Are you thinking about joining the Phoenix Family? Here’s a few ways you win by joining us to think about.
Skill Development: You’ll learn a variety of skills, such as tumbling, stunting, jumping, and dancing. These skills can be applied to other sports or activities.
Teamwork and Friendship: All-star cheer fosters a strong sense of teamwork and camaraderie. You’ll learn to work together with your teammates to achieve common goals.
Confidence Boost: As you master new skills and perform in front of crowds, your self-confidence will grow.
Time Management: Balancing school, practice, and competitions can help you develop strong time management skills.
Discipline and Dedication: All-star cheer requires a significant time commitment and dedication to practice. This can help you develop discipline and perseverance.
Fun and Excitement: All-star cheer is a fun and exciting activity. You’ll get to perform in competitions, travel to different locations, and make lifelong friends.
Life Skills: You’ll learn valuable life skills, such as goal setting, problem-solving, and leadership.
College Opportunities: There are opportunities we provide to earn college scholarships.
There’s many more benefits you can gain, it’s all about what you are willing to put into it.
We do not require any previous experience to join our teams, we train as we go.
So if you’re ready to come set the floor on fire with us check out all our team options here.
What is the difference between School Cheer and All-Star Cheer?
When we talk about School cheerleading you think about athletes who are fostering school spirit. They’re trying to give the football team, basketball team, baseball team home field or home court advantage Every time that they are there. They’re trying to make sure the crowd gets loud, people are giving high-fives and it’s all about those Friday Night Lights. So when we compare that to all-star cheerleading, All-Star Cheerleaders don’t actually cheer at games they’re the ones out there competing for the trophy so they spend most of their hours in the gym trying to train and get better at all their skills so they can go out in front of judges get critiqued and hopefully win that award. The next difference we see between school cheer and All-Star Cheerleading is how the teams are actually broken up. So teams are broken up usually between age, skill level and community and we’ll explain all those right now. When we talk about age and high school cheerleaders we have the freshmen who are usually all pretty close in age then we have JV who are usually made up of our sophomores maybe some juniors and then Varsity which is typically made up of juniors and seniors now when we compare that to All-Star cheerleading the age groups are a little bit wider we actually have five dates groupings and it’s not surprising at all to see a ten-year-old on the same team as a 14-year old let’s say in the Junior Division. Another big difference between school cheer and in all-star cheer is where the athletes come from, now this might seem really obvious if you’re a high school cheerleader so if you go to Mt. Whitney then you’re gonna be a Mt. Whitney Cheerleader, you go to CVC you’re gonna be a CVC Cheerleader but at Phoenix Elite All-Stars our athletes come from everywhere some from Visalia, Tulare, Pixley, Lemoore, Exeter, etc.
If you have any questions of your own go ahead and send us an e-mail.
What age can my child start cheerleading?
Here are Phoenix Elite All-Stars we start as young as 4 years old. Four year olds can join our 6 week mini teams called Cheer FUNdamentals. The learn a short routine consisting of jumps, stunts, tumbling and dance and preform it for their families at the end of the 6 weeks.
The next step up is for ages 6-9 years old. This age group can join our Mini Division Team called the FireStarters. This is a half year team that only meets once a week and does 2 competitions with-in California.
Then we have our Junior Division for ages 9-15 years old. This is our Flamez team, which goes on 11 months and competes 3-4 times with-in California.
Last we have Blaze which is our Senior Division for ages 12-18 years old. This is a full year team that competes 3-5 times with-in California & sometimes Las Vegas, Nevada.
In case you haven’t heard…. we are 100% fully open.
All programs are open and Registration starts NOW.
We have a few new rules we have to go by….
You MUST Book an Appointment to complete ANY team or class Registration
No waiting in the lobby for your child to complete their class – we have a small space and we want everyone to feel safe, please run an errand/go grab a coffee and comeback to sign your child out.
“’Don’t be afraid, Mary,’ the angel told her, ‘for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus’ . . . Mary responded, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.’”—Luke 1:30–31, 38 (NLT)
Among all the great heroes of fiction, Frodo, from TheLord of the Rings films, is one of the most standout characters. Why? Because unlike Hercules, Wonder Woman, Thor, or Superman, he isn’t a huge, superpowered demigod. Unlike Anakin or Luke Skywalker, he wasn’t born with extraordinary force powers. Unlike Batman, he isn’t a ripped, highly-trained ninja bajillionaire with the money to make high-tech weapons and armor. Frodo was none of those things. He was just a simple hobbit from the Shire, a naïve, kind, gentle little guy. But, as Galadriel says in The Fellowship of the Ring film, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
Here’s the thing: What made Frodo special wasn’t his superhuman abilities, super genius, or a birthright . . . it was his willingness to step out in faith. He’s a hero among heroes because even though he knew he wasn’t equipped for this impossible task (he didn’t even know the way to Mordor), he stepped up in humility and accepted the call when it came.
