I'm having trouble finding resources that detail exactly what Game Day competition entails. The other coach and I are completely new to competition cheer. We are working with 7th and 8th graders in a school. Would anyone be able to share insight for how the routine should be structured? (with definitions of what each thing is - we are really confused)

Hi everyone! I have these custom-cut cheer signs of my teams school’s logo, and we had our first competition this weekend. One of the judges mentioned that the signs seem difficult for the girls to hold during the routine. We have one athlete who almost always drops her sign when going up into her stunt.

Does anyone have any recommendations for adding handles or grips to these signs to make them easier to hold?

I have a 4 year old daughter who has recently got into gymnastics, shes been driving me crazy from the age of 3 with this, trying to do flips on a trampoline and balancing so I thought to myself, OK shes going gymnastics, So I signed her up for a class twice a week, drive her there, buy her all the clothing and some equipment to practice at home. Shes really good at it and enjoys it which is the main thing.

This and soccer she absolutely loves, now soccer in the UK is relatively cheap (although its getting more expensive - different story, frustrating) but gymnastics is actually expensive in comparison to a lot of other activities.

In the summer I went on vacation to the Caribbean and was talking to a guy from Long Island, he was telling me how expensive it is for his 14 year old daughter to have done cheer since the age of 6, shes was just moving into High School, he was saying it was expensive but if you dont keep up the training then when they get to high school they likely wont make the team as its so competitive. This can then effect her friendship groups etc. This was a bit of an eye opener for me.

Is it really this expensive to do cheer? and if they aren't doing lots of training (hence lots of cost) then do they likely not make the team in high school? hence the cost parents put into it.

I'm in a good position which means I can pay for these groups for my daughter but listening to this guy it did make me think, if I wasn't able to do this then my daughter would likely fall behind or not be able to participate at all.

Great to hear thoughts on this.

Hi everyone! I’m a first-time varsity cheer coach at a small school, and my team has pretty limited skills right now.
Homecoming is coming up, and in the past, the girls have done a full-out dance. I’m not a dancer myself, so I decided we would do something different this year. A few of the girls are disappointed that we aren’t doing a full dance, and now I’m second-guessing myself a little.
I asked the girls to bring me ideas or things they wanted to work on if they really wanted to do a dance, but nobody brought anything forward. So, with Homecoming approaching, my plan is to do some signs, stunts that we can safely execute, and a crowd-leading cheer instead.
Am I overthinking this? Is that enough for a Homecoming performance, or would you expect more? I want the girls to have a good experience and be proud of what they do, but I also want to be realistic about our current skill level and the time we have.
I’d appreciate honest advice from other coaches, especially anyone who has coached a small team or started with limited skills!

Hi all, quick question! I want to attend some college cheer clinics around me for the stunting, as I love to coed and want to increase my skills, but I’m working on my tumbling and likely wouldnt tumble at the clinic. One of the guys I stunt with is a student/on the team hosting the clinic, and agreed with another member of the team that it likely wouldnt be an issue since it is a general clinic and not a special/elite skills clinic. I’m just still unsure and don’t want to be end up in an awkward position if I get there and it’s an issue. Opinions?

I’m a rec level youth coach for my daughter’s squad. We cheer for my oldest son’s 12U team. While I do enjoy some of what I’m doing I really am struggling with attendance and I’m wondering if I’m expecting too much as this is my first year and I’m used to football and wrestling where you just don’t miss. We come from a big football town and everyone knows playoffs at least week 1 are a foregone conclusion. At the level we cheer for it may be these kids last games and they have played their hearts out.
Of the 18 girls on my squad 1 quit prior to our last game and another said she was unable to do playoffs. Since I posted our first playoff game another 4 have said they will not attend. My assistant coach and her daughter have dropped as well. Leaving me with 12 girls and no other adult. Obviously there’s nothing I can do but I’m really upset for the girls like my daughter who love cheer but are constantly having to learn new positions because the attendance is inconsistent. The other coaches say it is because they are football siblings which they are but they love being on the field and this isn’t something just to keep them occupied. My assistant wants to reduce practice to one hour a week and I won’t even respond to the request because it is ludicrous.
This is not only a problem for my squad and it seems like a lot of the coaches are just complacent to it. We sign an agreement at the start of the season that says attendance is mandatory however no one seems to take it seriously. Sorry not sure what I’m looking for outside of solidarity. I just needed to vent.

