Question by Angel J: What do you actually do at cheerleading tryouts?
I want to tryout for my school cheerleading squad this year but I want to know what they do so I can get started at practicing. My sister says that they have to write an essay of why they would be a good cheerleader but that was a long time ago. Im wondering what they do now.
Best answer:
Answer by sweetie<3
tryouts are diff. for other teams…but what i did at mine was they taught the group a cheer and we had to repeat after a few times of practice
depending on how old you are you might have to be able to do back handsprings tucks and all that.
practice on stiff arm movements and the normal stuff and when you go in you will be sorta ready.
hope i helped 🙂
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Our school never did essays. We had to learn a couple of cheers, a dance, and go over the basic jumps and motions.
You can start practicing your flexibility like splits. Also, look online for pictures of the basic motions such as high v, low v, diagonals, etc. You can also look for videos to show you how to do the jumps: toe-touch, herkie, hurdlers, pikes.
Make sure you are loud and always smiling…don’t let them see right through you. Have fun!
Ok, most importantly, tryouts are very different for different teams.
What you should do is ask girls you know who are already on the team.
This can be a HUGE advantage because the school might have certain cheers they teach at tryouts every year and you can learn then ahead of time and practice!
Almost all teams will include in tryouts:
1. Sideline cheers (usually a simpler one+more advanced)
2. At least a few 8-counts of dance to music
3. Jumps (almost always toe touch+herkies)
4. Group stunting time
5. Individual tumbling (show off whatever you can do)
To be honest, I’ve never heard the essay thing and I think thats a little ridiculous. Cheerleading is a sport…you don’t see the varsity basketball players writing essays at tryouts do you?
On the other hand, you should be prepared with the answer to that question because I’ve been to tryouts where they have verbally asked each girl similar questions during the individual parts of the tryout (like right before or after you do your jumps and tumbling individually).
Tryouts do vary from team to team but it usually consists of evaluating what skills you have, and what skills your coach thinks you will be able to do on the cheer team. Just make sure that when it comes to the dance sections and the cheers, that your motions are sharp and you might want to stretch and practice your jumps so they are nice and high by tryouts.
There were three days of tryouts at my school.
Day 1
Learn a couple eight counts to a dance.
Learn a cheer and a chant. Usually short and simple moves.
Day 2
Review the dance and cheer. Go over any questions.
Break into stunt groups. (This is where we were put into groups depending on what position we wanted on the team. Base, backspot, flyer.)
We were also scored this day on our stunting abilities.
Day 3
In groups of five we go into the tryout room in front of judges.
Individually we show our running and standing tumbling skills.(It can be a kartwheel or a full, Judges just want to see that you will attemp to do stuff without a spotter, they are looking for your potential.)
We then line up and individually show our jumps and jump sequences ( multiple jumps in a row)
After that we did our cheer together and danced together.
That concluded the tryouts.
TIPS
Make sure to wear your hair in a ponytail with a bow. Wear a very clean cut tank top with soffee shorts. Also have white ancle socks on with 100% white shoes.
Always wear a smile.
Pronunciate the cheer as clear as possible and do not look at the others around you. Volunteer to go 1st for things but do not look bossy.
Outshine the rest. Make them want you.
Be clean and percice. Basic skills is what they look for. If you dont have high jumps just perfect your form.
Have fun!!!!
This along with smiling should help out a lot.