Physical Therapy

To keep in mind, you have to take what your doctor and physical therapist say seriously. They may not always tell you what you want to hear, and the timeline of healing may be longer than you think, but you have to listen to them. If you don’t take your physical therapy seriously and try to get back to 100 percent before your body is ready, you could risk the chance of re-injury or an even worse injury that may put you out for an entire season.

Search for exercises that you can work on that won’t affect your injury. There are tons of free exercises online. All you have to do is search for what type of workout you would like. Fitnessblender.com has thousands of free workouts that you can filter to a specific body part, length, difficulty, etc. There are also thousands of workouts that you can find on Instagram and YouTube. There are many fitness influencers on social media who provide free workouts and content to their followers. Ensure that you are being safe about the kinds of workouts you are doing and that they are not impacting your injury at all. If you have any questions, ask your doctor or your physical therapist. They can even provide you with exercises to do to help you recover from your injury.

Spend Extra Time Stretching

Another thing that is especially important to spend some extra time on is stretching. Both men and women in cheer need some flexibility. Leg and hip flexibility are required for jumps and body positions for flyers. Wrist and shoulder flexibility is required for all bases in stunts. No matter what position you do on the team, it would help if you had some flexibility. Please take the opportunity to work on it while you are sidelined with your injury. Once again, make sure that you are safe about this.

Mentally

Mentally, there are many things that you can do while you are injured. It may be hard to go to practice and not be able to participate. No cheerleader wants to be sitting on the side of the mat. Instead of letting the negative take over your thoughts, try to use the downtime to do positive mental work. Make goals for yourself for when you get healthy again. Think about what you want to accomplish in the season and your cheer career, and think about how you can make it happen. You can also visualize. Visualization is a potent tool to use. Just because you can’t physically do the skills at the moment, if you do them in your mind over and over, you will go back to doing them with more confidence than ever before.

Go To Practice

Another positive that you can engage in is to cheer on your teammates during practice. Just because you are injured, it doesn’t mean that you are off the team. Stay involved in practice. Talk to people, push them, cheer them on. This will not only make you feel good, but it will make your teammates feel good too. It is a confirmation that you care about them, and you believe in them. Looking at the team from a different perspective can help how you see them. When you are on the mat, you only see the people around you, and you are mostly focused on what you are doing. Sitting in front of the team while they do the routine allows you to see every part. You can see what everyone is doing to contribute to the team, and it will give you a new appreciation for the work that every member is doing.

Even though you are injured, you can still improve yourself physically and mentally from the sideline. Take the opportunity to make those improvements instead of just sitting and doing nothing. Your injury will heal, and you will be able to go back to doing what you love to do. Listen to your doctor and physical therapist because they will know how to get you back to cheering as soon as possible.

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These exercises can be done in a circuit, 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round. You can also incorporate cardio into the workout. Include exercises from the “Cardio” category in front of, in between, or after your chosen exercises.

Legs

Jump Conditioning Complex: In this complex, you will sit on the floor in a straddle position. Place one hand in between your two legs and one outside of your right leg. Next, you will lift your leg off of the ground while keeping it straight. You should feel it working your hip flexor muscle. Rotate your leg in a circle 8 times clockwise and then 8 times counterclockwise. Repeat on the left leg. This drill is going to help make your jumps higher. Your hip flexors are the main muscles responsible for pulling your legs higher in jumps. If you practice this jump complex at home, you will find that your jumps will get much higher. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Step-Ups: To do the step-up exercise, you must find an object such as your bed, the couch, or a chair. Place one foot onto the object. Next you are going to stand up onto the object. Try not to use your lower leg to jump. Once you have stood up onto one leg, make sure to tighten your glutes at the top. This exercise is going to make it easier for you to stand up into stunts as a flyer. If you aren’t a flyer, it will make your legs stronger and more powerful for stunting and tumbling. It will work your quad muscles and your glutes as well. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Air Squat: When doing air squats, remember to keep your knees in line with your feet. You never want them to go in front of your feet, or you are putting yourself at risk for injury. Sit backward like you are sitting in a chair. Try to hit a 90-degree angle at the bottom of the squat. You can incorporate weights into this exercise to make it harder. Having stronger legs will help in all aspects of cheer. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Calf Raises: This exercise will help you get height in your tumbling and jumps. It will also help middle layers in college pyramids to be more steady when standing on your base. When doing calf raises, make sure you are lifting your heels fully off of the ground, and lowering them all the way back down to the floor. To make this exercise harder, you can do them on stairs and let your heel drop below parallel. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round

