Expert: Chris - 4/18/2011

Question
Hello
My daughter is 10 years old on a youth level 3 team. She has been cheering for 3 years. She is a strong tumbler and has  always been a base. She weighs 82 pounds but is very muscular she is 4'6 .She wants to try out for flyer. She is very flexible, can maintain her balance. Can do scorpion, arabesque, heel stretch without any problems. However on her squad the flyers are really tiny young girls.and from what i have seen have a hard time keeping their balance when flying. I  know at some gyms flexibility and balance is more
important than weight. I was recently at a competition this weekend and noticed that fllyers come in different sizes.What are your thoughts on this subject???

Answer
First of all, this is one of the most common situations in cheerleading! I've been coaching for 6 years and I've dealt with it at least once on each team.

Fliers can come in all sizes, but it usually depends on who else is on the team. Just because your daughter is a good flier doesn't mean that the team has the bases (and backspots etc.) to hold her up. Tiny girls are easier to put up (not that your daughter is big but when you compare her to those tiny girls she would be harder to put up) even if they aren't very good fliers. Your daughter sounds like a strong base so if she became a flier not only would the team have another flier to put up, but they would also lose a strong base.

It's a terribly frustrating situation, I know. And the problem isn't necessarily that your daughter isn't good enough to fly, is too big to fly, or can't fly, etc. It has more to do with the fact that those little tiny girls HAVE to be fliers. Your daughter is big enough to base whereas these tiny girls probably are not. If a team has, say 24 members, then that would be 5 or 6 stunts. But if they use your daughter as a flier and take out one of the tinier girls, that tiny girl becomes useless because she's too small to put anybody else up. Then an entire stunt group would have to come out of the air. That's not fair to that tiny girl, you know?

I know this isn't necessarily fair to your daughter either, but cheerleading is a team sport. Your daughter can try out as a flier, but it could hurt her chances. I would recommend her trying out as a base and then once she makes the team speak to the coaches about this situation.

Good luck with everything! I know there's really no good answer to this question so I apologize for that but I wish the best to you and your daughter.