Cheerleading Levels: All Star Cheer Levels 1 to 7, the Novice, Prep and Elite Tiers, and What Each Level Actually Allows.
Read straight from the 2026-2027 USASF cheer rules and age grid. What each level permits in tumbling and building, what the X.Y levels mean, and why no tier offers all seven. The tumbling half is broken out skill by skill on the cheerleading tumbling by level page.
Written for coaches placing athletes and for parents trying to work out what their gym just told them.
Skills verified
Judge sheet · drag the sliders
Live rankingScores are auditable: every judge entry is logged with a timestamp.
Wednesday practice · drag blocks to reorder
minAttendance auto-pings parents 24h before.
17/18 confirmedLast comp
Winter Regionals
Place
2nd
Score
87.35
Packing lists, music timing and day-of schedules attach to each event.
Athletes are listed by competitor number.
Short answer: a cheer level is a ceiling on what a team may perform, not a rating of how good it is. Seven levels exist, but no single tier offers all seven. In the 2026-2027 USASF age grid, domestic Elite Tier club divisions run Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 4.2, 5 and 6, while Level 7 appears only in the International divisions. Below Elite sit two more tiers: Prep (levels 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, routines capped at 2:00, no tosses) and Novice (levels 1, 2 and 3 with restrictions, routines capped at 1:30, rated rather than ranked).
The decimal levels are the part almost every explainer gets wrong. USASF defines them plainly: in a level written X.Y, the X is the building rules and the Y is the tumbling rules. Level 4.2 stunts like a Level 4 team and tumbles like a Level 2 team.
Sourced from the USASF 2026-2027 Cheer Rules and Cheer Age Grid (Early Release, updated 2.25.2026). Levels change every season, so confirm against usasf.net/rules before you place a team.
A cheer level means nothing until you know which tier it sits in.
This is the piece missing from nearly every "cheer levels explained" page, and it is the reason parents get confused when one gym's Level 2 looks nothing like another's. USASF splits all star cheer into separate tiers first. The level number only tells you the skill ceiling. The tier tells you the routine length, whether tosses are allowed at all, and whether the team is ranked against others or simply rated.
| Tier | Levels offered (2026-2027) | Routine limit | Tosses | How it is judged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice | 1, 2 and 3, each with restrictions | 1:30 | Not permitted, including sponge, load in and squish tosses | Rated Outstanding, Excellent or Superior. Not scored against other teams. |
| Prep | 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 | 2:00 | Not permitted. Waist level cradles also not allowed. | Scored. Combined female and male, never classified as coed. |
| Elite (traditional all star) | 1, 2, 3, 4, 4.2, 5, 6 | 2:30 | Permitted, under level rules | Scored. Team size 5 to 30 members. |
| Elite International | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 | 2:30 (2:00 non-tumbling) | Permitted, under level rules | Scored. Minimum 16 athletes. Males may not exceed two thirds of the team. |
| CheerAbilities | Level 1 with restrictions and up | Per division | Per division | Adaptive divisions for athletes with disabilities. |
Two details worth knowing before you sign anything. Prep and Novice teams are always combined female and male, so a Prep team with six boys on it is still not a coed division. And Novice exists partly as an on-ramp for new clubs: USASF offers a Novice Select option that supplies music, a routine framework and a skill list to choose from, created to help newer coaches build routines while cutting music and choreography costs.
What 4.2, 3.1 and 2.2 actually mean.
USASF spells this out in one line of the age grid, and it is the single most useful sentence in the document. For levels listed in X.Y format, the X sets the rules for building skills (stunts, pyramids and dismounts) and the Y sets the rules for tumbling skills. USASF's own example: Level 2.1 follows Level 2 building rules with Level 1 tumbling rules. The building half of that is where the restrictions actually bite, and the transition twist caps and structure limits are laid out level by level on the cheerleading pyramids page.
The reason this exists is practical. Tumbling and stunting do not develop at the same rate in a real gym. A program can have a roster full of solid Level 4 bases and flyers while only three athletes have a standing tuck. A split level lets that team compete at the building level it has earned without faking tumbling it does not.
| Split level | Building rules | Tumbling rules | Where it is offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Level 1 | Level 1 | Prep tier |
| 2.1 | Level 2 | Level 1 | Prep tier |
| 2.2 | Level 2 | Level 2 | Prep tier |
| 3.1 | Level 3 | Level 1 | Prep tier |
| 3.2 | Level 3 | Level 2 | Prep tier |
| 4.2 | Level 4 | Level 2 | Elite tier |
Level 4.2 is the one that trips people up, because it is the only split level in the Elite tier. A 4.2 team is a full traditional all star team with tosses and a 2:30 routine, building at Level 4, tumbling at Level 2. It is not a Prep team and it is not a "Level 4 team that is not very good".
All star cheer levels 1 to 7, and the skill that defines each one.
