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…)

I get lots of questions (often from parents) about mental blocks and although I tend to invite people to call me so we can talk directly about the block, some are reluctant to do so.  I’m not sure why.  Perhaps they are shy or they prefer the anonymity of email. Still, there are some worried parents out there and so I thought I would devote the next few blog posts on this topic. (more…)

Tomorrow morning I will be catching a plane to go to Columbus Ohio.  From there I will drive to Mansfield for the Ohio Association of Cheerleading Coaches annual conference.  I am pleased to be the keynote speaker for the event (filling in for but not replacing the irreplaceable Valerie Ninemire!). (more…)

At a recent cheerleading coaches event, I posed the following question: What percentage of athletic success do you think can be attributed to physical/technical attributes and how much to mental/emotional factors?  (more…)

Cheerleaders, cheer coaches and cheer parents often write to me with all sorts of questions about the mental game of cheerleading and I am happy to respond!  

Recently, I wrote about a cheerleader who was getting ready for tryouts and who had lost her confidence.  She had been on the squad for the most recent season but was worried about the stiff competition for this year.  She wanted help getting her confidence back. 

I made several recommendations and am happy to report the result (in her words): (more…)

Here’s a thought provoking quote for you: “If you demand perfection of yourself you’ll seldom achieve it.  Fear of making a mistake is the biggest cause of making one.  Instead of pushing for perfection, relax and pursue excellence.”   (more…)