Although it may not happen often, cheerleaders can get concussions.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports- and recreation-related head injuries occur each year! Of those, 75% result in concussions. Football players account for more than 60% of all traumatic brain injuries. 

So what happens when a cheerleader gets a concussion?  First of all, it isn’t anything to fool around with.  According to The Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute, a concussion is also known as a traumatic brain injury.  The blow to the head causes the brain to move rapidly inside the skill…the brain actually gets rotated. (more…)

Shawn Johnson on cheerleading safetyOlympic Gold medal winner and famous gymnast, Shawn Johnson, has teamed up with Top Gun All Stars and GK Elite Sportswear  to promote safety in cheerleading.  Shawn said, “As an Olympic athlete, safety comes first for me.”  And it should for you too! 

See and hear Shawn and Victor and Kristen Rosario (owners and coaches for Top Gun) talk about how cheer coaches can make cheerleading safer for their athletes.

The latest issue of the snazzy and information-packed on-line cheerleading magazine – Entirely Cheer – is now available for your reading pleasure. I might add that it is free!  That’s right – it won’t cost you a penny to read this cheer magazine.  (To enhance your reading pleasure, be sure to use the “whole screen” feature – it is the third icon from the left at the top of the page.) The current issue contains several “Tip Sheets” such as, How to prepare for the new All-Star season; How to prepare for the new High School Cheer season; and much more.  The articles include topics on communication, hydration, sportsmanship plus a video on how to do a back walkover mount stunt!  (more…)

Cheerleaders are busy people.  There’s all that school work to get done on top of hours of cheerleading practice plus maintaining a social life.  Many cheerleaders tend to listen to music while they study and in addition to that, they are busy responding to emails and text messages. 

Of course, if you ask them how they can stay focused and get anything done, they will tell you they can manage just fine, thank you.  But can they? 

There is, at this point, a significant body of research on the impact of multitasking and the studies suggest that cheerleaders, like many of us, are fooling themselves into believing that they can get more done by multitasking. 

Actually, pushing yourself to perform two or more tasks is extremely inefficient says David Meyer, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Meyer and his colleagues found that people who toggle between tasks lose valuable time in the transitions. 

You see, the brain has to refocus each time it switches activities and that time can add up over the course of a day.  There is also something called “working memory” which is like “mental counter space,” says Dr. Laura Vanderberg, a biology researcher at Tufts University. There is only so much “mental counter space” and everything we do takes mental energy which takes up room on that mental counter. 

Multitasking adds to the drain on the brain’s limited supply of resources. 

So, what does this have to do with cheerleading?  Well, researchers at Stanford University found that people who try to juggle things such as checking text messages while writing an email or studying, are unable to block unimportant information as well as those who consume one media stream at a time. 

In other words, these people are distracted – all the time!  They cannot stop thinking about tasks they are not doing. They have trained their brains to be unfocused. 

The reason this is important for cheerleaders is because cheerleading – especially tumbling and stunting – require laser focus, meaning focusing on one thing only.  A distracted cheerleader is vulnerable to being injured or causing injury. 

So the next time you are tempted to do 3 things at once, remember that you are actively training your brain to be inefficient and distracted.

Remember the news reports exclaiming that cheerleading is the most dangerous sport?  Well, it turns out that is not true.  Just goes to show you can’t believe everything you hear or read. 

A new report submitted by the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA) challenges the assertion that cheerleading is more dangerous than sports such as football and hockey. 

It seems that information derived from two sources – The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries at the University of North Carolina (NCCSI) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Emergency Room visit study (NEISS) was misrepresented.  When it comes to statistical analysis, such misrepresentation is not unusual but in the case of cheerleading, it led to sensationalized news reports and media coverage. 

What is the real story?  Well, the AACCA wanted to know this too and so they conducted their own study by analyzing the data from the NCCSI study and comparing it to the “injuries per 100,000 participants” for cheerleading to the other sports discussed in the study.  

You see, to determine the “danger” of an activity compared to other activities (cheerleading to football, for example), it is important to measure the actual “risk” of injury from performing the activity.  This is determined by calculating the number of injuries per athletic exposure, designated as “injuries per AE.”  So for each time someone engages in cheerleading or football, how often will an injury occur. 

The AACCA analyzed data from the CPSC study for other traditional female sports and used participation figures provided by American Sports Data to produce a measurable risk assessment. 

What did they find?  Because a typical cheerleading season is longer than that for other sports (ice hockey or soccer, for example), that needed to be factored into the analysis.  AACCA discovered that there are ten high school sports – including girl’s ice hockey, gymnastics, and soccer – with a higher risk of catastrophic injury than for cheerleading.  There are 17 high school sports with a lower risk of catastrophic injury. 

