When it comes to the questions that are most commonly asked when someone reaches out to us to have a conversation about our programming, those that may have heard of All Star Cheer in the past, but that may not be familiar with its nuances, often have the question of what are the differences between Half-Year All Stars and Full-Year All Stars?

There are quite a number of items that separate one program from the other.

Whereas Full-Year runs from June through the following May, Half-Year typically runs from December through May.

Even though uniforms differ from one program to another, our Full-Year competition uniform tends to be at least double the cost of our Half-Year uniform.

In terms of the competitions themselves, our Full-Year teams tend to compete 8-10 times per year where Half-Year usually competes 2-4 times.

Half-Year comps tend to be somewhat local, are usually one day comps, and are always within driving distances so that families are comfortably able to travel to the comp and back in one day.

Full-Year comps may be local, but they may also involve a bit of traveling.

As an example, over the years, amongst other locations, our Full-Year teams have competed in Atlanta, GA, Las Vegas, NV, Kansas City, MO, New Orleans, LA, Baltimore, MD, and Orlando, FL.

Full-Year comps may certainly be a one-day comp, more often than not however, they are 2-day competitions.

From a pricing standpoint, Full-Year is definitely a greater investment, but this is primarily due to the length of their season as well as the cost of the competition uniform [not even mentioning travel costs (hotel, transportation, etc.) that are necessary for the Full-Year teams when they hit the road].

The length of each type of routine is different as well.

Full-Year routines are 2 minutes & 30 seconds long, Half-Year routines are exactly 2 minutes long.

Full-Year practices twice per week for 2 hours and then often have skill building (tumble, etc.) classes which are required to be kept up with as a part of the athletes progressing with their athletic development.

While skill-building classes are absolutely critical for Half-Year athletes, their other practice sessions during the week are not allowed to exceed the regular practice time for that of Full-Year athletes.

Typically, our Half-Year teams practice 2 times per week for 1 hour and 30 minutes each practice.

Full-Year routines can be very complex, and the skills utilized can also be very advanced depending on the level that they are competing on.

Half-Year routines, although challenging, tend to be much more elementary than Full-Year routines and the skills utilized are not as demanding (currently Half-Year maxes out at Level 3 Stunting and Level 2 Tumbling).

Despite the fact that there are so many differences, Half-Year is the PERFECT introduction to All Star Cheer without the all-out commitment that comes with Full-Year cheer.

Half-Year is a great opportunity to dip one’s toe in the water and get a sense of if All Star cheer is really the sport that the athlete in question would like to be serious about pursuing.

We have had numerous athletes over the course of our history begin their All Star careers in our Half-Year program and transition over into our Full-Year program once the athlete and their family believed it made sense to do so.

Of course, every year we have plenty of athletes that have signed right up into Full-Year and have done phenomenal with this portion of our program.

Half-Year certainly has proven a great first step though, for those athletes looking to possibly make the jump into All Star cheer, but perhaps not looking to hit the throttle at full tilt right away.