This diminutive hero embodies something so deeply biblical: God can use anyone, even the humblest of people, to bring about the most amazing work. From the young shepherd boy who took down a giant to a widow who showed incredible loyalty to her mother-in-law to the young virgin girl from Nazareth—where apparently nothing good can come from (John 1:46)—whom “God blessed above all women” (Luke 1:42)—God is in the business of doing big things through the smallest, most humble of people.
So why Mary? Like Frodo, she had nothing mankind would deem as “special.” She didn’t come from a prestigious family. She wasn’t considered great among the people. But she was highly favored by God. When Gabriel told Mary she’d have a child through the Holy Spirit, her response reveals exactly why God chose her and why she was highly-favored and blessed with this honor.
In Luke 1:38 (NLT), she says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” Look at the humility she displayed here! Her response to this insane, impossible, frankly terrifying news (she was a betrothed, unmarried virgin, likely between 12 and 14, when she was told she’d have a child) was “I am the Lord’s servant.”
She knew no one would believe her, that this would likely be a scandalous and dangerous thing (Joseph could have had her publicly shamed or stoned to death for being pregnant as his betrothed, since he was not the biological father), but she trusted God. She believed in Him and His Word. She made herself available to be used by God to do His work. She knew she wasn’t equipped for the call God had given her, but she surrendered her life, will, and future into His hands, because she trusted that He would be with her every step of the way.
This is all the Lord needs from us in order to accomplish wonders in our own lives and the lives of the people around us. He doesn’t need us to be highly-skilled, extremely super-qualified geniuses. He certainly uses people with amazing skills, talents, resources, and abilities just as He uses untrained fishermen, poor widows, and outcasts, but it’s not a prerequisite for Him to do His best work. Instead, God does His best work in the lives of those who are humble, available, and willing to be used. It’s not about what you can do, but what you allow Him to do in and through you. He blesses those who declare, “I am the Lord’s servant . . . May everything you have said about me come true.”
Like Mary, we all have a part in this amazing story of redemption God is writing. We all have an amazing call to make disciples, preach the gospel, and be His witnesses. Do we have to be scholars or dynamic orators to accomplish it? No! We just need to say, “Here I am, Jesus. I’m your servant.”
Are you an all-star cheerleader or parent? Make sure you’re not guilty of one of the most common 10 pitfalls that could be holding you back!
1. DUCK OR GRANNY-STYLE BASING
What’s the one thing you’re most likely to hear from an Master Trainer? “No ducks or grannies stunting please!”. A duck or a granny refers to the shape your back makes when you’re stunting or tumbling. A ‘duck’ is when your backside sticks out, forming an in-curve in the small of your back, and a ‘granny’ is when you’re hunching forward. Duck or a granny-style stunting means you’re losing 50% of your true strength through bad technique, but also you’re tripling your risk of dropping your stunt or injuring yourself. So next time, keep your core STRONG, tuck your tail under, squeeze the shoulder blades in and think “I’m a tree! I’m a tree!!”
2. TRAINING FLEXIBILITY & STRENGTH BUT NOT SPEED & POWER
Yes, you need to be training your strength and you should be stretching EVERY DAY to improve flexibility: it’s a key point of sports science that explains that if you stretch every 2 days your flexibility may stay the same but if you want to improve, you have to do this DAILY to fight against your body’s stretch reflex.
BUT, just being obsessed with flexibility and strength to improve your cheer skills, is not helpful at all. For example in tumbling, jumps, baskets and flying skills, it’s not your strength or flexibility that will help, but your speed and power. This is determined by: how quickly you can get to your maximum flexibility point OR how far in your maximum flexibility can you get in one count. Ignoring speed & power is the fastest way to never progressing!
