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Is the quest for high G.E becoming too dangerous


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While  watching the collegiate cheerleading competition recently, I was informed that the competition committee made less dangerous the activity by eliminating certain dangerous moves by the competitors..Made me think of SCV and their great acrobat and how nervous I felt seeing him on the platform doing his thing...what say you? Are we getting too dangerous"

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7 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Not really.  Probably one of the most dangerous sets for mm was Boston's human pyramid (four high?) several years back.  They handled it well throughout the season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLGU8Xm8y4A

 

thank you for your input

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I recall sitting next to parents of a Bluecoats member who marched in 2016. It was at East Coast Classic which was held at Boston College and they had yet to see the show live. Their son slid down the slide a few times and their hearts were in their stomachs. 

I don't follow cheerleading, but a high school I was associated with in the past had a championship cheerleading squad and used to host a huge competition each year, and I was always involved in some behind the scenes activity. The only reason I was asked to be doing some behind the scenes activity that had nothing to do with cheerleading was because people were needed to step in and  keep the peace. In the case of this school it was the principal, vice principal, athletic director, chaplain, an off duty police officer. We were all incognito until tensions between squads flared. DCI is very competitive and some will say at times cut throat. To put it mildly, WGI has been known to have some dramatic moments. All of this combined is nothing compared to cheerleading, at least for me. DCI and WGI drama is like settling a dispute among small children playing with Legos who all want the same brick. Dealing with minor issues in cheerleading among highly competitive squads is like solving a dispute in the Middle East. Cheerleading is competitive, and perhaps because most of the competitions I have seen are in smaller venues where you are privy to not only what happens on the gym floor but also in the background, I find cheering tense and the temptation to do something dangerous in a competitive setting could be greater. To be fair to cheerleading, the young people still need to prove they are athletes. When people see drum corps or some of the better marching bands, they are impressed at what they do. I am sure that anyone who sees a guard at WGI quickly realizes it is more than the Hampton Inn "Flag Dancing" commercial. For many who go to cheering events, it is still big smiles and pom-poms. Cheering has more to prove which ups the ante. Also with DCI and WGI, there are more ways to earn high GE scores than the physical aspect alone.  

This could point out why it is a great thing DCI is taking member safety more seriously.

 

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1 hour ago, Tim K said:

I recall sitting next to parents of a Bluecoats member who marched in 2016. It was at East Coast Classic which was held at Boston College and they had yet to see the show live. Their son slid down the slide a few times and their hearts were in their stomachs. 

I don't follow cheerleading, but a high school I was associated with in the past had a championship cheerleading squad and used to host a huge competition each year, and I was always involved in some behind the scenes activity. The only reason I was asked to be doing some behind the scenes activity that had nothing to do with cheerleading was because people were needed to step in and  keep the peace. In the case of this school it was the principal, vice principal, athletic director, chaplain, an off duty police officer. We were all incognito until tensions between squads flared. DCI is very competitive and some will say at times cut throat. To put it mildly, WGI has been known to have some dramatic moments. All of this combined is nothing compared to cheerleading, at least for me. DCI and WGI drama is like settling a dispute among small children playing with Legos who all want the same brick. Dealing with minor issues in cheerleading among highly competitive squads is like solving a dispute in the Middle East. Cheerleading is competitive, and perhaps because most of the competitions I have seen are in smaller venues where you are privy to not only what happens on the gym floor but also in the background, I find cheering tense and the temptation to do something dangerous in a competitive setting could be greater. To be fair to cheerleading, the young people still need to prove they are athletes. When people see drum corps or some of the better marching bands, they are impressed at what they do. I am sure that anyone who sees a guard at WGI quickly realizes it is more than the Hampton Inn "Flag Dancing" commercial. For many who go to cheering events, it is still big smiles and pom-poms. Cheering has more to prove which ups the ante. Also with DCI and WGI, there are more ways to earn high GE scores than the physical aspect alone.  

This could point out why it is a great thing DCI is taking member safety more seriously.

Great post and a good comparison overall. I feel like DCI is starting to address some of the more dangerous issues such as field judges and most corps have people on staff with some sort of medical training. Some people have said "Back in my day we sucked it up and dealt with it!!" My response has always been "Back in your day and in MY day we weren't doing anything CLOSE to what these MM's are doing now." 

I'm happy that DCI and member corps are taking safety more seriously on all fronts. None of us want to see MM's and staff or volunteers get hurt.

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3 hours ago, waliman4444 said:

While  watching the collegiate cheerleading competition recently, I was informed that the competition committee made less dangerous the activity by eliminating certain dangerous moves by the competitors..Made me think of SCV and their great acrobat and how nervous I felt seeing him on the platform doing his thing...what say you? Are we getting too dangerous"

Safety is important, and so is context.  Gymnastics and (to a lesser extent) cheerleading are very much about such tricks and acrobatics.  SCV's acrobat was not the meat of their visual/GE, but rather a flourish... a well-placed cherry on top of an expertly frosted cake.  It would not have been effective if the moment were not already awesome.  It did not send the message that everyone needs to have acrobats to win, which would have been concerning.  

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12 minutes ago, Ediker said:

Safety is important, and so is context.  Gymnastics and (to a lesser extent) cheerleading are very much about such tricks and acrobatics.  SCV's acrobat was not the meat of their visual/GE, but rather a flourish... a well-placed cherry on top of an expertly frosted cake.  It would not have been effective if the moment were not already awesome.  It did not send the message that everyone needs to have acrobats to win, which would have been concerning.  

Excellent point and well taken. If you don't already have a "cool factor" then no amount of tricks are going to push your GE Score up. Like '87 Bluecoats during Autumn Leaves. The 15 snares during the drum feature just made a cool moment that much cooler. God I'm getting old.....

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Yes, especially when jumping off things became popular. In regards to changing attitudes toward member health and safety -- a certain director's attitude a dozen years ago was "It's your fault you got injured, you got fat in the offseason." Things are going in the right direction

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6 hours ago, Ghost said:

Not really.  Probably one of the most dangerous sets for mm was Boston's human pyramid several years back.  They handled it well throughout the season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLGU8Xm8y4A

 

If you have the Legacy DVDs, look at 27's contras during the drum solo.  They built a human pyramid on the 50 behind the 3 files of guard.

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With anything like this, if you have a safety culture in place which takes safety extremely seriously and makes it the primary goal... and if you can't figure out how to do something without procedures and habits in place...One shouldn't do it at all. One has to think through the process carefully.

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