Does this sound like you? 

You tell yourself:

• “I’ll never stick that skill.”
• “I’m not going to do it.”
• “I’m just not good enough.”

 If so, read on! 

 Your negative thinking can cancel out any positive thoughts you may have. Also, because your body does what your brain thinks, a negative thought is like a directive or instruction.  If you are thinking, “I can’t do it,” you will indeed have a hard time doing it (whatever that “it” is!). 

Here is a visualization you may find helpful. 

• Find a nice quiet place to sit.
• Close your eyes and exhale slowly 3 to 5 times.
• Say to yourself, “with each out-breath I am relaxing more and more…”
• Once you are feeling nice and relaxed, envision a control panel with two large dials – volume controls.
• One dial is labeled “Negative” and one is labeled “Positive.”
• Each dial also has the numbers 0 to 10 around it.
• The number “0” corresponds to no sound and the number “10” means a very loud volume.
• You are in control of the control panel and you can adjust the volume on your internal voice.
• First listen to your internal voice…what do you hear?
• If your negative voice is too loud, turn down the volume
• You can also increase the volume on the negative voice…go ahead and do it!
• It’s good to know that you can adjust the volume on your internal voices any way you wish.
• To perform better, you can choose to turn up the positive volume and turn down the negative.
• See yourself doing that and really enjoy the results…
• See yourself performing better as you listen to your positive voice.

For other tips on how to perform better – especially at competitions, check out my training program – The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions!  Scroll up to “Cheer Tools” for more information.

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I invite you to think about how you assess a bad day or good day.  Do you tend to allow a rough practice ruin your whole day or even your week?  Do you float on cloud 9 if you have a great practice? What is the conversation you have with yourself about this? 

 What’s interesting is that people vary a lot in how they assess their performances.  Some cheerleaders who are consistently successful in executing their skills do not automatically feel confident.  And other cheerleaders who may struggle with execution do not necessarily feel unconfident. 

So – what’s the difference?  Athletes are always constructing ways to explain their performance outcomes. 

For example, if you and your team performed well at a competition, you and your teammates might explain the success in any of the following ways: 

            Explaining success

1. We got some lucky breaks
2. The other teams weren’t that good
3. We trained harder and longer than anyone else
4. We’re really good at what we do 

If you and your team didn’t perform well, you might explain it this way: 

            Explaining failure

1. The judges played favorites and weren’t fair
2. The other teams were just better and more experienced
3. We didn’t train long or hard enough
4. We just aren’t good enough 

If you look closely at the possible responses you’ll notice some distinct differences.  The first and second responses for success and failure attribute outcome to forces outside of the control of the team. The cheer squad succeeded or failed because the judges were either kind or unfair.  There is nothing said about the team’s efforts.  It’s all external. 

The third responses refer to effort and is clearly under the cheer team’s control.  Whether the team practiced hard and put in the time and effort is under the team’s control, right?  So if the team won or lost, there is a direct connection to behavior that is internally controlled.  There is no success or blame attributed to outside forces. 

The fourth responses say nothing about effort but rather it’s about the value of the squad in and of itself..  To say, “Darn, we’re good!” might feel great but it’s too easy then to fall into the opposite – to say, “We stink!” when it doesn’t go well.  In this case, success or failure is not tied to effort, it just is. This can lead to feelings of helplessness.  Remember – success is always tied to effort. 

Which response do you think inspires confidence, motivation and hard work?

Want to succeed at competitions?  Please check out my program – The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competiitons.  Scroll up to the “Cheer Tools” tab to learn more or click on this.

“As players, when we are having a bad day, we tend to think in melodramatic terms, that we’ve lost it, that everything’s gone wrong, but usually all you have to do is correct one small element of your game and everything else will fall into place.”

Does this happen to you?  If you have a cheerleading practice session where you just aren’t hitting it, do you get discouraged and start thinking that it’s all over? 

 If so, it’s time to step back, get a grip, and remember that even the most expert and famous athletes have bad days.  This does NOT mean that you have “lost” a skill or that you have regressed as a cheerleader. 

There are many reasons why a cheerleader or any athlete has a lousy practice or competition and these can include things such as just not feeling well, being distracted by other things going on in your life, menstrual woes (feeling bloated or crampy),  fatigue, or not having put sufficient effort into your workout. 

Olympic and pro athletes keep track of their progress all season long and so they learn what factors contribute to good or sub-par performances. They take responsibility for their practices and don’t allow themselves to over-react. Managing your reactions to disappointment is a key component of mental toughness. 

So, have a lousy day?  Try to see it as a learning opportunity! 

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Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending and teaching at Spring Tumbling’s first annual cheer coaches’ conference in Toronto. Mike Pare, President of Spirit Cheer, UCA All Star Director for UCA All Star, and assistant cheerleading coach at the University of Central Florida (whew! – when does he sleep?) offered a class called “Running an Effective Practice” which I attended.  A number of years ago, Mike attended a course given by the great Notre Dame Football coach, Lou Holtz and learned the acronym W.I.N which stands for What’s Important Now?  Mike suggested that this question can be a key to coaching in that it helps coaches stay on track. 

Mike emphasized that planning is key to effective practices and encouraged coaches to organize their practice sessions carefully including blocking out time for stretching, tumbling, stunts and pyramids. Each day should have a focus and practice sessions should allow athletes to access and work on their weaknesses. 

Mike believes in helping cheerleaders assume ownership over their goals and so he has developed a format which I think will be helpful to cheer coaches and their athletes. 

