You’ve heard me talk about letting go of things you cannot change and working on those things you can change.  For cheerleaders, this may mean that you acknowledge that a more experienced and talented squad might win the competition or that you won’t make the cut for this year’s tryouts because the coach was looking for a solid base and you’re a flyer.  These are things you cannot control.  The only thing you can control is your attitude!

Well, this week, I’ve had to work on my attitude.  We are on vacation in the beautiful region north of the city of Montreal known as the Laurentides.  Specifically, we are staying in Mt. Tremblant.  We had hoped to spend our days hiking in the mountains and biking on country roads.   But - so far, most days have been bleak and rainy - not at all conducive to outdoor activities.  Yuck!

If there’s one thing you definitely cannot control, it’s the weather!  At first I found myself bemoaning our wet situation.  Then, I caught myself and realized what I was doing. My thought pattern was making the situaiton worse than it had to be.  Of course I can’t change the weather but I can change how I react to it!  So, I have worked to put it all in perspective.  Who am I to feel sorry for myself?  I’m lucky to be able to take time off and lucky to be with my wonderful husband in a lovely (albeit wet) environment.  I’m lucky to be healthy.  It’s kinda nice to have the time to read for pleasure and to take an afternoon nap.  Would I prefer it to be sunny? Of course!  But in the meantime, I have discovered the power of reframing my thinking to enable me to have a good vacation.

So far, we’ve established that a cheerleader experiencing stress may be more vulnerable to injury.   In my last post I wrote about the symptoms of stress.  If you’re a cheer coach, you may be thinking…so what do I do about it? 

Well, ideally, you might notice that a cheerleader is in a lot of stress although they can be good at hiding it!  If a cheerleader seems to have a hard time focusing or makes a lot of mistakes or seem preoccupied, those can be signs of stress, too. 

Of course you can simply ask someone if she’s having a rough time.  If the person is forthcoming, then you can decide if it’s a problem that can be alleviated by a brief chat with you or if you need to refer the cheerleader to a counselor.  (This depends on the age of the person; if under-age, you would need to contact the parents.) 

I realize cheer coaches aren’t trained therapists so I don’t expect you to figure this all out and resolve the problems but you might want to have someone you can consult with on these issues. 

Perhaps the best way to manage stress in cheerleaders is to include some simple stress management techniques as part of your overall practice plan.  The first thing to teach is an easy breathing exercise: 

Close your eyes and exhale slowly, as slowly as possible 3 - 5 times.  Expel as much air as possible through the mouth and inhale slowly through the nose.  Repeat this for 5 minutes.  (Always begin with the exhale.)  Say to yourself, with each out-breath, I am relaxing more and more.

 I’d recommend starting each practice session with this - just before you stretch.  It helps people make the transition from school to practice and helps get them focused.

Cheerleading coaches, parents, and everyone connected with the spirit industry are trying to find ways to improve safety and reduce cheerleading injuries. 

As I mentioned in my previous posting, researchers in sport psychology have identified 3 factors that are associated with increased risk for athletic injuries (not cheerleading per se). These are:  stress, social support and coping skills. 

The model proposed by the researchers is a multi-directional model, that is, one thing affects another which affects another. So, a person’s personality interacts with and is affected by a history of stressful events and the way the person handles the stressful events is affected by the individual’s personality. 

Without getting too academic here, allow me to look at one dimension today and that is stress. 

Stress can be defined as the demands of a situation exceed the resources to respond to those demands.  Again, athletes who experience high levels of stress, whether on or off the “field” are at greater risk of being injured.

So, coaches are encouraged to keep an eye on those cheerleaders who are experiencing high life stress and especially those who seem to have few coping skills. 

How do you know if a cheerleader is under a lot of stress?  Well, sometimes you can sense it or you might hear about it if you listen to the chatter in the team.  But here are some other ways to know if a cheerleader is going through a rough time. 

