Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Important Scoring Changes at CA events

Hey everyone! Now that we're just around the corner from Nationals, we thought it would be a great idea to ensure EVERYONE has read up on the new scoring process at Cheer Alliance. Please be sure to visit our website at www.cheeralliance.ca under "Scoring" for links to our Score Grid, Sample Score Sheets, Competition Guidelines & Deductions Policy.

Key changes:
Three different score sheets - Building Skills, Jumps/Tumbling, Choreography

Two judges for each skill set, 6 adjudicators total per panel plus a Safety and Legalities Judge. (Please note that for Spring Classic, there will be a total of 4 judges, one in each category).

The weighting for each skill set varies between All Star and School, with All Star's jumps/tumbling weighted slightly heavier.

Another key change this year is that we are not deducting for early dismounted stunts which are safetly caught in a controlled cradle. Instead, you will notice that Execution/Technique is now weighted higher than past years, allowing the panel judge to adjudicate overall technique and execution instead of counting the number of falls. Teams who have early dismounts will have these errors reflected in their technique/execution scores for that skill set. For example, Stunt difficulty is out of 10, where as execution is out of 15. This leaves the adjudicators more room to score both technique and execution of stunt skills.

Why the change? We shifted our focus this year to safety. Deductions are meant to keep teams SAFE, ensuring there is minimal pay off for skills that they cannot execute safely each and every time. Violations of Legalities Rules are considered be unsafe, as the athletes in the level may not have the experience, technique or training to complete the skill safely. Several major companies in the US are adopting similar policies, be sure to read up on every company that you plan to compete with!

Further along this safety theme, our score grid attempts to educate coaches on all the available options and room for growth within each level. The idea of maxing out a level encourages teams to stay in a level until they have mastered all the necessary skills.....ensuring that they can safely move up to the next difficulty level. For years the trend has been to do the minimal skills and then charge forward to the next level.....often leaving athletes bereft of the skills, technique and experience they need to be safe and successful.

We also strongly believe that the new scoring system will allow teams to adjust to the highly competitive level of cheerleading in the United States. Why not push ourselves to keep up instead of accepting a second-class standing? Set the bar high, and teams will strive to reach it!

Their will certainly be growing pains along the way, fine-tuning and finesse will need to be added to this new system. But the end goal is worth the work.....we promise. Certainly welcome thoughts, and constructive ideas as we move forward marcy@cheeralliance.ca

Happy cheering!

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