All-Star Confidence In Younger Athletes

[Ren wyatt]

I coach a senior level 2 team - we are a new gym and our stunting ability compared to our tumbling ability is an obvious difference! We are going level 3 for a competition coming up for a couple of reasons, but one very obvious reason is that every single person on the team has a round off tuck/front tuck/standing multiple bhs - the majority of the girls have very nice layouts but our stunting ability is not quite there yet.
My issue is that some of the girls, particularly the younger ones lack the confidence or really, believe in themselves. Is this a common issue? How do I build confidence in skills that the girls obviously have? It's a weird issue to have.

 

[Official OWECheer]

@Ren wyatt
Your tumbling sounds very solid. Try ramping up the conditioning if they are having a hard time pressing up the stunts. Look up "Cheer Extreme Flyer Tips" on YouTube for good flyer conditioning.

This may sound a bit extreme (no pun intended), but Courtney Smith-Pope (owner of Cheer Extreme Allstars) has a tip for instilling confidence in insecure athletes: she crosses them over to a lower-level team (level 2, in your case; they will be on two teams at once). They gain confidence because they are already more than proficient with lower-level skills, and that helps them to build confidence which they bring to their upper-level team.

 

[Ren wyatt]

@Ren wyatt
Your tumbling sounds very solid. Try ramping up the conditioning if they are having a hard time pressing up the stunts. Look up "Cheer Extreme Flyer Tips" on YouTube for good flyer conditioning.

This may sound a bit extreme (no pun intended), but Courtney Smith-Pope (owner of Cheer Extreme Allstars) has a tip for instilling confidence in insecure athletes: she crosses them over to a lower-level team (level 2, in your case; they will be on two teams at once). They gain confidence because they are already more than proficient with lower-level skills, and that helps them to build confidence which they bring to their upper-level team.

Thanks for the tips - Many of the athletes cross over already but I understand where you are coming from.
The problem seems to not be in the ability of the younger ones (12-14), they are usually the ones that can tumble or fly etc, it just simply seems to be the confidence in their skills, I have tried drilling the skills over and over and this seems to work sometimes.
I will definitely up there conditioning!

 

[SharkDad]

you'll get some feedback here, but you should try asking this in the coaching section. I think you might get much better advice.

 

[Ren wyatt]

you'll get some feedback here, but you should try asking this in the coaching section. I think you might get much better advice.

Thank you, will do