Arms

Each of these arm exercises is going to help bases and flyers alike. Having strong arms will provide stability and strength in stunts. It will help flyers hold body positions and inverted stunts. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Tricep Dips: You can either perform a tricep dip using just the floor, or you can do it on an elevated surface. Place your hands so that your fingers are facing in towards your body and your wrists are facing away. Bend your arms to a 90-degree angle, then push them back to a straight position. You can either bend or straighten your legs out in front of you for this exercise. Straightening them will make the exercise harder. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round

Handstand Hold: For this exercise, you will need a wall or some surface to stabilize you while in a handstand. Kick up into your handstand, keeping your hands about shoulder-width apart and head neutral. During this exercise, push through your shoulders and hold tight. Make sure to squeeze your ab muscles during this so that your weight doesn’t sink into your lower back. Instead of doing 20 reps, this exercise tries to hold the position for 30 seconds or longer.

Plank Up-Downs: For this exercise, you will be in a high plank position. Then you will transition to a low plank position by bending one arm then the other. Afterward, you will go back up to high plank one arm at a time. During this exercise, you want to ensure that your body is staying still and not rocking from side to side. Keep your core engaged. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Wrist Rolls: For this exercise, you can fill a grocery bag with items to give it some weight. Grab the handles with your palms facing down. Then you are going to lift the bag by moving your wrist up and down. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round

Pushups: These can be done from your knees or your feet. Make sure when doing your pushups, you are keeping your head neutral. Engage your core so that your lower back doesn’t sink towards the floor. Also, try to do a full range of motion by touching your chin to the floor then fully straightening your arms back to the top. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Abs

A strong core is the most crucial thing that cheerleaders can have. It is the most important group of muscles for having body control. 3 rounds 20 reps of each exercise per round.

Reverse Crunches: Start by laying flat on your back with your feet together. You then want to bend your legs and bring your knees up to chest level. Afterward, straighten your legs and control the speed back down to the floor. You should be feeling this exercise in your lower abs. Try to make sure that your lower back stays pressed to the floor.

Hollow Hold: On this exercise, it is very important to keep your lower back pressed into the ground. Think of pulling your belly button towards the floor. Lift your legs and your shoulders off of the ground. You can either bend your legs or straighten them. The straighter and closer to the ground your legs are, the harder the exercise is. Work towards being able to hold the position with straight legs about six inches off of the ground. You can either hold your arms at your side or above your head.

Sit-Ups: Lay on the ground with your legs bent in front of you and your hands behind your head. Next, sit all the way up without lifting your feet off of the ground. To help, you can either have a partner hold your feet or place them under an object such as the couch. Remember to keep your head neutral and allow your abs to do all of the work.

Bicycle Crunches: Lay on your back with your legs bent, feet and shoulders off of the ground, and hands behind your head. Then, you will alternate touching opposite elbow to knee. As one knee bends to meet the elbow, the other will straighten and vice versa. Just like you would pedal a bike.

Suitcase Crunches: For these, you will start in a hollow hold position with your legs straight and six inches off of the ground. You will also lift your shoulders off the ground. Then you are going to fold into a sitting position with all of your weight on your tailbone. Then from the top, you will unfold back to the straight hollow position. Your arms will remain on either side of your body.

Cardio

Cheerleading involves a lot of cardio and strength at the same time. Mixing cardio into any workout is a great way to prepare you to go full out at practice.

Jumping Jacks: These are a quick and easy way to get your heart rate up.

Burpees: Burpees are a fantastic way to add cardio to any workout. For more of a challenge, try to do them quickly and incorporate a pushup at the exercise’s bottom.

Running: If you have a treadmill at home, this could be a great and easy way to incorporate cardio into your workout. If the weather allows, you could also take a run outside before, after, or add sprints during a workout. If neither of these is an option, you can always jog or sprint in place. All options will raise your heart rate.

