Question by Ashley: What should you be able to do before trying out for cheerleading?
I obviously want to try out for cheerleading. Its to late for the coming school year, but my junoir year i want to. What do I need to know how to do before trying out?
Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by Leilani
a cheerleader needs to have lots of confidence
thats why she/he is a leader
U need to be able to scream cheers
get the crowd to cheer for the team
-begim with tumbles, flips, twirls, cartwheels
-gymnastics
-some ballet
-dancing skills
-balance
last but most important
***TEAM WORK!***
Add your own answer in the comments!
if you really want to get noticed since it will be your junior year ((and there might be a lot of returning cheerleaders)
learn all the motions and jumps and kicks. look online anywhere they are everywhere! u should have basic skills like a cartwheel or roundoff but ive seen girls make it without. always smile and if you mess up keep going. thats what they are looking for. learn some basic knowledge of cheerleading like different stunts jumps tumbling skills just so you have some sort of a knowledge about it all. stretch a lot and you also might need your splits. my school requires it but i dont know about yours =]
http://www.mspineapple.com/
This site has everything you need to know before you try out. Scroll down a bit and look on the left side to find info about tryouts, pictures of jumps and all the motions you should be familiar with. You will learn all of this at tryouts, but it’s good that you want to start ahead of time. Here are my tips:
*For motions: Keep your arms tight and pay close attention to make sure they are placed correctly. When you try out, the judges pay attention to whether your arms and fists are placed correctly with no bent fists, and your motions are tight. Everytime you do a motion, squeeze your muscles as if you were trying to show them off. Squeezing your muscles is how you maintain tight motions. It may hurt for awhile, but you will soon get used to it. Again, make sure you have no bent wrists.
*For Jumps: Stretch before you jump. Make sure your arms are placed correctly and tight when you jump, keep your toes pointed, back straight and head up. A exercise I do is called “leg explosives”. You begin with your arms by your sides and knees bent at about a 90 degree angle. Using all your strength, jump straight into the air as high as you can with toes pointed and then land in the starting position. Do this 15 times. It will help you build strength in you legs and height in your jumps.
*Prep before jump: This is a prep before you jump that all cheerleaders know. Its on an 8-count, and during this you must still keep your motions tight because while judges pay attention to pointed toes and height in your jump, they also pay attention to the prep before the jump. It is just as important as the jump itself. You begin by doing a clasp on 1 (a clasp is like a clap, except your hands sort of make a ball) hold the clasp on 2. On 3 move your arms to a High-V (making sure the doughtnuts you are making with your fists using your thumb and index finger are facing the audience) hold it there on 4. On 5 Swing your arms in front of you keeping your arms straight and bending your knees like you do in the leg explosives. On 6, jump straight into the air and bring your arms out to a T (again remember tight motions and doughtnuts facing the audience). On 7, you should land with knees slightly bent like in the leg explosives, arms by your sides and head down; hold this for 8. Then stand up on 1. The jump you are doing is a pencil jump and we do it just to practice jumping at the correct time.
Say this in your head when you do it:
Clasp 1,2
V 3,4
Swing 5, Jump 6
Land 7,8
Up 1
When you master the pencil jump, you can incorporate a toetouch or any other jump into the prep.
So here are the basic key points:
*Keep all motions tight, even when dancing
*Stretch before you jump <<< very important *In jumps, point you toes, keep back straight and head up *Never say whoo. Whoo sounds like boo. *Count in your head so you won't go to fast or to slow *Practice, practice, practice *Always smile, even if you mess up. If you mess up, stand with feet together and arms by you side *still smiling* until you can catch up into the routine.
You need to ask the coach for the specific requirements for the team. Find out if you have to have a certain level of tumbling & stunting, any particular jumps; that sort of thing.
In the meantime, sign up for a tumbling class and get yourself busy working out and stretching, doing jumps, and practicing your motions. You can find articles, pictures, and videos here that can help you learn how to do all those things: http://aescougarcheer.com/Cheer101/basics.htm
Good luck! :^D
You need strength: legs, arms, tummy:) Flexibility!!! Try doing leg stretches and back stretches in your spare time. When you’re sitting on the ground sit in a way where it stretches you. You need a very projective voice! And all the talk about cheer leaders being mean, not true! You need to be a nice persona dn have good grades in order to do cheer. Also, eat a balanced diet:) Practice standing in stances like the liberty. When your watching tv at home, during commercials, do sit ups or push ups to build strength. Lifting weights (or little kids;] ) can help build good arm strength too:) If you want to be a flyer practice the things they do in the air! If you want to be a base or spotter (in stunts) practice holding your arms up or work on lifting (like weights). AND AND AND make sure to practice your jumps all the time! Toe Touch, herky, pike etc.
Hope i helped!
<3 Cheerleading Cutie 13
While some of the advice given to you on this thread is some great advice, you definitely need to ask the coaches or look into what that specific school’s requirements are. After all, if the team requirement is a standing backhandspring, that’s what you should focus on, not a standing full. While I think it’s a good idea to go above and beyond that standard just to improve your skills personally. You need to find out what is required and focus on that.