eaglefan8

I met him at the basketball district tournament at Watertown this year. I am a cheerleader...well I was...I'm a Senior and our season's been over for a while.

So, it looks like this Westmoreland/Friendship game is really shaping up to be something to see. It's scheduled for April 8th at Westmoreland, right? Somebody let me know if I'm wrong. I'd like to make it to this one. How's this Michael Wheeler guy? If he's who I'm thinking he is then he's a pretty nice guy...with a great memory:)...but I've never seen him play. Somebody let me know.

Our squad has STRICT rules...but I think rules make a good squad great. We all have to wear o ur hair up if it's past our shoulders. We have to wear the same ribbon in our hair, the same shoes, the same socks...things like that. We also can't wear any jewelery at all. We also have policies about indecent exposure. We can't wear our uniforms in public. Just simple things like that. We also use a demerit program so that if someone breaks enough rules...they're off the squad. This year to be kicked off you had to receive 25 demerits. They're pretty simple...5 for wearing the wrong shoes/ribbon/socks....10 for missing a game without a doctor's note...5 for missing a practice without a doctor's note...5 for bad conduct....it's not too rough. We also have a certian number of practices we can miss without docotors' notes. It's very detailed but it works well.

Thanks for the advice Bergil. I am thinking now that I probably won't miss it as bad as I thought I would. Our fans are absoloutely horrible to us....they could care less if we're there or not....so I'm really just fed up with all the dramatics and dynamics that go along with high school cheerleading. We don't get any respect at our school from anyone...that includes teachers, staff, coaches, and students. I love the sport, but I hate most of what goes along with it. I think I'd like to choreograph dances and routines. I do most of the routines that our squad does. I will just have to deal with it all one day at a time. I guess if the opportunity to coach or teach dance classes or gymnastics or something presents itself I'll have to deal with the issue then. But thanks for your help!

I'm a senior cheerleader and this is my 10th year cheerleading. I feel like it's my entire life because I spend so much time doing things for it. I won't be cheering in college mainly because I can't tumble. I know I'll be devastated when it's over, but how can I deal with this? I'm thinking about trying to coach an All-Star squad or working in a gym. Any advice?

Toe Touches are my favorite jump! I used to hate doing them but once you get the form right they're awesome. The just fly. I love them. Nicole Hall at WHS has great toe touches...come to think of it...all her jumps are awesome.

She didn't specify when asking about basket tosses where she would be doing them. I said at high school level, and that is correct. You cannot perform them at games. I don't know about competitions but I would check before you do them there. Just depends on whether or not you want to take the chance.

It's like a kick but you switch your legs in the air. You ride up to the top, kick one leg up and then bring it down as you kick the other up...it looks awesome.

It's illegal at high school level to throw your head back in a basket toss. Your chin should be almost touching your chest. You should try scissors, ball. They're tough to execute and require a lot of leg strength from the flyer but they are beautiful when they're done correctly. We recently started doing them wiht my basket group. The other base and I work really well together so it wasn't that difficult for us. Our flyer is also very experienced in baskets.

Innovative14 do I know you?

If you're doing straight ride baskets make sure not to throw your head back when you arch your body. This makes you ride backwards. You're wanting to ride straight up. Keeping your chin to your neck makes this happen easier. Also, as soon as you get to the peak of the basket(when you feel that you're starting to fall), hit whatever you're hitting, be it a kick, t-touch, or pike. Once you've hit your motion in the air, go back to the riding position as you come down until you're almost in your bases' hands. Then, pull your legs up into a basket position.

Anytime! Hope I helped.

I don't think your hairstyle matters that much as long as the entire squad sports the same one and it's not too over the top. You need to make sure that it is held up well enough to withstand the jumping, stunting, tumbling, and dancing that you will be doing. As far as the favorites right now go, high curly ponies are going out quickly. More squads are picking polished, low ponies with a ribbon tied around it at the nape of the neck. This is practical and looks really nice. It also stays in place better than a high pony tail. As far as music goes, popular music is nice at times, but you shouldn't overdo it. I like to see squads use old music (1960's old....not 1999 old). This usually gets the crowd really pumped as well. You could try using a mix of both. This leads me into my next point. For your routine music, your best bet is to sit down with your squad and a bunch of cds and pick little parts from different songs. Then pick your main song for the routine. Take your selections to someone that has access to a mixer and have them piece in your little parts to the main song. This way it's personal and you know that no one else will be using the same music as your squad is. You can also get creative with your stunts and music going together. ie, hit baskets on cute sound effects. Just have fun with it and make it your own. Those are the most important pieces of advice anyone can get when making a routine. You can use as many stunt sequences as you want. It depends on the type of routine you're performing and how in shape your squad is. It should be fast paced and clean, though. Don't use any stunts that you can't hit EVERY SINGLE TIME you do them. The crowd wants to be in aw, not in fear. You should stunt to your music. When the music is slow, do a slow stunt, and when it's fast, do something fast like baskets or full downs. You should hit a big pyramid at the end that includes all of your squad. Make it clean and crowd appealing. Make sure you hit your stunts at the same time. This may take a little longer in practice but the over all effect will be worth it in the end.

Hmmmm...there is so much that someone could say to that. I think I'll just stick with 'I DEFINATELY agree with Double.'

Wait a minute, WT. You say that being yelled at by the fans is part of the game. So, does that make taking a cheap shot at a player with a recently torn ACL part of the game as well? YOU've got to be kidding ME.

