In my previous posts, I shared the wisdom of legendary basketball coach – John Wooden. Cheerleading coaches (and everyone, really) can learn a lot from this sage fellow.  Coach Wooden had his own ideas about criticism – who should do the criticizing, under what circumstances and how. (more…)

If we are smart, we try to learn from people smarter than us!  Cheerleading coaches have tough (and rewarding) jobs.  One of the best athletic coaches ever – John Wooden – was a master motivator.  Here is some more of his wisdom.  (more…)

If you are a cheer mom, fire up your computer immediately and get on Facebook.  (You do have a Facebook account don’t you!!) Ok – now search for Cheer Moms and click on “like” to join the fun! Now invite all of your friends to check it out, too! www.facebook.com/cheermoms  (more…)

Since all of you appreciate superb athleticism, I thought you might like this video of these 2 amazing dancers.  I have no idea who they are but they are superb!  I wonder if they were cheerleaders since some of their moves are reminiscent of skills I have seen at competitions however their version is over the top!  See what you can do with practice, practice, practice?

Yesterday I wrote about cheerleading coaches who yell at their cheerleaders.  I suspect many do this because they truly believe it is a way to motivate athletes.  But does it work?  (more…)

This question was asked of me by a young, newly minted coach who was wondering how best to coach her team.  She had experienced coaches who yelled (and sometimes screamed) at cheerleaders and she hadn’t liked it.  According to her,  the yelling resulted in the athletes obeying out of fear and the quality of “life” on the team was not good. 

So why do some coaches yell and scream?  Well, let’s look at this. (more…)

Brian Payne, who is an expert tumbling coach and the director of Super Duper Sportkids and owner of Acrojax Trampoline and Tumbling in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, wrote an article about mental blocks which appears in the most recent Cheer Biz News. 

Brian offers a number of tips on how to work with a blocked athlete.  (more…)

In my last post, I said that sometimes a cheer coach can unwittingly cause mental blocks.  This can be due to the pressure to win and/or the lack of experience on the part of the coach.

So how can you know if a coach is the right one?  Here are some things to look for. (more…)

The short answer is – yes!  The longer answer has to do with the pressure coaches feel to “win” plus the fact that some cheer coaches may be overstepping their reach. (more…)

Just as there are many reasons why a cheerleader may develop a mental block, there are many types of solutions. For today I’ll focus on just a few.   (more…)