High School Tips For Discipline

Tealxblack25 said:

Also, I try really hard to teach these girls that they are a team and a family. By the end of the season they always want to ring eachother necks !

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They're pre-teen girls....this can not be avoided.

As for the discipline, get the support of your schools AD/Principal, and have the parents and kids sign off on the rules/regulations BEFORE tryouts....that way they agree to everything before being put on the team.

Honestly, with high school cheer, the kids try out in spring, we practice a lil before school lets out, meet in the summer and then go full steam ahead around August 13, we go until March.. I want to ring their necks... it's just a long busy season, especially b/c cheerleaders have 2 seasons, dual roles (games/school functions & competition usually) and it gets to be long.

My advice is set the discipline record ahead of time. Missing things is this coming in wrong outfit is soemthing else, etc.

Also, unless completely necessary, I try and avoid conditioning as punishment.. we want out athletes to see the value in conditioning, not feel like it is punishment. This is not to say a few extra laps here or there will kill them, but if everything is this, it becomes redundant. My things are sitting at games, vaccuming the mats, helping clean the equipment closets, etc!

I recently directed a middle school musical so same kids, different circumstances. I had them sign off on a contract at the beginning that listed my expectations and clearly stated if they did not follow them, they would be removed. Other than that. my team mom does little riddles for us sometimes that focus on specific rules. One was about not wearing jewelry, and anyone that figured it out and didn't wear jewelry got a ring pop. When kids have a fight, I'd keep them after and say "You're not leaving until you can walk out of here friends" If they're parents come in and ask where they are, explain the whole situation and the negative effect it has on your team. Add some parent shame to the mix. I agree, conditioning is not a punishment, but a system of demerits that results in getting benched a game is.

I'm used to youth activities where during class your mouth is closed and you are doing exactly what the teacher is telling you to do when they ask you to do it or they are asking you if there is a problem, it happens again and you're up front sitting in front of everyone until you decide that you want to be part of the class and not a distraction. If you're disruptive to the point that you can't sit at the front of the room quietly, you're in the hallway. If you're out of uniform, you're asked why, if there's no reason or it happens more than once, you sit out. You're part of a performing group and you miss more than x number of practices, you don't perform the next function. None of it happens much. I expect that this can cause attrition of people who are in it for "fun". Every minute is work and the instructor has to be well prepared so they can keep the kids working constantly else chaos begins. People, including kids, live up or down to meet expectations. You may become "unliked" but probably well respected. If you develop a personal connection with the girls outside of class (before/after/at school functions/at competitions) you could still be liked too, but that shouldn't be the primary goal. They may or may not be friends with each other, and you probably can't control that. 2 girls could be best friends/mortal enemies/best friends in the course of a day at that age. You can, however, demand respect be displayed for everyone at practices, and be a model of respecting others and showing fair treatment.

You probably won't have the support of all the parents all the time, even with a signed consent, which is still the best way to go. And often, they like the idea of someone disciplining little Suzie...on paper...until it actually happens. Keep that in mind when a parent comes up to you and says "Why did you bench Suzie??? Not fair!"
I truly think keeping kids busy at ALL times eliminates a lot of the need for discipline. They simply don't have time to screw up. So rather than making them condition, make them work the entire practice. If you're working with a particular stunt group, the rest can alternate crunches, run laps, do push-ups, or stand silently in a clean position and observe.

Disicpline for wearing the wrong practice outfit or being late: extra jumps. Nothing it worse that having to do 10 toe touches for being five minutes late. It will teach them to be on time & wear the right thing while working on their jumps

I also coach a middle school team, and I've had these girls during their 5th, 6th, and 7th grade years, so I've seen these girls through all their different stages and such. It's definitely challenging, but they are honestly the funniest group when they just don't have an attitude.

A couple of things I like to try-
If they are late
-stay late at the end and run
-JUMPS<333 I have to say, some of my best jumpers are girls that consistently come late to practice...
-If a lot of girls are late and come in together, I do this marvelous tumbling conditioning exercise. Basically they run around the mat in a line, the girl at the front of the line tumbles across the diagonal and meets up with the end of the line when she finished her pass, and it just keeps going and going until every girl does her pass. The girls are running really fast, so the timing works out and they get such a good workout.
-Talk to them about it- sometimes it really isn't their fault, and if I understand the situation better, I can help them fix the problem.

