High School Is It Possible To (almost) Completely Get Rid Of The Lazy Kids? If So, How?

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As a follow on: we were doing tumbling lines yesterday. I started to explain the next drill and a couple of kids were talking. I just looked at them, didn't say a word. The entire team immediately got into push up position. It was AWESOME. I think the kids are seeing that their hard work is leading to their success, so they really encourage each other to try. Success can come from failure, but never from lack of effort.
 
As a follow on: we were doing tumbling lines yesterday. I started to explain the next drill and a couple of kids were talking. I just looked at them, didn't say a word. The entire team immediately got into push up position. It was AWESOME. I think the kids are seeing that their hard work is leading to their success, so they really encourage each other to try. Success can come from failure, but never from lack of effort.
That is amazing.
 
I've wondered about this. All-Star is a different matter, because the people in it typically know what they're in for. In high school/middle school cheer, some people know what to expect and some don't. Others think it's a ticket to popularity and put in as little effort as is possible, so that they can coast through the season and still call themselves a cheerleader. I hope to coach someday and would like to know what you current coaches do to filter out kids like this. I've already heard of things like having each kid submit 2 teacher recommendations for tryouts, but what other tactics do you use?


Well even before tryouts happen in my high school each sports has a parent/athlete meeting. These meetings are basically held to tell athletes what their in for and what the coaches expect out of every athlete. I guess these meetings do filter out people who don't what do as much as others and they help. The coaches don't speak about requirements to get on the team ( so it's a suprise). During tryouts you may or may not see as many athletes as you did in the meeting.
 
I've wondered about this. All-Star is a different matter, because the people typically know what they're in for. In high school/middle school cheer, some people know what to expect and some don't. Others think it's a ticket to popularity and put in as little effort as is possible, so that they can coast through the season and still call themselves a cheerleader. I hope to coach someday and would like to know what you current coaches do to filter out kids like this. I've already heard of things like having each kid submit 2 teacher recommendations for tryouts, but what other tactics do you use?
So my coaches for tryouts did 3 days of cheer bootcamp, jumps, tumbling, pyramids, etc, etc. The girls left were the ones with the most endurance. However, we still have fairly lazy people on our team. My coaches decided to stop that, each week you have to fight to keep your spot and they put you against another cheerleader with your strengths. It's Friday Cut Day. It keeps the girls on their toes, and makes us work a lot harder. It doesn't matter if you are a captain, you can still get cut. Hunger Games-y isn't it?
 
We have a very busy schedule and also started an intense conditioning routine this year. The girls are required to run a timed mile prior to every practice. If they don't finish in time, they cannot participate in practice that day. Most of the team worked butts off to get the time, but we did have a few cheerleaders drop off after seeing schedule and learning of the conditioning rules.
 
my hs coaches would put us through an interview process to see if we were serious about doing cheer and to ask why we wanted to be on the team. if someone gave a fake answer, it was pretty obvious.
 
We have a very busy schedule and also started an intense conditioning routine this year. The girls are required to run a timed mile prior to every practice. If they don't finish in time, they cannot participate in practice that day. Most of the team worked butts off to get the time, but we did have a few cheerleaders drop off after seeing schedule and learning of the conditioning rules.
what is the time they have to beat?
 
We have a very busy schedule and also started an intense conditioning routine this year. The girls are required to run a timed mile prior to every practice. If they don't finish in time, they cannot participate in practice that day. Most of the team worked butts off to get the time, but we did have a few cheerleaders drop off after seeing schedule and learning of the conditioning rules.
We had that when I was in high school. We did it every day, but it only really counted on Thursdays. If we didn't do it under 8:00 we couldn't cheer at the football/basketball game Friday night.


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what is the time they have to beat?

We started them with a 10 minute mile and now they are down to a 9 minute mile! They are doing really well with it a lot of girls come in under 8. We had major endurance issues when running the routine last year so hoping this helps :)
 
My school cheer team has had a few of those over the years.

There's always one or 2 who have been on the team 2 years and think they're safe going into their senior tryout.

What they don't know (but should) is that I notice their lazy activities at clinics, make notes, and it comes out of their Attitude score (15 points total.)

It sounds crazy but in a heavy tryout year with lots of talent, those attitude points have made the difference between seeing a yes or no email in your inbox on results day. There are some girls whom I wish I could have seen their faces when they opened their emails because they thought I didn't notice their lack of effort, and I did. Their attitude score was such that they (as VETERANS) were overtaken by someone younger who wanted it more.

Should you manage to finesse me during tryouts but decide to become lazy during the season, I simply treat you like the lazy girl you're becoming.

A secret about Lazy Girl. As lazy as she appears, she still wants to appear to be the Torrance Shipman of high school. So when you start treating her like the lazy girl she is, she either shapes up or quits.

For example: You want to cheat on your jumps, you can move to the back left. Or I will remove you from the sideline or performance entirely. Lazy girl wants to be lazy but generally can't handle the "omg why is Jenny not in the rally performance?" from her friends. So she steps it up.

You want to continually bail on a stunt? There is an alternate flyer waiting to hit that comp mat and she has been practicing the same stunts as you every day. Lazy Girl generally is not so lazy that she will allow her comp shine to be stolen. So she'll knock it off.

Those who are truthfully so lazy that they can't be bothered will quit by August or be dismissed due to demerits (I've detailed my system in other posts.) So it doesn't affect me much.

My general attitutde (and I have said this at pretryout meetings before) is this: You want to wear a cheer uniform and be cute without actually working? Party City has costumes and if you hurry you can catch them on sale.
 
So my coaches for tryouts did 3 days of cheer bootcamp, jumps, tumbling, pyramids, etc, etc. The girls left were the ones with the most endurance. However, we still have fairly lazy people on our team. My coaches decided to stop that, each week you have to fight to keep your spot and they put you against another cheerleader with your strengths. It's Friday Cut Day. It keeps the girls on their toes, and makes us work a lot harder. It doesn't matter if you are a captain, you can still get cut. Hunger Games-y isn't it?
How specifically do they work that out?
 
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