r/Cheerleading

Is it realistic to get a back handspring spring by March if I have no tumbling experience? I mean I went to classes when I was younger but never had “anything” I need to get some kind of tumbling to better my chance at making the JV team for my freshman year. My mom is willing to hire a private coach for weekly sessions.

Hello like the post says I would love to know from athletes or coaches about. Reasons as to why I don’t see more skills invented in cheerleading. The sport has advanced for a long time with stunting and back tumbling with 1or2 twists. That what I’ve seen cheerleaders do for tumbling front skills are punch front and arabian.

Daughter is looking for tips so I said I’d ask the internet. She’s a 7th grader and its her first year of eligibility for middle school cheer. She is pretty decent, needs some work but overall I think has a better than average shot. She’s kind, polite and well groomed and has done a little pop warner cheer in the past. The first day she crushed it, led cheers after not needing to learn them cause she watched games from last year on Youtube and did excellent using her back base experience. She was so so thrilled and was getting alot of positive attention from the HS kids and adults judging.

Today, however, they worked on a fairly complex dance and jumps and she is concerned she didnt do as well and made a few faces when she messed up. She saw one coach frown a little and start writing when she made a face after messing up and it wrecked her. She finished up but her confidence is now shot.

She’s number one because she got the early and was ready to work. So she had to watch 51 other girls after her and was just convinced that she ruined her chances.

Tomorrow is the final day. Out of 51, only 22 can make it and that number includes 8th grade returners.

I have no experience here at all! Like not a bit. Any tips for her to stand out in a good way or recover? I dont think she’s cooked after just one messup when she performed so well but I don’t know this world. Help please.🥹

I started doing cheer my sophomore year and I ended making the JV team and now it's junior year, my school got a new cheer coach and I made varsity. During the summer I ended up with an injury that had me sitting out for a while but now I barely started going to practice again and I was very worried about my varsity spot being taken away. I tried my best but it has been hard and today the coaches wanted me to stay back for a bit after practice. I was concerned and worried and the coach told me that they had made the decision to bump me down to JV and they were telling me that I need to fix my material and whenever I get a comment on what I can fix its like if I don't end up changing anything so they said they were putting me to JV and I was so heartbroken, I felt like whatever I tried to push through pain even when it was hot I feel like it still wasn't enough. I have a JV game that I will have to attend on Wednesday and a varsity game on Thursday which I was supposed to go to but since I was bumped down I don't know. They told me that this is not permanent and I still have time to "prove them wrong" and I just need to work on my material and I feel very discouraged I feel like I want to quit, I had a panic attack and it was very horrible I don't know what to do I feel stuck and embarrassed and it was my fault and its just really bad I really need some advice

Why would a seemingly good cheerleader be cut from the JV team? And not picked over girls who never cheered before? This one has me stumped (not me)

Edit: going from middle school to high school.

My daughter is a 5th grader and currently a flyer on her rec cheer team. She’s taking a stunt class that is specifically for flyers. There are bases in the class, and they practice different flyer skills for an hour.

For the past few weeks, my daughter has been struggling to get up, falling out of skills, or not being able to hold positions for very long in the class. She says sometimes the bases are grabbing the wrong places or using force in the wrong direction. However, my daughter get blamed whenever something goes wrong because she’s the one who visibly falls.

She’s been a flyer on her team since last year and had no issues performing her skills, so I’m wondering if it could simply be a matter of not having good chemistry with these particular bases.

I’m not sure whether the bases are volunteers or also paying to take the class, so I don’t want to overstep by bringing this up with the coach/admin. Would it be reasonable to ask if she could occasionally work with more experienced bases, or at least ask the coach to take a look at what might be causing the issue?

Also, what can a flyer work on at home by herself to become a stronger/better flyer? My daughter really wants to be a good flyer. That’s why she’s taking this extra stunt class.

I’d really appreciate advice from coaches, bases, or experienced flyers!

