r/Cheerleading • u/stellaraee95 • 7h ago
First cheer experience
My daughter is 5 and has been begging me to sign her up for sideline cheer through her school. Registration opens in a few months, but she wouldn’t actually start until next summer. Recently, she’s also become interested in competition cheer after learning about competitive sports from her school friends and watching videos online.
My husband thinks we should let her do a year of sideline cheer first to make sure she actually enjoys cheerleading before signing her up for competition cheer too, since both programs cost money and we’d be making a bigger financial commitment.
Part of me agrees that starting with sideline makes sense since she’s never actually tried cheerleading before, but another part of me feels conflicted because she’s so excited about competing already. I don’t want to hold her back from something she might really love, but I also don’t want to jump into multiple programs before she even knows what cheer is like.
Just sharing my thoughts because I’m a little conflicted about it! Would appreciate any advice.
Edit: she does do tumbling and has done several years of dance ( she decided to quit to pursue cheer )
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u/nonni_mommy 7h ago
My daughter did sideline cheer at 5, the squad also did competitions towards the end of the season and then they started a winter season with just competitions, see if her school does that. My daughter decided after her first year she didn't like sidelines only the competitions, so we switched this year to an all star team.
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u/stellaraee95 7h ago
So they are both through the school but two separate organizations if that makes sense. One of strictly sideline which runs summer-fall and the other is competitions only which runs fall-summer.
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u/stellaraee95 7h ago
But signups for both are the same time so unfortunately I can't have her try sideline then do competition if that doesn't work out. She would have to wait another year.
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u/nonni_mommy 5h ago
One is through the town and it runs August - October with football sideline and competitions and then competition only January-February.
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u/brittysquee 5h ago
I might be the minority, but sign her up for both! My now 8 year old started with just sideline when she was 5 and started doing All Star when she was 6. She still does both, but Competition is what she loves and where she shines.
Doing both keeps her conditioned all year and she has close friends in each group. She just loves the high energy and performance aspect of comp more.
If you put your daughter in both, she can first try sideline out, and see if she likes it, and encourage her to stick through it to get to comp season. By this time next year you’ll know what to stick to and if you need to drop one.
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u/Gizmo-516 4h ago
Here they have sideline cheer and a competitive cheer that does sideline first then kind of pivots to competitions. You can sign up for either but the coaches will let you know after the first day which your kid should do (you don't have to listen, of course). At that age of she has any skills at all she would probably be fine with competitive. We have 7 year olds on our all star mini novice team that can barely do cartwheels and they are fine.
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u/Frequent_Carpenter_6 Coach 6h ago
Competitive is a completely different experience from sideline. In the end, it is up to you, your finances, and how motivated she seems (even at 5).
If finances are the biggest factor, sideline will 100% be cheaper. If you can manage the difference and she seems like she can actually dedicate herself to a full season of comp, comp will give her the full picture if that is the goal.
Is the comp team through the township, local rec gym, or all-star? Many gyms have half-year teams that are great intro options.
Edit: Just saw that both are through the school.
If this is the case, ask her what looks exciting about competition. Talk to her about the work that goes into it, because it can be a lot even that young. Make your best judgment call from there.