Elite athletes learn to sense how their bodies respond to all sorts of variables.  They learn this so they can then adjust their bodies’ arousal level to match the moment. If they are too revved up, they can calm themselves down; if their energy levels are low, they can rev up a bit. 

I hope you can see how useful it would be to be able to fine-tune your body to match and respond to the demands of the moment. 

To help you do this, try this:  Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes.  Slow your breathing down by exhaling slowly through your mouth several times, inhaling through your nose. Once you are quiet, with your mind’s eye, do a body scan, beginning with the top of your head and moving down to your toes. 

Just notice if you are holding any tension anywhere in your body.  If you detect tension, try to release it with your out-breath. 

A typical body scan goes like this: 

• With your mind’s eye, “see” in slow sequence:
• The top of your head
• Your forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, lips, and jaw
• Your neck
• Moving around to the back of your head, the back of your neck
• Moving down to your shoulders, your upper back
• Middle back, spine, lower back and seat
• Now back up to the front of your shoulders
• Your clavicle, your sternum, upper chest and rib cage
• Your upper stomach and your lower abdomen
• Now your upper arms, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands and fingers
• Move down to your pelvis
• Your upper legs, knees, calves and shins
• Now down to your ankles, the soles of your feet
• The tops of your feet and finally your toes 

The above exercise is an introduction to your body, if you will. I realize that this is impractical to do on a regular basis but if you do it a few times, you will learn how to quickly identify and release unwanted tension in your body. That way at practice or especially at high stakes events like tryouts or competitions, you’ll be able to better control your body’s response to stress.

 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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Cheerleaders are not immune to experiencing mental blocks which can interfere with cheerleading performance.  In my last post, I responded to a question I saw in the forum on Allaboutcheerleading.com  in which a cheerleader asked for help in overcoming her mental block about throwing a full during a practice routine. 

I encouraged this cheerleader to become more objective in her assessment and to embrace mistakes as opportunities for learning and not something to be avoided.   I then reminded her that she clearly is capable of throwing a full under some circumstances so she needs to determine what factors are interfering with her execution some of the time. 

Here is more of what I would say to this cheerleader: Good execution follows good thinking, clear thinking.  Emotional upset creates fuzzy thinking so it’s important to step back and assume an objective stance - as if you are evaluating someone else who is seeking your help. 

Take a few moments and clear your head.  Close your eyes and exhale slowly 3 times.  This will calm you down and when you are calmer your thinking will be more focused and clearer. 

Now, with your eyes closed, think about the times you really hit it with throwing your full.  With your mind’s eye, see yourself executing this move and nailing it. Allow yourself to see yourself doing this successfully over and over.  Now, recall how you felt when you threw your full successfully. Notice every detail - how you focused just prior to execution; how you held your head, your arms, your stance; how you moved; how you were breathing; where your focus was - everything! 

Next, still with your eyes closed, combine the whole thing - see yourself with your mind’s eye and experience yourself kinesthetically (your felt sense) executing the move over and over.  Good.  

Now assign a label or cue word or phrase for this successful execution. It can be anything.  For example, you could simply call it “success” or “good move.”  Once you have your label, visualize and feel the whole successful routine again only this time say your cue word to yourself. Repeat over and over.  Each time you do this, you will be creating brain and muscle memory so that the next time you actually throw a full, you will be able to reconnect with this positive experience and success will be more likely! 

More on this topic in my next post!

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Cheerleading requires enormous energy and sometimes, you might feel too pooped to practice.  As a cheerleader, you are likely deeply invested in your sport and not much can stop you from pushing forward, even so - you’re human and you’re busy and maybe you’re engaged in way too many activities so you get tired and your performance may suffer. 

Here’s a simple visualization exercise that might perk you up.  Ready? 

•  Sit in a quiet place with hands placed in your lap.
• Exhale slowly three times. 
• Now inhale slowly through your nostrils and watch, with your mind’s eye, a white cloud of pure oxygen filling the lungs completely. 
• Suspend the breath for a few seconds (three to five) and watch the clean air travel to all extremities of your body.  Imagine that the pure white cloud is cleansing your body of all toxins, of all stresses, all fatigue.  
• Exhale slowly and watch the “smoky de-oxygenated cloud” exit the nostrils as carbon dioxide.  See it dissolve and disappear.  
• Suspend your breath for a few seconds (three to five) and imagine the emptiness of your lungs and the purity of your internal self. 
• Repeat this process several more times and notice the calm relaxation take over.
•  

It seems like cheerleading competitions are happening everywhere!  But then, this is the big season. 

