Effective Cheer Practices

These are good ways to run a cheer practice to ensure your team is having a good time yet still being productive.

1. Warm-Up:
- Well the team is warming up tell them the goals you want to achieve well practicing
- Let different people lead streches
- Jumping Jacks are a great way to start practice and get the team warmed up
- Pick a routine you want to start working on

2.  Jumps:
- Warm up about 5-10 of each jump ( toe touch, pike etc)
- Do leg lifts to strengthen legs

3. Tumbling:
- Practice tumbling skills
- Work on new skills
- Show coach skills they want to do at the game

4.  Water/ Bathroom breaks:
- Allow water and bathroom breaks whenever you feel they are neccessary

5. Stunt:
- Work on skills you plan to put into the routine
- Learn new stunts
- Make sure well stunting you are practicing safety as well

6. Chants:
- Work on all chants for the games so everyone is prepared to do them
- Incorporate stunts and tumbling to your chants

7. Cool Down:
- Strech
- See if you reached that days goals
- Talk about paperwork or any other miscellaneous information

Extra Tips:
- Keep a positive attitude
- Give constructive criticism
- Make routines built around your teams abilities
- Incorporate team building activities into some of your practices

What Does It Take To Be A Cheerleader?

Not everyone is fit to be a cheerleader just like everyone is not fit to be a hockey player or football player. By the time you plan to try out for a cheer team you should have already been in gymnastics and mastered many skills. It also does not hurt to be involved in dance. Other things that you must have to be on a cheer team include:

1. Upper body strength: In order to lift someone into the air it in important that you have upper body strength and can hold them in the air for certain amount of times. For the flyer it is important so you can stay tight in the air making it easier for your bases. Upper body strength is also beneficial for your tumbling.  In a backhand spring it involves strength so you can keep your head from hitting the mat.

2. Confidence: You are going to be cheering in front of a crowd so you must be confident to perform. You must be have confidence well preforming a stunt and know that it will not fall.

3. Good sportsmanship: You must work together always as a team so you win together and you lose together. Just like every other sport there is only one winner so sometimes you could lose. You need to show good sportsmanship even when you lose, don't be a sore loser.

4. Determination: You will not get everything on the first try but if you are determined you will eventually get it. If you give up on something the first time you do not get it you never will.

5. Commitment: Cheer requires a lot of dedication. Everyday you practice and have competitions over the weekends. If you are not willing to put in this much time cheer is not your sport.

Cheerleading is Danergous

A lot of uninformed people consider cheerleading a sport for wimps but they just haven't tried it yet. Cheer is very hard and everyday you cheer you could get an injury. Cheerleading is actually in the top 10 most dangerous sports to be involved in.

The top 10 most dangerous sports include:
1. Horseback riding
2. Cheerleading
3. Bull riding
4. Gymnastics
5. Football
6. Hockey
7. Boxing
8. Lacrosse
9. Motocross
10. Wrestling

As you can see in ranked second in the most dangerous sports category beating sports that most people would say are more dangerous. Cheerleading has more emergency room visits than any of the sports listed.

Why is cheer considered so dangerous?

1. There are no pads: Football and hockey are full contact sports which involve the players wearing lots of padding. In cheerleading there is no padding worn at all. This is truly a full contact sport. You are throwing a girl in the air and then catching her again with the possibility of getting knocked out by an arm, leg or head. For the person in the air you are getting thrown up with the possibility of getting dropped flat on your back. You could also we whacked in the face with an arm or even head butt someone.

2. Concussions: Cheer is the sport with the most concussions. It is proven that cheerleaders are the main athletes that continue to practice without even knowing they are concussed. Concussions can lead to mental damage if they are severe and not taken care of. Continueing to practice could make it worse.

3. Broken bones: Everyday at practice you have the possibility of getting hurt. There are no days where you done throw someone in the air or tumble. One wrong mistake could lead to a minor sprain or a broken leg. Also if you are fooling around you could mess up on a tumbling pass and break a wrist or ankle. Everything involved with cheerleading could cause a broken bone if not done correctly.

Balancing a Sport and School

Here are some tips for balancing a sport and school. In an athletes life both school and their sport are very important to them so it is important to find a happy medium so you can do well. In most school acquainted sports you must maintain a certain GPA or percentage in every class to be able to participate in that sport. Therefore time management in very important for members of a sports team.

1. Get organized: Calendars or agenda planners are very helpful with staying organized. You can write down all if your practice times and the outfits you are supposed to wear. You can also write keep track of when you have assignments due, tests, quizzes and big projects due. If you have your life written down in this planner you are less likely to forget something or not show up to a practice.

2. Manage your time: Writing in your planner what time school and your sport are allow you to see what time you can give to studying, homework and social time. If you do not have a certain time you do homework you will probably never do it or stay up late trying to cram it in, leaving you tired for the next day.

3. Plan your week: Every week you should look ahead in your schedule to see what upcoming events you have such as games, competitions, tests, quizzes etc. If you look ahead you can plan ahead. If you have a project due on Friday and do not have school on Tuesday you can fit in time that day to do your project.

4. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!!! This is the most important when you are an athlete. Procrastinating will make you stressed out! If you procrastinate you will have to cram everything into one day and will not be able to do as well as you may have hopped. Eventually procrastination can lead to you falling behind in classes. You want to stay on top of your schedule and do not let your schedule control you.