A place for acrobatic athletes, coaches and club owners to meet.
moved to discussion Cheer in the Olympics, how? Why, Good? Bad?
Sorry didn't realize no one could respond to a blog so I'm copying this to discussion area.
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Have you noticed that Cheerleading has been accepted as a exhibition sport in the 2012 Olympics? Don't know about you but this greatly concerns me.
What concerns me is the top down of cheerleading in the US; and US Cheerleading is the leader world wide that everyone follows, is NOT in anyway concerned with "sport" overall. They are not concerned with "athletes" overall. They are concerned with MONEY overall. THIS IS COMPLETELY AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT AND COMPLETELY AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF SPORT itself.
THIS IS ALSO COMPLETELY A FLY IN THE OINTMENT for creating OLYMPIC SPORTS of those under the care of USAG !!!!! Also a good solid black eye for USAG by showing it lacks the fortitude and direction to make things happen for the sports under its umbrella. If cheerleading does make it into the Olympics that will put the ability of Acro and Group Gym to get into the Olympics many decades away. It will also put many decades away the acceptance of the other TnT Events not yet in the Olympics that should be. Worst of all, it will even further increase the yearly number of catastrophic injuries to kids. This will happen under our noses occurring in our Gymnastics School's Cheer Programs. It will also get worse in our neighboring Cheer schools. Schools that are siphoning off our Gymnastic business unless we get in bed with them by bringing them under our biz roof.
In its present form Cheerleading is an industry NOT a sport. It is simply a huge well greased engine to make money. All built on top of a bed of well meaning people. An activity where Money first, welfare and Sportiveness of the athletes is second DOES NOT BELONG IN THE OLYMPICS.
Make money for who? Varsity Sports and the few other large cheer businesses riding its coat tails of success..
Proof:
1. The business of cheer organizations in the US... where does the money trace? Pretty much it ALL traces back to Varsity Sports a business conglomerate. I encourage you to check that out for yourself. The whole system, principles it all is based on, philosophy, concepts, coach training, rules, even the nuances that create the huge complaints of the Cheer industries part in the sexualization of children, all traces back to Varsity Sport. There was a cosmic shift in cheerleading from what it was in school sports to Cheerleading out side of school as seperate sport. This came about as Varsity Sport; started having their Cheer organizations hosting Cheer clinics for athletes and competitions. Now its rather blended. Varsity Sports owns just about EVERY organization in the US that has something to do with cheer. They are now buying their way thru the dance industry too.
Varsity Sports is also; directly or indirectly the major contributor to every American non profit org. having to do with cheer. Think you'll find they were also part of "starting" every American non-profit cheer organization as well. Did they do that to support athletes or dollar signs? How involved are they in organizations outside the USA? Again is it for the dollar or for the Athletes? Are these other countries cheer organizations real or propped up national organization just to get cheer in the Olympics and further increase sells of cheer items.
Would be interesting to see how much Varsity Sports is responsible for the creation of; and how much of a dollar contributor they are to; the International Cheer Union; now recognized by the IOC? It is they who got cheer into the 2012 Olympics as an exhibition sport.
Is all the fluffy... almost no losers in all star cheer competitions based on principles of athleticism or the business concept of making everyone happy is better for selling Varsity Sport Uniforms and increasing participation at their events? Is all the yelling and screaming encouraged at cheer events that is 100% louder than all other sports to boost self concepts of the young woman involved, increase sportsmanship and the likes.....or is it to make no one sad, and build hype, thus positively effecting sells of Varsity Sport Uniforms and participation at their events?
2. Further support of this philosophy of business first from the top down is the end result of creating such an alarmingly high injury rate in cheerleading. It is the worst in the US, think I've read it is the worst in the world. Statistics I saw shows that it measures SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER than the next sport on a list ranking sports rates of catastrophic injury. Cheer was worst; 7.5x worse, than the sport listed second on the list; yet second was only a single point above third, which was Track and Field, yeah... track and field!!!!. This Second rated sport being that close to Track and Field on the list is amazing when you realize the second on the list is considered the most difficult in the world. Yep, you guessed it. Artistic Gymnastics! Good for USAG and member gyms for doing an amazing job of doing what it can to protect it's athletes. This begs to question what the cheer organizations are really doing with its rate of catastrophic injury being 7.5 times greater than the most difficult sport in the world.
