I'm currently re-evaluating everything we did last season and looking at how to improve, so...
Do your cheerleaders run? And if they do, are they timed?
I'm not a huge fan of plain running for cheerleaders, since interval training is much more suited to what they do. Having said that, we do jog as a warm-up before each practice (2 laps around the school which is about 3/4 of a mile). There was no timing involved, I only encouraged the girls to challenge themselves to do better each time. Unfortunately, we had several who never were able to jog the whole thing; they always walked part of it. And I don't think they ever pushed themselves to walk less each time - but I had no way of proving that.
We only used it as a warm up, so it doesn't seem overly important. But on the other hand, I am trying to help them improve as athletes, which includes better cardio performance. So having them set goals and beat that seems like something I should focus on.
Thoughts?
Do your cheerleaders run? And if they do, are they timed?
I'm not a huge fan of plain running for cheerleaders, since interval training is much more suited to what they do. Having said that, we do jog as a warm-up before each practice (2 laps around the school which is about 3/4 of a mile). There was no timing involved, I only encouraged the girls to challenge themselves to do better each time. Unfortunately, we had several who never were able to jog the whole thing; they always walked part of it. And I don't think they ever pushed themselves to walk less each time - but I had no way of proving that.
We only used it as a warm up, so it doesn't seem overly important. But on the other hand, I am trying to help them improve as athletes, which includes better cardio performance. So having them set goals and beat that seems like something I should focus on.
Thoughts?