It’s that time of year when cheerleaders are either getting ready for a big cheerleading competition or they have just been in a competition. Either way, the fact is that some of you will bring home a trophy and some of you won’t. 

How do you handle not winning?  Part of the answer lies in how you define “winning” in the first place. 

Pro athletes and Olympic athletes focus on Process or Performance goals more than Outcome goals and this helps them manage the disappointment of not being in the winner’s circle. 

They know, and you should, too, that they ultimately have no control over the outcome of anything!  

For cheerleading, you cannot control who your competitors are or how talented and skilled they are compared to you; you cannot control who on your squad might be ill or injured;  and you cannot control the skill and performance of every person in your squad.  All of these factors, and more, affect the outcome of a competition event. 

Do you see if you focus on Outcome only that you are likely to be disappointed? 

So why not focus on Process or Performance goals instead? 

Here’s an example: Way before the competition, consider what your personal cheerleading goals are in relation to the competition routine.   Be specific and detailed.  Perhaps you want to improve your inverted back tuck sequence. Maybe you want to refine some other stunt.  And there will be other goals such as improving communication with a stunting partner or maintaining focus, achieving a clean landing, etc.  

These are all Performance goals that you have control over since you are the one investing the time and effort in achieving the goals. Keep track of how you are progressing.  At the time of competition then, your focus will be on executing your part of the performance as well as you can.  Your goal then is not to win per se (that’s an outcome goal) but rather, to excel in performing your part of the routine.  

Assuming your hard work pays off and you have succeeded in improving the things you wanted to, you can, at the very least, take pleasure in accomplishing that goal. 

Of course I realize that there is disappointment in not placing and I’m not trying to make light of that.  At the same time, you can learn to minimize the pain of losing or not placing if you focus on Performance goals rather than Outcome goals. 

Are you on Facebook?  Please become my friend and join my Facebook Group – Confident Cheerleading.

At first glance, this video of cheerleading “bloopers” (well, they’re not all cheerleaders) is kinda funny but the video doesn’t show the aftermath such as the trips to the hospital or people hobbling around on crutches and casts.

If you look closely at the video you’ll see the common denominator in almost all of the bloopers is that the participants were not thinking clearly. They were not focused on their task.  They were distracted by the crowd, the excitement and who knows what else!  This can happen to anyone of course and it does but in these cases the results could’ve been (and perhaps were) dangerous and painful.

Developing laser focus is a skill taught by sports psychologists and it is the hallmark of mental toughness.  Stay tuned to this blog for more on enhancing your focus skills.

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.

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!

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!

An article in the recent Cheer Coach & Advisor magazine, written by Jonathan Wood, offers an inside glimpse into what goes on with cheer judges. 

Mr. Wood often overhears remarks such as, “The judges at last week’s competition were terrible.”  Or – comments which suggest that their team lost because of poor judging. Such remarks are upsetting because of all the effort put forth by judges and competition organizers to create a fair system that assesses performances according to clearly defined guidelines. 

Mr. Wood makes the point that blaming the judges reflects poor sportsmanship and fails to place the responsibility where it belongs – with the cheer team itself.  He refers to Vince Lombardi’s statement, “If you can’t accept losing, then you can’t win.”  He then says, “If the judging is good enough to accept the glory of a win, then it should be good enough to accept responsibility for the loss. I never hear “those judges were terrible, we should have lost.”" 

The posting I wrote on the championship mindset speaks to this also.  A true champion views a set-back or a loss as the opportunity to learn a valuable lesson.

It’s inevitable that sometime during your cheerleading career, you will meet another cheerleader who is more talented, more agile, and generally more competent at cheerleading than you are. 

What do you do when this happens to you?  How you manage this situation can result in your feeling fine or feeling miserable. 

For example, if you say to yourself, “I’ll never be that good…I’ll never be able to do what she does…” then you will likely feel discouraged.  But notice that you are the one who is discouraging you!  No one else is telling you you’ll never be that good. 

The way you think affects the way you feel and you have control over the way you think! 

Here’s another option.  What if you were to say to yourself, “Wow! She (or he) is really good.  I wonder how she does it?  What can I learn from observing him?”  This line of thinking is constructive and is likely to result in your feeling energized, not defeated. 

So, try it!  Next time you see an exceptional talent, instead of focusing on you and what you may lack (real or imagined), focus on the other person and observe with the goal of learning from that person.

Think of some of the best athletes of all time.  Who comes to mind: Gold medal winner, Shawn Johnson?  Tennis stars, Serena and Vanessa Williams?  NASCAR racer, Danica Patrick? Swimming ace, Michael Phelps?  

Well, each of these stars didn’t get to the top alone.  They all had coaches through the years who worked with them, observing their every move and giving them valuable feed-back to improve their performances. 

Do you think any of them ever told their coaches, “Don’t tell me what I’m doing wrong because you’ll hurt my feelings,”? Of course not! 

Having a Championship mind-set means being open to hearing and using feedback that can improve your performance.  It means, seeing feedback as useful, not as a personal attack. 

(Now, it is true that some coaches deliver critiques in a less than helpful manner but generally speaking, a good coach will know how to communicate in a way that is clear, understandable, useful, and respectful.  More on that in later postings!) 

So, hearing feedback as information, not an attack is essential. A champion is eager for feedback because he or she knows that it is valuable information that will make the difference between winning and placing second. 

 In addition to working with your coach, another feature of the Championship mind-set is a strong dedication to continually improving your performance by honestly assessing your performance in practice and in competition. 

Here are a few questions to ask yourself (or for the team to do together): 

1. What went well and why?
2. What didn’t go well and why?
3. What do I/we need to change in order to improve?
4. What do I need from my partner or team in order to improve? 

It’s important not to beat up on yourself!  Be as cool-headed as you can be in the self-assessment process.  

Observing your routine on video is hugely useful!  Again, assume an objective stance – it’s information, remember?  

Okay, champions….onward!