My new training program - The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions will be available very soon but until then, here’s a visualization that can be very powerful to do just prior to your performance. 

Follow these steps: 

• If possible, find a quiet spot where you can sit upright with your eyes closed.  If this is impossible, simply close your eyes to block out all the distractions around you.
• With your eyes closed, exhale slowly three times.
• Repeat and say to yourself, with each out-breath I am relaxing more and more.
• Now, with your mind’s eye, see yourself sitting alone in the audience, looking at the empty stage or performance space.
• As you look at the empty performance space, you see someone you admire, someone who has been very important to your development as a cheerleader, come on the stage. This person stands on the stage.
• Now someone else who has been important to you, a person who has been supportive of your desire to be a fantastic cheerleader, also comes on the stage and stands next to the first person.
• And now a third person, also someone who you know cares about you and is rooting for your success, enters the performance area and stands next to the other people.
• If there are more people you can think of who have helped you or whom you admire and respect for their competence and expertise (even if you don’t know them), visualize them coming on the stage, too.
• Once everyone is on the stage, see them smiling with encouragement at you.
• Now you come onto the performance space and embrace everyone there, taking in their good wishes and support.
• After you have done this, the people leave the stage and leave you there alone but you know you are really not alone since you have taken in their support, their wisdom, and their expertise; you have soaked it up and you feel great!
• You see yourself standing tall on the stage, confident, poised, and eager to perform. 

I hope you will give this a try.  And if you do, please let me know how it works. 

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The word “routine” here refers to the specific steps you take to prepare yourself for actually performing a cheerleading stunt or a move.  In other words, do you just jump into it or do you take a moment to focus, visualize and then act?  You won’t be surprised to learn that I am a big fan of incorporating a mental pre-performance routine into your cheerleading practice! 

You’ve heard me say over and over how important focus is in any kind of performance.  (It’s also a key in reducing accidents and injuries.) So, ask yourself, what do you do to enhance your focus at cheerleading practice?  And by the way, this isn’t just about practice; remember what you do at practice will show up at performance so you’re wise to take this seriously. 

The best athletes believe that good practice and performance (mental) routines get you where you need to be when you need to be there. In other words, in pressure filled moments, it’s good to have a mental routine to rely on to get you focused  and back on track. 

Here’s a simple pre-practice routine that you can try:  Before you jump into anything, pause, exhale slowly three times, and say “focus” to yourself. Then take a moment and visualize with your mind’s eye what you want your body to do.  Once the scene is clear to you, exhale slowly once more and proceed. 

If you do this often enough, you will have created a simple but powerful routine to get yourself focused and mentally prepared for performance.

This video demonstrates how to do a back handspring. Viewing it has been helpful to some cheerleaders. Here’s a technique from sports psychology to make it even more helpful! (But please…if you’ve never done this before, be safe and work with a coach and a spotter!)

Step 1: As you watch the video, observe the cheerleader intensely and begin to imagine how her body feels as she moves through the routine. Also, imagine how she feels emotionally and how focused she is. Notice every detail. Repeat this several times.

Step 2: View the video again and this time, as you observe the cheerleader carefully, imagine that you are feeling what the cheerleader is feeling (body and mind). Repeat several times.

Step 3: Now, with your mind’s eye, see yourself and feel yourself performing the back handspring. Really feel every detail.

Step 4: Making sure you are using a mat, get in position to begin the back handspring. Take a moment, exhale slowly to get focused and with your mind’s eye, see yourself performing the back handspring perfectly. Now you’re ready to do it!

By doing the above you will have enhanced the learning process by creating connections in your brain. Yep, that’s right. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between visualizing a routine and actually performing it! To your brain, it is one and the same therefore; you can begin to build those important brain maps just by visualizing whatever new stunt or routine you want to learn!

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.