3. NOT READING EMAILS FROM YOUR COACH
Your coaches spend HOURS behind the scenes putting all of the information together for your season and competition schedule. Ignoring the emails and missing important information as an athlete or parent makes you one of “those” dreaded team members. Imagine a coach has to spend 10min chasing and explaining valuable information to EACH parent or athlete on the team, with 30 athletes. That’s FIVE HOURS per team. Ask yourself:
Could my coach’s time be better spent training / planning team training?
Is my lack of pro-activeness turning off the other parents / athletes / coaches?
As a coach, would I rather pick athletes / parents who are easy to work with?
Is my lack of taking responsibility affecting my progression on the team?
Remember that coaches don’t just pick athletes based on their skills, but on their ability to act as a member of the group: they’re much less likely to prioritise people who waste too much of their time!
4. “HIT & RUN” YOUR CHEER SKILLS
You finally got your back handspring, hurrah! You’re no longer landing on your head and your feet stay on the ground when you’re done. Congratulations! However, skills are not a “negative VS positive” scenario. It’s not “handspring VS no handspring” like an “empty VS full” or “day VS night”. Skills have a degree of execution, so you could be performing a handspring at 1/10 execution just like it’s 10/10 execution. Even though achieving perfection is not obtainable, chasing it is what makes you a great athlete. So if you have your back handspring, remember you still have a LOT of work to do so that your muscle memory remembers to do it correctly in a full out routine!
5. EATING TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE
‘Low Carb’ might be ok if you’re in a WeightWatchers group but not if you’re an athlete. Muscles need glycogen to keep going for long periods of time. They can either get it from carbohydrates or from breaking down the glycogen in the muscles themselves.. wasting away your muscles when you’re an athlete is definitely NOT a good idea. As an athlete, you need carbohydrates in your diet to train to your maximum ability, but before you go and stuff yourself with lasagna and doughnuts, you can watch this video explaining the basics of nutrition for cheerleading sports performance. Digestion takes a lot of energy, which conflicts with the energy required for your training. Plus, does it sound like a good idea to do flips in the air with a full stomach? Yes, you need energy for training, but make sure you’ve digested or ingested something light rather than packed yourself full before training.
6. BELIEVING IN “NO PAIN, NO GAIN”
A little soreness in sports is normal. Sharp pain or pushing through an injury is a stupid idea, in any sport. “The show must go on” and all that and we’re not saying you should sit down at the first sign of a bruise (good luck with getting through the season!). However wearing a badge of honor because “you’re doing it for the team” when really you should be in a cast or the pain is sharp is the worse thing you can do for your team. Be honest with yourself and your coach. Finding a replacement early on is much easier than finding one at the last moment when that injury just couldn’t handle one more tumble pass. PLUS, you might even give yourself a chance to return to cheerleading next season!
7. SKIPPING CONDITIONING
You would never expect a marathon runner to run a race without months of preparation, yet athletes expect to do exactly that. A skill is not only made up of motor skills (your body’s ability to understand and translate a movement into action) – it’s also based on your body capability of withstanding the speed, power, strength and flexibility that’s required for the skill. Asking your body to perform skills that it cannot do is like trying to build a house on moving sands, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t stick!
8. GYM HOPPING
The grass always looks greener on the other side. Nothing is perfect, either. But when you join a gym you join a team, a family. By gym hopping you’re not only letting your team-mates and coaches down, but you risk getting a reputation as a hopper. This is not good news because news travels fast and some coaches may be reluctant to pick you at the next tryouts because of this. Ask yourself:
Am I leaving because I’m not gelling with the team or because I’m not getting my way?
Am I not getting my way because I’m not trying hard enough or because I’m expecting results to come too quickly?
Is this a good time to leave my team? Have I honoured my promise and commitment until the end of the season?
9. NOT USING YOUR LEGS ENOUGH
“But coach, I’m bending my legs!” – USING your legs is a whole different story than DIPPING your legs. If you’re not applying the same force against the ground and pushing off it, you can dip all you want but it’s not doing much. A dynamic dip and push-off against the floor (for basing, flying, tumbling or jumping) is one of the biggest weaknesses we see in cheerleading. Try drilling the INTENSITY exercises below to improve your dynamic dipping skills!
10. HAVING A FIXED MINDSET
Imagine you’re about to climb a mountain. Are you thinking: “What’s the quickest way to get to the top” or “Getting to the top will feel great after I’ve made the effort to climb it”. If your goal is to get to the result as quickly as possible, you see effort as temporary, you give up easily and you’re prone to mental blocks, if sounds like you may be suffering from having a fixed mindset. See the diagram below.
