Annual Rules Conference Held in Vienna
- Vienna – ECU’s annual rules conference was held in Vienna this past weekend welcoming participants from all across Europe. The conference included the ICU Green Course for both cheer and performance cheer divisions, as well as a ECU Rules Round Table open to all ECU member federations.
Over thirty participants from 16 European countries attended workshops given by internationally acclaimed ICU and ECU lecturers. Liz Rifino, Meredith Walker and Janna Thomas lectured on performance cheer rules on Saturday, while Mike Cooper, Dana Fielding, Martin Tuš and Tora Homme took the floor on Sunday for cheer categories workshops.
The participants reviewed and tested their knowledge of nuances and interpretations of the ICU/ECU and IASF rules and validated the ICU Green Course, stressing on rules comprehension.
The event
gathered coaches and judges equally, both highly aware of the importance of rules comprehension and correct interpretation in ECU and ICU events.
“I think the conference was a great success. I particularly appreciated that the lecturers were able to provide valuable information both to experts from accross Europe as well as to several novice participants. Spreading such knowledge and common understanding of competition rules is invaluable to the progress and development of our sport,” said the ECU Judges Committee Marko Ebert at the event’s closure on Sunday.
His opinion was echoed by cheerleading lecturer and ECU’s Rules Committee member Martin Tuš who welcomed the great diversity of coaches and rules experts attending.
“Some of the participants are already big experts in the field of cheerleading rules, others have attended this conference for the first time. Hopefully, the lecture was fruitful for both, especially because we included experts from the USA that are directly involved in the process of writing the rules and therefore can provide the interpretation of specific rules firsthand,” concluded Tuš.