High School High School Tryouts

oncecoolcoachnowmom said:

^^^^Nothing to add to this conversation except to tag @tumbleyoda - this thread needs him!

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The reality is mental blocks can exist for many different reasons AND the majority of them can be prevented. However there are situations that can come up that is not predictable that can lead to a mental block. Understand that everyone (parent, athlete, coach, team) is frustrated when one happens no matter what the reason is.

How to get out of them is a totally different answer. I believe I posted about this somewhere recently on these boards. ETA here is that thread: Can Learning Skills Too Fast Put You At Risk For Mental Blocks? | Fierce Board - The Voice Of Cheer

This is a copy of a handout I give to my P2P class (Progressions 2 Performance) class which is a mental block class for our athletes. There are many industry people who work with mental blocks and I have no desire to take away from them at all. However if you want to contact me privately about a situation please inbox me here and I will do what i can, or point you in the right direction.

Patiently awaiting my AD to approve tryouts. My time hop showed that today, last year, I announced tryouts... and now I'm dying to get the ball rolling! We had tryouts 2nd week of June last year, so hoping for that again.

It will be my 3rd season as head coach and we have a huge 8th grade pool coming up, so I'm excited to see the talent at tryouts! I'm a big fan of always developing the program to make it better. Here the low down on my first 2 years, what I hope to do this 3rd year. Any and ALL advice is greatly appreciated; especially for those of you have have your JV/V teams down to a science! I'm always looking for room to improve!

1st Year:
- Late Hire (end of August)
- 1 day tryout; no real structure
- Held practice 3x a week 7-9, due to my previous commitments; 1 night tumbling
- Started new, fun traditions that the girls really like (pumpkin buddies, football boys participating in Pep Rally)
- Late choreography (end of Sept; due to my late hire had to scramble for choreography)
- Came in 3rd at their league (beginning of Nov) (they were going for their '3peat' ), qualified for Regionals
- Parent drama

2nd Year:
- New V Uniforms
- Informational meeting with expectations for each team
- June Tryout (4 days) cheer, jumps, tumbling, stunting evaluations
- Implemented the JV team & JV coach
- Captains held optional practices over the summer to teach game cheers
- 2 day stunting camp at local all star gym (JV & V)
- 'pre season' (end of August for MA) conditioning workouts in the AM; Game material in afternoon
- Choreography end of August (JV & V)
- Practice 4x a week 330-530 weekdays and 9-11 Saturdays;1 night tumbling
- 1 game per week
- Had Big/Little for JV/V (candy grams for competitions)
- Work it out Wednesday (fun & serious questions to end our Wednesday practices) & Motivational Monday (seniors brought in quotes on posters and read the quote the beginning of practice - by the end of the season we had a whole slew of inspirational quotes surrounding us)
- Came in 1st at their league, qualified for Regionals
- Parent drama lessened, but still had a few big ones :deadhorse:

3rd Year:
- Depending on the turnout for tryouts; considering asking my AD/talking with our Boosters about ordering new JV uniforms (we on have about 12-15 wearable ones)
- Hoping to hold informational meeting again
- Hoping to hold June tryouts again; 4 days with same structure as last year
- Possibly attending a 2 day stunting camp with a couple other local HS
- Will hold 'pre season' the same as I did last year
- Practice will be 4x a week but 430-630 weekdays due to my new job & 9-11 Saturdays; 1 night tumbling
- 1 game per week
- JV choreo end of August; still waiting to confirm V choreography
- Hoping to place well at our leagues again, place at Regionals & qualify for States
- Praying to the cheer Gods that my parent drama continues the decline:cheering:

EWalsh1029 said:

Patiently awaiting my AD to approve tryouts. My time hop showed that today, last year, I announced tryouts... and now I'm dying to get the ball rolling! We had tryouts 2nd week of June last year, so hoping for that again.

It will be my 3rd season as head coach and we have a huge 8th grade pool coming up, so I'm excited to see the talent at tryouts! I'm a big fan of always developing the program to make it better. Here the low down on my first 2 years, what I hope to do this 3rd year. Any and ALL advice is greatly appreciated; especially for those of you have have your JV/V teams down to a science! I'm always looking for room to improve!

