Most cheerleading coaches know the importance of establishing goals for their cheerleaders as individuals and as a team.  Typically these goals focus on improving cheerleading skills or physical conditioning.  These are certainly important but I encourage you to include mental game goals as well. 

Part of the joy of coaching is seeing your cheerleaders grow as athletes and as individuals.  You can enhance this process by teaching your squad some simple mental game techniques.  These techniques are valuable not only for cheerleading, but for life! 

Here are a few you can easily incorporate: 

• Maintaining a positive attitude
• Focus on present, not past
• Leaving distracting thoughts outside the gym
• Identify and change negative thinking
• Using more positive self-talk
• Be realistic in self expectations
• Change focus when you get frustrated
• Notice when your mind wanders from task at hand
• Think about what you can control
• See yourself performing well
• Think process not results
• Focus on strengths 

This is how it could work. 

1. Cheerleaders select goals from the above list.
2. To keep track of progress, choose a number that reflects current level of competence for each skill with 1 representing the least competence (weak) and 5 being the most competence (strong).
3. Each week or month, cheerleaders rate themselves again
4. The goal is to move that number to a higher level
5. Note where the most work is needed and focus on that!

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I am pleased to tell you that Confident Cheerleading has an international flavor these days! 

Some articles from this blog have been re-published in two different overseas cheerleading magazines! 

One is called Cheer and Dance Coach Magazine and is an online magazine published in the UK.  (It’s free so check it out!) 

Cheer and Dance Coach Magazine

 The other is called Spirit das Cheerleading Magazin and it is the most popular cheerleading magazine in German speaking countries. I can tell you it looks lovely but because I do not speak German, I can’t tell you what it says!  I was told they were going to publish one of my articles on tumbling fears and I will have to take their word for it.  LOL! 

It is an honor to have my work recognized in this way and it’s rewarding to know that the principles of the mental game of cheerleading are getting some attention and generating some interest. 

If you would like to republish or reproduce any of my blog articles, feel free to do so as long as you agree to include my name and a link to this blog. And let me know if you do so I can blog about it!

In their quest to be perfect, some cheerleaders focus more on NOT making a mistake than on executing a skill well.  Ironically, this preoccupation makes it more likely that the cheerleader will make a mistake! 

Why is this? Well, think about it – if your attention is focused on what NOT to do, what is the communication between your brain and your body?  That’s right – your brain is telling your body to do what you don’t want it to do.  Your brain does not hear the negative, it only processes the instruction.  For example, if you are thinking, “don’t fall,” your brain experiences it as “fall.” 

Plus, if you are worrying about what not to do, your body will be tense and you will not be able to move as fluidly as you would otherwise.  In any kind of sport performance, it is always best to focus on what you want to do, not what you do not want to do. 

If you are afraid of falling, focus on what you need to do to execute the skill well.  It may be something like, “hold firm,” or “smooth and strong,” – something that conjures up a positive image that is consistent with how you want to execute the skill. 

Have you signed up for my free Confident Cheerleading Tips?  You can do it right now – simply scroll up to the upper right side of the blog and enter your name and email address and in a few minutes you will receive my 10 annotated peak performance tips! 

As always, please feel free to offer your comments or ask questions about any aspect of the mental game of cheerleading!

It’s not unusual for some cheerleaders to wrestle with negative thoughts that can undermine performance.  This is a topic I’ve written about many times before.  Here is another way to manage and transform negative thinking. 

Tip # 1 – Change a thought into a feeling.  This is the reverse of what is usually suggested.  Like many psychologists, I have told you that the way you feel is dependent on the way you think so if you don’t like what you are feeling change the thought! 

This is still true but here I am suggesting that when you are thinking something negative such as, “I am no good at tumbling,” change it to: “I feel like I am no good at tumbling.” By doing this you can give yourself room to step back and see that this does not necessarily represent the truth…it is a feeling, not a fact. 

So, try to get into the habit of identifying your negative thoughts and changing them from “I think” or “I am” into “I feel that…” 

Tip #2 – Add a “but” to your feeling statement.  When you say the word “but” as in, “I really like cheerleading but it’s a lot of work,” the “but” negates what came before it; it calls into question the truth of the first part of the sentence. 

