AES Cougar Cheerleading
Cheerleading 101: Skills and Drills
Coaching Dance Exercises Jumps Motions Stunting Tryouts Tumbling
Facials: Cheerleaders communicate with the crowd with more than just their voices. They also use their faces and bodies. A good old fashioned smile is always a crowd favorite, but sometimes it’s fun to shake things up a little bit and add some extra pizzazz when you are hitting a stunt or a hot dance move.
Some people feel awkward doing facials, but you have to remember that televised competitions aside you are essentially stage performers, so as in stage acting you have to "go big" on all your moves and expressions so the folks in the back row can tell you are doing something. In order to become more
comfortable doing facials,
I recommend practicing them at home. Just run through a series of them every night,
even if it's just an exaggerated set of the vowels a-e-i-o-u with some
head bobs and shakes, and by the time you hit the court or mat they should come naturally to you. (Some of the more common expressions besides brilliant smiles: surprise, shock, attitude, kissy-face, wink, say-what?, pout, sticking out your tongue
*but smile when you do*) NOTE: during games I only want to see smiles. Save the wild facials for your routine and use them sparingly. It really is possible to have too much of a good thing.
Some examples of facial and body expressions for you to try:
Pictures:
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9
Video
Breath exercises: How to yell correctly.
Arm motions: These
are the movements you do during cheers
and dances.
Get in front of a mirror or a big window. Close your eyes. Hit a move. Open
your eyes.
Check these or the pictures in the above link to see if you nailed the
move. If not, adjust it until it is right.
Make sure your arms are level and not too far behind or in front of your
body or too high or too low. Watch out for your wrists "breaking" and disturbing the crisp
clean line that should run from your shoulders to your hands. And
watch out for crazy thumbs. They should not be tucked in under your
fingers or sticking out, but lie across the outside of your fingers. Now go to the ready position and then snap that move perfectly over and over with your eyes open. Do another closed eyes-open eyes test. Did you do it just right this time? If yes, you can thank muscle memory. If no, keep practicing in front of that mirror or get a friend or family member to videotape you.
To make sure it is sharp enough, snap your arms out hard at the last
possible second before you need to make the move, then screech your arms
to a halt like you slammed on the brakes. Keep your muscles squeezed
tight the entire time.
Tips for making YouTube more
kid-safe.
Please review before watching videos.
The Four Ps of Motions
Mastering Motions
Video of cheer motions
(see YouTube safety information
before watching videos)
Video of motions drills
Motion line drill
Another free video of cheer motions
Videos of cheers (with words)
Choreography: Dance is an essential part
of cheerleading, and every team whether it it is competing or
entertaining the crowds at a game needs to use eye-catching moves and
transitions. One way to get ideas for dances is to watch other
teams. Competitions are aired several times a year on TV, and there are
many videos on the internet that
you can watch as well. Another option is to order DVDs from cheerleading
camps. The upside to this option is usually they will teach you the
counts slowly, which is great if you don't pick up dance moves very
quickly. The downside is that everyone else who has been to camp will
recognize those moves, so be sure to buy DVDs from camps that are from
other regions of the country and therefore new to people in your area.
If you are having some trouble in learning new
choreography, here are some suggestions:
1) Name your 8 counts so you can tip yourself off as to what comes next.
For example: Punch 1, step 2, hop 3, turn 4, roll arms 5 and 6, criss-cross
7 & 8 and so forth. (And say the names out loud as you first start
practicing or naming them won't help you very much. It's the combination
of doing them together that helps trigger your memory.)
2) Start out doing the motions slowly (and precisely). You can
speed up as you become more comfortable with the material and your
muscle memory takes over. If you reach a point where you start
messing up, slow back down a bit for a while then try it faster again
later.
3) Visualize! Who says you can't practice while doing the dishes? Keep
doing the dance over and over in your mind, first from the perspective
of doing it, then from the perspective of watching yourself perform it.
Tips for making YouTube more kid-safe. Please review before watching videos.
Jumps:
To improve your jumps in the long run, do 10 each of a variety of jumps every day,
both sides in the case of Nines, Herkies, and Hurdlers. (Don't forget to spend some time on
the ground in these jump positions.) You
can also do
leg
exercises like leg lifts, squats, lunges, high and T kicks, calf busters,
and doggie lifts to get more
height in your jumps. To have good leg position in the air you need to
stretch a lot (splits too) and do variations of
ab exercises like crunches since
it's the stomach muscles that lift your legs into position in the air.
For rolling your hips under in your toe touch, try sitting in an
upright straddle.
See the
links below for more on those exercises. If you don't know how to do
certain jumps, refer to the instructions in the how-to-do-it videos.
Things that will help you clean up your jumps in the short run:
Keep your body tight from prep to jump to landing. Whether you start
with a clap or a high V or high clasp, whatever positions you need to
hit make certain your arms and hands are in perfect position and really
sharp in their motions.
You can go up on your toes to start the jump but don't double or triple
bounce before jumping.
Make sure you keep your chest up the entire time, so rather than
dropping your arms down to your legs keep your torso upright, hit the
arm position really hard, and bring your legs up to your arms by rolling
your hips under. If the hip roll is giving you trouble, do
straddle ups and sitting toe touches (see the
abs exercises page), and next time you are at practice do assisted
jumps, the kind where you have a partner in front of you and you grab
hold of her arms to push off and get a higher jump. Ask your coach to
get behind you and slap/push at the back of your thighs as you jump.
It'll help you work on that hip roll.
Be sure to point your toes. If you are having trouble
with that, you can put tape from the base of your ankle down the top of
each foot. It'll feel funny, bringing attention to your feet when you
are jumping, reminding you that you need to point them. You should also
be able to feel the change in the tape depending on whether or not you
are pointing.
Always whip your legs up as fast as you can and snap them back down
hard, because expecting gravity to do all the work will result in a slow
and sloppy landing. To practice snapping your legs together do air
jacks. Think "double speed jumping jack" but when you jump out you never
hit the ground. Instead you snap your feet back to the center again as
fast as you can, like hyper-speed mini spread eagles.
When you land, it should be quiet and toe-ball-heel. Your arms need to
go nice and tightly to the sides of your body in a "clean" position.
Make sure you stick the landing. No stepping out of place or flailing
arms.
Tips for making YouTube more kid-safe.
Just go to the section below the star ratings to where it says comments.
If you can see postings, just click the little arrow to the left of the
word "Text." The comments will then be hidden. You can do the same for
the related videos if you want to hide those as well.
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Pencil jump:
how to do it video
Tuck: picture / video / how to do it video Banana: picture / video C: picture / video Bambi (stag): picture / video Spread eagle: picture / video / how to do it video Double hook (pretzel): picture / video Herkie: picture / How to do it video |
Front hurdler:
picture /
video
/
how to do it video Side hurdler: picture / video / how to do it video Toe touch: picture / video / how to do it video Split Russian: picture / video Turn-around-toe touch: video Pike: picture / video / how to do it video Double 9: picture / video / how to do it video Around-the-world: video / how to do it video |
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More links of interest about jumps: Exercises to improve your jumps (legs and abs) Varsity's jump tips More exercises Video of more jump exercises Jump tips Video of jump counts Jump videos |
 Graphics courtesy of Brianne Peterson Pitt |