End of Year Competitions just around the corner!

It's hard to believe, but the end of the competition season is just around the corner. Worlds is less than a month away and international national championships take place between May-June. Before you know it, this years routine will have run its course and tryouts for next season will be underway.

Most teams have competed several times by now and should be heading into the last phase of their routine building. This is a terrific time of year to make small adjustments, add difficulty and give your routine that extra polish. The expectation at this point in the season is that routines should be CLEAN... and that any quirks have been ironed out or eliminated. So if you are adding difficulty or making changes be sure that they do not affect the ability of your athletes to perform with confidence. Stunts should be strong, tumbling should be well executed with good timing and the presentation itself should be entertaining and eye pleasing.

Some things that you might want to consider when making these final changes are:

1. Consider feedback from score sheets... what have judges said about your routine?
2. If a transition is too long or boring or if a hard transition has become easy consider adding some pop and dazzle... to make it better/quicker/more appealing
3. Add more body positions or a creative mount/dismount to your stunt sequence.
4. Speed up/add difficulty to your body positions.
5. Now that your team has tumbling -- PERFECT IT! Emphasize good technique AND timing!
6. Work on your jumps! This section can ALWAYS be better. Add in multiple jumps, or tumbling - focus on timing!!
7. Maybe change a part of your music - your athletes might appreciate the change and it will help get them excited for the end of the year!
8. CLEAN! CLEAN! CLEAN! Take every count of your routine - look for weaknesses. Don't allow weaker sections to stay in!!! Don't settle for less!!

This is the time of year that you have been working towards for the last 12 months! Athletes are starting to feel pressure, parents are getting worn out and your coaches are probably counting down the days until their annual "cheer break". Try to keep things positive, and maybe even liven things up with new traditions, themed practice days or suprises!

GOOD LUCK!

Warm Up Room at Competition

The 2010 competition season is well underway with major competitions just around the corner. As coaches we place so much emphasis on the actual 2 minutes of 30 seconds of competition, but sometimes we fail to recognize the importance of the work done beforehand to prepare us for our time on the mat.

Specifically, I am referring to the warm up prior to competition and the ways in can be used to maximize your athletes performance, mental preparedness and physical readiness.

First, lets consider the actual purpose of a pre-competing warm up. For most events, teams are given a standard "stretching" mat, performance surface and tumbling strip. Times vary between events - but what are you actually supposed to do with that time?

Having coached teams at the scholastic, all-star and collegiate level we believe that this time is critical for athlete - but not in the ways many coaches think.

The purpose of warm up is to:

1. Warm up skills
2. Stretch
3. Mental Preparedness
4. Unify team
5. Get in the right mindframe to compete

Based on the stations given, and the time necessary to meet each of these objectives here are our recommendations:

BEFORE YOU GET INTO THE WARM UP GYM:
1. Stretch (this does not have to take place inside warm up)
2. Ensure that your athletes are in uniform and ready to go
3. Make sure that all unnecessary items are left behind (Jewellry, wallet, etc)
4. Remove jewellry
5. Go to bathroom/prepare hair/make up in advance.

WARM UP MAT:
Focus - Warming up team skills
1. Warm up individual stunts and tosses.
Optimal use of time: Warm up as a team to counts

MAIN FLOOR:
Focus - Performance and Spacing
1. Hard mark routine
2. Full out expressions/artistic elements/jumps/etc.

TUMBLING STRIP:
Focus: Warm up all routine tumbling
1. Standing Tumbling
2. Running Tumbling
3. Tumbling with Jump combinations

We have found this warm up to be the most effective and least tiring for athletes because:
1. It allows for maximum recovery time
2. It does not exhaust athletes before performance
3. If you need to "work on" something in the warm up gym - it should not be in the routine.
4. Priority must be keeping athletes in a positive mental attitude before performance.

Many coaches like to run full out run-throughs in the warm up gym and while that can certainly be effective for many teams - it can also be exhausting, risk injury and if the run is poor - it can impact the athletes mental preparedness right before they are on the floor.

Regardless of how you warm up, making sure that all aspects of the routine are ready and that athletes are excited to step out on the floor is the BEST POSSIBLE objective for any competition warm up!

GOOD LUCK!

Cleaning a Routine

With the competition season now underway, many coaches and teams are looking at ways to improve their score and better their competition placings.

Some teams will change their choreography, add new skills or make sweeping changes in order to dominate the competition - but the reality is many of these measures are often unncessary or unrealistic.

In most cases, simply CLEANING the material you have and ensuring that your team looks sharp and confidant on the floor is the BEST way to improve your overall impression and scores!

But how do we clean a routine? Why is is that some sections are so much easier than others? Why does it seem like some athletes will never be tight or hit that stunt as sharp as they could? We never said it would be easy -- but with a little work, some patience and attention your routines can look ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS :):)

Here are some of our best tips:

1. Pay attention to detail
2. Every count COUNTS
3. Synchronize your movements
4. Consider your angles/levels/motion placements
5. Limit unncessary movement
6. Make sure that your transitions are seamless
7. Coordinate stunting approaches
8. Strive for symmetry and balance with routine flow/design
9. Tumble the SAME! Timing counts too! not just form : )
10. PERFORM! PERFORM! PERFORM!

