High School Coreographing Our Own Routine....

[stuntjumptumble]

Okay, so this year my coach has decided that we're going to coreograph our own routine this year due to the fact that we've had issues with the coreographers in the past. This would normally be fine, expect for a few things.
1) My coach is not very experienced with the competiton aspect of high school cheer, and doesn't know anything about coreographing a routine.

2) There aren't many experienced cheerleaders on the team and those who are don't know much about coreography/hitting a score sheet.

3) Some girls on the team are very bossy and like to do things "their way"- getting my ideas out there will be harder than I'd like it to be

Out team is full of talent and we're able to hit a difficult routine, we just need help making one up. So I was wondering if you guys could give me as many tips/advice as possible? And also if anyone has access to a basic score sheet for high school cheer, that would be awesome too. Thanks for the help

 

[cheerforeverever]

First thing's first........Where will you all be competing?
That will determine the:
-score sheet
-divisions available for your team to be in
-rules for each division under that event producer

After you figure those things out, you'll need to evaluate where your team stands and pick the division where you are capable of maxing out on that score sheet for the division. Then, after you know the division, score sheet, and rules for your team, you'll start putting together a routine.

My advice:
-don't put anything in the routine that you don't hit consistently or don't have a month or two before you start competing. It's much easier to add a skill after someone gets it than to try and take it out because you were counting on them to get it and they didn't.
-Know your score sheet from front to back and do your research. Look up what past teams did at your competition, both good and bad. Know how the competition works and what style of routine the judges are looking for(UCA, NCA, Jamfest/Allstar type routine, a state governing body specific type, etc.).
-Use your strengths rather than trying to focus too much on equaling weaknesses.

Routine basics:
-Never have someone cross center by just walking. Make them do a transitional tumbling element, walk around the back when hidden, move them from a side to center and then later from center to the other side after a routine part, etc. instead
-Start with a wow and end with energy. Also strategize to put your weaknesses towards the beginning when your team is less tired (example: if your team struggles with jumps to tumbling, then dont put it as the 2nd to last segment because everyone will be tired and even sloppier).

PM if you have more questions and I'll try to walk you through it to the best of my ability

 

[alison lemair]

you already got some really good advice^^ as to making stunts up, look at a few all-star teams on youtube and get some of your ideas from there. make sure you confine them to fit inside high school rules/regulations.

 

[mollymags]

Figure out your stunt groups and pyramid groups and plan your formations before/after accordingly.

Like other posters said, find the scoresheet you'll be working with and figure out what you need to do to max out. After that, YouTube is your best friend. Watch other routines to get inspiration and ideas.

 

[stuntjumptumble]

First thing's first........Where will you all be competing?
That will determine the:
-score sheet
-divisions available for your team to be in
-rules for each division under that event producer

After you figure those things out, you'll need to evaluate where your team stands and pick the division where you are capable of maxing out on that score sheet for the division. Then, after you know the division, score sheet, and rules for your team, you'll start putting together a routine.

My advice:
-don't put anything in the routine that you don't hit consistently or don't have a month or two before you start competing. It's much easier to add a skill after someone gets it than to try and take it out because you were counting on them to get it and they didn't.
-Know your score sheet from front to back and do your research. Look up what past teams did at your competition, both good and bad. Know how the competition works and what style of routine the judges are looking for(UCA, NCA, Jamfest/Allstar type routine, a state governing body specific type, etc.).
-Use your strengths rather than trying to focus too much on equaling weaknesses.

Routine basics:
-Never have someone cross center by just walking. Make them do a transitional tumbling element, walk around the back when hidden, move them from a side to center and then later from center to the other side after a routine part, etc. instead
-Start with a wow and end with energy. Also strategize to put your weaknesses towards the beginning when your team is less tired (example: if your team struggles with jumps to tumbling, then dont put it as the 2nd to last segment because everyone will be tired and even sloppier).