This is a plain-language summary of the 2026-2027 rules, written to help you place a team. It is not the rulebook and it does not replace it. The official documents are copyright protected and members should work from the current PDFs at usasf.net, because a single sentence about twist counts decides whether a routine takes a 4.0 legality deduction.
| Level | Tumbling ceiling | Building ceiling | The skill that marks the level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skills that keep constant contact with the floor: rolls, cartwheels, walkovers, handstands. Blocked cartwheels allowed. No dive rolls. | Waist level single leg, prep level two leg, walk up shoulder stands. Up to a quarter twist. | The back walkover. Nothing leaves the floor. |
| 2 | Single back handspring standing, handspring series running. No twisting airborne except round offs. No jumps connected to a handspring. | Prep level single leg, above prep two leg. Up to a half twist. | The standing back handspring. This is the gate most athletes sit at longest. |
| 3 | Series handsprings and jump into handsprings standing. Round off back handspring to back tuck, aerial cartwheels and front tucks running. No standing flips. | Above prep level single leg. Up to a half twist to extended single leg, up to one twist to prep level or below. | The running tuck. First flip on the floor, and the first extended single leg stunt. |
| 4 | Standing tucks and tucks from a back handspring entry. Aerials and Onodis allowed. One flip, zero twists. No tumbling after a tuck. | Up to one and a half twists to prep level or below and to extended two leg. Up to one twist to extended single leg. | The standing tuck. |
| 4.2 | Level 2 tumbling. Single handsprings and handspring series only. | Level 4 building, in full. | Level 4 stunts on a team that has not built Level 4 tumbling yet. |
| 5 | Jump flips standing. Running up to one flip and one twist, which must be preceded by a running, round off or handspring entry. No tumbling after a full twisting skill. | Up to two twists to prep level or below and to extended two leg. Up to one and a half twists to extended single leg. | The running full. |
| 6 | Up to one flipping and two twisting rotations, standing and running. A standing double must follow two consecutive non-twisting backward skills, one of them a back handspring. | Up to two and a quarter twists. Helicopters to 180 degrees with three catchers. Release moves may not exceed 18 inches above the bases' extended arms. | The double full. Highest level offered to domestic club teams. |
| 7 | The widest ruleset in the sport, including handspring to double full. | The widest building ruleset, under International division rules. | Offered only in the Elite Tier International divisions, not to domestic club teams. |
Three rules cut across every level and catch coaches out more often than the level rules themselves. A spotter is required for prep level and above from Level 1, with narrow exceptions for shoulder sits, T-lifts and stunts supported only at the waist. Single based and assisted single based extended stunts are not allowed for Youth and below at any level, though a stunt may pass immediately through an extended position where the level permits. And release moves need three catchers for a multi-based stunt, must return to the original bases, may not land inverted and may not intentionally travel.
Age and level are two separate axes, and confusing them causes most placement arguments.
A team's division is an age band crossed with a level. The age band comes from birth year and is not negotiable. The level comes from skills. So "Senior 3" means a Senior age team competing under Level 3 rules, and "Youth 1" means a Youth age team under Level 1 rules. Level 1 is offered right across the age divisions from Tiny to Senior, which is why a Level 1 team can be six year olds at one gym and high schoolers at another. The birth years attached to each band move forward every season, so the exact eligibility question is answered by the USASF age grid rather than by the level, including the Prep and Novice Senior bands that reach a year further than Elite.
Age divisions
Tiny, Mini, Youth, Junior, Senior
Plus Senior Coed, Senior Open and Senior Open Coed at the top. Each is defined by a birth year range that shifts every season, so last year's grid is wrong this year.
Flex divisions
Youth Flex and Junior Flex
Wider birth year windows for programs that cannot fill a standard band. USASF marks these as provisional and says they are being evaluated this season to decide whether they continue.
Team size
5 to 30 members
That is the Elite tier club range. A penalty may be assessed for taking the floor with fewer than the stated minimum, which matters on a day with three athletes out sick.
One practical note for anyone budgeting a season. Level does not change the age grid, but it does change the cost, because higher level teams travel further and enter more events. Our breakdown of cheer competition fees uses a published 2026-2027 fee schedule if you need real numbers.
How a gym decides which level an athlete lands on.
There is no national placement standard, the same way there is no national tryout standard. Each program writes its own evaluation. What is consistent across well-run gyms is that placement is a roster decision before it is an individual one: a coach is building teams that field a legal, competitive routine at a given level, not awarding athletes a rank.
01
Skills are logged, not remembered
Evaluations record what each athlete can hold consistently, by skill, not a single overall score. An athlete with a standing tuck and no scorpion is a different placement problem than the reverse.
02
Position changes the answer
Level requirements land differently on bases, flyers and backspots. A base who can load a full-up is Level 4 useful even with modest tumbling, which is exactly the gap the 4.2 division exists for.
03
The team competes, not the athlete
An athlete with Level 5 tumbling on a Level 3 team performs Level 3 skills. Rules bind the routine. This is the single hardest thing to explain to a parent, and worth saying out loud at your placement meeting.
04
Tumbling is usually the bottleneck
Building skills can be coached into a group inside a season. A standing tuck cannot be rushed safely. When a program stalls one level below where it wants to be, tumbling is almost always the reason.
