High School Practice Clothes

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Just curious what, if anything, you all do about practice uniforms. Do you even have practice uniforms?

We order camp clothes every year, and they've become our practice clothes by history. Invariably, someone "loses" something and then we don't have a team uniform for practice.

I'm considering going the route of our football and basketball programs. We will order relatively plain/inexpensive practice T shirts, hand them out at practice time, take them up at the end of practice, and I'll wash them every day. Thoughts?

 

[AScheer]

Just curious what, if anything, you all do about practice uniforms. Do you even have practice uniforms?

We order camp clothes every year, and they've become our practice clothes by history. Invariably, someone "loses" something and then we don't have a team uniform for practice.

I'm considering going the route of our football and basketball programs. We will order relatively plain/inexpensive practice T shirts, hand them out at practice time, take them up at the end of practice, and I'll wash them every day. Thoughts?

Have you really thought this through? Will you have access to the school machines or will you do them at home. If you use the school machines, you'll have to work around other sports in sharing AND you'll have to stay late at the school while this happens. Washing and drying every night takes a lot of time, not to mention folding and sorting. You'll spend practice time handing them out every day. At the end you'll have to wait on them all to change and then collect the sweaty nasty clothes from them. Will you have a team manager like the football teams whose job it is to wash/dry/fold/sort/set out? Don't forget the detergent, water usage, and energy. If you're doing this at home, expect the added expense of so much laundry. If you're doing it at the school, then I imagine you still have to supply detergent or pay a fee to use the machine.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer on a new idea, but you couldn't pay me money to add that to my life list. More power to you if you decide to do it that way! I will be sending positive thoughts and energy your way!

IMO they're high schoolers. It's not teaching them anything about accountability or responsibility if you're keeping up with their items for them AND also cleaning them.

We get camp wear that turns into practice wear too. The only days we match are cheer gym days or the week leading up to a competition or big event. If we're doing new choreo or cleaning dances/sections I may add a matching day. Daily matching isn't as important to me personally, it's a battle I don't find worth it, but I know not everyone feels that way. Sometimes our matching is as simple as all black, or black shorts/white tops. It doesn't have to be cheer related as long as it's the correct color AND doesn't have anything neon on it.

Occasionally kids lose things. If they're out of outfit, they owe. What they owe is specific to the kid, but it's something that they will hate. I usually buy a couple of extras, and if you lose yours you can buy another for a lot more than you paid originally. If it's not the right size, tough luck. This is why a teeny tiny youth medium girl wore an adult medium on the flight to nationals last year.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Have you really thought this through? Will you have access to the school machines or will you do them at home. If you use the school machines, you'll have to work around other sports in sharing AND you'll have to stay late at the school while this happens. Washing and drying every night takes a lot of time, not to mention folding and sorting. You'll spend practice time handing them out every day. At the end you'll have to wait on them all to change and then collect the sweaty nasty clothes from them. Will you have a team manager like the football teams whose job it is to wash/dry/fold/sort/set out? Don't forget the detergent, water usage, and energy. If you're doing this at home, expect the added expense of so much laundry. If you're doing it at the school, then I imagine you still have to supply detergent or pay a fee to use the machine.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer on a new idea, but you couldn't pay me money to add that to my life list. More power to you if you decide to do it that way! I will be sending positive thoughts and energy your way!

IMO they're high schoolers. It's not teaching them anything about accountability or responsibility if you're keeping up with their items for them AND also cleaning them.

We get camp wear that turns into practice wear too. The only days we match are cheer gym days or the week leading up to a competition or big event. If we're doing new choreo or cleaning dances/sections I may add a matching day. Daily matching isn't as important to me personally, it's a battle I don't find worth it, but I know not everyone feels that way. Sometimes our matching is as simple as all black, or black shorts/white tops. It doesn't have to be cheer related as long as it's the correct color AND doesn't have anything neon on it.

Occasionally kids lose things. If they're out of outfit, they owe. What they owe is specific to the kid, but it's something that they will hate. I usually buy a couple of extras, and if you lose yours you can buy another for a lot more than you paid originally. If it's not the right size, tough luck. This is why a teeny tiny youth medium girl wore an adult medium on the flight to nationals last year.

This is why I love you.

You and I see eye to eye on almost everything. The idea of matching practice clothes is a battle I don't want to fight. I have an assistant coach who thinks it's necessary, and spends hours tracking every article of clothing that isn't in line with the practice clothes schedule. She thinks having identical practice clothes every practice is part of "being a team." I've told her it's not a battle I want to fight anymore. I get the response, "you're just letting them win." I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that finds it to be a nuisance that isn't worth dealing with.

ETA: she's been with the program for many, many, many years, and is self-proclaimed "old skool." I just get tired of refereeing the battle between teenagers and the "grandmother"-figure who is telling them what to wear.

 

[purplecheer]

I agree with @AScheer. The logistics of washing will be tough, plus people will have to use up practice time changing. Daily matching isn't too important in my eyes. As long as everyone is dressed similarly (eg. team or club shirt, black shorts/leggings/compression tights, black or white runners, optional bow) it should be fine. The only time my team (all star) worries about matching is choreography or showoffs.

 

[coacha]

We don't do matching practice wear. We have camp clothes that could turn into practice wear but on the very rare occasion that we want them to match, we usually just tell them white shirt/black shorts.