1st Year:
- Late Hire (end of August)
- 1 day tryout; no real structure
- Held practice 3x a week 7-9, due to my previous commitments; 1 night tumbling
- Started new, fun traditions that the girls really like (pumpkin buddies, football boys participating in Pep Rally)
- Late choreography (end of Sept; due to my late hire had to scramble for choreography)
- Came in 3rd at their league (beginning of Nov) (they were going for their '3peat' ), qualified for Regionals
- Parent drama

2nd Year:
- New V Uniforms
- Informational meeting with expectations for each team
- June Tryout (4 days) cheer, jumps, tumbling, stunting evaluations
- Implemented the JV team & JV coach
- Captains held optional practices over the summer to teach game cheers
- 2 day stunting camp at local all star gym (JV & V)
- 'pre season' (end of August for MA) conditioning workouts in the AM; Game material in afternoon
- Choreography end of August (JV & V)
- Practice 4x a week 330-530 weekdays and 9-11 Saturdays;1 night tumbling
- 1 game per week
- Had Big/Little for JV/V (candy grams for competitions)
- Work it out Wednesday (fun & serious questions to end our Wednesday practices) & Motivational Monday (seniors brought in quotes on posters and read the quote the beginning of practice - by the end of the season we had a whole slew of inspirational quotes surrounding us)
- Came in 1st at their league, qualified for Regionals
- Parent drama lessened, but still had a few big ones :deadhorse:

3rd Year:
- Depending on the turnout for tryouts; considering asking my AD/talking with our Boosters about ordering new JV uniforms (we on have about 12-15 wearable ones)
- Hoping to hold informational meeting again
- Hoping to hold June tryouts again; 4 days with same structure as last year
- Possibly attending a 2 day stunting camp with a couple other local HS
- Will hold 'pre season' the same as I did last year
- Practice will be 4x a week but 430-630 weekdays due to my new job & 9-11 Saturdays; 1 night tumbling
- 1 game per week
- JV choreo end of August; still waiting to confirm V choreography
- Hoping to place well at our leagues again, place at Regionals & qualify for States
- Praying to the cheer Gods that my parent drama continues the decline:cheering:

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What kind of parent drama do you have?

OldskoolKYcheercoach said:

What kind of parent drama do you have?

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@OldskoolKYcheercoach What I deal with the most is parent v. parent drama basically. They get at each other (booster conflicts, just not liking each other, etc.) and then come to me and try and preach their side of the story, try to get me to 'take sides' or take it out on the other parent's daughter. It's more of a headache than anything.

I had a lot of meetings and phone calls with my AD this past season in an effort to put some sort of boundary/guidelines for the parents to follow... to try and get them to understand to only contact me for emergencies - not drama. At some points this past season I felt like some parents thought I was their therapist

The parents are super helpful - and always make sure their girls get the best and really do help the program run smoothly - but the drama I could do without!

EWalsh1029 said:

@OldskoolKYcheercoach What I deal with the most is parent v. parent drama basically. They get at each other (booster conflicts, just not liking each other, etc.) and then come to me and try and preach their side of the story, try to get me to 'take sides' or take it out on the other parent's daughter. It's more of a headache than anything.

I had a lot of meetings and phone calls with my AD this past season in an effort to put some sort of boundary/guidelines for the parents to follow... to try and get them to understand to only contact me for emergencies - not drama. At some points this past season I felt like some parents thought I was their therapist

The parents are super helpful - and always make sure their girls get the best and really do help the program run smoothly - but the drama I could do without!

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Does it stem from cheerleader drama? Like, do these two parents not like each other because their kids don't? Or is it seriously just little squabbles?

OldskoolKYcheercoach said:

Does it stem from cheerleader drama? Like, do these two parents not like each other because their kids don't? Or is it seriously just little squabbles?

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Just little squabbles! Girls all get along surprisingly fine - I hardly ever have cheerleader/cheerleader team drama (surprisingly!)

EWalsh1029 said:

Just little squabbles! Girls all get along surprisingly fine - I hardly ever have cheerleader/cheerleader team drama (surprisingly!)

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You might try this approach....but you almost have to do it every time:

Every time a parent comes to you with that stuff, just offer to set up a meeting with the person who has offender her so they can "work out their details."

They'll decide quickly whether it's really THAT big of a deal.

So what is program management like for programs with only one team as opposed to 2 or more teams? What becomes easier or more difficult?

Official OWECheer said:

So what is program management like for programs with only one team as opposed to 2 or more teams? What becomes easier or more difficult?

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I find it harder to develop skills and have a long term plan (by long term, I mean...I'm forecasting what my team will look like in 2-5 years based on who's in feeder school programs and local all star teams).

I find it easier to schedule practices and games.

Official OWECheer said:

So what is program management like for programs with only one team as opposed to 2 or more teams? What becomes easier or more difficult?

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I've done both. I've also done multiple teams where I'm the only coach of both (I don't recommend!) My program runs 2 teams simultaneously as opposed to 1 team the ends after football and a team that starts right before basketball season.