Would be interesting to compare that data of the cheer catastrophic injury rates with Acrobatic Gymnastics in the same time period. Can't deny that Acrobatic Gymnastics is the closest sport to cheer in complexity, skills performed, surface "performed" on etc. Acro is significantly more complex too. Do the same with Artistic Gymnastics. Such a collection of data in comparison to cheer would seemingly be alarming to USAG and everyone organization above it and below.
The cheer industry instead uses it as PR to show how "difficult" their sport is thus it should be recognized as a viable sport for the Olympics. If that's the case lets stop having National and Regional Congress and encourage coaches to stop using good spotting and teaching methods. We certainly can increase our injury rate so the sports under the USAG umbrella become more recognized as a SPORT .
Compare also the reality of what the Cheer gov. body, and USAG Gov. Body is doing to prevent injury and increase knowledge of coaches. Is it real or smoke and mirrors in Cheer? How much coach training is "really" going on in each, how much is this training is backed by science? What are the industry standards for safety in each of these areas? How do they compare to similar sports (Acro, Trampoline, Artistic and Diving) What coaching "principles" are realistically used in each that reduce or increase injury rate etc. Look at cheer industry leaders unwillingness to gain knowledge from similar industries such as Acrobatic Gymnastics where stunting standards, techniques and coaching principles have already trodded the test of time and study.
It was interesting to read one article where the industry leaders of Cheerleading were compared to Hitler. Once one puts away the shock of reading that and think about how well the American cheerleading industry leaders have manipulated the American culture, and other cultures too.... and you see that the description is pretty accurate. Hitler was THE MASTER MANIPULATOR. Is the cheer industries manipulation going to climb all the way into the IOC???? What is next in the IOC if we let them get into bed with that????
It's time to put our sports on top, increase participation in Gymnastic sports, increase the finacial success of our gyms and most of all save some kids from catastrophic injury!!!
George Jessup
Gymnastic Coach of 30+ years (mostly Men's Gym)
Gym business owner.
anti-gravityzone.com
PS- Actions speak louder than words. Please encourage your state Acro leaders to put into their state meeting agenda a discussion about how each state can adopt a country to help it set up a IOC recognized Acro program in their country. I have asked TX state chair to discuss adopting Mexico.
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Have you noticed that Cheerleading has been accepted as a exhibition sport in the 2012 Olympics? Don't know about you but this greatly concerns me.
What concerns me is the top down of cheerleading in the US; and US Cheerleading is the leader world wide that everyone follows, is NOT in anyway concerned with "sport" overall. They are not concerned with "athletes" overall. They are concerned with MONEY overall. THIS IS COMPLETELY AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT AND COMPLETELY AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF SPORT itself.
THIS IS ALSO COMPLETELY A FLY IN THE OINTMENT for creating OLYMPIC SPORTS of those under the care of USAG !!!!! Also a good solid black eye for USAG by showing it lacks the fortitude and direction to make things happen for the sports under its umbrella. If cheerleading does make it into the Olympics that will put the ability of Acro and Group Gym to get into the Olympics many decades away. It will also put many decades away the acceptance of the other TnT Events not yet in the Olympics that should be. Worst of all, it will even further increase the yearly number of catastrophic injuries to kids. This will happen under our noses occurring in our Gymnastics School's Cheer Programs. It will also get worse in our neighboring Cheer schools. Schools that are siphoning off our Gymnastic business unless we get in bed with them by bringing them under our biz roof.
In its present form Cheerleading is an industry NOT a sport. It is simply a huge well greased engine to make money. All built on top of a bed of well meaning people. An activity where Money first, welfare and Sportiveness of the athletes is second DOES NOT BELONG IN THE OLYMPICS.
Make money for who? Varsity Sports and the few other large cheer businesses riding its coat tails of success..
Proof:
1. The business of cheer organizations in the US... where does the money trace? Pretty much it ALL traces back to Varsity Sports a business conglomerate. I encourage you to check that out for yourself. The whole system, principles it all is based on, philosophy, concepts, coach training, rules, even the nuances that create the huge complaints of the Cheer industries part in the sexualization of children, all traces back to Varsity Sport. There was a cosmic shift in cheerleading from what it was in school sports to Cheerleading out side of school as seperate sport. This came about as Varsity Sport; started having their Cheer organizations hosting Cheer clinics for athletes and competitions. Now its rather blended. Varsity Sports owns just about EVERY organization in the US that has something to do with cheer. They are now buying their way thru the dance industry too.
