An effective cheerleading tryout

It’s kind of scary to think that coaches have to pick their team off of a one time tryout. To ensure that you pick the absolute best team here are a few tips.

1. Keep the tryout short. You want the girls to be able to do their best. There is no need to give them a ton of material to learn and try to memorize for their big moment. I suggest keep it to one side-line or cheer, a short dance- 5 eight-counts at most, and 2 jumps or a jump and tumbling pass. With this material you are able to see motion placement and sharpness, voice projection, rhythm, athleticism and personality- all the areas needing to be covered in the tryout process.

2. Cut you team where there is a large break in the scores. If this means that you only take 12 girls, only take those 12 great girls. It is better to have a smaller, more advanced team than it is to have a super-large team made up of girls who will struggle with the material all season long. Maybe have a JV team made up of the girls with the next highest set of scores.

3. Hire in someone to judge. It is risky for the coach to conduct her own tryouts. I feel the best way to go about your tryout is to have your graduating girls teach all the returning and new girls at tryout the material and then on the actual day of tryouts hire in some one to judge every girl and then leave before the scores are posted. This will save you, the coach, from hearing all the complaining from the girls and their parents about why he/she did not make the team. You can simply tell how you hired in a professional and these are the scores they gave you.

Remember, as a coach you ultimately get the last say on who gets a position on your team. Don’t be afraid to cut a girl based on attitude and school behavior problems. A cheerleaders talent is wasted if she doesn’t know how to be a team player and listen to her peers and coaches. The best teams are the ones that get along and work hard to improve the overall team talent, not just their own.

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Does your cheer squad work out? Many teams make an effort to do some type of exercising at practice but in many cases it is inconsistent and used as a form of punishment instead of an expected part of practice. I am all for team work outs and I think when done they really help improve your squad athleticism which helps increase your difficulty level in your skills.

I hate running just as much as you do, but it really is important to build up a healthy endurance. Football games are long; this means you are jumping, stunting and tumbling for over three hours. Having a great endurance build-up is the best way to make sure your team can still hit those difficult skills that they were hitting in the first quarter. 

Also teams that compete, it is important for you to work on your short burst running. In competitive routines you are doing your best skills one after another and it is important to be able to have the strength and stamina to bust them out one after another at full strength.

Squad workouts at the beach

 It is important for cheerleaders to be strong. Many of you have heard the quote “other athletes lift weights, cheerleaders lift athletes,” and to be able to hit and hold those difficult stunts each cheerleader in the stunt group must be strong enough to make this happen.

Top girls need to be strong enough to jump in holding all their weight in the arms and have the muscles to be tight enough to squeeze the entire length of the stunt. Bases and back-spots need to be strong enough to hold a girl up over their head for great distances. Not to mention to be able to tumble muscle is needed too.

 My suggestion for you, establish one day a week outside of practices where your team meets to just work out. Maybe it’s only for an hour long one day before or after school but it needs to be consistent so the girls get use to it and accept it as part of their cheerleading schedule.

I would suggest doing some sort of cardio for 15-20 minutes, then either doing body-weight exercises or lifting weights, and follow it up by a 10 minute full body stretch. Make sure the areas being worked are the core, quads, shoulders and backs, these are the areas used most in stunting.

Don’t expect result within the first week or so but soon after you will notice your team has better endurance and their strength will improve significantly. Also, the girls may hate it at first but when they see the great results on their bodies they’ll love it.

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Cheerleaders, I know this time of year is a very busy time for raising money to support the needs of the upcoming game/competition season.Many teams turn to fund raising to do this. Its important to know that fund raising can be fun, improve team bonding and of course, bring in the much needed cash.
 
Because of safety issues it is NOT safe to go door to door and ask for donations. Instead, contact a local business and ask permission to do a car wash or to stand outside the doors and ask for donations there, under a supervised environment. A great idea is to make a sign that says “Tuck for a Buck” and offer to do a standing back-tuck for every dollar donated.
 
Another great idea is cookie dough, pizza, or gift wrap sales. In the past I have tried all of these and have had tremendous success with all. Selling an actual item is very successful because not only are you making a portion of the proceeds but you are likely to sell more because the person donating is also receiving something in return.

My third idea is the one I personally did the best with. My high school cheer squad sold ads to our football program and used to make enough money to buy new uniforms each year and pay for our buses to away football games. Our ads were pricey but our games had great attendance and we used the same program each game so the customers ad reached a large audience so businesses were never hesitant to buy. Each game my cheer team would split up and sell the programs to fans in the stands for $3 and this money brought our team in additional profit.

Also, wear your cheer uniform and look presentable while fund raising. People are much likely to want to support your cause when your actually dressed the part. Don’t get discouraged about the large amount of money needed for your team, remember you are one of many girls on your squad and each girl should do their own part. Be safe and have fun!

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Many cheer teams choose to attend a summer camp over their summer break. No matter what cheer company you choose to go with, (although I recommend UCA) I’m sure you’ll find your team will leave with a positive experience.

 No matter what skill level your team is there is a camp out there for you. For teams just starting out, going away to a camp is especially important because there you will learn the proper techniques needed to successfully master stunts, jumps etc. Also a variety of chants, cheers and dances will be taught and this will give your team some material to work with so that they will be prepared come game or pep rally time.

 Another huge plus about going to a sleep away camp is the team bonding. Spending 4 days together really helps the team grow and learn each others personalities. Teams at camp get the opportunity to laugh, struggle and encourage one other through all good and bad times. This really helps the team to unify and work together as a team, rather than individual cheerleaders. Camp is also a great place for coaches to pick their captains. They can see who really steps up as a strong leader and role model.

 Many companies also offer some sort of mini competitions at camp whether it be the home dance competition, or camp cheer/x-treme routine champ. These competitions really give teams that compete a good peek into how your team will perform under pressure and how well they can step up their game. Even the teams that don’t compete will benefit from entering into these competitions. All cheerleaders perform in front of audiences and giving them an opportunity to practice performing at camp is great so that they already have some experience going into the school year.

 I know not all teams can afford to go away to camp, but even the coach just putting on a mini cheer boot camp on campus will really help the team to come together before the school year. As a cheerleader I have attended a camp every year with my teams and I can honestly say its one of my favorite times as a cheerleader and where I made life long memories.

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I don’t know if your high school is anything like mine was but chances are the student population isn’t overly enthusiastic about school spirit. I find this so sad, I think being really being prideful of your alma mater is important and I think cheerleaders can really help boost up the campus spirit.

 Athletics is a great way to pump up the community and get them really involved with the school. As cheerleaders, we can make posters telling of the upcoming sports games and post them around campus and the community. I know this works great because when my cheer team did this we always heard positive feedback saying they didn’t even know there was a soccer game until the saw the poster up at the local Publix.

Another idea is to have each cheerleader wear their uniform to school on game days. This helps to let everyone know there’s a game that night helps to pump up the school spirit early on in the day. The more people you can get to come to your sporting events the better!

 Does your school have spirit week? If not try it out! Get together with your girls and pick a theme for each day of the week for the students to dress up for. Some examples are tye-dye day, twin day, super hero day, favorite color day, mis-match day etc.

Always end Friday with a school spirit day where the students dress up in the school colors and really get into everything about the school. Spirit week really pulls the student body together where students of all different clicks can come together and unite over showing spirit for their school.

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