Go Ask Alton About Conditioning

[Lisa Welsh]

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By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com

“Welcome to the first installment of Go Ask Alton, a column devoted to building a better cheerleader.
I want this column to be a resource for parents, athletes and coaches as they try to maximize the development of their cheerleader, team or program.
How do I intend to do this? The first way is through empathy. I am CHEERMaD, in addition to being a high performance strength, conditioning, and nutrition coach. I am neck deep in bows, animal prints and Soffee shorts. Heck, Soffe’s National Sales Director’s daughter was the family baby sitter for a couple of summers.
I get it. I experience the same struggles of getting to practice, balancing academics, the nervousness of try outs, the joy and sadness that comes with competing, and the myriad of other things that go into the proper care and feeding of the modern cheerleader. I too, am Certifiably CHEERMaD.”​

What is Cheer Conditioning?
By Alton Skinner, coach

Athletes like Allyson Felix, 26; a five-time USA Outdoor champion at 200m and a 2008 Olympic gold medalist (4X400m), condition daily. Felix will participate in the women's 200m and 100m when the Olympic Games begin next week in London.
While conditioning for most sports is the norm, it is not required for most gyms to include a comprehensive strength and conditioning program, many progressive parents, coaches and athletes are adding this tool to improve cheerleader performance. I am writing this article to help parents and athletes better navigate the world of strength, conditioning and injury prevention training.
For cheerleading, I like to define conditioning as the athlete’s ability to work easily and/or with less stress while performing a chosen skill. To condition effectively parents, coaches and athletes need to understand the end result they wish to achieve. A sound conditioning program involves the correct application of progressive exercise principles to improve an athlete’s performance, making the chosen sport easier to perform. There is more to building a better cheer athlete than running a few laps, doing crunches, planks and lifting a few weights. An effective conditioning program is position specific, skill specific and athlete specific.
What is actually being improved through conditioning?
Cheer fitness includes nine elements, and can be improved through a well-executed conditioning program. The following lists each of the nine elements and an example of how each relates to cheerleading.

1. Strength – the extent to which muscles can exert force by contracting against resistance (e.g. holding or restraining an object or person)
2. Power – the ability to exert maximum muscular contraction instantly in an explosive burst of movements (e.g. jumping, tumbling, sprinting and pushing a flyer to full extension or basket toss)
3. Agility – the ability to perform a series of explosive power movements in rapid succession in opposing directions (e.g. tumbling passes, pyramid transitions and changing position on the mat during a performance)
4. Balance – the ability to control the body’s position, either stationary (a flyer being single or group based) or while moving (e.g. a tumbling passes or bases supporting a flyer).
5. Flexibility – the ability to achieve an extended range of motion without being impeded by excess tissue, i.e. fat or muscle (e.g. executing a leg split, bow and arrow, scorpion, hurdlers, toe touches). Flexibility can be further broken down into: Static- Holding a joint at its maximum range of motion without moving or outside assistance (e.g. Holding a body position); Passive- Hold a joint at its maximum range of motion while working against an object while stationary (e.g. Pyramid building); Dynamic – moving a joint actively through a full range of motion (e.g. kick- kick double, toe touches, transitioning body positions).
6. Local Muscle Endurance – a single muscle’s ability to perform sustained work (e.g. a base’s forearms, biceps shoulders and legs catching multiple basket toss, or a tumbler’s shoulders)
7. Cardiovascular Endurance – the heart’s ability to deliver blood to working muscles and their ability to use it (e.g. running or performing repeated full out programs at practice).
8. Strength Endurance – a muscle’s ability to perform a maximum contraction time after time (e.g. continuous explosive tumbling, basing and flying through a practice or competition).
9. Coordination – the ability to integrate the above listed components so that effective movements are achieved (e.g. anything a cheerleader does)…Maybe I’m a little biased with that answer, but you get the idea.

I realize this information is a little technical but it is essential for parents and athletes to become more informed about the process of becoming the best cheer athlete possible. So from now on, when someone says “We need to improve our conditioning” you can ask better questions about what specifically needs to be improved and what needs to be done to reach the next level.
Alton Skinner is the author of “Winning Workouts for Competitive Cheerleaders” book series. Alton is a strength coach and athletic performance nutritionist specializing in competitive cheerleading and dance teams. He has spent near two decades helping athletes across a wide variety of sports to achieve their athletic goals.
Visit www.Altonskinner.com or twitter.com/altonskinner for regular tips to help you stunt bigger, fly higher and reduce injuries fast.

 

[One and Dunn]

So I am just going to start this out by asking if you have any good idea's, exercises or drills that will help with a snap down out of a back handspring and something to increase the strength needed to pull the toes in front??

 

[Matt Faherty]

Well, I'm not Alton. But I have a few suggestions.

