seating to the stands but didn't draw enough crowd to completely fill just the stands with the floor seating blocked off. More people were crammed outside at the free for all Stuntfest activities where hundreds of cheerleaders in an unregulated hodge podge of teams mixing and mingling throw each other around and try new and even illegal skills without mats. But the crowd that did watch STUNT (mostly fans of the teams in the game) cheered for their teams creating more enthusiasm in just supporting their team than the game itself generated with the redundant and repetitive skills and action.
Referred to as the Final Four, the gimmicky game's format pits 4 teams head to head in various events where teams do exactly the same routines and skills for comparison. Team's alternate the possesion which gives them the ability to decide which pre-choreographed routine everyone will have to perform. If a team selects a routine that is too hard for another team, the other team simply forfeits the round. Time outs, whistles, referees and other gimmicks make the whole thing a bit more a game than.... well, a sport. It's not even a good game when the other team in some cases can't even make an attempt to play, but just has to forfeit. At least when a Div. IA football team plays a Div. II or Div. IAA team, the lesser talented team can show up and play the game. They get a try. Not in this game.
But then again, that's just my point.... this game!
Congratulations to the teams that participated and worked hard to even qualify for the championships. Unfortunately, they are being misled that they are participating in something that is a sport. They are being hoodwinked into a false sense of sport. In the end, the idea of sport is a great one seemingly stolen from the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association's model. However, in the end, STUNT proves that its just another cheerleading game, not a sport.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
My Two Athletes
Submitted by email from a cheer mom.
Middle aged, 2 kids, a minivan, house in the burbs and trying to plan for college. My husband has a great job and so do I... MOM! Seriously, the IRS should have an official tax bracket for full time MOM. Like most parents, I want the best opportunities and richest experiences I can give my kids so they can develop as people and find enjoyment and hopefully success in something they like. So off to football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics and cheerleading practice. Thank goodness for friends, carpools and a 16year old legal driving age.
When my son became really good at pitching in baseball things changed. Instead of doing a million different things, he specialized in pitching and baseball. His father became invested in learning and understanding more about the sport and the position. As parents, we naturally began to look into what his possible future could be. Let me go back a step, our son is really good at pitching. We got him into pitching camps, private lessons with pitching coaches and joined a highly competitive travel team. As the worrysome mom, I of course asked all the questions about pitch count and arm/shoulder injuries. I did the research and read the information about the dangers of pitching and overuse at the teenage level. We tired to protect and prepare our son for a future in a sport he loved.
Everything was going wonderful and right on track until one Sunday evening. My husband had just got home with our son from a baseball game and I with my daughter from a cheerleading competition. Their two days had gone about as opposite as could be. My son's team won their tournament and my son was named tournament MVP. On the other hand, my daughter's team finished 7th out of 9 teams and she touched down on her standing tumbling in the routine and her stunt group missed part of their sequence.
My son is a Junior in high school and my daughter is in the 8th grade. Typically, big brothers are either all in for lil sis or they look at her as the annoying sibbling they have to deal with occassionally. Jason, our son, is the all in type. So after all the hoopla about his success, he asks Jackie, our daughter, how her competition went. After hearing about her woes, he asked the simplest question... "can't youjust take some flipping lessons or something?" The thought was so natural from my son. If you want to be better at something, you have to train and practice at it.
Later that night, as I discussed private tumbling lessons with my husband, our conversation centered on the cost and additional time/transportation considerations given the closest gymnastics gym was 40 minutes away. Although we decided to get our daughter the privates, it wasonly because the time and travel was feasible. What I didn't realize at the time was that we were treating our daughter with a completely different set of rules because her sport was cheerleading.
That was over a year ago. Jackie is now a freshman in high school and is one of the very few freshman that has ever made the varsity team. While she is a good cheerleader, she is a better tumbler and base. She is throwing whip through to layout step out and is working a full... on the dead floor. I finally got the point that the same intensity and commitment we gave to our son's success, we should be putting towards our daughter's success in cheerleading. Why wouldn't we give her the private lessons and individual training she needs to be better at her sport. It was a simple question my son asked that night because it was a natural thought that she should take private lessons just as he did to improve at his sport.
