The better you get at changing your thinking from negative to neutral or positive, (which is part of the mental game of cheerleading), the better you will perform at Nationals. 

When you are at the competition itself, you may get caught up in the excitement and the intensity of it all. You will be hyper aware, hyper alert and you will notice the brilliance of some of the other teams.  Watch out for your reactions! 

For example, let’s say you happen to see another team’s performance that is superb. What do you think? Many cheerleaders might think “Gee, they’re so good…we will never be as good as they are. They’ll probably win and we won’t come in first.”   

Are these thoughts good for you or bad for you?  Of course they are bad for you and if you hold on to them, they will adversely affect your performance.  But if you have practiced how to identify and change your thinking  and you can change your time focus, you will not be affected by this!  You will be able to quickly change your thinking and refocus on your own performance in the present. 

See why mental prep is so important?  When you go on stage you have to have a clear head and a positive outlook.

Great athletes learn how to control their thinking because they know it affects their performance. Cheerleaders can benefit from this strategy especially in preparation for competitions. 

My last blog outlined the importance of categorizing thoughts as good for you or bad for you.  Also, I suggested noting where your time-focus was: past, present, or future. 

Good performance depends on a present focus and positive thinking. 

Once you have identified and categorized your thoughts, the next steps are: 

1. Change the time-focus first by telling yourself, “I am here now; I am present in the here and now.”

2. Change the harmful thoughts to another thought using any of the following:

a. simply choose to focus on something positive in the moment (there is almost always a positive aspect to any situation; it’s your job to find it!)

b. ask  yourself if the negative thought you are having represents the truth or is it a distortion (such as, “I’m terrible at this…I’ll never be a good cheerleader…everyone thinks I stink at this.”) 

1. if it’s a distortion, change it into a more realistic thought. And you can tell it’s a distortion if you’re using absolute terms like “never” or “always.”

c. if the thought reflects reality and is not a distortion, identify the problem and discover a solution. 

Here are some examples of how this system works: 

Let’s say that a recent practice didn’t go well…nothing seemed to work.  What were your thoughts? 

Perhaps you thought, “Coach will kick me off the squad…no one thinks I deserve to be on the team…I’m the worst one in the group.” 

Okay, it’s obvious that these thoughts are not good for you and there’s a bit of future-focus negative predicting going on (“Coach will kick me off the squad.”) 

So, first bring yourself into the present and remind yourself that no one can predict the future and it’s a waste of time to worry about something that hasn’t and probably won’t happen anyway! 

Now ask if your beliefs are true or a distortion.  They are at least exaggerated.  So now look for the problem tht needs to be solved.  And that is, you had a less than stellar practice.  Ok.  Not the end of the world, right? 

But you have still identified a problem that needs fizing.  But you have now opened up the possibility of a solution rather than limiting yourself to feeling miserable. 

What might some solutions be?  You could ask Coach or your captain for extra help.  You could try a different approach.  Perhaps you need to find a different way of focusing.  Maybe you could review some videos.  See?  You’re a problem solver now rather than a whiner! 

So, if you detect that your thinking is negative and limiting, ask yourself how you can open up your thinking…how can you change it from destructive to constructive.  And constructive thinking always opens up the possibility of a solution, of a constructive action.

If you want to improve your cheerleading performance at competitions, try changing the way you think!  Successful Olympic athletes recognize that their performances are affected by the way they think and they work hard to manage their thought processes. 

We are always engaging in silent conversations with ourselves but usually this process is so automatic that we’re not aware of it and yet these internal conversations have a powerful impact on the way you feel and the way you perform. 

Remember you are what you think – so, if your thoughts are negative, how do you imagine this will affect your performance?  

So right now, in this moment, where are your thoughts? Are they negative? Are they positive?  Are they neutral? 

The other thing is to consider the time-focus: are your thoughts focused on something that happened in the past?  Or are you worrying about the future?  Or are you focused on the present moment.  Good performance requires focus in the present, in the here and now.

There are so many ways your thinking can be affected at competitions. You might see another team who really nails a complex routine and get jealous or nervous. You might end up comparing your self to that team. Or maybe you and your stunting partner aren’t getting along lately. Maybe you you’re feeling under the weather a bit. Who knows? But if you’re not careful this line of thinking can undermine your performance. 

What to do? Well, here’s a quick and simple technique to try: 

1. Recognize the thoughts you are having.

2. Categorize them quickly as either good for you or bad for you or having no effect – neutral.

3. Then categorize them in terms of time-focus: past, present, or future.

4. Ask yourself if these thoughts help you to perform better.

5. If not, decide to change the harmful thoughts to another thought (this is hard at first!) 

At first I’d recommend just getting into the habit of noticing  and categorizing your thoughts.  So periodically throughout the day, ask yourself, “What am I thinking?”  Remember to put them into a category of positive, negative, or neutral. 