One team -
Overall just easier in the moment but not long term. Less kids. Less parents! Less uniforms needed. Easier to find quality coaching staff and don't need as many coaches. Less paperwork. Money goes farther on fundraisers that are group oriented (donations/cheer camps) as opposed to individually oriented (selling something) because it's split between less people. No sharing mats or space with the other team. No scheduling conflicts on practice space with another team. No drama over making a lower skill team.

Two teams -
More athletes participating. More athletes to pull from in case of injury, etc. More athletes to divide and conquer on busy weeks. Building the program for future seasons is 100x times easier. More athletes to use in fundraising. More parents to work concessions and make rotations smaller. Encourages kids to not be complacent when there are skill based teams. Cheering section/support system at camps and comps. Selling fundraisers do better because there are more people selling and you usually make more % when you sell more. You can get discounts sometimes for multiple teams/larger programs. More coaches to pay.

The most difficult part of multiple teams is that I'm the end all be all, head of it all. While the teams may have other coaches, they're under me. The responsibility, work load, paperwork and stress doubles even though I'm not with that team all of the time.

The biggest reason we have two teams is to keep the program going since we don't have a good feeder system bringing them in.

AScheer said:

I've done both. I've also done multiple teams where I'm the only coach of both (I don't recommend!) My program runs 2 teams simultaneously as opposed to 1 team the ends after football and a team that starts right before basketball season.

One team -
Overall just easier in the moment but not long term. Less kids. Less parents! Less uniforms needed. Easier to find quality coaching staff and don't need as many coaches. Less paperwork. Money goes farther on fundraisers that are group oriented (donations/cheer camps) as opposed to individually oriented (selling something) because it's split between less people. No sharing mats or space with the other team. No scheduling conflicts on practice space with another team. No drama over making a lower skill team.

Two teams -
More athletes participating. More athletes to pull from in case of injury, etc. More athletes to divide and conquer on busy weeks. Building the program for future seasons is 100x times easier. More athletes to use in fundraising. More parents to work concessions and make rotations smaller. Encourages kids to not be complacent when there are skill based teams. Cheering section/support system at camps and comps. Selling fundraisers do better because there are more people selling and you usually make more % when you sell more. You can get discounts sometimes for multiple teams/larger programs. More coaches to pay.

The most difficult part of multiple teams is that I'm the end all be all, head of it all. While the teams may have other coaches, they're under me. The responsibility, work load, paperwork and stress doubles even though I'm not with that team all of the time.

The biggest reason we have two teams is to keep the program going since we don't have a good feeder system bringing them in.

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I prefer being the head coach of both teams. I'm that much of a control freak.

OldskoolKYcheercoach said:

I prefer being the head coach of both teams. I'm that much of a control freak.

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I much prefer it too. I've actually never not (I know, double negative) been in control so I can't offer her that point of view! It is more work though.

My school has 3 teams (MS,JV,V)
+
Coaches see you develope from 7th grade
Good to teach the younger kids about everything
Kids see the older ones on varsity and get motivated
Fountain of advice from the older girls
-
With all those kids practice space is hard to come by
Middle school gets lumped in with the rec teams during competitions which means all the teams have to go to the competition early

Then again there are separate coaches for each team and since MS can no longer come to camp with us they're gonna be down on stunting skill for a while (though nowadays a lot of them come in with tumbling)

We have one big team for games that we separate into two teams for competition. One of the benefits is that we have a lot of flexibility. All the girls learn the same sideline chants and simple game material. This allows us to let the kids trade off games if they have something they want to do. I look at it like a job. If you want a day off, find someone to cover. This is especially helpful during the heavy workload part of basketball season. Likewise, tonight I found out that one of my kids is out for a week, and I made a single phone call and had her substitute lined up for tomorrow morning.

OldskoolKYcheercoach said:

We have one big team for games that we separate into two teams for competition. One of the benefits is that we have a lot of flexibility. All the girls learn the same sideline chants and simple game material. This allows us to let the kids trade off games if they have something they want to do. I look at it like a job. If you want a day off, find someone to cover. This is especially helpful during the heavy workload part of basketball season. Likewise, tonight I found out that one of my kids is out for a week, and I made a single phone call and had her substitute lined up for tomorrow morning.

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What do you do about football games? There are so few, do the girls switch off for them too or do they all cheer for football?

And is there a talent disparity between the two, or do you strive for 2 equally strong teams? And I'm assuming that you attempt to keep them in separate divisions so they aren't going against each other in competition?

It's a solution to a problem that I wish we would have thought of. This year we have 2 boys and 22 girls (plus 4 alternates) - too many humans for UCA's small coed division. We're still building a program at this school, so with states being this year's goal, we are just going with it. In the future, we hope to be aiming for NHSCC, so we won't be able to do that.