The "snap down" is the second half of a back handspring. A powerful and aggressive "snap down" will allow the athlete to add additional tumbling skills to their pass such as another back handspring, or a tuck. I'm sure none of this is new to you, but I wanted to clarify for any novice tumblers or coaches reading this.

I don't like the term "snap down" because it only describes some of what is going on in the skill. The lower body including the hips, legs, and feet do "snap down" to the ground in the end of a back handspring. But just as importantly, the upper body, arms, shoulders, and torso need to "block" off the floor and "snap up". These movements should happen simultaneously with the body as one unit. For this reason I am always sure to make a note to my athletes that when I refer to "snap down" the full name is "snap down/snap up" but that for conversational purposes it will be shortened.

Since the back handspring is such a complicated skill involving dynamic movements from many large muscle groups, your question will not have one simple answer. Instead will require multifaceted response that takes into account the many different muscle actions and how they can be improved individually.

The Core:

First off I will look at the core. The core refers to the muscles that make up the torso including abdomen, back, and hips. It is imperative that your athletes have a strong core because it is what connects the upper and lower limbs making them work together. Proper core strength will also work with the upper and lower body to enhance the power behind their movements. This will not only help in a back handspring but will improve all elements of cheerleading.

Some great ways to improve core strength are with exercises such as tuck-ups, v-ups, arch-ups (also called supermans,) hollow body holds, crunches, side crunches, and the iso-hold (also called a plank.)

Most of all, its important to make sure you athletes not only have a strong core, but are engaging their core in the skills which progress to a back handspring. Focus on the handstand. Make sure your athletes are engaging their abdominals and glutes. Have them draw their belly button as if pulling it to their spine. Also have them “squeeze their cheeks as if holding in a fart.” (On a side note I would not advise saying the last one while they are in a handstand as it usually makes them giggle and fall over! haha)



Upper Body:

As I said earlier the upper body will be “snapping up” during the end of a back handspring. The muscles used for this motion consist mostly of the shoulder, arms, and upper back. In the second half of the back handspring the arms should remain by, or slightly behind the ears maintaining an “open shoulder angle.” The shoulders should remain elevated and tight to allow the athlete to spring, or block, off of the ground.

One way I demonstrate this is to have my athletes understand this concept is to have them stand up tall with arms up and pretend to reach up for something that is on a shelf too high for them. The lift they feel though their shoulders and core is what they need to feel throughout the entire back handspring. I go on to further explain how when you are tight in your upper body by lifting like this your body will react to the floor similarly to how a basketball would by bouncing it. When you are not tight you are like a flat basketball and will lose your power when tumbling.

To strengthen the shoulders, again handstands are amazing since they are very similar to the movement in a handspring. I have my kids start in a pushup position with their feet on the wall and walk up the wall while pushing through their shoulders. Other exercises include explosive exercises such as pushup pops. Really anything that will get them inverted and putting weight on their shoulders will help.

One I find helpful is the handstand pop. Have the athlete kick up to handstand and bock to pop forward a short distance. This will promote the immediate block motion during the back and front handspring.

Lower Body

The lower body is consists of pelvis, legs, and calves. In the second half of the back handspring the pelvis will be tilted slightly forward creating a tight arch position. The legs will be straight the knee with the quad muscle engaged, as well as the toe pointed with the calf engaged. This is the result of a complete and powerful jump. From here the toes will snap down under the body as the hips will close from a tight arch position to a tight hallow position. It is important to note that the glutes must remain engaged to not allow the hips to overly close making the athlete pike down.

A good exercise to strengthen the muscles used here are “leg drops” have the athlete lay on their back while lifting their legs up to to a 90 degree angle. Have them drop their legs slowly to 6 inches off the ground and lift back up. If that’s easy have them do it on an elevated surface with their legs hanging off of it. This will provide a greater range of motion for the exercise.

A great drill for this is the handstand snap down. Have the athlete kick up to a handstand. After balanced have them open their hips and shoulders slightly to resemble the end of a back handspring. Then have them quickly snap their hips, and toes under then while standing up into a rebound.

Putting It All Together

The last thing I want to touch on is a drill that will help build power in the back handspring after all the basics have been learned and the skill can be done successfully and confidently.

*Before I tell you what it is I have to give credit to Derek Johnson who I learned this drill from last year when we coached together at Woodward.*

Have your athlete perform their back handspring up an incline. This will make it harder to perform. They will have to jump harder, swing harder, block and snap harder in order to get over. Much like when someone runs up hill, your athlete will find that doing their handspring on the flat floor will feel easier, be stronger, and faster.

Again, that should only be done after the athlete has mastered the skill with correct technique. Even then, you might want to spot the first one your athlete tries since it will feel a quite different.

Anyways, I could go on forever and probably write a book on this. But as you can probably see from about half way through this post, when my paragraphs begin to lose their elaborate details, I am getting tired of writing for the day. Let me know if you have any questions.

Hope I helped answer your question,
Coach Matt