Winners believe in the old adage – “Know thyself,” and this is a first step in the right direction. 

In future posts I will tell you how to change your negative thoughts into ones that are positive or neutral, but for now, focus on identifying how you think!

Cheerleading competitions are high stakes, high pressure events. Competitions – especially Nationals –  are exciting, exhilarating, and for some of you – terrifying! Who can deny the thrill of performing in front of hundreds or thousands of screaming fans? 

Who would want to miss the opportunity to show the world the fruits of your months of hard work? The skills and hard work in your routine weren’t just given to you like free stuff on Gumtree or a present when it’s not your birthday.  And it has been hard work – creating your routine, revising it, and practicing it over and over again until you’ve nailed it! 

But rehearsing the routine repeatedly is only part of being a winner.  What is equally if not more important is the mental game of preparation for cheerleading competitions.  As I mentioned before, most pro athletes and virtually all Olympic athletes work with sports psychologists, so why not cheerleaders? 

Winning is the science of being totally prepared and being mentally prepared is essential.  

So what do I mean by mental preparation?  Mental preparation refers to learning how to control your body and control your thinking. It means training your body and your mind to do what you want them to do at the time of your performance to ensure you perform at an optimal level. 

You know, everything you do is dependent on your brain. You become what you think. Let me explain this a bit more so you have a good framework to help guide you as we proceed. 

A competition, although wonderful and exciting, may be perceived as a threatening event. Why threatening? Well there is risk involved. There is uncertainty involved (you may not win, you may not nail your routine, someone may get dropped, and so forth). Plus you are being observed by judges and a huge crowd; your every move is going to be scrutinized. 

In such situations you naturally get at least a bit anxious. Anxiety is your mind’s response to real or imagined danger. 

In such situations certain physical things happen. The grand control center in your brain, the prefrontal cortex which is located just behind the forehead, alerts certain other structures in the brain to flood your prefrontal cortex with stress hormones and neurotransmitters that short circuit brain functioning.  As a result, your attention narrows and your thinking becomes less flexible. Jumping to conclusions and acting precipitously or freezing are common at this point. 

In other words fear and stress can make you stupid! No offense – it happens to all of us. 

If an event is seen as positive or neutral, the prefrontal cortex will release a different chemical cocktail than if it is seen as negative.  In other words, depending on how you perceive a given situation, you will either perform well or poorly. So if you perceive a competition as a positive event and if you have control over your thoughts, your brain will release a slew of chemicals that will help you perform better.  

So, doesn’t it make sense to control your thoughts to make sure they are neutral or positive?  You’ll hear a lot more about this is future posts, so come back for more!

Meet Kristy Hall – an expert on fundraising for non-profits! I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristy a while back and we recorded the call so here it is! In this call, Kristy offers cheerleaders several tips on how to raise funds – fast! Kristy recently helped a small non-profit raise more than $20,000 in less than 30 days! What could your cheerleading team do with $20,000?

For more information about Kristy go to www.weneedfundsnow.com/cheer. Please feel free to contact me or Kristy with your questions. If you like, I can invite Kristy to a special teleconfernce call where she can answer your questions in detail.

Here you go:

Have you ever noticed that you can perform a cheer stunt better after watching an expert do it?  Well, there’s a reason for that. When you observe another cheerleader perform a stunt or a full routine, your brain is processing what you are observing and is creating new connections or neural pathways.  So, in essence, you are actively changing your brain!  Cool, right? 

Now this is true for all mammals – even rats!  Yep…scientists note that laboratory rats who observe other rats perform a  task such as walk across an elevated bar, are able to learn how to do this much faster and more efficiently than lab rats that do not observe such behavior.  

So what does this mean for you?  Well, if you want to improve your performance, take time to observe the best cheerleaders you know.  But don’t just look, be interactive in your observation.  By this I mean as you observe, imagine how it would feel for you if you were doing the routine the way the expert is doing it.  Really focus on what you are observing and how you are experiencing it. Feel it in your body and feel it in your heart.  With your mind’s eye, see yourself performing like the person you are observing. By taking the interactive approach you will enhance the creation of new neural pathways.  In other words you will be creating performance maps in your motor cortex, the part of your brain that is responsible for movement. 

 There are many fascinating studies that demonstrate the validity of what I’m talking about here.  Here’s one for you.  Scientists at Harvard University wanted to assess the power of visualization so they studied 2 groups of students.  One group came in every day for 2 hours over 2 weeks time.  They were taught how to do a simple 5-finger exercise on a piano keyboard and each day after they practiced, the scientists measured the growth of their motor cortex (the part of the brain responsible for movement). 