Signs and symptoms of stress: 

PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS 

 Feeling ill

Cold clammy hands

Profuse sweating

Headaches

Tense muscles

Altered appetite

 BEHAVIORAL SYMPTOMS 

Difficulty sleeping

Lack of focus, overwhelmed

Performs better in practice than competitions

Substance Abuse

Cutting

PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS 

Negative self-talk

Uncontrollable intrusive negative thoughts and images

Inability to concentrate

Self doubt 

Stay tuned tomorrow for more!

The news has been filled with stories about injuries in cheerleading. It’s serious business, indeed. 

I recently spent time catching up on my reading and came across a chapter in a huge tome called The Handbook of Sport Psychology - Third Edition (938 pages!) written by Drs. Jean M. Williams and Mark B. Andersen.  The title of the chapter is - Psychosocial Antecedent of Sport Injury and Interventions for Risk Reduction.  Although the chapter does not refer to cheerleading per se and it is unlikely that any of the research cited was based on the sport of cheerleading, I still think the major points in the chapter are worth considering. 

In a nutshell, the authors say that there is little doubt (based on 3 decades of research) that certain psychosocial variables significantly influence injury risk and injury outcome.  Although many of the causes for injury are undoubtedly physical in nature, psychosocial factors also play a role. 

These psychosocial factors are: stress, social support, and coping skills.  

Now it’s impossible to avoid stress of course and the competitive nature of any sport, cheerleading included, induces stress.  But in this model, the authors are referring to individuals with a history of many stressors such as a chaotic family life, recent losses, learning challenges, and so forth, plus having a personality style that intensifies the stress response and few coping resources. 

When someone like this is put into a stressful situation (tryouts, conflict  within a squad, pressure to learn new moves,  or a competition), he or she is more likely to interpret the situation as stressful and will exhibit more physiological activation and attentional problems. 

In other words, these individuals tend to be more reactive and impulsive. They do not have the psychological resources to manage and reduce their stress responses. 

It makes sense that the presence of stress can influence injury rates since stress is accompanied by increased physiological activation (increased heart and respiratory rate, increased release of cortisol, and disruption in cognitive and attentional functioning). 

If there ever were a sport that required laser focus, it is cheerleading!  Anything that disrupts this can lead to injury. 

There is much more to say about this but this is blog posting, not a book. 

 I will add more in future postings.  In the meantime, I invite your comments and questions.

Cheerleaders, like all athletes, can be hard on themselves.  You might get caught up in perfectionism which is dangerous.  It’s one thing to strive for excellence, which is possible - but quite another to work toward perfection - which is not. 

Professional athletes learn to recognize and control their thoughts because they know that their thoughts affect their performance. 

Many of our thoughts are automatic, that is , we have them and aren’t even aware of having them. The only thing we are aware of is that we feel anxious or sad or agitated. It’s important to learn to recognize those automatic thoughts to minimize their damage! 

How? It’s as simple as A-B-C. 

A refers to the Activating event.  This can be something that has happened or something you anticipate happening.

B stands for the Belief you have about what has happened or what will happen.

C refers to the Consequences of holding onto the Belief. 

Here’s an example: 

A = I didn’t do well in practice today.

B = I definitely will not do well in the competition coming up.

C = I feel anxious and distressed.

 Do you see that the feeling follows the thought?  To change the feeling you must change the belief or thought.  You can’t change the Activating event so don’t even try but you can change your interpretation of it.

 To change your belief from something that is negative and harmful, challenge it!  In other words, use D - which stands for Debate or Dispute.  Yes, you must learn to Debate or Dispute your Beliefs. 

Here’s how: Your Belief is - “I definitely won’t do well in the competition.”

Ask yourself: How do I know for certain that this is true? Is this belief really accurate or is it a distortion based on faulty thinking?  Isn’t it possible to perform great in competition when a practice wasn’t good? How else can I explain my less-than-great practice session?  

Do you see how this works/  It takes some effort and it really is better if you write it out but if you do, you will learn how to gain control of your thinking and this will definitely enhance your performance in cheerleading and in life!