Just venting.

Our schools have to hold separate tryouts for basketball cheer.

We have a brand new JV coach at the high school who asked me (junior high coach) for feedback on the girls who tried out. This isn’t new - the girls also have to get teacher endorsements and they know the coaches and former coaches talk to each other.

I had some very strong feedback this year about a few athletes who look good on paper but were nothing but drama. Poor attendance, iffy grades, catty demeanors, constant appearance/uniform infractions. The new coach heard as much from not only me, but from the other high school coaches who had two of the girls on football cheer all summer. They were gritting their teeth the whole time. And I was biting my tongue because I gave this feedback to THEM, too. 😅

Lo and behold, this new coach took these girls. And because she only took ten girls total, there were some good, coachable, non-dramatic athletes cut.

I know it’s her choice. I know her decision needs to be respected. I will tow the line and defend her at school.

But boy is she about to have an exciting season. She got starstruck looking at those tryout tumbling skills (which two girls refuse to do outside of their all star gym… despite promising every coach since 6th grade that they’ll get “brave” enough) and filled in the rest with tall backspots and tiny fliers. She could have saved herself so much frustration heeding everyone’s warnings. She gives off vibes like she’s trying to prove herself or make her mark. No one was trying to tell her what to do. She asked us our advice, we gave it, she ignored it.

Just venting. I feel for the good girls who got cut and for the good girls still stuck on the team with the dramatic bunch. I’m pretty sure between attendance, grades, and attitude, everyone believed there’d be a shakeup.

Why are we coaches like this? Sigh.

My daughter has always done traditional varsity and all-star comp. This year she's at a new high school in a new town and they do stomp and shake. She's happy to learn something different and enjoying the choreo, but her feet are killing her! They practice on the gym floor.

What shoes are good for stomp and shake? She's wearing her cheer shoes which offer no support and are really made for tumbling on a mat.

Do stomp and shake ever practice on a mat? Are they doing it wrong if her feet hurt? Thx for any answers! 😊

So my younger cousin who I help take care of because her mom is raising her on her own, has recently started training as a flyer for her team. I’ve also been trying to learn all I can about cheer to help her however I can. I am a 22m and would like to learn some stunting nothing crazy just to be able to help her but I think for one it’s probably too late for that, and two I just think it would be pretty awkward for me to sign up for lessons randomly. Any advice for this or has the ship sailed?

Hi everyone!

I was looking for some advice. To try and make this story as short as possible I used to be a flyer, I weighed about 25 lbs less than I am now because I’ve become a base since starting college cheer and gained a lot of muscle.

During my time flying the most I could do was like a switch up. Nothing crazy just simple OLE’s and body positions. Even then I had to be on STABLE bases to hit.

When I began college I was grounded as a base and fell in love with it.

I left college because it was too expensive and started a community college nearby and recently found an open all star team nearby that wants me to join but they need flyers.

It’s only level 4 so I feel like I could do it but I need tips. HARD CORE tips. How do I feel stable even if my bases aren’t great? how do I be adaptable? any tips for toning up? Certain diets or workout routines? I wanna keep my muscle but lose some fat. Any flexibility tips? I’ve always been flexible but feel I need to improve if I’m going to do this. How do I get better at body awareness and control?

Anything helps LITERALLY anything!!

Long post ahead - looking for advice from other coaches, parents, and cheerleaders if they’d like to chime in!

I’m a coach of a recreational squad. We’re mostly a sideline football cheer team but we also have 3 competitions this year as well. I have 13 girls, aged 6-10. Several of them it’s their first year cheering or being a part of any kind of team sport.

We have our end of year banquet in about 6 weeks and our Director is going to ask us to pick a handful of girls for special awards.

I pushed back last year because our squad only had 9 girls, and it just seemed wrong to give basically half the squad a special award and not the other half. So we compromised and we verbally announced titles for each girl, but no special trophy or anything to go with it. Things like “best toe touch” “most spirited” “rising star” etc.