I think the thing we as parents were guilty of is two fold. My husband and I viewed our daughter as a girl instead of an athlete. She is strong and athletic, but she is into facebook, shopping, jewelry, clothes and boys just like many girls her age. We just didn't assign the same inner drive, competitiveness and desire to win to our daughter because she was a girl. Little did we know, it's just as strong in her as in our son. She just doesn't spit, grunt and slide in the dirt so we didn't know it was there. Girls simply don't always manifest their interest in sports and their fierce desire to compete or be the best the same way boys do.
Our second problem is that we never took cheerleading seriously. The middle school team she was on competed, but we just never equivocated cheerleading to sports. It wasn't until Jackie was taking private gymnastics lessons and stunting lessons that we began to see her improvement and relate the training process to that of our son. When it was apparent the training led to skills that put her on Varsity as a freshman, the perspective was even clearer. Athletes train for their sport. It is our job as parents to support that process for our kids whatever the sport or interest.
As the end of the school year is in sight, my son has several scholarship offers to play college baseball. We couldn't be more proud of the athlete and young man he is turning out to be. While high school baseball is just about to get rolling, my daughter's very successful cheerleading season just finished. For my son, I see at least 4 more years of baseball, a free college education and maybe the pros from there. For my daugher, the reality is completely different. She is a base and that limits here ability to make a typical Div IA program which are usually coed. To my knowledge, there are no full ride scholarships for female bases at any Div IA programs. There are no significant cheerleading scholarships at all at the Div IA programs in our state that Jackie wants to apply to. We know she will be very good by time she is applying to colleges, but will there be an opportunity for her to continue the sport she loves?
You can imagine my exhiliration when my daughter's high school coach was telling a couple of us parents about a new acrobatics and tumbling team sport at one of the universities in the state. I had no idea. None of us did. Wow! Ka Boom! Bam! It was like fireworks going off right there in the room. I couldn't wait to get home and get to my computer. I read every word I could find on the internet about Acrobatics and Tumbling. Most importantly, I read every word I could find on the team at the university in my own state. This is exactly what my daughter wants. This validates every dollar spent, every 45 minute one way trip to gymnastics, every late night, every frustrating practice and so on. Not because there was no point to the sacrifice to date or because I think Jackie would make the team. It's all validated because for the first time in the history of college athletics, girls who have excelled in cheerleading can finally have the OPPORTUNITY to compete in their sport during college on a scholarship. This is about opportunity and choice that was never there before. My daughter has always wanted compete, not cheer. Now, just like every other high school athlete, either male or female, my daughter has an opportunity at the collegiate level.
Wouldn't it be a total dream if my son and daughter played their two sports at the same university? Perhaps your daughter will be team mates with mine.
Middle aged, 2 kids, a minivan, house in the burbs and trying to plan for college. My husband has a great job and so do I... MOM! Seriously, the IRS should have an official tax bracket for full time MOM. Like most parents, I want the best opportunities and richest experiences I can give my kids so they can develop as people and find enjoyment and hopefully success in something they like. So off to football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer, gymnastics and cheerleading practice. Thank goodness for friends, carpools and a 16year old legal driving age.
When my son became really good at pitching in baseball things changed. Instead of doing a million different things, he specialized in pitching and baseball. His father became invested in learning and understanding more about the sport and the position. As parents, we naturally began to look into what his possible future could be. Let me go back a step, our son is really good at pitching. We got him into pitching camps, private lessons with pitching coaches and joined a highly competitive travel team. As the worrysome mom, I of course asked all the questions about pitch count and arm/shoulder injuries. I did the research and read the information about the dangers of pitching and overuse at the teenage level. We tired to protect and prepare our son for a future in a sport he loved.
Everything was going wonderful and right on track until one Sunday evening. My husband had just got home with our son from a baseball game and I with my daughter from a cheerleading competition. Their two days had gone about as opposite as could be. My son's team won their tournament and my son was named tournament MVP. On the other hand, my daughter's team finished 7th out of 9 teams and she touched down on her standing tumbling in the routine and her stunt group missed part of their sequence.