The admin side of this is unglamorous and it is where most gyms lose time. Placement needs one current record of who holds which skill, updated at every evaluation, visible to every coach. That is what skill and level tracking is for, and it is the same data your tryout score sheet already produces if you score digitally.
Which levels are Worlds eligible.
The 2026-2027 age grid labels divisions directly, and the labels are more specific than "Level 6 goes to Worlds". In the Elite Tier club divisions, Level 6 is split into a Worlds eligible group and a non-Worlds eligible group, so a team can be Level 6 and sit outside Worlds contention by division. In the Elite Tier International divisions, both Level 6 and Level 7 carry Worlds eligible divisions. Eligibility by division is only the entry ticket: a team still needs a bid from a sanctioned event.
Worth flagging if you judge or coach at this end of the sport: USASF has released an updated rubric for The Cheerleading Worlds 2027 that converts USASF Club divisions from the 170-point score sheet to a 100-point format to align with IASF. USASF describes it as primarily a scale conversion rather than a change in scoring philosophy, with category weights moving less than one percentage point, and the notable rubric change being that jumps become a capped category. The mechanics are covered on our cheerleading competition score sheet page.
Cheer levels, answered.
What are cheer levels?
Cheer levels are skill ceilings, not skill ratings. A level defines the hardest tumbling, stunts, pyramids and tosses a team may perform in competition, so teams compete against others working under the same restrictions. A Level 2 team is not a worse team than a Level 5 team, it is a team competing under Level 2 rules.
How many levels are there in cheerleading?
Seven exist on paper, but no single tier offers all seven. In the 2026-2027 USASF age grid the domestic Elite Tier club divisions run Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 4.2, 5 and 6, and Level 7 appears only in the Elite Tier International divisions. The Prep tier runs 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2, and Novice runs 1, 2 and 3 with restrictions.
What is the highest level in cheer?
Level 7, and it exists only in the International divisions of the Elite Tier. For a typical American all star club, Level 6 is the practical ceiling and the level that carries Worlds eligible divisions. Level 6 tumbling permits up to one flipping and two twisting rotations, which is where doubles appear.
What does level 4.2 mean in cheer?
Level 4 building rules with Level 2 tumbling rules. USASF states that in levels written X.Y, the X is the level for building skills (stunts, pyramids and dismounts) and the Y is the level for tumbling. So a 4.2 team stunts like a Level 4 team and tumbles like a Level 2 team. The same logic produces the Prep divisions 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2.
What are level 1 cheer skills?
Level 1 tumbling is limited to skills that keep constant contact with the floor: forward and backward rolls, cartwheels, walkovers and handstands, plus blocked cartwheels. No dive rolls, and no tumbling immediately after a round off. Level 1 building allows waist level single leg stunts, prep level two leg stunts, walk up shoulder stands and up to a quarter twist.
What age is level 1 cheer?
No age is attached to a level. Age and level are separate axes: the age division is set by birth year and the level is set by skills. Level 1 is offered in every age division from Tiny through Senior, so a Level 1 team can be six year olds or seventeen year olds. Check the current age grid for exact birth years, which shift every season.
How do you move up a level in all star cheer?
An athlete moves up when they can perform the next level's skills safely and repeatably, which coaches assess at evaluations rather than on request. Tumbling is usually the gate, because tumbling progressions are the slowest to build. Remember the team moves as a unit: an athlete with Level 4 tumbling on a Level 3 team still competes under Level 3 rules.
What cheer levels go to Worlds?
In the 2026-2027 age grid the divisions carrying the Worlds Eligible label sit at Level 6 in the Elite Tier club divisions and at Levels 6 and 7 in the International divisions. The grid also lists a Level 6 non-Worlds eligible division, so Level 6 alone does not make a team eligible. Teams still need a bid from a sanctioned event.
What is the difference between Prep, Novice and Elite cheer?
Three tiers of commitment, not three levels of skill. Elite is traditional all star with full length routines and tosses. Prep caps routines at 2:00 and bans tosses entirely. Novice caps routines at 1:30, bans tosses, and is evaluated on a rating scale (Outstanding, Excellent, Superior) instead of being ranked against other teams.
Do cheer levels change every year?
The level structure is stable, but the details move every season and the age grid always does. USASF marks changes from the previous season in red and major changes since the early release in blue, and states it reserves the right to make further changes. Treat any levels article, this one included, as a summary and place teams from the current PDF.
From placement to the competition floor.
Stunts
Cheerleading stunts list by level
Every stunt name in the vocabulary, ordered the way coaches teach them, level by level.
Start here
What is all star cheer
How the club side of the sport works if the tier and level vocabulary is all new.
Scoring
Cheerleading competition score sheet
How a level gets scored once you are on the floor, including the published deduction values.
Getting there
Cheerleading conditioning exercises
The strength work behind a level change, with real sets and reps by position.
Product
Skill and level tracking
One current record of who holds which skill, so placement stops being an argument from memory.
Evaluations
Cheer tryout score sheet
The evaluation that produces your placement data, with real published sheets compared.
Game day, every day
Place every athlete from a record, not from memory.
Log skills at evaluations, see who clears each level, and build next season's teams from real data.
Takes 30 seconds. No credit card needed.