For Individual goals for the cheerleader: 

1. Write down a goal you want to accomplish this season along with a reasonable time frame. For example, you might say you want to master a standing back hand spring over the next 3 months.

2. Write down three things you can do to ensure you reach this goal. So, you might write that you will work on your strength and conditioning, you will watch training videos, and you will seek private tutoring.

3. Now write down 3 things your coach can help you with.  This could include your coach giving you practice drills, private time for tutoring, and video advice.

 For Team goals: 

1. Team works together to create a goal for the season.

2. Team writes down three things they can do to achieve the goal along with a reasonable time frame.

3. Team writes down three things they need from their coaches in order to accomplish the team goal. 

Mike then collects all these papers and reviews them periodically to make sure individuals and the team are staying on track toward their goals. 

How do you organize your practice sessions?  What works?  What doesn’t?  Please offer your comments!  And if you’re on Facebook (hey, who isn’t?) please “like” my Confident Cheerleading Center page!  If you do, you can get some free goodies!

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.

It’s based on a psychological learning theory called classical conditioning. The technique helps you to train your mind and body to respond in the way you wish. Each time you practice this you will be building the brain you want. 

Here’s how it works. You begin with a relaxation exercise and then you say your “power word” to yourself to connect yourself to your ideal performance state. And then you begin to practice. 

(A power word is a word or phrase that connects to the way you want to feel during competition.  It should be meaningful to you. It can be something like “focused,” or “confident” or “doing it” – whatever works for you.) 

Let’s say you are working on your tumbling; you would exhale slowly, call up your power word, and when you feel really focused, then and only then, begin to practice. As soon as you feel yourself getting distracted, stop everything! Then go back to your breathing, get focused using your power word, and then resume practice. Repeat. 

Each time you get distracted, stop and repeat the breathing, power word, and focusing. You only rehearse or practice while you are in this positive mental space. This way, you are training yourself to only perform while you are in this ideal state and when you reach the actual performance situation, you’ll be in great shape! 

Obviously this requires patience on your part.  The temptation will be to rush ahead and just practice in the same old way but please – give this a try and you will reap the benefits! 

ENDERS PRACTICE ROUTINE  

1. Begin with relaxation exercise – exhale slowly several times

2. Once relaxed, connect with your Ideal Performance State

3. Say power word/phrase to yourself

4. Once firmly in “positive space” begin to practice

5. As soon as you notice you are leaving positive space, STOP EVERYTHING, then re-connect with positive space.

6. Once firmly in positive space again, repeat power word/phrase and resume your work.

7. Practice ONLY in positive space.

8. Important to strengthen association between positive space and practice.

9. At time of performance, exhale slowly three times and repeat power word/phrase to get back into positive space.

Successful athletes are single-minded in their focus and have crystal clear goals and expectations. This clarity helps them keep track of their progress and ensures they will reach their goals. 

Since I assume you, too, want to be a successful athlete, here are some questions for you to help you organize your thoughts and create a winning plan. Remember – the more specific and detailed your plan, the better it will help you succeed. 

And yes, this takes a bit of time and patience but a true champion is willing to do the work in order to win! 

1. Can you envision your cheerleading goal? Can you describe it in detail? Good! Go ahead and write it in here and be specific! 

2. What are the benefits or rewards you will gain by pursuing your goal?

3. What are the costs? (Such as time, money, forgoing other activities.)

4. What might get in your way? What challenges might you encounter?

5. How can you deal with these challenges? Who might help?

6. What specific steps do you need to take to reach your goal? 

7. How will you be accountable? Who else will know if you follow through with your plan?

8. In the space below, write in the times during a typical week that you will devote to working on your goal. Include time for practice with your team and alone  

Mondays:___________________________________________________

Tuesdays:___________________________________________________

Wednesdays:________________________________________________

Thursdays:__________________________________________________

Fridays:____________________________________________________

Week-ends:_________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Psychology professor, Carol Dweck, studied what happens when people praise others for ability versus praising for effort and the effect this has on young people’s motivation and performance. 

The results showed that 90% of young people who were praised for effort (“you worked really hard on this;” “your persistence is helping you succeed,”) wanted to perform tasks which were challenging and from which they could learn (and not necessarily immediately succeed). 

Two-thirds of young people praised for ability wanted to carry out a task which ensured further success; they weren’t as interested in being challenged.  

When both groups were given a set of harder problems, the students who were praised for their ability (“you are so smart;”  “you are really good at this”) reported the least enjoyment. They were also the least likely to take problems home to work on.  Also, the students who were praised for their ability (not effort) demonstrated considerable negativity after failure (“I am stupid”) even though they had had a previous string of successes! 

The group that had been praised for ability also showed a significant decline in performance compared to those who had been praised for effort. 

The group that had been praised on effort continued to enjoy the task even when they encountered problems and they were more likely to persist when they confronted challenges. This group (effort) on the whole performed much better than the other group (ability). 

How does this translate to cheerleading?  Well, I would suggest cheer coaches will enjoy more success with their cheerleaders when they praise them for their efforts rather than their abilities.  Why should this be true?  Effort is something we can control.  We either exert effort to learn, to improve, to refine, or we do not.  It’s a matter of choice.  Ability is innate; we either have it or not and thus we cannot control it per se.

So take note of how you give feedback to your cheerleaders.  It’s fine to say, “good job!” or “great focus on that last jump” but be wary of saying, “you’re the best flyer we’ve ever had.”  Even if this is true, add to this: “…your focus and practice time is paying off; you’re really enhancing your natural talent by all your hard work.”

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.