And I'm going to agree with AScheer on the logistics of doing the laundry yourself. You'd be wasting your time, potentially wasting practice time, and not actually teaching your kids anything about responsibility.

And as for your assistant's opinion, there's a lot more to being part of a team than matching clothes. In fact, I'd put matching clothes really far down on that list.

 

[CheerBank]

I think there are merits to practice wear but it could just be as simple as a team shirt that they are required to wear and are responsible for. There's something about seeing them all in the same outfit with them looking like a team that gets them in the right frame of mind for practice.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

We had practice wear in high school. We used camp clothes, and then we also got 3 shirts from the school that had to be returned at the end of the year. If you los it, you bought it, and if you didn't wear it to practice, the whole team conditioned for it.


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[Official OWECheer]

Just curious what, if anything, you all do about practice uniforms. Do you even have practice uniforms?

We order camp clothes every year, and they've become our practice clothes by history. Invariably, someone "loses" something and then we don't have a team uniform for practice.

I'm considering going the route of our football and basketball programs. We will order relatively plain/inexpensive practice T shirts, hand them out at practice time, take them up at the end of practice, and I'll wash them every day. Thoughts?

I would never wash my athletes' practice clothes for them. Ew LOL.

But IMO, matching practice wear (especially if it is kept the same year after year, and based on simple soffes and t-shirts) can save money in the long run and prevent the keeping up with the Joneses mentality from beomcing embedded in your athletes. Or, at the very least, require everyone to have pairs of soffes in 2 or 3 specific colors, and have them all wear the same color practice shirt.

 

[tojofasho]

We had practice wear in high school. We used camp clothes, and then we also got 3 shirts from the school that had to be returned at the end of the year. If you los it, you bought it, and if you didn't wear it to practice, the whole team conditioned for it.


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I like this. Super simple, I love anything that adds on extra conditioning, and it gives incentive for them to wear the matching shirts without having to super micromanage it. They would kind of police each other after a few times.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

We don't do conditioning for punishment....ever.

Any other ideas for punishment if practice clothes can't be worn?

 

[TealShades]

We don't do conditioning for punishment....ever.

Any other ideas for punishment if practice clothes can't be worn?

Hmmm make them wash the practice wear

 

[Twinklestars]

We don't do conditioning for punishment....ever.

Any other ideas for punishment if practice clothes can't be worn?

After practice clean up-- put mats up, throw out any left trash…

I would say that it would be easier to pick shirts that are your school colors and not get caught up in a particular shirt. Most schools have 1-3 colors plus white, black, and grey. So. Monday could be one color,Tuesday another, and just have it the same every week.

Start it when they get their camp wear and maybe get an extra shirt or two to be certain that everyone at least has one shirt of each color.

We don't compete and after camp they only wear their camp clothes for pep rallies. I wish they would wear them for some practices--like when they are working on their homecoming routines.

 

[AScheer]

We don't do conditioning for punishment....ever.

Any other ideas for punishment if practice clothes can't be worn?

We make our girls owe and it's usually something they need practice on. It's catered to the individual. So one girl may have to owe 15 toe backs and another 20 handsprings, etc. Whatever they need more reps with. The harder the skill and the harder it is for them to perform at that moment (based on how tired they are after a practice and how well they have the skill) determines the number I choose. I want it to suck enough that they remember to keep up with their crap next time, but not enough to injure them.

 

[AScheer]

This is why I love you.

You and I see eye to eye on almost everything. The idea of matching practice clothes is a battle I don't want to fight. I have an assistant coach who thinks it's necessary, and spends hours tracking every article of clothing that isn't in line with the practice clothes schedule. She thinks having identical practice clothes every practice is part of "being a team." I've told her it's not a battle I want to fight anymore. I get the response, "you're just letting them win." I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that finds it to be a nuisance that isn't worth dealing with.

ETA: she's been with the program for many, many, many years, and is self-proclaimed "old skool." I just get tired of refereeing the battle between teenagers and the "grandmother"-figure who is telling them what to wear.

I'm not on board with the idea that matching = being part of a team. I get that some may feel that way, so to each their own. I've cheered on teams that have ran both ways and I've coached teams that ran both ways. There is zero correlation in my experience that ties practice wear to helping bring teams together or having more effective practices. If the assistant feels that strongly she could handle the laundry!

 

[CheerBank]

I'm not on board with the idea that matching = being part of a team. I get that some may feel that way, so to each their own. I've cheered on teams that have ran both ways and I've coached teams that ran both ways. There is zero correlation in my experience that ties practice wear to helping bring teams together or having more effective practices. If the assistant feels that strongly she could handle the laundry!

I don't think there's a right or wrong to this. It more comes down to the coach's preference. Cp has been at gyms that didn't have specific practice wear except for one outfit they would wear when practicing before comps, and at gyms that have mandatory practice wear for every practice down to a specific bow. What I have seen is that having to plan wearing the practice wear and then putting it on almost flips a switch in the brain that says "now we are ready to work".
Cp's school team does not have specific practice clothes and I wish they would. I think it would give them some sense of self-discipline at a very basic level. They look sloppy, practice sloppy and compete sloppy. But again, that's on the coach and how the practices are run.