All-Star Carrots Vs. Sticks

[kyyyyyyxo]

They say there are two ways to get a horse to move, hang a carrot in the front, or smack it with a stick from behind.

I've witnessed both of these coaching strategies first hand.

There are coaches with carrots who say, "hit this stunt 3 times and we will play a game"

Or there's a stick "if you do not hit this stunt, we are conditioning"

Obviously as a cheerleader, you would rather hear the first option, however, do you think it is more successful?

I have been at gyms that work in polar opposite ways, one always worked with a stick and now I am at HotCheer which is the most carrot driven coaching I've ever witnessed. When I coached last year with Minis at NEO, I would say a carrot definitely worked better for them.

Does your team respond more to a carrot or more to a stick? Which do you think makes for a more successful gym?

 

[F!ERCE]

I would think "carrots" would work better for younger kids and "sticks" would work better for the older crowd...hm

 

[allstarLoVEcheer]

Well the carrot method must be working because HotCheer is amazing at every level each season, and one of my favorite gyms by far! I love me some HC

 

[tumbleyoda]

Carrots over sticks but keep it in balance. The older, more advanced athletes maybe 50 - 50 while the younger athletes need a higher percentage of carrots. Always remember if you use the stick with them too much they might not return next year and you just made your job harder.

 

[lovexyoux234]

for some reason, at my gym, we'll perform better for games and candy then we will to prevent conditioning. cause people will always try to cheat their way out of conditioning or not do it fully. but when you can receive something concrete for an accomplishment, i feel it pushes people harder. like, at a cheertech competition years ago, a good fairly judged one that was hard to find, our coaches said if we won grand, they'd go jump in the freezing cold ocean. i have never seen 20 girls push harder for a routine. so it really depends on the gym and the kids

 

[Cheer_Explosion_Coach]

@Andre just published an article on Spirit Post about something like this... Y'all should check it out. I think whichever method you feel works better will not be effective unless your cheerleaders know that you care about them first and foremost. If you are fair, consistent, and love them whole heartedly, kids will be 100% loyal and want to work hard for you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[retiredl5cheer]

for some reason, at my gym, we'll perform better for games and candy then we will to prevent conditioning. cause people will always try to cheat their way out of conditioning or not do it fully. but when you can receive something concrete for an accomplishment, i feel it pushes people harder. like, at a cheertech competition years ago, a good fairly judged one that was hard to find, our coaches said if we won grand, they'd go jump in the freezing cold ocean. i have never seen 20 girls push harder for a routine. so it really depends on the gym and the kids

You found a good Cheer Tech competition? Where were you, Mars?

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Personally as a coach I like to work with both. For every 2/3 critical things I say, I try to say one positive thing. Kids need to know that you love them and if you are constantly negative they will never want to do anything for you. I like to think that a lot of my kids push harder because they know that I care.

 

[kobegirl]

for some reason, at my gym, we'll perform better for games and candy then we will to prevent conditioning. cause people will always try to cheat their way out of conditioning or not do it fully. but when you can receive something concrete for an accomplishment, i feel it pushes people harder. like, at a cheertech competition years ago, a good fairly judged one that was hard to find, our coaches said if we won grand, they'd go jump in the freezing cold ocean. i have never seen 20 girls push harder for a routine. so it really depends on the gym and the kids

That's funny that you worked so hard to get your coaches in the ocean! Seems pretty universal that if a coach is willing to do something crazy, the kids outdo themselves!

 

[pinksparklybow]

I say carrots as well. I never really was a fan of "if you don't hit, you'll do x." Kind of a fearful motivation...not really the best. However, if a team is a hot mess all practice, then yes, if they don't hit at the end of a show we'd say..do laps or conditioning or whatever. But never as a "you better hit or else" type thing. That just seems depressing.

 

[lovexyoux234]

You found a good Cheer Tech competition? Where were you, Mars?

we went to others, and they were judged terribly. teams with illegal tumbling beat teams that should have rightfully one, etc. overall, in every division, not just the one's we were in, because we lost some, the judging was pretty fair and the teams deserved to be where they placed. i hate cheertech though.

 

[marissa.d]

Carrot method works best with either a team that is younger, or is already really self-motivated.
The stick method i find should only be used when needed, because it gets the job done, but no one is really happy about it. it works best with older athletes in general or a team that lacks motivation!

i could totally get into the motivation part because im studying kinesiology in university and right now im in sports psychology.. but i wont to spare you the loooooongggg description

 

[cheerheart4life]

Carrots taste better

 

[CIAgiraffe]

For my gym it is a little bit of both. Mostly carrot, but when it is stick it usually means the team isn't behaving, or preforming to the standard the coach knows they can. I say it just depends on the team and how well the practice is going and what kind of mood the coach is in.

 

[cheermommaRN]

Cp's coaches start with carrots and move to sticks if the carrots are not working....