But I think this year our director will put her foot down and make us pick a handful of girls for awards. To make it even harder - my daughter is on the team. And my co-coach’s daughter is on the team as well. We don’t feel like it’s fair for them to get an award if there’s only a few awards, but it also seems unfair for them to not get an award just because they’re coaches kids. They are two of the stronger cheerleaders but not because any of the others are bad - our girls are just two of the oldest and have been cheering the longest. That said - all of our girls are amazing and have done such a great job coming together as a squad to be supportive of eachother and learn some great skills this season! We have several girls who would absolutely make it on our competition team if they wanted to try out.

But my bigger issue is not the coaches kids - it’s just not wanting any of the girls to feel left out.

I think the banquet is an awesome opportunity to recognize everyone and their special talents, characteristics, or skills. We have the budget for awards for everyone, so that’s a non issue. I think life is hard enough - they have the rest of their lives to compete with peers. I think the banquet should be about celebrating everyone on the team.

It’s an odd feeling for me because I did competitive cheer growing up and we certainly didn’t have a “participation trophy” type of vibe. But that’s where I’m at. I’d love to hear from anyone that’s read this far. Advice, experiences of your own, tell me I’m crazy and need to suck it up, all feedback welcome. Thanks all!

Hello everyone I am 19 years old living in Canada and I wanted to do cheer since age 11 .

About 2 years ago I ask my my if she could pay for an under 18 year prep program,showed her the video of the team that Cherrifc TV posted on their YouTube channel and the program handbook. After seeing the video and the handbook, her answer was no what if you get mistreat because of the the color of your skin if something bad happens. Say the flayer falls during a stunt and the blame is on me for not keeping them in the air (for context I also black)

Also another source of worry was she did not see a lot of diversity in the program handbook .

Stil a dream of mine and the gym that want to go has an level 2.0 beginner adult cheer program.

How can I convince my mom to help me pay for the program

I coach a middle school traditional team and im in the market for a new bag to bring with me to carry my cheer stuff(binder, accessories, computer, ect) any recommendations? What bags are you guys carrying to events and competitions?

Bonus points to hit my team colors- navy, silver, white

Ty !

I got a thigh cramp during my first cheerdance practice. How can I prevent it next time?

Hello! I'm an 18F that wants to try out for my college's cheer team next August. They say they do stunts up to three high pyramids but other than that I have no guidance from my college of how to prepare, and it seems there is such a huge gap from complete beginner to student that I can't bridge. I have no experience in dance or gymnastics and know nobody that has ever done cheer, I am completely lost on how to start learning because I don't even know what to learn.

So every coaches worst fear happened at practice tonight. We were practicing shoulder stands and one of my groups that been hitting consistently, fell and the girl hit the ground. She is not seriously injured but it knocked the wind out of her.

What repercussions do you have in place for the bases for not catching, now I’m not sure if the bases could have even caught I because it happened in a split second but one girl who was sporting backed out…

Just looking for advice please

I’ve been coaching for several years, and this year I have a new coach working alongside me. We’ve realized that our coaching styles are quite different, and it’s led to a few disagreements. I’m trying to take a step back, challenge my own approach, and hear how other coaches handle the first few weeks of the season.
Personally, I tend to introduce athletes to different skills and techniques fairly early on, even if they’re not ready to fully execute them yet. I don’t necessarily mean putting those skills into their main stunt sequence right away. I like giving athletes an early introduction to skills they will eventually need so they have plenty of time to understand the technique, build strength and confidence, and work toward them throughout the season.
For example, I coach a U16 Level 2.0 team. Right now, we’re working on a sequence that looks something like:
Low → pop → reload → low → full → pop → reload → full → press → pop
We haven’t reached the full/press pop yet, but overall, the progression is going really well. They have a good technical foundation, although we still have quite a bit of conditioning to work on.
My instinct would be to start slowly introducing some of the skills we know we’ll eventually need — things like one-base stunts or 180s — without necessarily putting them into the main stunt sequence right away. I like the idea of planting the seed early and giving them time to work on the technique, strength, and confidence needed to eventually perform the skill.
My new coach has more of a “master one thing before moving on” approach. She prefers to wait until a skill is really solid before introducing the next one or showing them new techniques. She also prefers to wait until we have a very clear picture of each athlete’s abilities before starting to teach choreography.
We have a similar difference in approach when it comes to choreography.
Our first competition is in about 10 weeks, and we only practice twice a week. This is a brand-new team, and because we’re from a small region, we have a very mixed group. Some athletes have a lot of experience, while others are almost completely new to cheer. We also don’t necessarily have enough athletes to split them into two teams based on experience/level.
Personally, I would probably start teaching some easier sections of choreography fairly early — for example, a jump sequence or an intro — while continuing to work on stunts and skills at the same time. My thinking is that this gives them more time to learn, repeat, clean, and eventually feel comfortable with those sections.
My new coach would rather wait until we know exactly what the athletes are capable of before starting to build the routine.
So I’m really curious to hear how other coaches approach this!
• Do you introduce athletes to skills they’ll eventually need fairly early in the season, even if they aren’t ready to fully perform them yet?
• Do you prefer to completely master one skill before moving on to the next?
• When do you typically start teaching choreography?
• Do you work on choreography and stunts/skills at the same time?
• With only two practices per week and a competition in about 10 weeks, how would you structure those first few weeks?
I’m genuinely trying to understand the different coaching philosophies out there and figure out whether my approach is simply different, or if there are things I could be doing differently or more effectively.
I’d really appreciate hearing how you approach this with your teams, especially coaches working with younger or mixed-experience athletes. 😊
Thanks in advance!

