Methodology
How CF Ratings work
A rating is only worth something if you can see how it was reached. This is the whole rubric — the same one every CheerForward evaluator scores against, published in full so athletes know what they're being measured on and coaches know what the number means.
The rubric — 100 points
Twelve components across three categories. Each is scored individually; the total is their sum and is never entered directly, so no one can adjust a final number.
Tumbling
40 pts- 10 pts
Standing tumbling difficulty
- 10 pts
Standing tumbling execution
- 10 pts
Running tumbling difficulty
- 10 pts
Running tumbling execution
Stunting
40 pts- 10 pts
Stunt difficulty — elite partners
- 10 pts
Stunt execution — elite partners
- 10 pts
Stunt difficulty — less experienced partners
- 10 pts
Stunt execution — less experienced partners
Other
20 pts- 5 pts
Flexibility / Strength
Flexibility for flyers, strength for bases/backspots — set by the evaluator per the athlete's position
- 5 pts
Motions
- 5 pts
Level of competition
- 5 pts
Leadership
From the CF interview — personality, character, coachability
Two ways to be evaluated
Video-Evaluated
You submit video through your profile and CheerForward staff score it against the rubric. Submit again whenever you add a skill — your rating is re-evaluated and the change is visible to coaches following you.
Verified
You are evaluated in person at a CheerForward clinic or event. It carries a higher trust level because staff saw the skills live, and it's when the leadership interview happens. Coaches can filter for it specifically.
Every rating shows which path produced it, who evaluated it, and when. Ratings are written only by CheerForward staff — an athlete can never edit their own score, and every version is kept permanently, so a rating's history can always be shown.
Academics are scored separately, on purpose
A strong transcript should not inflate an athletic evaluation, and a weak one should not hide real talent. So academics sit beside the CF Rating rather than inside it, and coaches filter on both.
- Unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scaleis the anchor. It's the only figure that travels across state lines — weighted scales differ by district, so they can't be compared.
- Class rank, where a school reports it, corrects for grade inflation. Roughly a third of US high schools no longer rank, and its absence never counts against an athlete.
- Test scores are optional. Test-optional admissions are the norm now, so a missing SAT or ACT is never treated as a negative.
Money cannot buy a score
Paying for an evaluation buys the evaluation — a staff member's time, scored against this rubric, with a written report. It does not buy a better result, and it never will. The standards are identical whether an evaluation was paid for or not.
Rankings and badges are awarded on rubric scores and editorial judgement alone. There is no product anywhere on this platform where payment influences a rating, and the system is built so that it cannot: subscription records have no connection to rating records, so there is no path for one to affect the other even by accident.
Sponsors can buy naming rights to a published list. They get no input into who appears on it, and never see it before it's public.
What we don't do
- We don't rate athletes on self-reported skills. A checklist an athlete fills in helps coaches search; it never becomes a score.
- We don't show athlete information to anyone unverified. Coach accounts are reviewed and tied to a real program first.
- We don't publish a minor's profile without a parent or guardian approving the account.
- We don't delete rating history. If a score changes, the previous one stays on record.