- Dec 14, 2009
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Moderators please move if this should be elsewhere...
As we approach tryouts there are several things that come to mind that after 36 years of coaching, I feel should be shared each year
.
Make sure your priorities are in line with the program that you are trying out for. Some programs are perfectly fine having laid back practices most of the year with lax attendance policies, while others demand your attendance at every meeting, practice, function and gathering as tantamount to the teams success or failure. Some athletes are into the truly competitive nature of cheerleading while some merely are in it for the social nature. I am not calling either right or wrong, just what is. You need to find the program with the right fit for you and your athletes goals and commitment level.
No matter how organized a gym may try to be, there will be extra practices that will conflict with a family vacation, job crisis, or just life happening. It is the nature of competitive sports. It does not always fit into our fill every moment of the day with something to do and somewhere to be type society that we have become.
As an athlete time management is a must. You must learn how to balance your grades, your chores, your practices and yes your social life.That is not your parents responsibility, but yours. It is their responsibility to hold you accountable when you don't live up to your commitments. It is not fair to punish a team by you having to quit because you could not or did not manage your time wisely in doing homework or taking care of responsibilities assigned to you by your parents.
Program First, Team Second, Individual third. The integrity of the owners, the plan of excellence, the track record of success, the training plans that they offer, the quality services that they provide. You sign up to be with a program first. You must be willing to put the needs of the program first. You trust the coaches to do the right things for the whole program, not just one individual. After all if it was all about one individual, that would be favoritism.and while it feels good to be the favorite, it feels especially rotten to know that you are not the favorite. This may mean you are asked to crossover because your leadership is needed on a newer team of athletes, or you are placed on a team that is lower than your personal skill level is. But it is currently the highest your program can field safely and with integrity. The intangibles that a program offers should be put first. Teams always shake out in the end.
Cheerleading is a team sport. It takes everyone working together for a common goal to make that happen. Owner, coach, athlete and parent. First pass and lass pass. Point jumper and those hanging out in the back row. Point stunt and back right corner. You must be committed to be the best you can be for your team, because when your team is successful your program is successful and you are successful. Not the one you didn't make. Not the one you really wanted to be on. But the one that you are on. Don't be that athlete that knows everyone else's routine by heart and have no clue what you are supposed to do in your routine.
No athlete has a position for life, Flyers grow and end up not being able to fly anymore. Not because they are not physically capable or have lost their flexibility, but because the team dynamics that is the best fit for them, does not have the physical capability to keep them up in the air for extended stunt sequences and transitional work required today. A ground bound athlete may be pressed into being a flyer due to injury and not having anyone to replace the injured athlete. The main base may have grown and is now a better team fit at learning to be a back spot. The more versatile you are, the more value you bring to your team and the more value you bring to your college team should you decide to cheer in college. Saying you can only fly, base, backspot simply says my individual success is more important to me than what may be best for the team. Using this as a threat or intimidation that if you don't get your preferred position you will quit, proves you are not a good fit for the program and you may need to look elsewhere. And in some programs the owner will hold the door open for you with a list of other gyms phone numbers to call
Don't be a one trick pony. It takes more than a janky BHS and a ROBHS that looks like a tumbling frog to make a level 2 team.You should be able to max everything on a level before being considered to be on that level. Then you have to look at stunting, jumps, dance, work ethic, attendance, commitment levels of athlete AND parents as well before being finally placed. Here is a thought... Look at your gyms routines from last year in the level you think you should be on. The very last competition. Can you execute every one of those tumbling passes without deduction right now, in the midst of a 2:30 routine with the World watching in the highest pressure packed venue you can think of? When missing one tumbling skill can move a team from first place to fourth or fifth place? Sure you can do it in tumbling class with 8-10 athletes waiting for their turn, plenty of rest and relatively little pressure. Sure you can do it for your instagram and twitter followers...after 4-5 takes to get it right. But with it all on the line right now...not later but now?