High knees/Tuck jumps: High knees are a great move to work cardio and abs. If you use your lower ab muscles to lift your knees up, they will get good work as well. Do the high knees faster for more intense cardio. Tuck jumps require a lot of power from your body. Use your legs to explode through the jump. Bend your knees so that they bend to a 90-degree angle at the top of the jump. You can place your hands at hip height and try to have your knees touch your hands.

With these exercises, you can build your own home workout. Putting in extra work at home and building strength will help you to improve your cheer skills even more than just training at the practice.

1. Goes Back To 1860

Cheerleading was started by male students in Great Britain in the 1860s. It made its way to America in the 1880s. Male students organized “cheers” to help their struggling football team.

2. Women Joined In 1920

Women didn’t become engaged with the sport until the 1920s. This is interesting since now the sport is female-dominated. However, over the years more males have been getting involved in the sport.

3. Lawrence “Herkie” Herkimer

Lawrence “Herkie” Herkimer is deemed the grandfather of cheerleading. He is the one that started the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA). This association still exists and is one of two major cheer governing bodies. Herkie also patented the pompom that almost all cheerleaders use on game day and in competitions.

4. NCA and UCA

The two largest college cheer associations are called NCA and UCA. Most colleges across the country compete in one of these two. Each association has its own rules and skill focus. UCA focuses more on stunts and pyramids, while NCA has more overall focus, including jumps, advanced tumbling, and a dance section.

5. Cheer Injuries

The number of cheerleading-related injuries has gone down over the years due to more rules being enforced surrounding what skills cheerleaders are allowed to compete.

6. Kids Start at 2

Cheerleading has an age range from 2+. Children can start tumbling classes as soon as two years old! Competitive cheerleading also has “Open” cheer categories that do not have an age limit. As long as you can do the skills, you can compete.

7. Inclusivity

Cheerleading is a sport that prides itself in being inclusive and diverse. It is a sport where all individuals can find a place and have a role to play no matter what their gender, race, sexual orientation, skill level, etc.

8. Beyond Gameday

Cheer goes beyond what you see at gameday on the sidelines. There is so much more than doing cheers and waving pompoms. Cheerleaders are dedicated athletes that spend hours practicing and perfecting tumbling and stunting skills for competition that you may never see on the sidelines.

9. Variety

Cheer offers club, school, national, world, and professional teams. There is a level for everyone, and there is so much room to grow in

10. Olympics

Cheerleading just got approved as an Olympic sport and should be debuting in the 2028 LA Olympic Games.

There’s so much more to the sport of cheerleading than meets the eye. Hopefully, these 10 facts have helped you learn a little bit more!

An Alternate Is An Important Position

An alternate is one of the most important and hardest roles to be on the team. It is an important position because you have to be ready to step in at any time in case of an injury or issue preventing someone else from stepping in. You are going to be the person who could save your team from a disaster. Injuries in cheerleading are not uncommon, and there is a chance that you will have to step in if someone gets hurt close to competition time. This makes you very important to your team.

Being an alternate is hard for two reasons. The first isIt is that you have to learn everyone’s part by heart. Every part that you could fill in for is your job to learn and do. It will require versatility and motivation to learn all of the parts. The other reason it is hard is that it required mental strength. It can be hard to stay motivated to continue practicing your skills from the sideline when there is a chance that you won’t get to complete them. It’s hard to watch your teammates compete without you. However, you have to remember that your team and coach might need you, and they want you to succeed just as much as the athletes on the mat.

Stay Engaged In Practice

Hard work and personal motivation is going to say a lot to your coach. There are a couple of things that you can do to stay engaged in practice:

1. Watch the parts that you might fill in for and learn their part of the routine. If you do get thrown in unexpectedly, it will be better for you and everyone else if you already know the routine.
2. Suppose you are missing any skills you may need to make a mat and work on those skills. Practice them every day until you get them. This will not only show your coach that you want to do what it takes to make the mat, but it also increases your chance of making it onto the mat for the next season.
3. Do everything that you can on the side of the mat or an unused part of the mat. Run every routine with your team. Do the skills with them like you are on the mat. Go to open gyms and ask people to do the routine stunts with you.

