Only one more week until I will be on break from classes! Once finals are done, I am hoping to have more free time to be able to write some new articles, as well as finish the half-a-dozen articles I started and never finished! So hang in tight! Meanwhile, join me in some discussions about cheerleading on The Fierce Board.
Category Archives: General
The Importance of Fitness and Safety in Cheerleading
By: Carolyn Fallon
Check out more work by Carolyn by visiting her blog at http://fullonfit.blogspot.com/!
Anyone who thinks cheerleading is easy has obviously not tried it. Today’s cheerleading routines are extremely demanding and athletic, requiring amazing amounts of strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance. Training for cheerleading should always include some form of aerobics and strength training. Also, safety is a constant concern. If you are deficient in any area, you are putting yourself and others at risk.
It seems that every year cheerleading routines become more and more complex, more athletic, and more risky. There are moves underway now to improve safety for cheerleading routines and related activities. For now, be sure to train mindfully to avoid any hazards.
Actions Cheerleaders Can Take To Prevent Injuries:
Resistance Training:
Some type of resistance training will keep your weight under control and give you the strength to perform more advanced routines. You will also want to be sure that you always include a good stretching and warm-up session before your workouts, which will help prevent injury, both major and small.
Yoga:
Yoga is a great exercise for cheerleaders because it is low impact in nature while also providing a good strenuous workout. Due to the typical benefits of yoga being increased strength, flexibility, and balance, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Glen Axelrod states that many professional teams are integrating yoga into their regular training sessions. Additionally, yoga is known to also increase one’s core strength and focus, as well as decrease emotional states of stress and anxiety.
Proper Training:
It is always important to be training properly, in proper conditions, with proper training, observed by certified coaches. Be sure that you perform your stunts on mats to provide cushioning for falls. You will also want to maintain an atmosphere that allows you to focus. A certified and trained coach should be on hand at all times to ensure that safety is always being monitored and heeded.
Diet:
In addition to your training and exercise regimen, maintaining a diet is vitally important. For one thing, you will need to provide enough healthy fuel to provide energy for your routines and exercise. You will also want to eat the right kinds of foods so that you maintain lean muscle mass, while avoiding fatty foods that don’t provide any nutritional value.
Be sure that you are eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. The fruits will ensure that you are getting plenty of carbohydrates to fuel your workouts. Try to avoid getting sugar in the form of sodas and sugared drinks. These types of drinks tend to cause rapid increases in blood sugar. This can lead to weight gain.
Getting your carbs in the form of fruit also ensures that you are getting plenty of fiber in your diet. Fiber helps you keep from putting on weight in the form of fat. The reason fiber helps prevent weight gain is that it takes longer for your body to digest. You will also need to make sure you getting enough lean protein. Protein is the building block for muscle. Avoid meats like red meat and beef. They tend to have adequate protein but at a cost. They too often have high levels of unhealthy fat. This fat can clog your veins and prevent your heart from working at full capacity.
Some good choices for lean protein are turkey, skinless chicken, and most fish. Also, many nuts have good amounts of protein combined with good fiber. Walnuts, pecans, cashews, and sunflower seeds are good choices, and are an easy snack to keep with you for when you are hungry but it’s not meal-time yet. They also tend to be high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. One thing to be careful of, however, is high levels of salt, which can be found on certain types of nuts, such as peanuts.
Carolyn is a 20-something year old with a passion for life, fitness and overall well-being. She is an avid cycler, golfer and has known to bust some serious mves on the dance floor. Check out Carolyn’s blog at http://fullonfit.blogspot.com/!
I am a huge fan of the Jam Brands. One of my best experiences as a coach was going to the 2011 Jam-U conference in Louisville, KY. This looks like a brand new blog, but this article is fantastic. I can’t wait to see read more from it! Don’t forget to follow their blog, and like their facebook page!
What if we were all better customers? Remember that old adage “treat others as you want to be treated”? I know my mother repeated these words daily to me. As customers, we can provide reverse customer service. Where we, the customers are kind, attentive, and grateful to the people serving us. Greet them with a smile, say ‘thank you’, be understanding, compliment them on a job well done and, well, just be nice. Simple as that. You could be the only person that day that was nice to them.
I know, I know – when their title is customer service, it is their job to provide good service to me, but I want you to ask yourself – do we have to make it harder on them? Things don’t always go as planned and yes, people do make mistakes, but if we treat people with respect, the outcome will always…
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Make the ICheerSafe Pledge!
Very interesting blog post how to max out your tumbling score sheets!
One of the biggest parent melt-downs I ever encountered as an all star coach/director was the year we started the season with absolutely no standing tumbling in our routine. Okay, before you write me off as complete moron for making such an oversight, give me a second to explain. First, I was not actively involved in the coaching of this particular team in the program (although that changed after the first competition). Second, we hired outside choreographers who actually did put standing tumbling in the routine and the coach subsequently took it out of the routine. So in my defense, I was as surprised as the judges when the team did not throw any standing tumbling.
The score sheet at our first competition had 2 parts for the tumbling score; 10 points for running tumbling and 10 points for standing tumbling. This team had quite a mix of tumbling. There were probably around…
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Online Scheduling Now Avalible
I have begun to accept online registration for private lessons through my Full-Out Cheer Cheer & Fitness website. I will be tweaking and modifying the system within the next few weeks to ensure the simplest scheduling experience possible. This new online registration should make scheduling lessons simpler both myself and my clients. It will also avoid any communication issues with private lessons.
To schedule a lesson:
- Click HERE or on the “Book Lessons Now!” button on the top of the page.
- Chose your location for your lesson under the “Categories” tab on the left side of the page.
- Chose the kind of lesson you would like to schedule under “Services.”
- Chose the date and time you would like from the list available sessions.
- Enter your/your athlete’s contact details.
- Confirm the details you entered are correct and your done!
Happy scheduling everybody! Don’t forget to like the Full-Out Cheer and Fitness page on Facebook!
Intensity Cheer Elite
I will be offering lessons next saturday, September 15th, at Intensity Cheer Elite. CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE.
Related articles
- Online Scheduling Now Avalible (cheerfullout.com)
Why practice DOESN’T ALWAYS make perfect!
Throughout my life I have heard the expression “practice makes perfect” repeated by coaches, teachers, and parents alike. Although the advice was given with good intentions, their message could be interoperated as “repeat something enough times and you will become better at it.” That message is at best inaccurate, and at worst is Albert Einstein’s very definition of INSANITY! For this reason I prefer the phrase “Perfect practice makes perfect.”
So what’s happening here?
Basically, this is going to be the launching site for a new project I am working on called FULL-OUT Cheer & Fitness. Full-Out’s goal will be to revolutionize the way cheerleaders learn new skills and prepare their bodies for the high demands placed upon them during the competitive season.
In the upcoming weeks and months I will begin to add more information about the project. But in the meantime this site will remain a blog where I write helpful articles, comment on industry news, and keep my followers up-to-date on my endeavors. If you have any cheer or fitness related questions feel free to email them to coach.matt@cheerfullout.com and if I like it I will answer it with a blog post!
The cheerleading industry is going to change…
More info to come soon!
Full-Out: Cheer and Fitness 