High School Conditioning Drills

[MHSCheercoach]

I just finished my 2nd season coaching high school cheer and while I have introduced conditioning to these athletes, I still feel like there could be more or better exercises I could have them doing. I seen the other post on conditioning and was just wanting to get ideas of what exercises or drills you have your athletes do before a practice. Right now I am seeing little to no core muscles which is greatly affecting our stunting, tumbling, and jumps.

Secondly, I am looking for some drills or tips on how to tighten up their motions. I've explained it the best I can, demonstrated, but still they slide their motions. I've done motion drills, like simon says, but it's not a problem of placement but rather I don't think they get it. Granted, their previous coaches had no real experience with cheer and the squad was a complete joke when I took it over so there's been lots of improvement, but just not sure what else I can do to get them to understand.

I appreciate any and all help. I just want to get a good routine going as I am also going to be assistant coach for the junior high program which has been extinct for the last 3 years. I need to get these girls headed in the right direction so I'm not having to re-train them for high school. Figured it's no better time then with a fresh new squad that I'll have in April.
Thanks
Patty​

 

[Oxx3rinxxO]

Leg lifts!!!! And just do a lot of abs, like the cheer athletics ab workout! I also do countdowns, you do 10 cheer jacks, 10 lunge things and you jump and switch legs, then 10 straight jumps, then you do 9 each and all the way down to 1. In the cheer jacks just really harp on the motion placement. Good luck!!

 

[BuegeSmalls]

We did a game called "oval office" basically you split the team into two groups. The first group goes in the middle of the mat, the "office", and do some sort of conditioning (abs, push ups, leg lifts, whatever) and the other group runs around the mats, we usually start with 10 laps and then go down to one. The group in the office does the conditioning until all the girls on the outside finish their laps, then they switch. After both groups do 10 laps, you go back to where you started and do nine laps and a different exercise in the middle and so on.

We also did another one where you run in place for like 30 sec (or maybe it was a minute...can't remember) and then do some sort of exercise, like 3o sit ups and run in place again for 30 sec and then do another exercise and just repeat that until you go through all the exercises you want to do. Then it ends with high knees for a minute. The exercises we usually did were: Sit ups, twist sit ups, side sit ups, push ups, plank, lemon squeezers, hollow hold ect...

There was another one we did one, we split into a few groups, I think of three and everyone picked a activity the wanted to do, something you wanted to work on. So one group picked splits (the flyers lol), I think one did tumbling, abs, and I can't remember what the other did. Anyway, you had to do the activity for a certain amount of time (somewhere between 2-5 mins, can't remember). You had to do it the whole time, then you'd switch and go to every group until you got where you started.

Those are all at the end of practice. If you want one for the beginning of practice, then you could do some kind of run thing. My freshman year we did this thing and we would run for 5 mins at the start and then add another minute to run every week. The goal was to get to 20, I can't remember if we ever did it lol. It was just for summer practices. Hope these help!

 

[Cheer-ful Mom]

Send Rudags a note asking him about conditioning - he's got awesome some stuff. My CP misses his conditioning versus what her HS coach has them doing.

 

[MTcoach]

I actually have my girls work out with the football players-they condition in the mornings. If they show up late, miss any other practice, they have to make up for it by attending. They actually love it-they have gotten closer to the team and they all cheer for each other. Some girls attend just to attend now.

It's also nice that it doesn't take time out of my practice.

For the summer I'm requiring 3x a week in the weight room. The football coach runs that so I can tell him what I need them to work on.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

I actually have my girls work out with the football players-they condition in the mornings. If they show up late, miss any other practice, they have to make up for it by attending. They actually love it-they have gotten closer to the team and they all cheer for each other. Some girls attend just to attend now.

It's also nice that it doesn't take time out of my practice.

For the summer I'm requiring 3x a week in the weight room. The football coach runs that so I can tell him what I need them to work on.

That would be awesome, but we don't have a football team, only basketball. Our weight room is far from anything great too. We're a real small school so our resources are limited. Thanks though

 

[MHSCheercoach]

We did a game called "oval office" basically you split the team into two groups. The first group goes in the middle of the mat, the "office", and do some sort of conditioning (abs, push ups, leg lifts, whatever) and the other group runs around the mats, we usually start with 10 laps and then go down to one. The group in the office does the conditioning until all the girls on the outside finish their laps, then they switch. After both groups do 10 laps, you go back to where you started and do nine laps and a different exercise in the middle and so on.

We also did another one where you run in place for like 30 sec (or maybe it was a minute...can't remember) and then do some sort of exercise, like 3o sit ups and run in place again for 30 sec and then do another exercise and just repeat that until you go through all the exercises you want to do. Then it ends with high knees for a minute. The exercises we usually did were: Sit ups, twist sit ups, side sit ups, push ups, plank, lemon squeezers, hollow hold ect...

There was another one we did one, we split into a few groups, I think of three and everyone picked a activity the wanted to do, something you wanted to work on. So one group picked splits (the flyers lol), I think one did tumbling, abs, and I can't remember what the other did. Anyway, you had to do the activity for a certain amount of time (somewhere between 2-5 mins, can't remember). You had to do it the whole time, then you'd switch and go to every group until you got where you started.

Those are all at the end of practice. If you want one for the beginning of practice, then you could do some kind of run thing. My freshman year we did this thing and we would run for 5 mins at the start and then add another minute to run every week. The goal was to get to 20, I can't remember if we ever did it lol. It was just for summer practices. Hope these help!

Thank you so much. These are great exercises that I can use to change up the routine and keep them from getting bored. Awesome!
Patty