You can use this to your advantage.  For example, you can say, “I feel like I’m no good at tumbling but I am working hard each day to get better.”  The “but” in this case weakens the first part of the statement. 

These may seem like small things but language can exert a powerful influence on how our brains and bodies work.  Try it and let me know how it works for you! 

By the way – it’s competition season!  Are you interested in gaining a competitive edge?  Check out my training program – The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions.  I will give a free consultation to anyone who purchases a program. Get yours now!

Fear of failure is not uncommon in cheerleaders, as I mentioned in my previous posting.  Excessive concern about making mistakes and perceived pressure to be perfect are associated with fear of failure.  It can be a problem in that it may lead to sub-optimal performance, avoidance behavior and mental blocks. 

What contributes to this dilemma? 

Well first is the cheerleader’s basic temperament and personality style but then we need to consider the coach and the parents. A good coach wants his or her athletes to excel.  A good parent wants his or her child to succeed.  But how this is communicated can make all the difference between a cheerleader who has fun while learning and one who agonizes over every mishap. 

A sport environment is an evaluative environment.   The athlete is a learner who must be open to instruction and coaching.  Ideally a cheerleader has or develops what I call a championship mind-set which means being open to learning, eager for feedback, and maintaining a perspective that every set-back and mistake is a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow and improve. (This is a life skill, too!) 

Coaches and parents can nurture a championship mind-set or they can interfere with it. If the egos of the coach and/or parent are too closely intertwined with the success of the cheerleader, objectivity can suffer and emotions may run high. 

If a coach/parent gets unduly upset when an cheerleader makes a mistake, this communicates to the athlete that mistakes are not ok, that they are a problem and are to be avoided.  Patience and a sense of humor plus a championship mind-set on the part of the parents/coaches go a long way toward creating a healthy learning atmosphere. 

Let’s not forget that this sport of cheerleading is supposed to be fun! 

It is good to set high standards and strive for excellence in sport performance and it is imperative that coaches and parents never put down the cheerleader’s efforts, performance, and self worth when the results are imperfect. 

To an athlete, the reactions and words of a parent and/or coach carry enormous weight.  If coaches/parents pressure athletes (especially young beginners) to perform perfectly, to avoid mistakes, and to meet high (perhaps unrealistic) expectations, and if they criticize the athlete when he or she fails to meet those expectations, all this contributes to the athletes’ fear of failure. 

Fostering a good work ethic with clearly defined and realistically high expectations, encouraging healthy team relationships, nurturing a spirit of curiosity and openness to learning where mistakes are gifts and not demons are all ways to contribute to the development of a happy, healthy cheerleader.

As I mentioned in my last post on the perfectionistic cheerleader, those athletes who have more Perfectionistic Concerns also have more fear of failure.  This term is another one that is thrown around a lot and not surprisingly, it is more complicated that you might think! 

 Why should someone have a fear of failure?  Of course no one likes to fail but for some people, the fear of failing is excessive and it can lead to sub-par performances and mental blocks.  They associate failure with aversive consequences – not just feeling bad but with real or imagined negative consequences.  

And what are those consequences?  It seems there are 5: 

1. Fear of experiencing shame and embarrassment
2. Fear of devaluing one’s self-estimate (“I’m not as good as I thought.”)
3. Fear of having an uncertain future (“Will I be able to stay on the team?”)
4. Fear of important others (parents/coaches) losing interest
5. Fear of upsetting important others (parents/coaches) 

Fear of failure can lead to avoidance behavior.  The thinking is something like this: “If I don’t try, I can’t fail.”   The motivation is to avoid failure because of anticipatory shame (of failing). 

Sport psychology research shows that fear of experiencing shame and embarrassmentis central to understanding the relationship between perfectionism and fear of failure. In other words, shame is an emotion at the core of fear of failure and it involves a negative scrutiny of one’s self along with feelings of incompetence.  The experience is a painful one especially because the athlete feels that his or her entire self is a failure.   

But reader – do not despair!  I’ll be telling you what to do about this in my next posting! 

