Question by jenny18: How can I improve my Cheerleading jumps?
Cheerleading is starting again and we have to try out, and my jumps aren’t too good. I need help on what I can do to help improve them, and also my splits.
Best answer:
Answer by ‘Sunnyside Up’
Practice makes perfect but the warm up before the practice is manditory. You need to get your muscles ready for the workout so that you don’t pull anything the wrong way and so that they will respond better to what you want them to do. Then be sure you are eating the proper food nutrients so that they can do the work out you need. Skipping breakfast and eating junk food for lunch won’t make your body respond properly Be sure you eat a good breakfast and a well balanced lunch and fruits or veggies for snacks in between them. Those time periods are the most important of the day for nourishment so that your body will function its best performance. Then just practice. Don’t settle for second best but go for the gold in your own workout. If you are not pleased then no one else will be pleased with you.
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to improve your jumps, you should use ankle weights. start off with 2 pounds, then move up and go no higher tan 5. anything higher than that can cause major injuries. also, just for toe touches, you should use leg bands, and you put one side on your left ankle, and the other side on your right ankle. the band causes resistance, and if they look decent with the and on, then by the time you take it off your jumps will look great. same with the leg weights. they will look great once you’re done. i would also do those at least 3 times a day.
of course you need to eat healthy, but that isnt specific to just jumps. ankle weights arent really needed for jumps when you start out improving your jumps. you need to stretch, stretch, stretch. its also important to have your splits, because that ensures flexibility in the air. when you jump, you should hit it on a specific count, we do it like this to an 8 count: count 5 6 7 8 clap on 1,2 high v 3,4 swing on 5, HIT 6, land 7,8
im not sure if that makes sense, but when you aim to hit it at a specific count it makes the jump sharper. when you come down from a jump you should snap your legs together and land as quietly as possible. squeeze your abs in the air and point your toes, your jumps with go higher. to make sure your arms arent flying everywhere(for example, sometimes my arms go too high up when im doing a toe touch) – aim your arms lower. if you are hitting a T in a jump, aim in between a low V and a T, instead of for a straight T. that sounds silly, but if you aim there, your arms will hit a perfect T. for splits you just need to stretch, nothing too specific there. im not sure what your jumps look like but let me know if you have any specific issues that you want to improve on, i can definitely help!