It's not always easy...

So it isn't always easy when you are making decisions about athletes. It most is often so difficult it hurts. You want to give every one of them their dream team, their chance and their moment in the spotlight. But how do we do that for everybody in our program all at once?

There is not an apocalyptical brainwave that will descend and make everyone's dreams come true. Making teams that work takes work. It is dependant on hard decisions and uncomfortable ones at that.

Athletes and parents alike will not always understand the choices that are made when deciding placements, as much as coaches would wish they could, they do not have the knowledge we have of the rules, the progressions and the movement that can occur.

It isn't about what we see right now, it is what CAN be. We have choreo and ideas and themes and music all running around our heads like a tornado, each wanting to be the primary decider. We see promise, ability and dedication every day from the majority of our amazing team members. So how are we to decide what is best? WHO are we to make life altering summations of children's abilities?

We are coaches. We watch our athletes every single session. We see them struggle and succeed, we seem them fail and how they handle it. We appreciate their determination and commiserate at their failure. We adore each and every personality, hoping we can guide them in the right direction to be successful not just in cheer, but in life too. There is no such thing as a perfect human. If there was, the world would be awfully boring.

How do we navigate the storm of team placements?

The answer is mulitfaceted. There is no simple explanation. We as cheer coaches do not have a magic wand to wave and grant us unlimited understanding of of where this season will take us. We have to analyse skills, look at past performance, take in to account performance at tryouts, and listen to our "inner coach."

What have you done this last season?

How did you impact the teams success?

Did you show up with a positive attitude?

Did you help others?

Do you understand the value of working as a team?

How does success or failure affect your ability to learn and the effort you will put in?

What can you bring over and above other athletes that will positively benefit your team mates?

Are you the right age?

Have you go the ability and dedication to make it all the way?

Are you coachable?

Can you be proactive?

Will you inspire others into action?

There are so many questions when making team placements, and it can often be lost in the static of parental concerns.

As a parent and a coach, with the added knowledge of previously being "just" a mum, I can guarantee that wherever your child has been placed has been decided over many sleepless nights, hard decisions, and worry filled conversations.

There is no crystal ball, as much as we would love there to be! There is just us, our experience and our understanding of the sport we love.

We never want to disappoint our students or their families, and we we wish we could give every single one of our athletes all their dream teams each season.

Where do you fit in to the jigsaw? I know as a parent when my eldest child was smaller, I did everything I could to give her the opportunities that would help her cheer and dance journey. When I say everything, i really mean EVERYTHING. She never missed a class, a camp, a masterclass, no matter if it was at our studio or at the other side of the country. One of my friends, who was also Alyssa's coach at the time, did once comment that she was pretty sure I would fly her to the moon if I thought it would help her career. And I would have. It was that simple. She wanted it so much and has never stopped wanting it. It has always been her chosen sport, her passion, her one true love and her career path. There wasn't an option 2 for her. For her it is her life.

Well, thank goodness all those classes paid off, she has achieved what she wanted, and is still aiming for more! At least I can justify all the money I spent on her crazy schedule being worth it on a higher level than she just had lots of fun! But seriously she makes me so proud, and there were times I worried that her dreams might not become her reality, and times where she has lost heart too.

I did always try really hard to trust the process when it came to team placements. I have been secretly disappointed when she hasn't made the level or the team I thought she should. But what I do know now, is she was placed where she was ready for, could cope with and where she would be an asset to her program. It wasn't sometimes easy to read those placement emails out and see her face drop, while keeping mine composed.

I can say with true honesty though, in the position I have today, that her coaches were right with their placings 99% of the time. They had the rubrics and the scoresheets and the experience. I was a mum praying for her child to get what she wanted, and looking back on it now, I should have prayed for her to get what she needed.

So to all the coaches who have ever trained my daughter, thank you for the opportunities at learning you gave us both. To the parents of the athletes waiting to be placed, we really are trying our best.

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