Varsity Sports is also; directly or indirectly the major contributor to every American non profit org. having to do with cheer. Think you'll find they were also part of "starting" every American non-profit cheer organization as well. Did they do that to support athletes or dollar signs? How involved are they in organizations outside the USA? Again is it for the dollar or for the Athletes? Are these other countries cheer organizations real or propped up national organization just to get cheer in the Olympics and further increase sells of cheer items.
Would be interesting to see how much Varsity Sports is responsible for the creation of; and how much of a dollar contributor they are to; the International Cheer Union; now recognized by the IOC? It is they who got cheer into the 2012 Olympics as an exhibition sport.
Is all the fluffy... almost no losers in all star cheer competitions based on principles of athleticism or the business concept of making everyone happy is better for selling Varsity Sport Uniforms and increasing participation at their events? Is all the yelling and screaming encouraged at cheer events that is 100% louder than all other sports to boost self concepts of the young woman involved, increase sportsmanship and the likes.....or is it to make no one sad, and build hype, thus positively effecting sells of Varsity Sport Uniforms and participation at their events?
2. Further support of this philosophy of business first from the top down is the end result of creating such an alarmingly high injury rate in cheerleading. It is the worst in the US, think I've read it is the worst in the world. Statistics I saw shows that it measures SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER than the next sport on a list ranking sports rates of catastrophic injury. Cheer was worst; 7.5x worse, than the sport listed second on the list; yet second was only a single point above third, which was Track and Field, yeah... track and field!!!!. This Second rated sport being that close to Track and Field on the list is amazing when you realize the second on the list is considered the most difficult in the world. Yep, you guessed it. Artistic Gymnastics! Good for USAG and member gyms for doing an amazing job of doing what it can to protect it's athletes. This begs to question what the cheer organizations are really doing with its rate of catastrophic injury being 7.5 times greater than the most difficult sport in the world.
Would be interesting to compare that data of the cheer catastrophic injury rates with Acrobatic Gymnastics in the same time period. Can't deny that Acrobatic Gymnastics is the closest sport to cheer in complexity, skills performed, surface "performed" on etc. Acro is significantly more complex too. Do the same with Artistic Gymnastics. Such a collection of data in comparison to cheer would seemingly be alarming to USAG and everyone organization above it and below.
The cheer industry instead uses it as PR to show how "difficult" their sport is thus it should be recognized as a viable sport for the Olympics. If that's the case lets stop having National and Regional Congress and encourage coaches to stop using good spotting and teaching methods. We certainly can increase our injury rate so the sports under the USAG umbrella become more recognized as a SPORT .
Compare also the reality of what the Cheer gov. body, and USAG Gov. Body is doing to prevent injury and increase knowledge of coaches. Is it real or smoke and mirrors in Cheer? How much coach training is "really" going on in each, how much is this training is backed by science? What are the industry standards for safety in each of these areas? How do they compare to similar sports (Acro, Trampoline, Artistic and Diving) What coaching "principles" are realistically used in each that reduce or increase injury rate etc. Look at cheer industry leaders unwillingness to gain knowledge from similar industries such as Acrobatic Gymnastics where stunting standards, techniques and coaching principles have already trodded the test of time and study.
It was interesting to read one article where the industry leaders of Cheerleading were compared to Hitler. Once one puts away the shock of reading that and think about how well the American cheerleading industry leaders have manipulated the American culture, and other cultures too.... and you see that the description is pretty accurate. Hitler was THE MASTER MANIPULATOR. Is the cheer industries manipulation going to climb all the way into the IOC???? What is next in the IOC if we let them get into bed with that????
It's time to put our sports on top, increase participation in Gymnastic sports, increase the finacial success of our gyms and most of all save some kids from catastrophic injury!!!