Most complaints along this line want their athlete to be the exception on the team instead of being exceptional. Effective winning coaches plan for exceptional not exceptions. See the dilemma here? When you make your athlete the exception you set them up to always expect to not have to be at or near the top of their abilities, skill sets and value to make it. This can have a disastrous effect later in life in different arenas.
To those that say my athlete wont get xyz skill unless she is on a team that forces her to have it and work on it every day, you may be emotionally correct but statistically wrong. You are trying to replace an athletes inner motivation, resources and pressure with external ones. That is always a bad swap. Most athletes when placed on a team higher than their skill set do not rise to that level. they beat themselves up for not being as good as the others. they doubt themselves. They develop mental blocks because they feel they are the one holding the team back. As always there a few exceptions that rise to the occasion, but many more don't rise. That is not a risk worth taking.
As coaches we must always find ways to progress athletes above and beyond the level we need them on. We have to find time to work higher level skills safely and with proper progression, without sacrificing the perfection of the skill set we need for the team's routine. That is a valid point that should be addressed by every gym. There should be a plan in place to make this happen. If there is no plan, then the gym you are in might be a bad fit.
In case you did not know it let me put it out here now. You have been trying out all season long for next season. Your work ethic, discipline, attitude has been on display for a year or more. How you talk your teammates, how you act at competitions, how you take instructions and corrections. A sudden change in wanting to get better does absolutely nothing to improve your immediate next team placements chances, especially when it is done this close to tryouts. Showing up to every open gym, tumbling class and getting last minute private lessons in the month before tryouts when you were conspicuously absent the rest of the year is as much an admission on your part that you did not take the responsibility to progress your skills over the season. Now that it is crunch time you are cramming for the final exam, hoping to pass and get promoted. Many of us adults can tell you that last minute cramming for tests did not always work out in our best favor in school, athletics or life.
Finally your life isn't over if you don't make _____ team or level. Contrary to what you may think, life really does go on. You will make new friends. The team will be better than you think if you commit to it being so. Many of you have a long way to go before you will hang up your cheer and tumbling shoes. Be patient and take time to enjoy the views on the journey. that is much better than rushing your way to the top only to find out that once there you really aren't prepared to stay there.
Happy tryouts!
As we approach tryouts there are several things that come to mind that after 36 years of coaching, I feel should be shared each year
.
Make sure your priorities are in line with the program that you are trying out for. Some programs are perfectly fine having laid back practices most of the year with lax attendance policies, while others demand your attendance at every meeting, practice, function and gathering as tantamount to the teams success or failure. Some athletes are into the truly competitive nature of cheerleading while some merely are in it for the social nature. I am not calling either right or wrong, just what is. You need to find the program with the right fit for you and your athletes goals and commitment level.
No matter how organized a gym may try to be, there will be extra practices that will conflict with a family vacation, job crisis, or just life happening. It is the nature of competitive sports. It does not always fit into our fill every moment of the day with something to do and somewhere to be type society that we have become.
As an athlete time management is a must. You must learn how to balance your grades, your chores, your practices and yes your social life.That is not your parents responsibility, but yours. It is their responsibility to hold you accountable when you don't live up to your commitments. It is not fair to punish a team by you having to quit because you could not or did not manage your time wisely in doing homework or taking care of responsibilities assigned to you by your parents.
Program First, Team Second, Individual third. The integrity of the owners, the plan of excellence, the track record of success, the training plans that they offer, the quality services that they provide. You sign up to be with a program first. You must be willing to put the needs of the program first. You trust the coaches to do the right things for the whole program, not just one individual. After all if it was all about one individual, that would be favoritism.and while it feels good to be the favorite, it feels especially rotten to know that you are not the favorite. This may mean you are asked to crossover because your leadership is needed on a newer team of athletes, or you are placed on a team that is lower than your personal skill level is. But it is currently the highest your program can field safely and with integrity. The intangibles that a program offers should be put first. Teams always shake out in the end.
Cheerleading is a team sport. It takes everyone working together for a common goal to make that happen. Owner, coach, athlete and parent. First pass and lass pass. Point jumper and those hanging out in the back row. Point stunt and back right corner. You must be committed to be the best you can be for your team, because when your team is successful your program is successful and you are successful. Not the one you didn't make. Not the one you really wanted to be on. But the one that you are on. Don't be that athlete that knows everyone else's routine by heart and have no clue what you are supposed to do in your routine.
