Shoot for the Stars

This week, the World Cup Shooting Stars take the spotlight! World Cup is an allstar team that is ranked as high as some of the best teams in the Nation. Within World Cup, they are broken down into different teams such as the Shooting Stars. The different teams are catagorized by the skill level and age. The Shooting Stars are a large senior level 5 team.

In this picture, the team is competing at Nationals located in Florida. For their pyramid, they are doing a basic half in the middle followed by a full heel-stretch on both sides with another half bracing the heel-stretches on both sides. On the very ends, full heel-stretches are being put up with also a full in the back of the whole pyramid. This pyramid is a classic competition pyramid and is very clean looking on the floor. It is easy to build up to and also easy to dismount from to move on to their next transission.

PSU

Yes, this is your very own, Penn State University cheerleading squad. Penn State has a coed squad that uses every member in some way. The stunt that they are performing starts off with two males on the end holding girls in half hitches. In the middle, a shoulder stand braces the whole pyramid as the top girl holds the legs of the two girls on top of the hitches. You see the cheerleaders perform this stunt many times during football games. It is a way for the girls on top to get involved with their crowd by leading a cheer or chant to their student section. The most difficult part of this pyramid would be the halves on the end keeping them strong and solid.



Powerhouse!

Wow.. this squad clearly shows their strength in this picture! This is an all girl squad from Fairmont State University. This squad truly is impressive with the skill that is shown here. This all girl squad is made up of 5 stunt groups without front spots; that alone is impressive considering there is no guys on the team. Usually, when no guys are on the team a front spot is given to each stunt group to help make the stunt more solid by bracing the base's wrists. That shows that these bases are very strong as well as the flyers. The flyers are in a full and it seems that they are doing a heel stretch but surprisingly they aren't holding their foot. This requires strong leg muscles as they hold their leg in the heel stretch position. Flyers must be very tight in the air and the bases on the ground must be very solid. With these combinations, this stunt is successful and is very crowd appealing.

Cal State Long Beach Builds Up

This week's pyramid of the week is performed by the Cal State Long Beach coed cheerleading squad. The bottom of the pyramid is two halves based, surprisingly, by girls followed by the two guys in the front spotting them from the front. The girls  in the halves are hitching towards the middle while the two girls on the very top are on top of the half girls. The half in the middle of the pyramid has one of the most important jobs throughout the whole formation. The flyer has to hold the legs of the girls on the very top and manage to keep everyone stable. Compared to other college stunts, this one is one of the simpler ones. However, it still is eye catching and is very impressive considering there are only to guys on the whole team.

University of Kansas tops this week

The University of Kansas has the spotlight this week as they perform their coed pyramid. This pyramid begins with the guys on the bottom basing a half-hitch with two other guys behind and in front of them spotting the half and helping to hold the flyer's foot in the hitch. The flyers on top of them are holding yet another flyer on their hitched leg while they are hitching into the middle, which is a shoulder stand. To bring the whole pyramid together, it is followed by two shoulder sits on both sides of the pyramid. This pyramid would be good to do with a cheer because while the center of the pyramid is being built up, the shoulder sits on the side could lead the crowd in a cheer. The difficult part of this pyramid would be for the flyers to stay tight, especially the girls in the halves. The girls on the top would have to be extemely confident and squeeze every muscle in their body.

Ohio State University

This weeks pyramid of the week features the Ohio State cheerleading squad. This is a coed squad that uses every member of the team to build their pyramid. The men are at the base of the pyramid since they are the strongest among the group. The thigh stand in the middle is the core of the whole stunt followed by the shoulder stands on the side. This pyramid takes every ounce of concentration and cooperation to perform correctly. I think it is a very eye appealing pyramid and would be a very good way to get the crowds attention at a football game.However, this pyramid has a very high difficulty level. One of the hardest parts of this pyramid is the flyers staying tight. The flyers would need to stay very solid in the air and be confident in what they're doing. The bases on the bottom also have to be very solid because all of the weight is on them from the top. The thigh stand in the middle has the most weight followed by the shoulder stands on the side.