cheerleading?

Question

OK well im 8th grade now..And in my school 7th&8th grade you dnt have to have cuts next yr we will have them.. and i want to be a cheerleader i did it this yr..But last yr we didnt have a team so i idnt get as much practice.. over the summer what kind of stuff should i do???

Answer 1

As a past high school and college cheerleader, and current coach, I can tell you what we look for in tryouts.


First and foremost we stress academics. Being a good cheerleader requires a great deal of practice, and this can sometimes hurt your grade point average. We always stress that you can't go on in life to make a living at cheerleading....you have to have an education to do that. Girls must maintain a 2.5 or better grade point average or risk being dropped from the squad for a season. If the grade point average is not raised, she is dropped for the year.

As for the actual requirements:

Knowledge of routines, cheers and chants: Know them backwards and forwards....well enough to begin them anywhere in the middle of the cheer. I have seen many good candidates dropped due to the inability to start a cheer at any point in the routine. We teach one cheer, one chant and a pretty complex 1 minute dance routine. The girls are given 3 days to learn this with tryouts on day 4. I always encourage my girls to take video of these lessons...they can then go home and work at their own pace to learn the moves. This saved me sooooo many times!!!

Tumbling/Gymnastics to include cartwheel, roundoff, and back hand spring. Girls who can do a tuck usually get extra points. Your school may not require this kind of tumbling....ask about what is required and then do what you do best and nail it!!! Remember to have lots of enthusiasm and spunk!

Flexibility and Posture: Be able to do splits and heal stretch. In a Liberty or heal stretch position, hold your balance for 20 seconds. Extra points are given for girls who can do arabesques or scorpions. You can see examples of this a cheerleading.about.com

Judges always look for personality and smiles as well as how well the contender keeps their movements sharp and in proper form! No sloppy arms, wrists etc. You can lose lots of points in this area.

The girls must do 3 jumps: herkie, toe touch, 1 other. You can work on these first on the floor....stretching yourself just a little bit more everyday until you have proper form. Then work on taking it to the air. When you have your prep and jump perfected, put 1/2-1 pound weights on each ankle and jump with them on from that point on. When it comes time for tryouts, take the weights off...you'll jump higher than ever because you have become used to jumping with more weight!

Most of all, the judges are looking for girls who have the ability to work as a team and engage the crowd to cheer on their school! make the judges feel like cheering with you by engaging them every time you get a chance.

On tryout day, eat a good breakfast...with complex carbs. Go to the tryouts with your hair up off of your face and in a ponytail, little or no makeup and no jewelry. Let them know that you are a serious contender and not there for a beauty contest!

For more pics, help and cheers that you can learn, go to
cheerleading.about.com

If i were you, I would join a gymnastics class or dance class, just to keep you in shape and ready for the cheer season. I have my girls run 1 mile a day during the summer. They also participate in other sports (softball, swimming etc.) to keep their stamina up.

Hope that helped! Good luck!

Answer 2

Well, I would say definitely go to some cheer camps, and even possibly some dance camps such as hiphop or jazz just to help. If you aren't interested in any of the above go to gymnastics where you will learn how to flip and tumble. Good luck!

Answer 3

Try some crump dancing or anything to do with hip hop culture and dance, try going to a step show or go see stomp the yard. I've seen a lot of cheerleading movies and they all seem to win championships when they do hip hop sort of routines.

Answer 4

try a knife jump,herkie, banana jump, try some other cheers and alot of cart wheels Try alot of stretchez cuz you will need to know how to do the splits ( dont try to hard to do the CHINESE SPLITZ cuz they hurt really bad) u can just work on clapping different beats and i guess u'll try other stuff.

Answer 5

you should practice flexibility, jumps, stunts, pretty much everything. if you have friends, you can practice making up routines. just have fun with it.

oh yeah, and rember to do conditioning-- i kno its hard, but its how you get in shape.


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Answer 6

practice your jumps, flip, stunts and cheers