It may be hard, but remember, when you have to be on the sidelines, cheer your teammates on. They need you, and you need them. Just because you are an alternate, you are still a part of the team. Every single piece has a role to play. You are still important to the team. If your mind starts to think negative thoughts, try to flip them into positives. Use your position as motivation to get better for the next season. Make it your goal to get onto the mat. Remember to prepare yourself to the best of your abilities to step into any position if your team needs you to. Work hard, stay motivated, and remember that it’s not the end of your cheer career. It’s just a step on the way to success.

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Plan Your Practice

The first tip is to plan out practice before you start. Split practice into sections of 10 to 15 minutes. That way, you are organized, and you know exactly what is going on before you go in.

Practice Plan Example: 10 Minutes Each

• Stretch
• Tumbling
• Stunting
• Motions
• Drills
• Jumps and formations
• 5-10 minutes conditioning

If you need to spend more time on a section during practice, have them do stunting, then move to something else, then go back to stunting. You could structure practice; however, you need to have a plan for them and make sure you aren’t spending too long on any one thing.

Use repetition. If you want your minis to retain information, say it and then have them repeat it. Ask them questions like “What do we do in our jumps?” and have them respond with something like “Point our toes.” Say it over and over at different times during practice so that they learn it. When you are teaching them motions, have them do it over and over again. Have them do the same motion about 10-15 times, then move on to the next motion, and then come back to the previous motion and have them do it 10-15 more times.

Make Practice Fun

These kids are just starting in cheerleading. It is their introduction to the sport, and you want to show them that it is fun. Little kids aren’t going to care about how they look on the floor at competitions. They want to have fun performing their routine. This doesn’t mean that you can’t coach them to look good when they compete. It just means that you want them to have fun while looking good. You can do lots of things to make things fun at practice, such as incorporating little games into practice, having a prize box for good behavior, and allowing them to be a little silly. Give them little breaks- like 2 minutes at a time- to run around and have fun with their friends. You could also schedule theme practices such as “twin day” or “superhero day” where they get to come to practice dressed up.

Keep things simple. Try to simplify instructions so that they can understand what you’re saying. Put words and counts to motions that you are trying to teach. “Hot counts” are a great way to simplify the routine and help them remember what they are supposed to do. Say the hot counts every time they do the skill and say the hot counts with you. Talk them through the routine.

Kids respond well to visual learning. Ways that you can incorporate visual learning into practice is by doing the motions with them. That way they always have you to look at if they forget a motion and they can just copy you. If you want them to smile, you have to smile too when doing the motions. You can also give them little floor stickers to mark where they are supposed to stand in their formations. If they know where their floor sticker is, they know where they are.

Always Remain Positive and Patient

Remember that this is their first couple of years cheering, and they are just little kids. Try your best to make things fun for them. No matter how hard you try, I guarantee that at a competition, at least one of them will stand there the whole time and not move. One of them will start running around doing their own thing. Many of them will forget their motions. But despite all of that, the crowd will still love every minute and so will the athletes.

As long as you follow these tips when coaching young cheerleaders, you will be able to get a lot more out of your practices and out of your athletes. Just remember to be organized, keep things fun and simple, use repetition, and have a positive attitude. Coaching young athletes can be a big responsibility but it can also be just as fun for you as it is for them.

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How To Be A Good Cheer Teammate

The first thing to remember is that the team is only as strong as its “weakest” member. Not everyone on the team is going to be perfect at everything. Whether it be on a specific skill or a hard section of the routine, everyone will have their struggles. These are the times when you need to support them the most. Instead of becoming frustrated at someone for their shortcomings, lift them up and help them believe that they can succeed.

Your Attitude Can Affect The Mood Of The Whole Team

There is a saying that states, “You can either be cancer or a cure.” If you are acting like a “cancer,” your attitude will spread to the rest of your team, and then nobody is having fun. Practice can go from good to bad in an instant if you have a bad attitude. The reverse is also true. If one of your teammates is having a bad attitude, try to make their practice a little better by being a “cure”. Don’t buy into their bad attitude. If you are going through something challenging that is affecting your mood, make sure to try and leave it off the mat, and communicate to your teammates about it.

It Is Okay To Lean On Others For Support

An example of this is to help remove negative talk from the mat. If you hear anyone talking negatively- whether it be about themselves, a skill, someone else, or even your coach- try to change the narrative. Don’t buy into negative talk. Be the cure. Try to steer the conversation in a positive direction. Hold yourself accountable to only talking positively as well.