My son is a Junior in high school and my daughter is in the 8th grade. Typically, big brothers are either all in for lil sis or they look at her as the annoying sibbling they have to deal with occassionally. Jason, our son, is the all in type. So after all the hoopla about his success, he asks Jackie, our daughter, how her competition went. After hearing about her woes, he asked the simplest question... "can't youjust take some flipping lessons or something?" The thought was so natural from my son. If you want to be better at something, you have to train and practice at it.
Later that night, as I discussed private tumbling lessons with my husband, our conversation centered on the cost and additional time/transportation considerations given the closest gymnastics gym was 40 minutes away. Although we decided to get our daughter the privates, it wasonly because the time and travel was feasible. What I didn't realize at the time was that we were treating our daughter with a completely different set of rules because her sport was cheerleading.
That was over a year ago. Jackie is now a freshman in high school and is one of the very few freshman that has ever made the varsity team. While she is a good cheerleader, she is a better tumbler and base. She is throwing whip through to layout step out and is working a full... on the dead floor. I finally got the point that the same intensity and commitment we gave to our son's success, we should be putting towards our daughter's success in cheerleading. Why wouldn't we give her the private lessons and individual training she needs to be better at her sport. It was a simple question my son asked that night because it was a natural thought that she should take private lessons just as he did to improve at his sport.
I think the thing we as parents were guilty of is two fold. My husband and I viewed our daughter as a girl instead of an athlete. She is strong and athletic, but she is into facebook, shopping, jewelry, clothes and boys just like many girls her age. We just didn't assign the same inner drive, competitiveness and desire to win to our daughter because she was a girl. Little did we know, it's just as strong in her as in our son. She just doesn't spit, grunt and slide in the dirt so we didn't know it was there. Girls simply don't always manifest their interest in sports and their fierce desire to compete or be the best the same way boys do.
Our second problem is that we never took cheerleading seriously. The middle school team she was on competed, but we just never equivocated cheerleading to sports. It wasn't until Jackie was taking private gymnastics lessons and stunting lessons that we began to see her improvement and relate the training process to that of our son. When it was apparent the training led to skills that put her on Varsity as a freshman, the perspective was even clearer. Athletes train for their sport. It is our job as parents to support that process for our kids whatever the sport or interest.
As the end of the school year is in sight, my son has several scholarship offers to play college baseball. We couldn't be more proud of the athlete and young man he is turning out to be. While high school baseball is just about to get rolling, my daughter's very successful cheerleading season just finished. For my son, I see at least 4 more years of baseball, a free college education and maybe the pros from there. For my daugher, the reality is completely different. She is a base and that limits here ability to make a typical Div IA program which are usually coed. To my knowledge, there are no full ride scholarships for female bases at any Div IA programs. There are no significant cheerleading scholarships at all at the Div IA programs in our state that Jackie wants to apply to. We know she will be very good by time she is applying to colleges, but will there be an opportunity for her to continue the sport she loves?
You can imagine my exhiliration when my daughter's high school coach was telling a couple of us parents about a new acrobatics and tumbling team sport at one of the universities in the state. I had no idea. None of us did. Wow! Ka Boom! Bam! It was like fireworks going off right there in the room. I couldn't wait to get home and get to my computer. I read every word I could find on the internet about Acrobatics and Tumbling. Most importantly, I read every word I could find on the team at the university in my own state. This is exactly what my daughter wants. This validates every dollar spent, every 45 minute one way trip to gymnastics, every late night, every frustrating practice and so on. Not because there was no point to the sacrifice to date or because I think Jackie would make the team. It's all validated because for the first time in the history of college athletics, girls who have excelled in cheerleading can finally have the OPPORTUNITY to compete in their sport during college on a scholarship. This is about opportunity and choice that was never there before. My daughter has always wanted compete, not cheer. Now, just like every other high school athlete, either male or female, my daughter has an opportunity at the collegiate level.
Wouldn't it be a total dream if my son and daughter played their two sports at the same university? Perhaps your daughter will be team mates with mine.
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