Being in top physical shape is extremely important to
competitive cheerleading. This sport
requires a lot of strength and endurance to make routines the best they can
be. Exercise conditioning is done almost
every practice along with exercising outside of practices. Every part of competitive cheerleading
routines requires strength and endurance to get through a routine. The routines are two minutes thirty seconds
long, but a lot happens in that time. To
show how in shape a cheerleader needs to be, I will walk through an example of
routine explaining how they use their strength, endurance, and balance.
Typically, routines start with motions leading into a
stunt. In a stunt all of the bases need
to have great arm and leg strength to hold the flyer up and throw her into the
air. The flyer has to have strength to
hold her self up and balance so she doesn’t fall over. Standing tumbling comes next involving a lot
of the muscles in your body especially arms, shoulders, wrists, abs, and
legs. Tumbling is one of the hardest
things to do in competitive cheerleading and results in a lot of injuries. Jumps come soon after and they require the
ability to elevate yourself and get your legs as high as possible. In practices, cheerleaders are told to do
their jumps over and over again to get the whole team synchronized. There are many different exercises to help
cheerleaders improve their jumps. More
stunts are performed. Then running
tumbling happens. Muscles used in
standing tumbling are also applied for running tumbling. Being able to do almost the whole routine and
then running tumbling requires a lot of endurance. Tumbling is very dangerous so cheerleaders
have to keep their stamina up to make sure they can complete their pass safely
and correct. In practices cheerleaders
do their tumbling passes a lot to make sure they can do it right during the
routine. Next is pyramid, which usually
requires even more strength than regular stunts. The bases have to handle a lot more weight
because sometimes they can be holding more than one persons body weight. The flyers also have to be strong to hold
onto each other and do flips. The last
part of routines is usually the dance.
Cheerleaders have to have endurance to get through the dance. They are usually very worn out by this point
and the dances are fast paced so they have to stay sharp and do the motions
correct.
Exercise conditioning is very important in a competitive
cheerleaders life. For not only them,
but their team to be successful, they have to get in shape first.
My first source is Oak Harbor Wildcats cheerleading
page. I stumbled upon it while looking
for sources and I think it suits this post very well. It has a detailed list of good workouts to
help cheerleaders become stronger and better at what they do. When I was a cheerleader, I did a lot of
these workouts to help me get in better shape.
I chose this website to represent this post because I talked
about how competitive cheerleaders need to be in very good shape to succeed in
what they do, and this website is full of workouts to help them do that. Many parts of the body need to be
strengthened and this website talks about all of them.
The second source I chose for this post is a video made by Premier
Athletics about jump exercises. The
purpose of this video is to teach cheerleaders exercises they can do to improve
their jumps. I used to have to do these
exercises and they really do help a lot.
This video is relevant to this post because I talked a
little bit about how there are many exercises to help cheerleaders to improve
their jumps. This video does a good job
of explaining exactly how to do each exercise and what part of the body it
helps to improve.
My third source is an article I found that talks about
cheerleading injury statistics. There
are many different kinds of injuries that can result from cheerleading through
stunting and tumbling. Not only can
cheerleaders get strains or sprains, but also some injuries can even cause
death. It is important to know the risks
of cheerleading.
I chose this article to represent this post because I talked
about tumbling and stunting being very dangerous so that is why cheerleaders
need to be in very good shape to prevent injuries from happening. Exercising and stretching can prevent injuries
a lot because your body would be able to handle more.
There are a lot of mental factors that are dealt with in competitive
cheerleading. For example, mental walk
throughs, mental blocks, and having your mind in focus. During practices and at competitions, every
cheerleader has to be mentally focused and prepared to perform. If a cheerleader is not mentally focused at a
competition, she could easily forget a part of the routine. Cheerleaders have to be focused only on
cheerleading at all times during competitions.
Before competing and warmups at competitions, some teams do
what is called mental walk throughs. The
teams get into a circle, close their eyes, and walk through the routine in
their head while listening to the music.
Doing this helps the cheerleaders get completely focused and is
technically part of warming up considering you warm up the mind as well as the
body. I think doing mental walk throughs
really helps the cheerleaders because it can help make them not as nervous as
well. Being able to know you can hit
your routine and running through it in your head helps calm some cheerleaders
down. When I used to cheerlead, my team
would do at least two mental walk throughs before warmups at every competition.
Mental blocks are one of the worst things that can happen to
a cheerleader. A mental block is when a
cheerleader either mentally forgets how to do a tumbling pass, or gets too
scared all of a sudden even though they can already do the tumbling pass. Mental blocks are very frustrating, not only
to the cheerleader herself, but also to her teammates and coaches. It’s hard to get your confidence back after
enduring a mental block, but they are eventually resolved. I had a mental block after I broke my finger
and couldn’t tumble for a while. It was
very hard to make myself tumble again, but once I pushed through it, it made me
a stronger and more confident tumbler. Mental
blocks are recoverable, but can be very difficult to do so. Some cheerleaders can never get out of one.
