Women's Competitive Cheer Meets
MEET     FORMAT     EVENTS     SCORING

Meet
Teams will compete in the Competitive Cheer Format. This is an incredible and exciting new competition format that features event-based competition in a 1-4 team meet. The format is developed to reflect the athletic and competitive evolution of sideline cheerleading into a true sport. The set up and feel of the meet is much like going to any other sporting event. Teams have their own bench areas beside the mat and have similar pre-game warm ups on the actual mat rather than behind the scenes. Athletes compete back and forth in an atmosphere that facilitates the direct comparison between teams. After the first three events, fans can hit the concession stands during the short half-time and then be glued back to their seats by the exciting fast-paced action of the 2nd half events. Live scoring allows the fans to see difficulty values ahead of time and to see each performances score within minutes. Cummulative event and meet totals are kept updated on the scoreboard throughout the meet. It's a combination of being at a basketball game and a gymnastics meet.

Exciting Meet Highlights
--limited numbers in each event with crossover rules.... Athletes can specialize and be highlighted for their strengths.
--"In game" coaching. Adjust your elements to strategically outscore the other team in each event.
--Accurate scoring system that truly values difficulty and keeps that difficulty from clouding execution.
--A team might not win the meet, but can still dominate and win a single event.

--Exciting sporting event atmosphere with fans close to the floor, bench areas, coaches boxes and halftime!
--Non stop action that engages athletes, coaches and fans the entire meet.
--Individual athlete names called in each event.
--live and near instant scoring that keeps the crowd cheering you on! (cheering for the cheer team!)

--Competition that really creates a team environment and facilitates team bonding.
--Instant respect generated from even the casual sports fan.
--Inspires a more athlete minded mentality towards individual improvement amongst team members.



Format
Teams will compete in the event-based format (similar to gymnastics). Each team will compete in 6 events including a team routine. The other five are the Stunt Event, Tumbling Event, Basket Toss Event and the Pyramid Event. Teams are evaluated on the exact same skill in the compulsory event and are permitted to choose their skills for the other 4 skill events. Scores in each event are then totaled to get the each teams' meet score. The team with the highest total wins the meet. The succesive places will be awarded according to point totals.

Stunt Event
  • 3 heats, 1 stunt group each heat. 45 seconds per heat with limited substitutions.
    • Round 1: Required element- release skill.
    • Round 2: Required element- twisting skill.
    • Round 3: Required element- flipping skill.
Basket Toss Event
  • 2 heats, each team (limited substitutions)
  • heat 1, Two synchronized baskets
  • heat 2, One basket, choice of skill
Pyramid Event
  • 1 heat, 28 max team members participate. One minute timed heat with no substitutions
  • Must include three 2 1/2 high pyramids.
    • ONLY entry, pyramid, dismount and direct or connected transitions are scored.
    • independent stunts and choreography are not scored.
Tumbling Event
  • 6 heats with limited substitutions.
    • heat 1: duo running tumbling pass (two athletes, same skill, synchronized)
    • heat 2: trio running tumbling pass (three athletes, same skill, synchronized)
    • heat 3: quad running tumbling pass (four athletes, same skill, synchronized)
    • heat 4: SoloA running tumbling pass (must include any Arial skill, i.e. no hands touch surface)
    • heat 5: SoloF running tumbling pass (must include any Front entry skill, arabian is not front entry)
    • heat 6: SoloW running tumbling pass (wildcard pass, no skill requirements)
Team Event
  • 2 1/2 minute team routine.
  • 28 member max


Scoring
The meet will use a Start Value scoring system or a difficulty value. According to a value system which ranks the difficulty of skills and their combinations, each skill and sequence in the Events will have a specific start value instead of a subjective point range. This specific start value will then be combined with the execution scores to get the final score for that skill or sequence. This new system of scoring limits interpretation as much as possible and more accurately credits skills for their true difficulty compared to other skills. Difficulty is a set value and only execution is the subjective part for the officials. Even execution has a specified standard that limits it's subjectivity.
Prior to the meet, each team will turn in an outline listing their skills in each of the 6 events. According to the skill value grid, an official will assign a start value to all skills and sequences prior to the start of the meet. Teams are only given an execution score from the officials during each event. This execution score is combined with the Start Value. Additional deductions are made for safety violations, penalties and errors. These scores are all combined to get the score for that skill or round. This is very similar to scoring for gymanstics, figure skating and diving.
In addition to the emphasis on correctly pre-valuing difficulty, officials can focus on pure execution without having to consider other factors or balance themselves in various ranges. Fewer and very specific components compile the execution score which allow officials to be more accurate, consistent and produce the correct results even when only tenths of a point separate teams.