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I’ve heard many cheerleading coaches use the term “perfectionist” when describing a (usually anxious) cheerleader.  And just the other day a cheerleader wrote to me and said she was a perfectionist.  Before that, a cheer mom told me her daughter was a perfectionist. 

Ok, so what exactly is a perfectionist and is it really a problem?  Turns out this is a more complex dilemma than you would think! 

Now I admit that psychologists can be good at making things more complicated than they need to be but in this case, the research makes sense.  Please bear with me and read on… 

First, sport psychologists make the distinction between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns.  There is an important difference! 

Perfectionistic Concerns are preoccupations with making mistakes, parental expectations, parental criticism, and coach’s expectations and criticisms.  As might be expected, athletes who score high on this dimension have a high fear of failure. These athletes also tend to have problems with depression, anxiety and avoidance. 

Coaches and parents communicate the standards of what is acceptable in performance situations.  They provide feedback and evaluation to the athletes about their abilities and performances.  Because of this, their criticisms and expectations are a source of pressure and concern for athletes. 

 For the athlete who has Perfectionistic Concerns, the words and behaviors of parents and coaches are weighed heavily.  It’s important to note that these athletes might PERCEIVE criticisms and feedback as being harsher than it is objectively communicated. 

Perfectionistic Strivings relate to a desire to excel and are accompanied by high personal standards of success.  These athletes tend to be more self confident and have a positive approach to practice and goal-setting as long as they have some capacity to accept minor imperfections.  When they demand perfection in all things, they fare less well. 

Stay tuned for more on this topic…

By the way…it’s competition season!  Learn all about the Mental Game of Competitions here!  Don’t miss out!

I just came across this video of cheerleading stunts (below) on YouTube (where you can find anything!!) and thought I’d share it with you. It’s very impressive and anyone watching it would never ever doubt that cheerleading is indeed a sport!

The lovely young woman you see below is Maddie Gardner, Inside Cheerleading  (iC) Magazine’s December cover girl and winner of Nfinity’s Golden ticket contest!  (Nfinity inserted “golden tickets” into 20 of their shoe boxes and one person was selected to win an all expense paid trip to New York City!) 

As exciting as all this is, it’s clear Maddie has her priorities straight because she started a local fundraising effort called Hope for Haiti in the hope to provide aid to victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. 100% of all profit made from t-shirt sales at Cheersport (and beyond) will be given to World Vision, an organization that is directly involved withrelief efforts in Haiti.

The brightly clad woman below is Mary Chambliss of Birmingham, Alabama who attended Cheersport to support her son who is on a special needs team with Ace Cheer.

And the good looking fellow in the photo below is Todd Kopp, owner of CoreAthletics.  Todd’s daughter, Kelsie,  is a cheerleader and it was she who inspired him to get involved in the cheer industry.  Todd found his daughter perched on the arm of the couch, trying to do a heel stretch and, worried that she might fall, figured out a way to help her practice that was safe and effective.  This led to the development of the MaeFlyer (seen on either side in the rear of the picture). Kelsie’s balance and leg strength improved so much that she was sticking all her stunts!  More cheerleaders wanted the device and this led to the birth of CoreAthletics!

Todd is quite the innovator and inventer.  His other products include the DeFrogger, the Fast Bands (I have a pair!), the Stunt Strap, and the Full Up Machine.  In this picure, you see Todd helping a cheerleader in using the Full Up which helps cheerleaders to practice that skill in a safe way.

Inside Cheerleading Magazine hosted a special meet and greet session with Olympic Gold medalist Shawn Johnson on Saturday at Cheersport.  News spread quickly that Shawn was going to appear at the Inside Cheerleading (IC) booth and soon there was a long line of eager fans waiting to meet Shawn and get her autograph.

Big news is that Shawn is joining the writing staff at IC!  She will  have her own column called, “Shawn Says” beginning with the next issue! Don’t miss it – subscribe now!  (And you’ll be able to see my column, too – Minda Games!)

Here’s a glimpse of the long line of Shawn Johnson fans waiting to meet the Olympic champ!