And what about football?  Contrary to earlier reports, it turns out that football is the leading cause of catastrophic injury in high school and college sports, with 63.5% of all catastrophic injuries. 

So why have there been an increase in emergency room visits by cheerleading?  Well, for one thing, there are more and more girls and boys who are participating in the sport.  Don’t forget that school-based cheerleaders only account for a portion of all cheerleaders. So when these emergency room figures were looked at again, it turns out that the incidence of cheerleading emergency room visits were lower than that of girls’ soccer, basketball and softball. 

What’s the bottom line?  Cheerleading is certainly not risk-free but the risks associated with it are in line with other male and female school sports and are much lower than the risks associated with football. 

Of course the ideal would be for there to be no injuries in cheerleading and while that may not be possible, it certainly is possible to reduce the number of injuries that do occur.

How?  All cheerleading coaches should be safety certified and should follow established safety rules.  All cheerleading programs should establish and practice an emergency action plan. 

As a mental game coach, I would add that a psychological readiness training program would benefit coaches and cheerleaders alike.  Training in ways to enhance focus and manage distractions (which can lead to making mistakes and causing injuries) would help a great deal.

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.

 It’s no secret that some cheerleaders experience injuries during cheerleading practices or performances.  

One such cheerleader recently wrote to me after she fell on her head, asking me to help her cope with the stress of doing the stunt that led to her injury.  This cheerleader fell on her head doing a 360 elevator/extension. 

What follows is my response to this cheerleader: 

How awful that you fell on your head!  No wonder you are afraid! 

First – I assume you got immediate medical attention, right?  Any injury is serious business but a head injury in particular requires immediate and thorough evaluation.  There is no way you should resume physical activity until you are cleared by a physician.

Second – has your coach been certified by an organization such as the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA)? All cheer coaches and cheerleading squads should go through a safety course. Safety is fundamental and the most important thing.

Third – ask your coach and squad to review what happened in detail in order to determine what went wrong.  Someone wasn’t doing what he or she should have been doing, right?  A careful analysis sets the stage for a plan to remedy the problem to ensure it doesn’t happen again.  This process will contribute to your feeling a bit more secure about future attempts at doing a 360 elevator/extension.

Fourth – once all of these steps are taken, you can begin the psychological recuperation. 

You have experienced a physical and a psychological trauma and the reality of that needs to be acknowledged and honored.  Of course you are frightened…that is natural. You will need to rebuild your trust in yourself and in your team-mates and perhaps in your coach, too.  This is a process and will take some time.  Ultimately, only you can decide if you wish to return to cheerleading or not.  Do not allow anyone to force you into doing something that you do not want to do. It is your decision. 

If you want to stay in the game, here are some things to consider: After a serious injury, we tend to get stuck on replaying the incident.  This prolongs the fear and it also engraves the incident in our brains. The body does what the brain thinks so you will definitely want to stop this process. To do this, you can try some visualization. (Many pro athletes use this to help them recover from injuries.) 

Here’s how to do it: 

1. Find a nice quiet place and while sitting up, close your eyes.
2. Exhale as slowly as you can 3 – 4 times.
3. Say to yourself, “With each out-breath, I am relaxing more and more.”
4. Once relaxed, see yourself, with your mind’s eye, in a safe place, a place you feel ultra comfortable, secure and happy.
5. Really enjoy being in your special safe place as you continue to focus on your out-breath.
6. Now, shift your focus and see yourself in your cheerleading practice spot, beginning an easy cheerleading stunt, something you learned a long time ago that is simple for you to do.
7. See yourself executing the move with grace and ease and “feel” yourself enjoying it; enjoy your success.
8. If you feel any anxiety during this phase, stop visualizing the stunt and return to your favorite safe place.
9. Stay in your safe place until you feel relaxed.
10. Once relaxed, return again to seeing yourself executing a simple cheer stunt.
11. Repeat until you have seen yourself successfully execute the simple stunt.
12. Now, see yourself begin a slightly more difficult stunt, something that requires more skill and competence.
13. Again, if you feel anxious, return to your safe place and focus on your out-breath.
14. Once relaxed, return to doing your stunt until you can do so with ease and confidence.
15. Keep building up the level of difficulty of the stunt until you are able to “see” yourself and “feel” yourself executing the stunt that resulted in your injury.
16. Remember, if you feel anxious, return to your safe place.
17. Once you can, in your mind’s eye, execute the 360 elevator/extension with success, repeat over and over. 

This visualization accomplishes several things.  It helps you ease back into the idea of cheerleading while minimizing your anxiety and it also engraves successful execution of stunts in your brain.  You will be training your brain to feel and think in the way you want.  You will also be learning how to control your thoughts and feelings rather than have them control you! 

Good luck with this.  I’m so glad you wrote to me about this.  Please keep me posted.

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