PM if you have more questions and I'll try to walk you through it to the best of my ability

thank you so much! This was a huge help and I'll let you know if I need anymore help

 

[TinyBlondie15]

You've already gotten great advice here but just want to throw in that our coach made ours (JV) this past season and we were working libs and they weren't working so we took them out and added extensions instead. We ended up getting first place because, although our difficulty level wasn't as high as others, we hit an clean and solid routine. It's better to put in lower level stunts that you KNOW you can hit than higher level stunts that hit only some of the time.

 

[0riginal]

Everyone has given great advice! I would just say that I think your coach should put someone in charge of it, kinda sounds like there's too many cooks in the kitchen! Not necessarily the captain(s), but someone who knows what needs to happen and has experience. Then maybe everyone on the team can write out ideas on paper, or just have a team meeting. Your coach and leader could go through them and figure out what will work and what won't. That way everyone's opinion gets heard.
Just a thought, good luck to you and your team!

 

[SparkleSpankies]

Choreographers are great as long as the coaching staff knows what to do with the "shell" given. Needless to say, a lot don't and that is why people have such a tough time w/ choreogrpahers. Most people have their choreo before October - think about how much changes - Suzie gets hurt, Missy is benched for grades, Jenny quits, a girl moves here from timbuktu and now she is being added in, moved girls up from JV, stunts are different, formations are different b/c now the replacement is not just replacing the Suzie but you needed to switch a stunt group so they are all solid... I can go on and on...

With that being said, since you have had some issues w/ choreo in the past it is probably b/c your coaching staff isn't 100% sure how to handle routine changes and starts really messing w/ the structure, and that is OK, it happens.

Make sure when doing your routine you stay w/in your squads abilities, you are maxing out the score sheet, you are building to your stregnths. If the dance is only worth 5 points, don't do 6 8 counts and focus on it, do 2-3 and be sure to get a formation change, levels, ripples and synchro. Make sure you don't have people running from one side of the floor to another, as stated above maybe have them tumble to the formation or be sure that that persons next position is en-route to the next item. Be sure you know your RULES!!!!! Think about creativity, variety and being clean!

Good Luck!

 

[SarahS]

I'll just add in one thing that I got from a great choreographer: once stunt groups were pretty much set (and this works if you're using the same stunt groups throughout the routine), he would give the kids in each stunt group a particular color of shirt - so one group would be the red group, one the blue, etc. (this can be done less expensively if you make your own basic bows with a different ribbon color for each group.) It helps to make sure that you don't end up with the reds spread out all over the mat right before a stunt sequence or the blues on the opposite side of where you thought they'd be after tumbling - it is just a really easy visual way of making sure your transitions will be clean.

 

[callmecoach]

You've already gotten great advice here but just want to throw in that our coach made ours (JV) this past season and we were working libs and they weren't working so we took them out and added extensions instead. We ended up getting first place because, although our difficulty level wasn't as high as others, we hit an clean and solid routine. It's better to put in lower level stunts that you KNOW you can hit than higher level stunts that hit only some of the time.

Could not agree more. One of my rookie mistakes as a coach was putting in skills that were too difficult for my team just because our competition was doing them and we thought it was our only chance of beating them. It only lead to frustration on my part and that of the team because we could not consistently hit. In competition, it ended up being even harder to win than it would have been with less difficulty because everyone was so nervous and shaky. Incorporating skills that are a bit less difficult but that look clean and skill-appropriate is the most important thing. It leads to everyone being much happier :]

 

[stuntjumptumble]

Thank you all for the fantastic advice!

 

[PullandPray23]

SCORE SHEET SCORE SHEET SCORE SHEET! live it learn it love it, first thing make sure you max out the score sheet in as many categories as possible then you can add as many wristroll snaps as you want

 

[Sophie]

We make our own routine for varsity just like we did in middle school. For middle school (our ms team was better then varsity at the time) We all split into groups and got a song that our coach wanted in the music, then we had to pick a sertain part and create a dance routine for that part. Then once it was all done, we showed the rest of the squad and whatever ones looked the best and were the cleanest got into the routine.

For stunting, we youtubed, a lot.

Heres our team last year, the stunts were SOO simple but looked amazing. PM if you wanted to know how to do the stunts.