Always remember that you score points for doing the same thing, the same time with as many people doing the same thing. Its important that your athletes recognize that they might have to change THEIR WAY to do what is best for the ENTIRE team. Standardization is key.

As a coach you need to be firm when taking out skills or routine parts that are imperfect or just not hitting consistantly. Don't settle for higher difficulty if it is not PERFECT. Set a higher standard of excellence!

When running routines it is important that you do different kinds of runs: Artistic (motions, dance, jumps, facials), Technical (stunts, tosses and pyramids) Tumbling (standing, running and Jumps) and Full out.

Balance these different routine runs to maximize efficientcy and to work your skills without tiring athletes.

Remember, a clean well performed routine will ALWAYS outscore a routine with higher difficulty performed sloppily!

Good luck! AND REMEMBER... cleaning is never easy or fun - but it is a necessity of our sport!

The Handstand before the Handspring!

As we travel all over the world it has always surprised us when athletes complain about not being able to do a backhandspring without having fully mastered the handstand.

When you really think about it, a backhandspring occurs when you jump violently backwards into a handstand and then snap down. If an athlete is not able to support their body weight on their own in a handstand position, it would make sense that performing that skill even with backwards moving momentum would be rather difficult, if not impossible.

The first step for any new tumbler wanting to succeed with cartwheels, round offs or handsprings is without a doubt the handstand! It can be broken down into 3 easy steps:

1. Start in a lunge with your arms by your ears!

2. Push off your forward leg, leaning forward to the ground until your hands are supporting your body on the ground, both legs are in the air - together...with your body in a vertical hollow body position. It is important that your head is neutral (looking towards the back wall) and that you are NOT arched!

3. To come down from the handstand - return back to your lunge position with your arms by your ears!

Remember- don't fall over!!!! It takes just as much energy to hurl your body forwards into the ground as it does to squeeze and return back to your starting position.

GOOD HANDSTAND DRILLS:

1. Handstand up a wall (walk up - good for younger athletes)

2. Handstand against a wall (kick up to handstand and squeeze!)

3. Handstand up an incline

4. Handstand snapdown on block

5. Handstand flatbed (to keep hollow)

Prairie Fire Cheerleading

Spring returns to the Prairies! We spent an incredible weekend with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and the Prairie Fire All-Star cheerleading teams. We hadn't seen either group since the summer when we worked with them for skills camp and we were so impressed by the hard work and determination from all the athletes.

Prairie Fire has an INCREDIBLE Youth Level 2 team called the Spitfires. Their stunts are incredible and these little kids LOVE to tumble! They have full team backwalkovers AND managed to get full team front walk over suicides! Amazing!

The Junior team was definately the surprise hit of 2010 so far! They worked through some major changes to their routine on Day 1 and despite come challenges with the material they came back for Day 2 having completely mastered the work from the day before! We were SO IMPRESSED!

The Senior Level 3 team made huge improvements in stunting and worked on some pretty significant routine changes as well as they prepare for competition as Vancouver's Sea to Sky Championship!

Our final group was the Huskies and they worked on pyramids, baskets, stunts non-stop for their debut at UPA Nationals! They are such a hardworking, talented team! It is no wonder they placed third at Canadian University Nationals!

Special thanks to Todd and the entire PFC Coaching staff! We had a blast with your kids and loved being back in Saskatchewan!

SMU

So last week Kenny and I took on a new team from Halifax, Nova Scotia called Saint Mary's University. The team is looking to rebuild their program and is working very hard to establish itself as a force in Atlantic Canadian Cheerleading.

An all-girl squad of 19, the team worked very hard to learn their choreography and build new skills in a quick 8 hour session over 2 days!

SMU will make their competition debut at Cheer Expo in Halifax at the end of March! We had an amazing time working with them and wish them all the best as they continue to build their program!

Happy 2010!

Okay... so I've been a little delinquent with the blog updates. In the last four months Spring has travelled to London (2x!), Paris, Bordeaux, Germany and Mexico! If that was not exciting enough we have also travelled all over Canada and have plans to visit Scotland, Russia, Italy and more in 2010!

The 2009-2010 season is well underway and we could not be more excited and thrilled with our Spring Family of teams. Already Ascension Eagles, Goldstar and Unity from the UK have earned Worlds bids and Les Cobras de Quebec and Flyers Allstarz have earned bids from Quebec! Cheersport Sharks took PCA nationals by STORM winning the International All-Girl Level 5 and 6 division and were crowed Canadian National Champs! Capital City Storm also won their first PCA National championship in the International Coed Level 5 division! What a fantastic start to the season!

This past weekend we kicked off 2010 with tumbling clinics at Absolute Academy, and choreography with ECS PEI, ECS NB and Capital Cheer Academy!

Kenny and I are excited to be back on the road and hope to see you all soon! Happy New Year!

L.