Remember that your teammates rely on you as much as you rely on them. Everyone has a role to play in the big picture of the routine. Whether your center stunt or you stand behind the stunt and cheer your teammates on, you should do that role to the best of your ability. If you are expecting the best out of your teammates, then they are expecting the best out of you.

Remember that your cheer teammates are not your enemies. Friendly competition can be used as motivation between teammates as long as it is not negative. If someone on your team is better at a skill than you are, use them as motivation to get better. You can always ask them for help and advice on the skill as well. The same goes for if you are better than someone else on your team. Help to bring their skills up to your level. These things will help your team become the strongest it can be.

Although cheerleading is not an individual sport, you can work on all of these things as an individual to better your team. If you practice all of these things within yourself, you will be helping your team succeed beyond just the skills on the mat.

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We had competed at the 2018 UCA and NCA partner stunt competitions the year before. At UCA, we placed 6th and were just extremely happy to have hit our routine and placed at all. During NCA, we had a pretty rough routine and didn’t end up placing at all. This was alright in our minds because for me, it was my first year doing partner stunts, and although we wanted to do our best, it was more about the experience of competing.

In 2019 however, we decided to set some bigger goals for ourselves. It was our second year being partners together and we had each other’s timing down perfectly. We had also been building up our skills and techniques over the year and throughout the summer. We decided that we needed to create routines that were hard enough to win the competitions. In our wildest dreams, we never imagined that we would win both, however we wanted to at least win one.

Our preparations for both partner stunt routines began the same way; it started off with us deciding which stunts we could put together and how to transition in between them. This initial routine aims to put hard enough stunts together to qualify for the competition, and if you do qualify, you can either change/rearrange your routine or make the stunts harder. (or you don’t have to change it at all, but this is the approach that we used) Once we had our initial routine planned out, we practiced in a couple of times, then made our video. After the video was submitted, the judges narrowed it down to the top 15 couples, and as soon as we knew we qualified, we started working hard.

Each training session that Kollin and I had would be anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the day and how much time we had free. Listed below is a breakdown of the different ways that we trained for both competitions.

Training Stunts Individually

We would break down each stunt in our routine, and after doing stunt progressions to build up to the skill, we would rep the skill multiple times. At first, we would try to hit the skill a certain number of times. For example, we had a double-up in our routine and we would try to hit 10 double-ups before moving onto the next skill. As we got more consistent at the skill, we would try to hit 10 double-ups in a row before moving onto the next skill. If we dropped one, we had to start over at zero. This not only helped us become very familiar with the skill and technique, but it tested our consistency as well.

Training Sections

We did this a lot in our training sessions. If there was 6 stunts in our routine, we would work 2 or 3 of them at a time, including transitions. Just like the individual stunt work, we would try to hit a certain number of that section, and later in our training, we would try to hit a certain number in a row.

Full Routines

We did this the least out of all the training sessions. For us it would be a check-in to see how we were doing with the routine. We would either do the full routine to start off a session and then work the parts we missed or struggled with, or we would try to hit one at the end of a session when we were tired. We would also try to condition before we went full out, because if we could hit it when we were tired, we could hit it when we were fresh.

Fun Stunt Days

These were the most important to our training. We would still train together, but we wouldn’t do any of the stunts in our routine, instead we would just stunt for fun. We learned that you will struggle more and more with them if you train too hard or overwork certain skills. So, to reset our bodies and our minds, we would just have fun instead. It kept our passion and motivation alive.

Another key thing that we tried to do was to perform our routine as many times as possible in front of an audience. Whether that audience was random people in the school gym, or at halftime of a basketball game, we wanted to perform as much as possible. This was because when you perform in front of a crowd, your body produces adrenaline (which is great sometimes) but can be detrimental to a stunt. If the guy throws harder than normal, or if the girl is more aggressive on a spin, it can throw off the entire stunt and the stunt may fall or bobble. Learning how to deal with that adrenaline and putting it towards the stunt’s right areas is helpful.

All in all, after all of that training, our hard work paid off. The morning of the UCA competition, Kollin woke up feeling very sick. He could barely see straight and he was nauseous all day. We didn’t know how it would go, but he said he still wanted to try and compete. I was racked with nerves the whole day. I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous in my life. We went out there, and despite the setback, we hit our routine. Was it our most perfect routine? Not at all. We had a few rough points, but we managed to hit. When they called our name at first, I really couldn’t believe it. I knew we had put a good routine on the floor, but I for sure thought we would be seen in my head. I can’t even describe the happiness I felt.

