I am being patronising? Well, now if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, ha ha! Again, I never said that we started off fantastic. I will REPOST what I said before:

>> I am well aware how far behind the States other coutries are, and I have NEVER said that was a bad thing. You've got to start somewhere, but that still doesn't change how I feel about the boots. I understand where you are coming from, now you need to understand where I am coming from.<br /
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> Katie, you have to remember things are WAYYYY different in other countries. In other countries, they actually CHEER during the competitions (remember when we did that back in the day.. hehe). It's not bad, just not at our level.<br /
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> But just because they aren't at our level yet, doesn't make them any less of a cheerleader. Give them time

First of all, I'm sorry, allrounda, about everyone bashing your team on this post.

I'm sure that they train wearing those boots, so they know how to support themselves while wearing them. I'm sure that a ballet dancer wouldn't do all of their difficult moves wearing pointe shoes without training their muscles so that they wont fall and tear something. I think that it's amazing that you can do all of that. Major props.

I think you all look fantastic. Good luck at your competition that's coming up!

Deary me, is this post still causing trouble? Reality check this started over a pair of shoes (boots to be exact) Can anyone else see how stupid that is?

I think it makes more sense if you look at it this way. Average footie game is made up of maybe 1000 men, age 20-30. They dont particularly care what you do or how you do it, they are there to be entertained. And through experience, i know that they perfer if you look kind of sexy.

At the end of the day, each club has to find good ways of entertaining there clubs fans, I mean our fans are most entertained when we drop flyers. The adverage male doesnt have that high IQ, it seems to lower when they are at a sports game, mystery of nature.

However what they chose to wear or how they dance at games surely doesnt affect there competition ability? Many squads in the UK have a completey different match day programme to there competition programme. They're not used to having taditional cheerleading so we entertain them the best we can.

I myself once i got into cheerleading wished dearly that my parents would move to the USA so i could be a cheerleader, however we arent that fortunate so we have to cheer the best we can. Things are going to be different but that doesnt mean we arent cheerleaders in our own right.

Laura x

A few points I want to make.

1) The outfits are cute Allarounder, and I think they'd be a definate statement at a match, where like others say, its very different to competitions, and you need to change your approach so as to appeal to the most people. I can see why you do this, but PLEASE PLEASE be careful, stunting and tumbles carry a lot of risks in tennis shoes, let alone boots, and I'd hate for you to get hurt. How did you do at your competition? Can you post some pictures from that, I'd be interested to see an Aussie team? Please?

2)UCOtwistinBABE, noone doubts the fact that your squad are truely amazing athletes, and that America does lead the way in cheerleading, but give us foreigners a chance! I don't know much about other countries, but here in the UK we really are progressing so fast! I just look at teams like Goldstars, Crusaders, CDC, Katz Elite etc etc who can stick fantastic stunts and tumbles. Sure, maybe you Americans do more flashy stunts and tumbles, but we're learning fast! Give us a chance to get as much experience as you, and then criticise us!

3) My third point is that in the UK, there is usually 2 divisions in cheerleading-cheer and pom-dance. Cheer is what you'd call 'proper' cheerleading, with stunts, tumbles etc. The pom-dance is dance, with poms, using cheer elements such as the jumps alongside dance elements such as fouettes and pirouettes. Many teams choose to specialise in one division, for example Ashton Angels kick butt at dance, but save stunting for their matches, whereas Katz Elite only compete at cheer. In the UK competing solely in dance, or solely in cheer, does not make a team less advanced, or less strong cheerleaders, just shows off what they are good at, at that particular time. With a lot of competitions, squads sometimes feel its better to come out on top of one division, rather than place averagely in both.

I think whats happened is some cultural differences have gotten upset here. Dance.net is a fantastic multi-cultural international site, but we need to all respect each others differences a bit more. Instead of arguing amongst ourselves as to whether so-and-so is a 'proper' cheerleader, lets save our energy for practise, get as good as we can, and show all those none-cheerleading losers out there how much fun us top athletes can have, together, in competitions, supporting each other, and involving ourselves in every aspect of cheer.

*Climbs off soapbox and wipes sweat from brow*

The funniest thing about looking back at this photo now is... how fat I look! I've lost a bit of weight this year cheering and dancing. I'm still the 'biggest' in the squad, but not that much bigger!!

A lot has happned since that photo was taken. We have travelled to Queensland twice for two competitions and competed at State in July. We have Nationals on Wednesday and majority of our Senior Squad is dancing at the NRL Grand Final on Sunday (YAY!!).

Our first trip to Queensland was a little disasterous... rain, car crashes etc! But we walked away with a 2nd, 3rd and 4th in Open Dance, Pom, and Cheer respectively. We were happy with our results.

State was a bit iffy! We had to combine our junior and senior squads to ensure that we had the numbers required to compete. The juniors worked their butts off, but only started to learn the routines a few months before the competition. We walked away with 2nd in Pom (which we were really happy with) and 4th for Cheer. Because we competed in both sections we were awarded with 2nd overall. We were pretty annoyed when we got our judging sheets back and saw our scores... especially when the judges said we didn't have a kick line, when we blatantly did!! RUDE!!

Our Senior Squad went to Queensland to compete in the Wet n' Wild Invitational last weekend. It was only a very small competition as it was the first year they were running it with Cheerleading. We walked away with 1st in both Pom and Cheer and 1st overall! We were extremely happy with this result and it has given our confidence a big boost before Nationals this week.

The juniors in our squad have been working overtime, trying to improve for Nationals. Both routines are looking much tighter and our stunts have improved alot. I would love to walk away with a place in either section, but I know it's going to be tough, so won't be overly disappointed if we dont!!

I think I'm more excited about Sunday than Nationals anyway!! THe NRL Grand Final is one of the biggest sporting events in Australia and we are going to be there dancing!! A crowd of 100000 plus a TV audience of god knows how many... ARGH!! And one of the teams I go for is playing WOOHOO!! We have rehearsal all day tomorrow so we'll find out what dances we are doing and what costumes we are wearing... the costumes I am a tad worried about... but who cares? HAHA

Anyways... that's all

Kell

"and involving ourselves in every aspect of cheer."

does that involve games? uck!

Hey Allrounda!

Congrats at getting to nationals you guys were great, those routines are starting to look fantastic. I think i recognised you on the floor but couldn't find you in the crowd to say hi. Hope you guys had massive amounts of fun.

Love D

How could you cheerlead in those boots??? That's Dangerous isn't it??
Jennifer

don't even ask. they will jump all over your back about it. look through the rest of the posts. we've already discussed it.

Nice uniforms, you guys look great.

That is a really cool lift. I love your boots!

Again with the boots! Can I please direct EVERYONE's attention to the following link:

www.dance.net . . .

This is our COMPETITION squad costume with athletic shoes. The costume with the boots is our PERFORMANCE squad costume. We haven't done any stunting in the boots since that first game. We only did it that game as an opener for the season.

I LOVE that outfit - AND the boots!

You do look like Pro American Football cheerleaders!

allrounda: Well I think that you all look fantastic. I love the boots they are such a cute touch to your game uniforms. After reading quite a few of the posts, I still can't believe that you all tumble in your boots! Thats crazy!

I also have to disagree with you saying that you look fat- you look fantastic!

Congradulations on all your placings!

well i do agree with that. none of the girls in that picture look fat at all.

oh your costumes are so cute!!! Those awesome boots and matching pom poms wow!!!