George Jessup
Gymnastic Coach of 30+ years (mostly Men's Gym)
Gym business owner.
anti-gravityzone.com
PS- Actions speak louder than words. Please encourage your state Acro leaders to put into their state meeting agenda a discussion about how each state can adopt a country to help it set up a IOC recognized Acro program in their country. I have asked TX state chair to discuss adopting Mexico.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Coachgeo on -
Was talking to Brandy with WOGA and she made the point that USAG needs to accept Cheerleading under it's roof. Something I opposed before butttt.... now I think she is right iffffff we did not take it in lock stock and barrel but brought it in and put our execution standards into the scoring system. This would begin to get across the poor tech. will hurt their score so they will tend NOT to do it poorly and raise the standards of teaching to get the scores they want. Talking about what we consider poor tech cause gymnastic history and study has shown such tech builds into unsafe tumble and stunting. Poor tech that from what I've seen, and injury records seem to support, is used in cheer competitions. It appears that poor tech is actually rewarded in score ... at least not deducted or they would not perform it.
End result the Gymnastic sport gyms that choose to ONLY have cheer in our gyms that are part of USAG will get a huge reduction in liability, KIDS WILL GET INJURED LESS!!!! Which is the biggest thing.
If we got FIG to accept cheer as as sport then it will create a conflict with two world Gov. bodies for cheer which is not allowed for Olympic sports. The ensuing battle on who will be THE GOV BODY for cheer will possibly help with some of the issues of "sportiveness" that gets overshadowed by desires for "PROFIT" by the industry leaders that make up the cheer world right now.
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Permalink Reply by Coachgeo on
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Update:
Started this thread in responce to a post on another board where a person swore to have attended the tryouts for the squad to perform at the Olympics in 2012. They also relayed the info about it being slated as a 2016 sport.
Apparently this person was misinformed or got scammed thru a sleazy money grabbing cheer event. There is alot of money grabbing cheer events but if this one scammed folk into thinking they were trying out for a world team to be part of the 2012 Olympics.... how sad.
anyway.... according to the Pres. of the International Association of Recognized Sport Organizations in the IOC; whom I have messaged with directly, There is NO CHEER of any kind in 2012 that is put on or allowed to be put on by the IOC.
Also the ICU (international Cheer union) who's site seems to claim they are the IOC recognized organization for cheer...... Is NOT. Nothing to do with Cheer is yet recognized by the IOC. It appears no organization has even applied to be recognized to represent cheer under the IOC.
Again, this info in reference to the real status of cheer at 2012 Olympics is coming from Jan C. Fransoo Pres., ARISF (The Association of Recognized IOC International Sports Federations)
That being said though still like Brandi's idea of taking cheer into the USAG programs.
Have proposed TX Acro assoc. try it on our own to get the ball rolling on a trial program. Will see where that goes.
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Permalink Reply by Alex Douglas on -
George,
You have shared a lot of thought provoking information. I had said to Brandi that the USAG needs to start its own cheer program. However, no cheerleader would join it. It would be a home grown industry for the USAG, starting from scratch. As you point out it is a big business and everyone in the industry is jealous of their hold on the industry. They will not welcome the USAG as competition and would discourage all of their athletes and clubs not to participate. But if the USAG developed a rival organization, such as Mac and PC, then athletes and clubs would consider the switch. Prior to that clubs would have to create their own cheer squads for the USAG meets.
That would be unlikely unless club owners hired the cheer coaches to develop the program for them. Many gymnastics schools have sloppy business practices and do not provide financial incentives to their program directors to do so. And coaches are often just as competitive amongst other coaches resenting talent being in a program other than their own. Artistic coaches don't like talent going to tumbling and tramp, and especially acro. So why would they want their talent to go to cheer leading? Logically they shouldn't because they are going there anyway, so you would think that they would want them to stay. However, the only one who wants them to stay are the gym owners who would profit from it, not the coaches because they are not being rewarded for their efforts.
And why do gymnasts go into cheerleading? Easy street. The work in gymnastics is too hard for most athletes and they look forward to being the stars of the squads in an industry with low standards.
By the way, social networks online work best when you notify members that you have posted something to discuss. You can notify everyone that you have a post through the members page. I knew nothing about the post because I have been so preoccupied in building my own business. I love to talk, let me know in the future so I can tune in. I realize that this is to my shame since I set up this network. But such is the busyness of life.
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