On the day of the NCA competition, we were so calm. I can’t describe it, but we just knew we could do it. We had complete trust in each other. We had trained the routine so much that it was like second nature to us. We knew that if we hit, we would have a really good chance at getting top three. I just remember walking out onto the bandshell and seeing all of my family and teammates and thinking “Yup, we got this.” Once again, our performance wasn’t the best we had ever done, but it was exactly what we needed to do and we couldn’t have been happier.

Hearing our names called in first place once again was a dream come true. Never in my cheer career could I ever have dreamed of winning first not only once but twice. Two years previous, I couldn’t even imagine myself in a partner stunt competition at all. It just goes to show that if you work hard, train hard, and really want it, you can accomplish your goals.

If you are training for partner stunt, or in any competition, integrate some of these techniques into your training.

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Do Your Research

The first step is to do your research. Just about every cheerleading team in the nation has a website and social media accounts. Go onto their social media and check out their videos and pictures. You want to get a feel for the school’s image and skill set that they are posting. Do they have a certain look that they are hoping to achieve? For example, the University of Kentucky has a very traditional look. The guys are clean-shaven and clean-cut and the girls always have a curled neat pony and red lipstick. If you were to go to tryout at Kentucky, you should try to meet that image. Cheerleading is a very public role in athletics. You are expected to be involved and lead the crowd at games and competitions, so how you present yourself does play a part in the tryout process.

On social media and the official websites for the teams, there will be information about tryouts and any upcoming clinics and open gyms happening around that time. You can also find the contact information for the coach on their website as well. A smart thing to do would be to email the coach or send a dm on Instagram/Twitter. Introduce yourself and tell the coach that you are interested in trying out for the team. List your skills and which skills that you are working on, make a short video, or link your social media to the coach so they can check you out. You should ask what the coach is looking for as far as skills thrown at tryouts. This will give you a huge advantage over other people trying out for the team because the coach will be looking for you at tryouts, and you will know what the coach is looking for.

If the coach doesn’t respond to you, there are usually tryout requirements listed on the tryout application or on the team website. You could also reach out to cheerleaders that are currently on the team and ask their advice for what to do at tryouts. Most teams usually have a minimum skill requirement that they are looking for. Make sure that you have those minimum skills and that you have the skills with the best technique possible. If you can, try to throw harder skills than what is required, just make sure they are technically sound.

Open Gyms and College Cheer Clinics

Many teams offer open gyms and clinics around the time of tryouts. You should go to as many as you can. Go and talk to different members of the current team. Get to know them and ask to stunt with them. They will know the most about what it is like to be on the team and what is required at tryouts because they have been through the process before. If you can find a partner or a group to work with at open gyms and clinics before tryouts, the day of tryouts is going to be much less stressful for you. Try to find people that you stunt well with and that you feel comfortable stunting with. It helps to have a couple of options lined up as well just in case.

It really helps to do mock tryouts in front of friends, family, or other cheerleaders before tryouts. Practice your stunts at open gym or try to meet up with your tryout partner a few times before tryouts. Practice your jumps, dance, and cheer as many times as you need to have it memorized. If they teach you choreography at tryouts, get a video and practice it over and over before you tryout.

Don’t Forget to Smile

Most importantly, when the day comes, remember to smile, have a good attitude, and be clean. Even if you mess up, keep smiling! Many coaches accept people onto the team based on potential and attitude. If you show a good attitude and clean technique, you have a strong shot. Also remember that if you don’t make it at one school, it doesn’t mean that your career is over. Most programs are willing to take people after the tryout process is over. Just send the coach a video and ask if they would be willing to give you a shot. There is a program out there for everyone.

If you follow these steps leading up to tryouts, you will have a large advantage over many people trying out. Have fun with the tryout process and good luck!

