Competitive cheer is the all-star cheer. We live in Omaha, we go to 4 of these 6 every year (depends on which weekends they are and how many of the gyms teams can go) Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City and Des Moines and qualify annually for Nationals at ESPN Studios in Orlando. Our family "vacations" are the 4-5 weekends we are out of town for competitions. And his description is about right, 7-8 hours in the arena, listening to that same dub-step type music and teams compete for 2 1/2 minutes. It can be some long days, but worth it as she absolutely loves it and she's good at it. This is her last year, so I'm soaking it all in before she's out on her own. She's gotten a handful of scholarship offers to head out of state to continue doing all-star cheer at the collegiate level, she's not sure if she wants to do that or to focus on what will be the next chapter of her life and get physically healthy. I'm fairly sure she'll stay in Omaha for college.