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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