First Key Technique Are Legs, Legs, Legs

Our legs are always going to be stronger than our arms. It’s just how the body is built. Make sure you are telling this to your bases. A stunt has much less a chance of getting to the top without the use of legs. Train this into your bases from a young age. They should be starting a stunt with legs bent low enough so that the flyer can comfortably stand with one foot in their hands. This will not only help the flyer stand up quicker and easier, but the bases are already starting with their legs engaged. Once the stunt starts going up, the bases should explode through their legs and use that initial momentum to propel their arms to the locked-out position.

The bases should transition from their initial “ready” position by stepping inwards towards each other, meeting in the middle with one foot forward and one foot slightly staggered. There should be very little if any, space in between the two bases once the flyer is in the air. They should be using their bodies to hold up the weight. You do not want to see your bases far apart and only using their arms to support the stunt. This will make the stunt weaker and unstable. The bases should be using their stance and their legs to create a solid foundation for the stunt. Just as the legs straighten on the way up, they should bend on the way down. They need to use their legs to absorb the dismount of the stunt as well. With a strong use of legs, any stunt will be made easier.

The next very important technique for bases is a strong core. Bases need to engage their core at all points of the stunt. A weak core will not only cause the foundation of the stunt to be weaker, but it will increase the risk of injury to the back. It is common to see athletes use their backs to lift the stunt or to let the weight of the stunt settle into their backs. If you, as a coach, see this happening, this means that the athletes are not engaging their cores when lifting the stunt. To train strong cores, include abs into conditioning regimens. Exercises like planks and hollow holds will make their cores a lot stronger. Every time you see your bases arch their back in a stunt or let the weight settle, have them bring the stunt down and try again. This will not only help your stunts become more solid; it will help your athletes prevent injury.

Timing And Communication Are Essential In Solid Stunt

Because a stunt group can consist of anywhere between 3 and 5 people, everyone needs to be on the same page, and things need to happen at the right times. The easiest way to create good timing is by having the bases watch each other at the beginning of the stunt. It is not uncommon, especially in newer bases, to see athletes try to push the stunt up at different times. The bases need to lift the stunt at the exact same time in order for it to work. Have your bases watch each other’s hands when they are lifting the stunt to ensure they are lifting at the same time. A drill base can do to create this timing is to put either the flyer’s hands or their empty shoes into the bases hands and have them practice the stunt with no flyer first. This will take away the variable of the flyer and allow them to concentrate solely on what they need to do and their timing.

Communication goes with this idea, as well. The bases need to be continuously talking to each other and to their flyer to make sure everyone is on the same page. Saying counts out loud or keywords during parts of the stunt is an easy way to keep timing perfect. A strong stunt group is nothing without trust, as well. They are openly communicating before, during, and after the stunt is the best way to create this trust between group members. When working on stunts, give your athletes time to talk to each other about the stunt and what each of them needs from each other to make the stunt work.

Once the stunt is in the air, the eyes of the base need to be glued to their flyer. This is not only for technique but also for safety.

As a base, it is the athletes’ job to protect and catch their flyers. In practice, spotters can be used for added safety, but in competition, there are not enough athletes on the mat to spot every stunt. If the base is continually watching their flyer’s hips, they will always know where their flyer is going. When the stunt is falling, the bases need to follow the flyer’s hips with their eyes and move in the direction of the hips in order to catch the flyer. Having their eyes on the flyer will also help them determine how to adjust the stunt accordingly. It is the basic job to balance the flyer, so they need to be able to see the flyer and move under the stunt if need be.

As a coach, these are some of the most important techniques for building a strong technical foundation for your athletes. If you teach them these techniques from the beginning, they will grow into strong bases capable of throwing any stunt. You will be preventing injury and ensuring the safety of your athletes. Once again, the bases are the foundation of the stunt, and with a solid foundation, you can build anything.

There are a few different types of programs offered in college. There are UCA division, NCA division, and STUNT. The difference between all of these divisions is the style of cheerleading and skill focus. UCA programs are focused more on stunts and pyramids. They usually have less choreography, and the routines are very centered around each skill. In NCA, cheerleaders focus on stunts and pyramids. However, there is also a very heavy emphasis on tumbling, jumps, and choreography. The STUNT category is something that has just emerged in recent years. STUNT is one of the fastest-growing female sport in the country. It involves all of the same ideas as cheer. However, it is formatted as a head-to-head match and focuses solely on execution. Below is a chart that explains the exact differences between STUNT and competitive cheer.

