r/Cheerleading

I don’t know what to do. All my bases hate me, I can’t stop shaking and it makes everything hard for everyone. I think I’m like putting too much like strength or power into my legs all the time. They said it’s like I’m pushing their hands. I don’t know how to stop I feel like my bodies doing it on it’s own and because of this I can’t improve like at all. It sucks to be honest because no matter how hard I try it always comes back.

I don’t know did anyone have this problem as a flyer before everyone asked they can just do it without thinking about it.

Anyway I would appreciate it if someone could help me.

I didn’t make the cheer team this year even though I was on it last year. Around 40-45 girls tried out 6 didn’t make it 3 returners including me got cut. EVERY freshman that tried out made the team every single one and they only cut sophomores. I just don’t understand if they’ve seen me cheer before and let me on the team freshman year what’s the point of cutting me sophomore year I understand maybe there was better than me but I refuse to believe every single freshman that tried out was. I don’t know if this could’ve been a contributor to the factor but it took me a while to pay me fees like a really long time they were due around October/December I got them finally paid in March. But I don’t know a person can only improve I don’t know if I should try out next year or what. I felt like I did way better this year than I did last year too so it just really brings down my confidence. But if you were in my situation would you try out again and if so why or why not and please give me tips on how I can be better next year if I even try out.

My 5th grade daughter recently made an All Star Elite Level 2 team. Unfortunately, my family needs to spend about 6 weeks with my parents this summer because of my mother’s health condition. She is very ill, needs care and support, and deeply wants to spend time with my children. Since my daughter is still young, I cannot leave her behind and travel alone.

The issue is that the gym has a strict policy that Elite athletes can only miss up to 2 weeks during the summer. We were told that if she misses 6 weeks, she would need to move to the rec team.

To be honest, this is partially my mistake. When my daughter was on the rec team, summer absences were much more flexible, and I incorrectly assumed Elite would still allow longer absences as long as she returned before choreography. I completely understand now that Elite commitment is very different.

At the same time, I truly feel stuck because this is not a vacation situation for us. It’s family/health related, and I honestly don’t know when my children will have another chance to spend meaningful time with their grandparents.

I already explained to the coaches that we are willing to do everything possible to keep her training while we are away:

• daily tumbling practice
• sharing training videos
• joining a cheer gym in that area during the summer
• reevaluating her skills immediately after we return

I also told them that if they genuinely feel she is no longer at the Elite level after reevaluation, we would accept moving to rec without argument.

My daughter’s skill level honestly fits Elite much more than rec, so this has been really heartbreaking for her.

For parents/coaches with All Star experience — is this level of strictness pretty standard for Elite teams? Have you ever seen gyms make exceptions for situations involving family illness or unavoidable travel? Or are there any other options I may not be thinking of?

Hi all - my husband and I are completely new to the cheer world. Our daughters have recently fallen in love with it, and honestly we were super excited walking into these gyms (then we got hit with the pricing)

I understand competitive youth sports are expensive. Equipment, travel, staffing, facility costs, etc. Cool, that's fine. However.... what genuinely threw us off was seeing the gym owner/head coach pull up in a G-Wagon.

Maybe I’m a Karen in my old age, but this rubbed me the wrong way IMMEDIATELY. If I'm gonna pay thousands in fees for my young child to play a sport, I'd prefer it not be funding the gym owner's lavish lifestyle and expenses.

As someone who coached competitive youth sports before having kids, the optics are just wild to me. Is this normal in the cheer world, or did we just stumble into a particularly money-hungry gym?

Not trying to doxx anyone, just genuinely curious if other parents have had the same reaction.