Hmmm...I'd have to disagree about the trampoline thing. That will only contribute to your fear of the ground. I'm sure you know that you can do it and your body knows how to do it....it's just overcoming the fear of that hard surface you hit the last time you did one. I've seen a lot of girls go through this. Some have come back from it and some have not. It all depends on your will power and how much you want it. If I were you I'd start off with 2 spots on a mat, then 1 on a mat, then alone on the mat, then 2 on the floor, then 1 on the floor, and then alone on the floor. I think that would be your best bet. You need to get started asap cause this might take a little while. Work at your own pace and believe in yourself...visualize your feet hitting the floor and that good feeling you get everytime you land a handspring. You just have to really put your mind to it. You can do it ballplayer! I've got faith in you.

I relate with you Flipn. I've been cheering for about 10 years now. I love it to death, but it gets pretty stressful sometimes. Once you watch or perform a stunt over and over it's not hard to pick up all the details of it. I've learned a lot in my ten years. I'd like to coach a competition squad sometime later in life. I don't know how I'll say goodbye to cheerleading once I graduate.

Nope Grad, You're right. Nothing is cheerleading is simple. The stunts are difficult, the tumbling is difficult, putting up with bad games and bad crowds is difficult, and remembering all the rules is difficult. Oh well, nothing in life is easy. lol.

Way to go Jones! I'm proud of my girl! This is a career high for #10. She really showed up tonight and had the board on fire. Awesome job, Sarah! Keep it up.

This is how you do the stunt: The flyer does a standing backhandspring in front of the stunt back toward the stunt and as soon as she lands, she jumps into the awaiting bases' arms in a cradle position. The bases then dip once, dip again, and pop the flyer up so that the flyer is preparing to go into a prep with the flyers feet in the bases hands and her arms on their shoulders ready to push off of them. They then go up to a prep, dip and take it to an extention. Then they execute a basic full down. It's really cute when done properly. Let me know if this is clear or not.

Wow...I can completely relate with that strongbad. We only have 10 girls on our squad and 4 are new to high school cheerleading...and our middle school squad doesn't stunt. We have the same problem. You can try different variations of libs like bubba suggested. Not only are there stretches, arabesques, and scorpions, but you can do retakes, matrices, and flatbacks with libs. Any kind of variation to your old stunts is refreshing for the crowd. Even if it's similar. Things that look a little different will get the crowd's attention. Work on some good baskets and do variations of those as well such as kick baskets, toe-touch baskets, and pike baskets. Do you know what quarter-ups and half-ups are? You can try those as well. We do a backhandspring reload to prep-pause extention full down and it's really cute...it's also fast-paced so it get the crowd's attentions. Do you know what leap-frogs are? Those are fun as well. As far as pyramids go, you can do 3 preps without backs, you can do a lib with a chair in front of it holding the foot, you can do a stretch with a prep-level single base beside it holding the foot up, you can do an arabesqu with the flyer holding the shoulders of a person in a shoulder sit. There aren't many variations with 9. I know it's tough but just try to get creative. If you have any questions about the stuff I've mentioned let me know!

All I can tell you is that my coach has repeatedly told us that back tuck baskets are illegal by TSSAA. I also know that anything over 2 people high is definately illegal. As far as having others come in and stunt with you, I can definately see how that would be illegal but I'm not sure. I'd advise against it though. I've seen it done and it looks really tacky. It looks as though the other team can't do the stunt so they have to bring in people that can. I would focus on getting your squad up to the level of that stunt. It will make you look like and be a stronger group.

Way to go guys! I'm proud of ya! Especially Nick. I've seen Steven dunk before in a game...but not Nick. I was pleasantly suprised. Keep it up guys!

Our squad did very well! I'm a senior and I have been so proud of my girls the past two games. We have 10 on the squad this year and four are new. We're adjusting very well and we all work well together. At our first game we did a dance and a stunt cheer that included a prep-pause with full down and a twist up to extention. Not our biggest or best but they were clean and looked really, really good. Better to do a clean stunt that sticks everytime and looks easy than a more difficult one that is shaky. (The goal is not to scare the crowd! ) The dance went very well, also. Last night, we did a straight motion cheer and a more difficult dance. I think the only think off at all was the formation of the dance. We got a little off center but we were rushing to get out there and get it done so that they could have some kind of game at half-time. All of our stunts have stuck during time outs and quarters; partly due to the fact that if our stunts aren't COMPLETELY stable, our coaches won't let us do them...which is for the best. We've down leap-frogs, a matrix, down-up libs with scorpions, straight up single bases, toe-touch baskets, twist ups, arabesques, reloads, backhandspring to prep-pauses, and much more. I am SO proud of my girls! We have all come a long way from since the summer. We are improving more and more each day. So, any of my girls reading this, thanks for all your hard work and commitment. It is that which makes us do as well as we're doing. Well done! How is everyone else doing?

I think that Macon Co. High has some awesome cheerleaders. They are strong and spirited. Their stunts are difficult and usually stick pretty well. I think that performance-wise they are pretty good, but on a personal level they are horrible. You would think that cheerleaders would be friendly and courteous but these are neither. In fact they are probably the antethesis of both. I have met most of them over the past 3 years and in that time, I have only met 2 that didn't treat me like garbage or shoot me evil looks. While they are good performers, attitude says a lot about a cheerleader and these girls definately stink in that department.