Physical and mental abilities together make a cheerleader
great. Putting your body and mind
together to cheer makes a routine great.
Finding out what your body can do in extreme circumstances and all that
you learn from cheerleading is amazing. Cheerleaders
learn a lot from being a competitive cheerleader. From discipline, team work, and pushing
through hard situations.
The first source I chose to represent this post is a
website. This website is advertising a
mental skills training program for cheerleaders. The training program is made to help maximize
your success in cheerleading competitions.
It comes with two CD’s that are filled with strategies, instructions,
and tips to help your performance.
I chose this website as a source because it was made to help
the mental factors of cheerleading and that is mostly what I talked about in
this post. Everything that this program
has to offer seems very relevant. I have
never seen anything like this program but I think it definitely could be
helpful.
The second source I chose for this post is an article I found
on Cheer Coach & Advisor magazine website.
This post is titled breaking free of mental blocks. It talks about the causes of mental blocks
and how you can get rid of them. Along
with the article is a list of steps to help get rid of the mental block.
This magazine article is relevant to this post because it
teaches you how to get rid of mental blocks.
Mental blocks were one of the main things I talked about in this post
because it happens to a lot of cheerleaders.
Some are more serious than others.
I think this article could have helped me when I had a mental block.
The third source that I chose for this post is a website
that considers the question, is cheerleading good for your health and
body? It talks about all the good things
that cheerleading can do for a cheerleader.
It incorporates the physical and mental pros of cheerleading along with
aerobics and muscles.
This website is relevant to this post because it combines
physical and mental aspects to show the good things about cheerleading. In the last paragraph of this post I talk
about how physical and mental abilities work together as a whole. I think cheerleading is a positive
enforcement in cheerleaders lives.
The physical and mental abilities of competitive
cheerleading come together to make something great. Each aspect is important in it’s own way to
not only keep the cheerleaders safe, but to make the sport possible. I think that the physical aspects of
competition cheerleading are a little bit more important than the mental
aspects. I think this because throughout
my time in competitive cheerleading, I never really knew how to control my
mentality during competitions but I was still able to compete. I could have done better if I knew how to
control my mentality but, with my physical aspects alone, it was still
done. The physical aspects are what keep
a cheerleader safe. Strength and
endurance are the main things that will help a cheerleader during
competition. I wish I could have known
how to control my mentality because it would have helped me be a better
cheerleader.
Learning what a competitive cheerleaders body can endure is
very interesting. A lot of stress is put
on the body during cheerleading. Being
in top physical shape is very important to reduce the risk of injury. Being aware of your surroundings as a
cheerleader is important too.
Cheerleaders have to know what is going on around them during a routine
and to learn what paths to take when transitioning. Being aware of your surroundings is also
important because a stunt could go wrong, which could bring down other
stunts. Therefore, all of the squad
needs to know what’s happening on the entire floor. Tumbling is a great test of what the body can
do. It requires strength from all over a
cheerleader’s body. Tumbling also
requires technique that has to be perfected to reduce injury. Endurance helps a cheerleader be able to
perform the tumbling skill during competitions.
Not only does endurance help with tumbling, but it also helps with every
part of a routine. Stunts, jumps and
dance are easier to do if the cheerleader has a lot of endurance. Stunts require physical strength and balance,
as do jumps. Jumps are actually harder
than they seem because the entire squad has to do them at the exact same time
for them to look good at competitions.
The heights of the cheerleader’s legs are important for them to look
good too. Over all I would say that the
physical aspects of competitive cheerleading are slightly more important than
the mental aspects.
The first source I chose for this post is a video of the
Cheer Extreme Allstars performing at the Worlds competition in 2011. They hit a perfect routine and it shows off
all the skills the top level 5 teams can do.
Worlds is the biggest competition with the best teams in the world.
This video is relevant to the post because I wanted to show
off how difficult and amazing competitive cheerleading was. Cheer Extreme is very good and this is the
top team at their gym. This video shows
that they used their mental and physical abilities to pull off a perfect
routine.
The second source I chose for this post is a response on
Answers.com. The question was how does
cheerleading effect young girls physically and mentally. I think the response was actually very
accurate considering anyone in the world could have answered it. It talked about all the cheerleaders having
each others backs which I didn’t mention at all in this blog.
This response on Answers.com is relevant to this post
because it explains more about physical and mental aspects of
cheerleading. Not only does it say some
of the things that I talked about in this post, but it also adds more
information that I had not thought of but is very true.
The third source I have chosen is from an online magazine
called Cheer Coach & Advisor. There
is an article in this magazine that is based on mental training and motivation
that trains for competition. It teaches
the reader about the different kinds of strengths there are and what they do.
This article from the magazine is relevant to this post
because it is a training guide to help competitive cheerleaders for
competitions. I said in the post that I
wish I would have known about the mental factors of cheerleading, so hopefully
some other cheerleader can read this and learn from it to become better.
By Doing Endurance for 1 hour in a day you can increase your Stamina and by swimming and it also helps while intercourse.
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