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For UCA Regionals and Nationals, using front spots lowers the difficulty level of your stunt. 

For a team who has 4 front spots, the judging panel expects you to put up another stunt with those 4 people to maximize your score. 

If you do not have enough people left over for a stunt group and do not know what to do with them, the best thing to do would be to have them tumble so you can increase the score in a different category. If these individuals do not tumble, you could have them use flags in the back to add a visual to the stunt sequence, or you can hide them behind the stunt. 

-Josh McCurdy

It’s interesting that everyone loves to argue that ‘competitive cheerleading’ is a sport. Ultimately, I don’t think cheerleaders really care whether or not cheer is called a sport. I think what they care about is whether or not we are respected for being ATHLETES.  The amount of hard work, dedication, and strenuous physical commitment required to do competitive cheer is identical to that required for volleyball, soccer, basketball, etc.  So, first and foremost—ATHLETES cheer.  That can’t even be questioned.

Where the is competitive cheer a SPORT becomes dicey is when you define what makes a physical activity a SPORT.  I believe all-star cheerleading is a sport because it’s a team who’s primary purpose is to compete against other teams in matches/competitions/etc.  The team exists for the sole purpose of competing and competes several times during a season.

While school cheerleading may contain an aspect of competitive cheer, we all know that the primary focus of a school team is to support the school.  Competing is usually an ‘extra’ or a ‘bonus’ for the team.

Now, I know there are PLENTY of exceptions to what I outlined above, but generally—this is how I feel about it.

-Justin Carrier

Stunting is not just about ability.  Athletic ability helps as does strength, flexibility, and speed.  Stunting though, is a lot about an attitude that one has.  The confidence in themselves to accomplish something.  Last of all stunting is about the amount of trust within a group of people.

When I see the top stunt performers, I always see a person that is confident about their ability and their knowledge along with a drive to be successful.  A top stunt person is someone that can get with a group of people to form a stunt group (or coed group) and make that group better.  The other thing that always stands out to me when watching a really talented coed couple or a stunt group is the amount of trust that you see in the people involved.  Not only do they all trust themselves to do the best and protect each other, but you can see the trust that they have in  one another.  They don’t worry about if the other parts of the skill will be done correctly and so they are able to concentrate on what they are doing and performing.

To stunt you have to have athletic ability, strength and flexibility but there is a lot more to performing a great stunt sequence than just that.  

-Bill Ahern

There is no right or wrong answer to this. I would say that 95% of teams at UCA's Regionals and Nationals seperate their music into 2 sections, with the cheer stuck in the middle. One panel judges your music section and one panel judges the cheer. 

So, it does not matter when you do it. The most important part of the cheer is not where it falls in your routine, but how well you can get the crowd to yell with you. 

The cheer is not the time to showcase the skill level of your team, this is the time to put up stunts that allow you to lead the crowd with signs and poms. Remember that the judging panel is going to be watching cheer after cheer after cheer! Make sure your kids have lots of energy, lots of crowd encouragement- no dead spots, sharp motions, and sharp sign use. The largest category of the cheer deals with your cheer being crowd effective. The cheer should flow smoothly from beginning to end, without breaks, moderate rhythm, and should be easy enough for any crowd in America to follow!

-Josh McCurdy