No athlete has a position for life, Flyers grow and end up not being able to fly anymore. Not because they are not physically capable or have lost their flexibility, but because the team dynamics that is the best fit for them, does not have the physical capability to keep them up in the air for extended stunt sequences and transitional work required today. A ground bound athlete may be pressed into being a flyer due to injury and not having anyone to replace the injured athlete. The main base may have grown and is now a better team fit at learning to be a back spot. The more versatile you are, the more value you bring to your team and the more value you bring to your college team should you decide to cheer in college. Saying you can only fly, base, backspot simply says my individual success is more important to me than what may be best for the team. Using this as a threat or intimidation that if you don't get your preferred position you will quit, proves you are not a good fit for the program and you may need to look elsewhere. And in some programs the owner will hold the door open for you with a list of other gyms phone numbers to call
Don't be a one trick pony. It takes more than a janky BHS and a ROBHS that looks like a tumbling frog to make a level 2 team.You should be able to max everything on a level before being considered to be on that level. Then you have to look at stunting, jumps, dance, work ethic, attendance, commitment levels of athlete AND parents as well before being finally placed. Here is a thought... Look at your gyms routines from last year in the level you think you should be on. The very last competition. Can you execute every one of those tumbling passes without deduction right now, in the midst of a 2:30 routine with the World watching in the highest pressure packed venue you can think of? When missing one tumbling skill can move a team from first place to fourth or fifth place? Sure you can do it in tumbling class with 8-10 athletes waiting for their turn, plenty of rest and relatively little pressure. Sure you can do it for your instagram and twitter followers...after 4-5 takes to get it right. But with it all on the line right now...not later but now?
Most complaints along this line want their athlete to be the exception on the team instead of being exceptional. Effective winning coaches plan for exceptional not exceptions. See the dilemma here? When you make your athlete the exception you set them up to always expect to not have to be at or near the top of their abilities, skill sets and value to make it. This can have a disastrous effect later in life in different arenas.
To those that say my athlete wont get xyz skill unless she is on a team that forces her to have it and work on it every day, you may be emotionally correct but statistically wrong. You are trying to replace an athletes inner motivation, resources and pressure with external ones. That is always a bad swap. Most athletes when placed on a team higher than their skill set do not rise to that level. they beat themselves up for not being as good as the others. they doubt themselves. They develop mental blocks because they feel they are the one holding the team back. As always there a few exceptions that rise to the occasion, but many more don't rise. That is not a risk worth taking.
As coaches we must always find ways to progress athletes above and beyond the level we need them on. We have to find time to work higher level skills safely and with proper progression, without sacrificing the perfection of the skill set we need for the team's routine. That is a valid point that should be addressed by every gym. There should be a plan in place to make this happen. If there is no plan, then the gym you are in might be a bad fit.
In case you did not know it let me put it out here now. You have been trying out all season long for next season. Your work ethic, discipline, attitude has been on display for a year or more. How you talk your teammates, how you act at competitions, how you take instructions and corrections. A sudden change in wanting to get better does absolutely nothing to improve your immediate next team placements chances, especially when it is done this close to tryouts. Showing up to every open gym, tumbling class and getting last minute private lessons in the month before tryouts when you were conspicuously absent the rest of the year is as much an admission on your part that you did not take the responsibility to progress your skills over the season. Now that it is crunch time you are cramming for the final exam, hoping to pass and get promoted. Many of us adults can tell you that last minute cramming for tests did not always work out in our best favor in school, athletics or life.
Finally your life isn't over if you don't make _____ team or level. Contrary to what you may think, life really does go on. You will make new friends. The team will be better than you think if you commit to it being so. Many of you have a long way to go before you will hang up your cheer and tumbling shoes. Be patient and take time to enjoy the views on the journey. that is much better than rushing your way to the top only to find out that once there you really aren't prepared to stay there.
Happy tryouts!