Cheerleaders are always interested in improving their performance.  Typically, this involves practice and repetition of skills and this can definitely help - a lot!  But, you are missing out on improving even more if you neglect the mental game of cheerleading. 

A number of years ago a fellow named Tim Gallwey wrote a book called The Inner Game of Tennis. It has become a classic - even for people who don’t play tennis!  And the reason is that Gallwey clearly outlines what interferes with performance and how to change this. 

Here is Gallwey’s famous formula:  P = p - i. 

What does this mean, you might ask?  It means that P refers to Performance or the end result.  The small p stands for potential or what you are capable of and small i refers to interference or what gets in your way from realizing your true potential. 

The key to improving your Performance is to reduce the interference and train your potential.  You must, of course, figure out what is interfering with your performance.  Some times it is a technical problem in which case a good coach will help you to correct that.  More often, the interference is mental or the conversation you are having with yourself.  You know, that internal voice that says, “You’re lousy at this,” or “You’ll never get it.”  Sound familiar? 

What kind of impact do you think this has on your performance?  Yep, you’re right…it hinders your performance significantly. 

To rectify this situation, the first step is to become aware of your thoughts (I have other posts on this) and the second step is to challenge them - are they accurate or a distortion? Often they will be a distortion of the truth but even so they wield tremendous power over you. 

More on this tomorrow…

Cheerleaders and good cheer coaches know that it’s important to have goals and it’s also important to have patience as you move along the ladder towards those goals.  Big goals can be daunting if you ignore the many small steps along the way.

Today I was enjoying a lovely bike ride here in Maine. (I’m visiting friends who live in a pretty rural area of Maine - the foothills of the White Mountains.) At a certain point, there is a hill that goes for about 1/4 mile. If I had focused on the top of the hill only, I would have gotten discouraged quickly.  Instead I “tricked” myself by focusing on a rock in the road 10 feet in front of me and told myself, “You only have to get to that rock.”  Then, once I got there, I told myself, “You only have to get to that puddle 12 feet ahead.”  By setting up small goals, I managed the hill with no problem.  (That’s not to say I wasn’t huffing and puffing - but I did it!)

Think of your BIG goal as being at the top of the staircase.  There’s no way you can reach it in one step, is there?  Nope - but you will get there step by step.

If you ask someone how important self-esteem is for a cheerleader (or anyone, for that matter), you will likely hear that self-esteem is critical for good performance - not to mention a happy life.

In fact self -esteem is considered so important that teachers, coaches, and parents bend over backwards to protect young people from feeling bad about themselves.  The question is - is this really a good idea?

You would think that with so much boosting of self-esteem going on that the incidence of depression would be decreasing.  In fact, the reverse is true.  depression is more of a problem than ever. in children and adolescents.  What are we doing wrong?

Perhaps there is too much emphasis on how a child or adolescent feels at the expense of what the child does.  In other words, fretting over Suzie’s feelings is not as effective as helping Suzie achieve mastery in whatever she is attempting to accomplish.  Suzie will feel good if she performs well.  (And by the way, telling Suzie she performed beautifully when she did not, only serves to make her feel worse.)

There are no studies that demonstrate that self-esteem causes anything. Rather, self-esteem is affected by the child’s success or failure in the world. We should promote the “doing well” side of self-esteem.  This means teaching children how to do things like - how to study, how to set goals, how to manage big feelings, how to manage disappointment, how to be assertive, and how to negotiate for what they want.

Cheerleading is a perfect sport for this to happen!  A good coach indeed teaches mastery and patience and setting appropriate goals. A good coach will be honest and direct (and also kind and thoughtful, of course) in delivering feedback to a cheerleader.

Bottom line?  Protecting children from feeling disappointment, frustration, sadness, and embarrassment deprives them of learning how to manage and grow from those feelings.  Let’s all promote the “doing well” side of self-esteem