All-Star The Stigma Of Conditioning

[Mamarazzi]

Not sure about your program, but at ours (and many others, apparently,) conditioning is used as a disciplinary tactic, rather than a necessary evil.

Does this give athletes, from the time they start cheer, the impression that conditioning is a horrible activity? We parents are asked not to use cheer as a disciplinary measure, due to the impact on the team, and for the negative connotation that can be associated. We know conditioning is a good thing and necessary for these athletes to safely execute skills, but it appears that it's presented in a consistently negative way.

Thoughts? And how can this change, if you see this as true?

 

[cheercurl]

Conditioning is just a regular part of my daughters cheer program at EVERY practice. I look at it as a necessity. Fit athletes can tumble better and run routines with more endurance. I am kind of surprised that all gyms don't condition regularly...it just never occurred to me??? Like really? No conditioning?

 

[ilikebigbows]

I used to hate conditioning until I got to about level 4 and really started seeing its benefits. I'm on a Worlds team now, and my team kind of likes to condition, especially for strength. It's cool to literally feel yourself getting stronger! Cardio is a bit of a different story lol My teammates and I will occasionally fill in for younger team's practices when they're missing a base, and the girls are always amazed at how strong we are and how easy it is to stunt when you have that sort of strength. Their coaches tell us it motivates them during their own conditioning.

So basically we are trying to show that THE WORK IS WORTH IT there will always be instances where you condition as punishment, ie: flyer hits the ground, tumbling bail, goofing off, but usually our gym encourages conditioning as beneficial. You don't typically hear much complaining when it comes time to condition anymore!


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[cheernerd5678]

We condition at every practice and we know and are told that it's to make us stronger, so we can get through our routine without being dead by pyramid, etc. but when we are goofing off or something they tell us to get to work or we'll condition for the entire rest of practice. So it's used as a punishment but we know we're going to have to do it regardless, it's a matter of if we're going to do it for a whole hour or the normal 10-15 minutes. I don't think it's bad to use as punishment, because it's better than other punishments, it's at least beneficial to the team and the athlete. But if it's only used as punishment then there's a problem. You should come in and expect to condition because it's good for you and you need it, but know you'll have to do extra if you aren't working or drop someone.


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[Learn2TWIST]

The biggest problem is not that coaches are using it as a punishment, it is that the only time a team or person is conditioning is because they are being punished! It is mandatory that before and after every practice my students condition, that has removed the negative connotation because they see it as something mandatory in order to get stronger! As for conditioning as a punishment, I tell my kids they are not being conditioning for doing a skill wrong, they did the skill wrong because they are not strong enough to do it correctly, ie time for push ups, v ups, and tuck jumps! My advanced power tumbling 12-16 year olds are now ALL responsible enough to condition themselves after practice with ZERO SUPERVISION!

 

[5-6-7-8]

I hated conditioning myself because it was used as a punishment. As soon as it became a "team" type activity that was something the coaches put thought into, it was fine.

And by punishment, I mean, "go run lines" or something, without any attention to form. Once we started regular conditioning with attention to form it seemed so much less evil, like there was actual benefit.

 

[CheerExtra]

We usually condition at the end of every team practice, but if we run out of time we will skip it. We also run the lines or laps before practice. And if you take a extra tumbling class you will 100% always condition. Some coaches will also condition you if you take a private lesson. We're encouraged to condition at home every day. Conditioning is also used as discipline, and usually the conditioning is directly connected to whatever you did wrong. For example: if you drop your flyer you will do push ups to make up for it. I dread conditioning, but I know its necessary to be the best athlete I can be.

 

[Jennie]

It's completely necessary. And not just for cheer, for all sports at a certain level.
I see it in terms of track because I'm a hurdler but I see it like this :
If I don't condition then I can't complete a running (cardio) session to the best of my abilities
If I don't do cardio sessions then I can't complete a condition session to the best of my abilities.

For cheer I guess it could go :
If I don't condition I can't manage 3 full outs per practice to the best of my abilities
and vise versa.

It should be viewed as something that helps the other aspects of cheer/whatever sport and not as a punishment

 

[cupieqt]

I love our conditioning routine. It's a little cross fit with skrillex music as the background mix. I wouldn't call it fun but it's pretty bad a$$ to watch (and even more to do).

We give conditioning to help discipline as well. For example, if a flyer doesn't lock out her elbows when she loads into a stunt she has a number of push ups to do. If a base just shrugs instead of dipping with correct technique they have frog jumps or squat jumps. You'll remember to bend your knees on 5-6 after you've done 30 squat jumps.


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[cupieqt]

Ok sorry for the double post but one of my athletes just texted me this. I had to post it here.

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[Dixie]

I love our conditioning routine. It's a little cross fit with skrillex music as the background mix. I wouldn't call it fun but it's pretty bad a$$ to watch (and even more to do).

We give conditioning to help discipline as well. For example, if a flyer doesn't lock out her elbows when she loads into a stunt she has a number of push ups to do. If a base just shrugs instead of dipping with correct technique they have frog jumps or squat jumps. You'll remember to bend your knees on 5-6 after you've done 30 squat jumps.


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Skrillex and Crossfit? I'd pay good money to condition with you! Sounds fun!


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[thecheerbarbie]

I never condition...ever. The only "conditioning" we get is like 5 or 10 standing back tucks if we do something wrong.

 

[cheermomforever]

my daughter has conditioning tumbling every week, how can you expect to get thru a full routine at a comp if you never condition at practice. It is needed so the girls and boys are not dying at the end of a routine.

 

[mommadonna]

I can say that the athletes at our gym have done more conditioning this summer across the board than I've ever seen them do. I can tell a difference in what they can do for sure. They seem to just make everything look easier. They still do pushups if their stunt groups don't hit, but they usually just do more full outs if they aren't hitting.

 

[NJ Coach]

I love coming up with new conditioning for my kids. It all manages to work it's way through the gym, so pretty much the kids hate me when it gets to their team I don't use it as punishment necessarily (though I have in the past), but I will add reps if they are in the wrong practice outfit ect. They were going to do it anyway, now they just have to do a few more.