Attitudes, Dedication, Motivation
-Sit them down and offer them a "Silver Option" and a "Gold Option", the silver option is basically a really easy routine that they wouldn't have to work for, the gold option is the harder routine that is more action packed and fun but takes hard work, they will ALWAYS choose the Gold option, and whenever they lose focus or dedication, remind them that they made the choice because they want to win and love cheering.
-If a girl has an attitude or is acting in a way that is unsafe, then just tell her to sit out and when she feels like she can handle herself in a way that is safe and mature, she can come back to practice. Give the kid 5 minutes and she'll be back. If a parent has a problem with it, tell them it was a safety hazard and they really have no argument against you. But I do this all the time, and I've only had 2 parents speak to me about it, and both times I explained why the behavior was unsafe and then shut up right away.
-If a kid has an attitude that is disrespectful, I either talk to the kid directly if I think that will be effective, or I don't let the girls stunts go up because I just say that the kid seems off her game and that she can't stunt. The other girls in her stunt group will tell her to shape up, and she will lose the 'tude faster than you think.
-with a lack of dedication, I try to do thinks that are fun and exciting. Team pool party, team sundae party, ect. It can be simple, just some team bonding. It really helps with getting kids to love their team, and once they love their team, they become dedicated.

With big problems that don't seem to end, give them the 3 strikes rule. If this happens once, the parents are brought in and we talk about it all together. 2nd time, the athlete sits out a game and there is another parent meeting with the athlete. 3rd time, shes off the squad. this is recreational cheer, i don't get paid, and if she does something that directly violates organization rules, then she was warned and she has lost her chance.

My rule of thumb- remember what I was like in middle school- a lot of times, something is going on outside of practice and the best thing you can do is to make sure the kid knows that you are there for them and that you care.

that was a really all over the place answer, PM with more info, i love to talk about coaching!

Running. My team would do anything in the world to avoid running laps.

I coach a youth team as well as my high school team. My youth girls are ages 11-13 as well. I am just as strict with them as i am with my high school girls, if not a little more, bc i find my high school girls to be a little more respectful. Before we start our first practice, we sit the girls down with their parents and we explain all of our expectations of them, and i also let them know how i handle things at practice. I tell them that i will yell and scream at their daughter, I will drill them and drill them, i will make them run, all that etc.... but I also let them know that nothing is personal. Just because i am yelling at you, doesnt mean that i don't like you, it just means that i need to push you bc i want you to be your best. they have a contract that the girl and parent must sign. Yes, as someone stated above, you will get that occasional parent whose daughter walks on water and can never do any wrong, but then i remind them of the agreement, and they don't really have a case.

Something we did one year, which was pretty effective... If a girl was late they had to pay $1. We collected everyones tardy money all year long. $1 is not much, but it really helps with those girls that are consistently late, having to pay $1 all the time. Then at the end of the year we raffled off the Tardy Money to one of the girls to help pay their competition fees. this way, we couldn't get in trouble for charging the girls bc technically they were getting it back. We stopped doing it bc in all honesty we got too lazy too keep up with it. haha. I apologize for my poor grammar.

I run into this problem a lot while working camps with Middle School teams. Here's some things I've found that work really well with this age group:

-Lateness: keep the team late by every minute the last girl strolls in late. For example, if you have a girl that came in 7 minutes late & practice ends at 4, keep them until 4:07. Their parents are the ones who drive so eventually they'll grow tired of waiting for their kids. Did it at a camp & every girl was warmed up and stretched at least 5 minutes before the next practice.

-Attitudes: Have fun with your team, but explain that if they want to do fun things (like a game every now and then), they'll have to respect and listen to you. If not, they're going to come in and ONLY work on stunts, cheers, etc with nothing fun in between.

Also remind them that their drama from school stays OUTSIDE THE DOOR during practice time.

we have to run a lap for every minute we are late for practice without a doctors excuse. i slept in one time on accident... needless to say i wont ever be doing that again

My squad does demerits every time you have to miss a game or wear the wrong thing or don't come to practice or something, and you can only get a certain number before you get kicked off or other consequences

SparkleSpankies said:

Also, unless completely necessary, I try and avoid conditioning as punishment.. we want out athletes to see the value in conditioning, not feel like it is punishment. This is not to say a few extra laps here or there will kill them, but if everything is this, it becomes redundant. My things are sitting at games, vaccuming the mats, helping clean the equipment closets, etc!

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at my school, this is NOT a punishment! for us this is a reward, games are torture