I have a question and would like some honest feedback. My daughter has been cheering competitively for six years, she’s been a flyer, tumbler and backspot/base. She cheered in middle school but did not make the Freshman football cheer squad. She is an amazing cheerleader, and I am not just saying that. There are other girls who are better and I know which ones they are, but there are some who are not as good but still made it. My daughter lost out to a girl who is not as good and has zero tumbling. My daughter has all the tumbling. I will say that her jumps need improvement, she’s super petite and doesn’t have strong leg muscles so yes, she definitely needs to work on those. She would have made basketball cheer but can’t cheer for basketball because competition season for competitive cheer is in the winter and bball is a winter sport. I guess my question is, what exactly are you looking for? How do some girls who aren’t as good as others (there are more, not just my daughter) make the team? I just don’t get it. I did tell her to reach out to the coaches for feedback for next year. She’s taking it pretty good and will try out again next year but it’s just so competitive and confusing when some girls who don’t have all the skills but still make it. Is there politics involved, seriously? I know you’ll all say no but it definitely makes you wonder. Thanks for any info!!!

Just found out today that my school will not be paying me for coaching cheer. All other sports, even dance was paid. Will not be doing it again, or at least check at my new school.

So I so high school cheer and I have sh scars all on my legs. At tryouts I got the comment that I seemed not confident and paranoid. I was very paranoid about my scars and being an upper class man. I felt confident but I just don’t know how to show that I’m confident to them for next year and this season. I just don’t want to not make the team again next year for senior year and not make varsity cause at my school if your going to be a senior you have to make varsity to be on the team. I’ve been on jv from freshman to junior year(26-27 year). Any advice on how to improve my confidence and make the team for my senior year.

long post , buckle up

My daughter is going into her 3rd season. She is doing evaluations at 2 different gyms; current gym(CG) and another gym in the area. CG is newer, the other gym is established and known in our area(people hear all star cheer and automatically think this gym). I, along with other parents, feel CG puts all of their efforts into the elite teams and they kind of pushes the novice and prep teams to the side. 2 coaches(my daughters coaches) and another staff member from CG have left to go to the other gym after some drama(I have no idea what exactly went down). There has been pettiness from CG towards the other gym via social media posts(from the gym page) along with the head coach from CG sending one of the coaches some childish texts. My daughter already had her evaluations for the other gym and I’m not even sure if I want her to go to CG tonight for her evaluations. Her coaches from CG that are still there have worked with my daughter and all seem to love her. They have helped her so much since she started but I have such a bad taste in my mouth from all of the pettiness. So what would you do? Should I still let her do evaluations at her CG? At the end of the day, I told my daughter it is up to her where she wants to go but I’m not sure if I still want to spend money with CG after all of the one sided drama.

(School cheer uniform- varsity brand) My daughter just got her uniforms and they seem to be 2 sizes too big! We are allowed to alter them in just not sure what I should do. Will they shrink in the dryer? Some say to boil them? Please help!

Hi everyone! Repost because I wasn't clear

I am an educator myself (I teach older grades), but I’m looking to borrow some wisdom from the early childhood experts here.

This season is my first time coaching a youth cheer team, and my co-coach and I have an age range of 3 to 6 years old. The majority of the athletes fall right in the middle, but we do have one particular child at the 3-year-old minimum.

I do have experience working with this age group in a structured class setting (I teach youth tumbling classes), but transitioning from a "class" environment to a "team practice" environment is a brand new challenge for me. As a cheer coach, I know it is 100% possible to get 3-year-olds engaged and working together—I've seen it done! I just haven't personally cracked the code on how to achieve it yet, and I want to make sure I’m facilitating that engagement correctly without burning them out so early in the season.

We only have them for one hour practices (2x a week), and while we aren't running a full routine at this point in the year, we do need to lay the groundwork for basic choreography, motions, timing, and learning how to move to specific spots/formations cleanly.

I have the station-based aspect down for improving physical skills, but I would love advice from an ECE engagement standpoint - Any creative games, phrasing, or behavioral strategies you use to keep this age group engaged in a group dynamic would be incredibly appreciated!

Thank you all so much!