The other group was also taught the 5-finger exercise but they were not given a keyboard and were told not to move a muscle but to just imagine they were moving their fingers.  In other words, to visualize themselves dong it without actually doing it!  They measured the growth in their motor cortices also.  Well, both groups showed a growth in their motor cortices! 

What this study demonstrates is that it is possible to change your brain, to build new motor pathways that will improve your performance by thinking about it! Of course the thinking has to be focused, deliberate, and repeated with an emphasis on feeling and seeing yourself performing brilliantly! 

I recommend devoting time studying videos using this interactive observation approach.

I’ve heard lots of talk about “adrenaline” in connection with cheerleading competitions – especially at Nationals.  People say things like, “Once the adrenaline kicks in, I’ll be fine.”  Well, there is such a thing as too much adrenaline.  We’re really talking about the physiological activation of your body and like other things, it’s good to find just the right level of activation for you. 

In psychology, we refer to this as the Zone of Optimal Functioning or ZOOF.  This means that an athlete must find the right level of activation or arousal for the activity he or she is engaged in.  Too much and performance suffers.  Too little and performance suffers.  Different people have different needs in this regard.  Some like to get revved up and indeed perform better when they are revved up.  Others need to calm down a bit. 

One cheerleader I met realized she performs better when she is clicking on all cylinders.  So her pre-performance routine includes running in place to get her juices flowing.  Another cheerleader performs better when she is calm and centered so her pre-performance routine involves a brief meditation. 

I refer to this as the Goldilocks theory of optimal performance functioning.  For those of you who remember the childhood story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks discovered the Bears’ empty cabin and went inside.  She saw 3 chairs and sat in each.  One was too big, one was too small and one was just right.  The same thing happened with the beds (too hard, too soft and just right), the porridge (too hot, too cold and just right), and so forth. 

So – just like Goldilocks, the bottom line is: you need to determine what the right level of physical arousal or activation is for you that allows you to perform at an optimal level.  You’ll be learning techniques that will help you regulate this.

Stay tuned for an exciting new development!  In the very near future, I will be launching a new product – an information-filled CD (maybe 2!) and workbook on the mental game of cheerleading competition preparation. 

Many elite athletes work with sports psychologists to improve their performances, so why not cheerleaders?  Many pro athletes in most sports, including baseball, football, basketball, and soccer either work directly with sports psychologists or have coaches who are well versed in sports psychology strategies.  And virtually all Olympic teams have a sports psychologist on board. 

Seems to me it’s time cheerleaders reap the benefits of what sports psychology has to offer! 

In high level sports it is estimated that 50 – 90% of success can be attributed to mental factors such as confidence, composure, and concentration, to name a few.  These are known collectively as mental toughness.   Mental toughness skills can be strengthened and taught in order to ensure consistently and excellence in performance.  That’s what I do. 

I will be offering excerpts from the CD in future posts so be sure to check in regularly and please feel free to ask questions!

You might be wondering about this title – why do cheerleaders need to learn how to breathe?  Don’t they do fine already?

Well, of course, everyone breathes – it’s natural.  We generally don’t think twice about it which is miraculous in itself.  The wisdom of the body is such that we breathe constantly day and night, asleep and awake, without much conscious awareness of it. 

But -there are times when it’s wise to pay attention to your breathing such as when you engaging in strenuous physical activity or when you are anxious or when you need to communicate in a strong voice.  All of these relate to cheerleading! 

First, let me dispel a myth.  It is not wise to “take a deep breath” when you are stressed.  As a matter of fact, this is hard to do if you are in a stressful situation because your body is in a fight-flight mode and hence you are breathing shallowly and quickly.  So, what to do?  Exhale!  Yes, that’s right, rather than taking a deep breath in, exhale as slowly and as long as you can. 

Go ahead, try it!  As you exhale, slowly now, you will notice your shoulders relaxing first, then the rest of your body.  You will also be able to take in a nice deep breath because you have relaxed enough to do so and you will have created sufficient space in your lungs. 

If you practice focusing on your exhale, you will get to the point when one slow exhale can get you in the right mental and physical spot for practice or performance or competition. 

And a positive side effect of profound breathing is that it will deepen and strengthen your voice.  A deeper voice carries better than a high voice so before you lead a cheer – exhale!

It’s part of any cheerleading practice: the team gathers together on the mat to stretch to get those muscles warmed up and loose before they move into tumbling practice.  Of course this is necessary to prevent injury but warm-ups also provide a time for the team to chat and laugh and catch up with each other.  It’s the more laid back part of practice with less need for intense focus so cheerleaders are free to interact and connect. 

A wise cheerleading coach will recognize the team-building value of warm-up sessions and not try to interfere too much with the easy-going chatter that occurs.   Yes, the muscles are getting warmed up but so are the connections among team members!