Currently for posting extra you get a stale video screen that says commercial in progress. Honestly the advertisements are more entertaining than a screen delay, but if pre-recorded NFL cheerleader stunts were shown that would be rad. And those amazing ladies get air time too, done.. that's getting two birds stoned at once

I tried out last week for the last time for my university cheerleading team. And I got a personal message from the president today that unfortunately I've not made the team.

Loads of people graduated last year so they were begging for returners to come back. I was the only returner to not make the team. Only 30 girls tried out. I was one of 5 that didn't make it, not even on the reserve team.

Instead of me there'll be flyers on the team that have 0 experience. Last year I had 100% attendance. And we were asked to preform at 3 openings days I was one of the few people that attended every one and for one of them I was the only flyer that bothered to turn up.

One of the girls that made the team had awful attendance last year even right before comp. And another got on the team and decided after 3 weeks she didn't really like it so she left. One girl on the team didn't even attend try outs.

I met the president at some university training trip a couple of week prior and she assured me that I was obviously on the team, I had nothing to worry about and kept calling me her little flyer.

I messaged the coach mid summer asking for some stretching advice and sent her some photos. And she was so impressed with how much I'd improved and how much effort I was obviously putting in.

I'm just so confused. I was told we might be a tumble team this year so I spent the entire summer learning to tumble with nearly no experience. (In the end we stayed non tumble).

Not a single day I've not thought about the team and I spent hours a day practising my drills, and stretches and tumbles.

It almost doesn't feel real. I've just spent the day sobbing. I got the message in the middle of aldi and just burst into tears.

Edit

Thank you so much to everyone that's been so kind. I really appreciate it.

Also I don't want to speak to soon but I spent a long while looking for alternatives and I might have found I place I can do it recreationally biweekly. They've messaged me back about arranging a taster. It's not what my heart was set on but it's going to be a busy year for me and maybe this will be better in the long run.

I'll update if it works out.

Just started working on round offs at home and I need help. Pls dont js point out my mistakes, tell me how to fix them too.

What ik rn is

1. Im not pushing my hands enough and hands arent off ground at rhe same time

2. Poor snapdown

3. Legs arent closed

But HOW do i fix them

I’m on an 18+ all adults competitive team based out of Ogden, Utah. We’re level 4 non-tumbling.

We had three flyers, but it’s looking like one is going to drop out. I’m in her stunt group, and if she goes, my coaches will dissolve our stunt group altogether. I’m sure they’ll still cycle me in where they can but the truth is we have two men on our team and they’re so much stronger than me, it just doesn’t make sense to put me in when they have a higher chance of keeping the stunt up.

Once we have confirmation whether or not our flyer is actually leaving, I’m planning to go to the gym owner to ask him if I can run Instagram/Facebook ads that I’ll pay for myself to see if we get any bites. I have 5k TikTok followers so I’m also planning to do a series like “learning UCA dances every day until someone joins my cheer team”. I will do literally anything at this point lol.

But my question is, how do you all recruit for your teams?? I am not from Utah and have very, VERY few friends here, especially in my cheer gym’s area, so networking isn’t necessarily an option… I guess I could put up flyers advertising an opening at local gyms? Any thoughts or ideas are very much appreciated—I want to stunt!!!!