I didn’t grow up doing cheerleading. In fact, I played many other sports in school, and I’m starting to get into cheer so that I can do sideline cheer in college. I knew All-Star cheerleading was always a thing, and my friends and I always joked that, no matter what, they'd win the world or national championship every year. We had a bunch of girls in my high school who were involved in All-Star cheerleading and wouldn’t touch the high school cheer team with a 10-foot pole. A lot of those cheerleaders actually never go on to do it in college, apparently, and they either stick with All-Star cheerleading or stop altogether. I mean, I’m a big sports guy, and I love the whole aspect of the sideline, especially since I can still be a student athlete and cheer on all the sports. Is there a reason why some girls blatantly choose All-Star over collegiate or high school

I would love to cheer. I am not built like a typical guy . Is ther a way I could still do cheerleading as a 5’7 guy?

I’m curious of the cost( obviously if comfortable) sharing what others are paying for PUBLIC High School cheer?

Our cost for a public I’m emphasizing this because I went to public school and never paid for sports…

Is basically $2,000+ for sideline cheer… football season. This doesn’t guarantee you a spot with competition season which cost another $1,000+ if you make it.

They do one fund raiser which is selling $10 raffle ticket and you have to sell them or by them out.

Normally they are so hard to sells because it’s a gamble, so you end up buying them out yourself.

I feel like I’m losing my mind over it because I’m this is a high school… not allstar. Not a park program but maybe just curious if other high school are paying this too.

Now I talked to a few people in my area and they are NOT. But like I said I’m just wondering if others are in this boat or is it crazy to be paying over $3,000 for a public high-school sport.

We had a monster which I loved due to its ability to roll and the fact that it had the battery powered option. Very portable and convenient. Until it suddenly stopped working, right after the warranty ended 🙄. It won’t work now, no matter what…I’ve tried charging it and using it plugged in. It’s just dead. I don’t want to spend $500 on something if we can get it for less. But I do want it to be loud, portable, and battery-powered (at least as an option - I can and will plug it in most of the time.) What has everyone used that is loud enough for indoor and outdoor practices but doesn’t cost more than, say, $250 ??

Here's my 7¢ about Stingrays Marietta - they have boys tryout who can stunt, but during worlds tryouts they pay 0 attention to them. They only pay attention to all-girl groups. And they shoo the boys away to just free stunt and nobody is evaluating boys at all.

Meanwhile, the boys who can stunt but NOT tumble don't get evaluated for their stunting abilities—just tumbling. Which, they preach under the guise of, “we need boys we need boys. Be any boy and we will take you.” It’s not true to the point where it’s just fastidious. They play the, “we need boys. *boy pulls up* nah not you. We do need boys tho.”

+ And a controversial opinion/observation to top this off—I don't think it's fair that people who clearly can't tumble (because they're overw8) are able to slide by but "non-overw8" athletes who can stunt and not tumble, get cut. Which is just wrong in so many ways. Because apparently being fit/skinny/not fat means that we're automatically required to have tumbling abilities. Just an observation. No shade to my big girls/backspots that can sail through because y’all are phenomenal stunters. It’s just not right to think, “maybe I should gain 150 so im seen as more than with less requirements.” You see this across A LOT of teams especially those in small coed & all-girl and Int. Open Large Coed.

so i’m an upcoming senior, and i was on jv last year, but this time i didn’t make the team, and i feel robbed… like every time i think about it, i feel a pain in my chest, like bad grief, because i can’t do cheer anymore since i’ll be a senior. everybody made the team except for me, and it feels like a kick in the butt because i work really hard and i have sharp motions. if i never messed up tryouts, i would’ve had a chance. i just want another chance. it’s not fair. i need help because it’s starting to eat me up inside

Does anyone have any spirit night ideas for this year’s camp theme “GAME TIME”? The camp brochure really plays up the idea of dressing to represent other sports/activities from your school, but I know the themes are usually pretty open to interpretation.