How To Choose What Type of Team

Next, you have to choose the type of team that you want to be a part of. There is All Girl, Small Coed, and Large Coed. Colleges compete with 20 athletes on the mat. For the All Girl division, the team is composed of 20 females. In this division, teams compete group stunt, and it is where the females shine. With no help from males, these all-girl teams have bases, tumblers, and flyers, and they show off just how strong women are. The Small Coed division is made up of 16 females and four males. In this division, there are both group stunts and coed stunts. The team can be creative with how they utilize the four males, but females are still going to be required to base pyramids and stunts as well as tumble. Large Coed is a male-dominated team with 11 males and nine females. The stunts in these routines are coed stunts, and on a coed team, usually, all of the girls are required to fly, whether it be in stunts, baskets, or pyramids.

Look into colleges that have your major or majors that interest you. If you are undecided on a major that provides you a little more flexibility on which college you go to, however, most colleges offer a lot of the core majors that people are interested in. Another great option is to look into junior colleges or community colleges to get your general education done, get an associate, and have another year or two to decide on a major. Junior colleges are usually a lot cheaper than Universities and are a good transition into college. In order to find out which majors that colleges offer, go to their website. All colleges have a catalog of majors and minors that they offer and the class requirements for each.

Cheer Scholarships

It is also very important to look into scholarships. Find out what kind of athletic and academic scholarships are offered at the school. While some cheer programs will offer full or partial scholarships, some cannot offer any. Look into the availability of scholarships by asking the coach of the cheer programs you’re interested in. Academic scholarships are always good to look in to. Colleges have a lot of scholarship opportunities available for good grades. Also, if a cheer program can’t offer you a full-ride athletic scholarship, you may be able to stack academic and athletic scholarships to lessen the financial burden of college. To find out what scholarship opportunities are available, go to the college’s website, and look at the information under scholarships.

Find a program that is going to match your intensity. If you’re someone who loves to cheer for game day, try to find a college that has a great game day. Look into schools like LSU, Oregon, Clemson, Alabama, USC, and many more. All of those schools have a huge game day culture, and their games are extremely fun to cheer at. If competition is something that you are passionate about, look into programs that compete. The first step is to decide which style of cheer you want to compete in- UCA or NCA. Once you do that, a good way to find different schools is to look into the competition results from the past couple of years to find the top-ranked programs. The competition results will also tell you what type of teams the college offers and what division they compete in.

College Visits

One of the most important things you can do is to go visit the colleges. After researching all of the above information, make a list of your top colleges and then go visit them. Get into contact with the coach of the cheer program and let them know you’re coming. You can usually find their information on the school’s athletic website or by reaching out to the cheer program on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Ask the coach if you can sit in on a practice, and schedule a tour of the campus.

There are a couple of things that you should find out while on this visit. If money is a factor for you in college, make sure you figure out the program’s practice schedule and policy on having a job if you need to get one. You should also look into if the college has trainers available for the team to use. Trainers are a very important part of keeping your body healthy and getting treatment during your college career. Also, ask what nutrition resources are available for you as an athlete. Ask about the academic requirements to be on the team, and if there are any tutoring resources available to student-athletes at the college. Also, ask about the tryout requirements. Most college programs have minimum skill requirements to be on the team. You need to know these so that you can be prepared for tryouts. If you do not have the skills required, you can either train to get those skills or look into different programs that require skills that you do have.

While you are on your visit, get a feel for the coaching style, the campus, and the way that the program and practices are run. Really think about if it is a program that is going to allow you to grow and be successful. It is okay if not every college is a perfect fit for you. That is why it is good to have a few colleges on your list. Talk to the athletes on the team and see if you are able to connect with them.

Most importantly, try to start going on college visits as early as possible. Reach out to coaches and athletes early in the year and make a connection as soon as possible. The easiest way to do this is to go to any clinics or cheer combines that are hosted by the colleges that you want. This way, you are getting face time with the athletes and the coaches of those programs. They will be able to gauge your skill level and your potential for the future. The more face time you have with the program, the more of a chance you have to get in. They will come to know you and your work ethic, and in turn, you will get to know them and get a feel for how you fit within the program. Try to take private lessons from some of the cheerleaders and stunt groups on the team.

Searching for a college cheer program is hard, but if you start early and follow these guidelines, you will find the program for you in no time!