Im a varsity cheer coach at a high school. We have a lot of girls and a very active and organized sideline for Friday night football games. Our dance coaches have pushed to have the dance team on the sidelines as well and so now our team will be splitting the space with dance…has anyone made this work, and what does it look like? In my opinion dancers shouldn’t be trying to chant with us. If they want to cheer they need to tryout for cheer. This is all so new and I’m not sure what to think. Our athletic director assumes we will be collaborating together. Any advice??? 😬

I’ve been cheering for 4 years, and for most of that time — excluding a 2 month period — I was a main base. I occasionally side based and front spotted a couple of times, but have only back spotted during said 2 month period. I recently got on my hs varsity team (as a freshmen!!!!) and am now a back spotter. I am doing fine but would like some tips for backing libs and pop-offs, both from prep. I am pretty strong but don’t know what to really do. Back when I shortly backspotted (2 years ago) we weren’t doing high level stunts. Any other back spotting tips would be greatly appreciated.

So I do school cheer, and our first game this year is on the 18th, which is the first day of school. Our team is mad that we have to wear our uniforms to the first day, but i dont really care. What are your thoughts on this?

My daughter has been cheering since she was in 4th grade. She attends a high school that has done well in the past (finishing as high as 2nd in state) but has not come close to placing in our state for the past 2 seasons.

She made JV as a freshman and then sophomore year was placed with varsity during summer camp. She broke her hand early in camp. Come official tryouts she was moved down to JV being told she “wasn’t ready for varsity.” She was given no feedback so as her parent I asked. They said “consistency in tumbling and jumps.”

Fast forward to summer camp this year. She has worked on the feedback and then some. She can throw a tuck and is a strong base. 1st day of summer camp they separate everyone in to JV and varsity. And that was it. They just had tryouts for 2 days. Not a single athlete was moved up to varsity or down from varsity to JV.

There is 0 transparency on where the fundraised money goes and most goes to varsity despite JV fundraising more than varsity last year. The varsity coaches have forced athletes to be at practice with 102 degree fevers, sprained ankles, and back spasms. I want to go and let the coaches have it but I know what that will do to my daughter. One of the JV captains, who is now a senior, bullied the team to vote her for captain last year also. The program is becoming a sh*t show.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Is it right that my shoelaces should be facing behind me in a toe touch rather than up?

This is my daughters 3rd year of cheer and she's really started to excel at it. Last season we started working on an app to help her stretch and workout. We decided to release it on the iOS store. We're looking for feedback and criticism to improve the app. All money generated from the app is being donated to our gym to help sponsor young athletes that need financial support for cheer and gymnastics.

You can download the app from the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cheerfit-by-maisie/id6760197097

This post is for all Pop Warner coaches! This is my first year coaching cheer. I have no cheer experience. Last year, our association paid an Elite gym for choreography. I have Tiny Mites and know we're doing limited. I'd like to have someone else do choreography this season. I do not want to use the gym our association used last year. The routine they choreographed was too advanced and our coaches had to re-do most of the Tiny Mites routine to fit their skills. So, where do y'all go for it? Is there something online you can do? This year's commissioner and Mitey Mites' head coach were assistants for Tiny Mites last year. Mitey Mites' coach agrees with me about looking into choreo. I have 10 kids and she has 19 kids total this season. Tia!!!

Hi I’m new to coaching littles this year (1st & 2nd grade). My girls are really struggling with motions and getting confused on which arm/side. I have seen some coaches mirror the girls when teaching. Is that really a thing? I don’t know why I never thought about doing that.

Just some thoughts. The nature of a hot take means some will disagree. Opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one. What are your uniform hot takes?

- The one-shoulder uniform top (full sleeve on one arm, no sleeve or a “shoulder strap sleeve” on the other arm) looks tacky.

- White uniforms look good on 25% of female athletes.

- If you have the ability to use a plaid/tartan skirt in your uniform and you aren’t, what are you even doing with your life?

- Bling (rhinestones) on the sideline tooks tacky or like dance team uniforms.

- Black cheer shoes with white socks gives Beavis & Butthead.

- The collegiate style cheer bow is superior.

- True red lipstick does not look good with every uniform color. But dark purple or maroon lipsticks makes girls look vampy or goth.

I sell cheer uniforms and have my own factory where we produce them. It’s been so hard getting clients to buy from us. Any suggestions to get more sales?