Feeling hungry? Got a craving? Cheerleaders who work hard need to eat to keep up their strength but we all know that sometimes you might indulge in junk food. Of course all that junk food adds up and soon you realize that your cheerleading uniform is – well, a little tight!
Well, there’s good news! A recent study has shown that if you use your imagination, you may lose weight! Or at least reduce your cravings… (more…)
It’s a long flight from Boston to Seattle but it will be worth it! This Friday I leave bright and early for my trek to Everett, Washington (north of Seattle) for the annual conference for cheerleading coaches.
It will be a jam-packed weekend with lots of class options for the coaches. I will be teaching 3 different classes: How to Bring out the Leader in your Cheerleader; How to Enhance Motivation and Improve Performance; and How to Identify and Change Negative Thinking.
All of these classes are based on best practices from sport psychology and all are evidence-based. This means that there is scientific proof that these techniques really work – if – if they are actually put into practice! (more…)
When I attended a recent cheerleading competition I noticed a large crowd around one of the vendor booths. Being curious, I investigated and discovered that the attraction was a product that made grand claims to improve balance and infuse energy not to mention cure almost any ailment known to man!
I walked away, knowing it was a bunch of hooey but I was concerned that so many people were paying $30 for a worthless piece of plastic. The manufacturers of these wristbands rely on the placebo effect which is based on a person’s belief or expectation that something (a pill, a technique or a device) will be effective.
Power Balance is currently being sued for making false claims. At this time 15 lawsuits have been filed against Power Balance in California, Florida, Alabama, and New Jersey. (more…)
What are you doing to observe National Cheerleading Safety Month? For some of the best ideas, visit the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA) website – http://aacca.org/safetymonth .
No one wants to see a cheerleader get hurt and yet in the busyness of the season it can be easy to forget some simple guidelines. Of course all coaches should be trained in risk management and basic first aid. Additionally, all gyms should have an emergency response plan. Again, the AACCA website offers a wealth of valuable information. (more…)
If you are a cheerleading coach and one of your cheerleaders develops a mental block, it is your job to try to figure out what happened. Sometimes it’s clear and the solution is easy. This is especially true when it is a technical issue and the fix is a matter of tweaking something the athlete is doing.
Of course there are the other times when the cause and the fix are not clear. As I mentioned yesterday, high stress families, especially families where feelings are not expressed or allowed or where conflict is not addressed in a healthy way, can be breeding grounds for all sorts of medical and psychological symptoms including mental blocks. (And by the way – high stress is a significant factor associated with sport injuries.)
You will have your own way of working with blocks and it’s good to follow through with what you usually do – especially if you have had success with other cheerleaders. But if you find the problem is not resolving or if the athlete is especially emotional, then you might want to consider assessing for family stress. So how do you do this? (more…)
As I have said before, there are many possible reasons why a cheerleader develops a tumbling mental block. Good cheerleading coaches recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all mental block nor is there a one-size-fits-all remedy.
It can be helpful to appreciate the psychological complexity of a block and so this article is devoted to exploring the impact of family stress on a cheerleader and how this might result in a block. (more…)
In response to my recent post about special-needs cheerleading teams, I heard from Sarah Cronk who is President and co-founder of an organization called The Sparkle Effect.
The Sparkle Effect, http://www.thesparkleeffect.org is a nonprofit corporation that provides guidance, peer mentoring, online tools, free uniforms, and free on-site training to enable high school students across the United States to create cheerleading squads that include students with disabilities and to fully integrate those squads into the high school sports curriculum.
How cool is that??
The Sparkle Effect offers a step-by-step model that students can follow in setting up their own squads, including sample letters to administrators, practice tips, fundraising ideas and more!
The Sparkle Effect invites you to join the movement that is changing game night in America forever. After all, when everyone cheers, everyone wins!
If you’re interested, please contact Sarah Cronk at sarah.cronk@thesparkleeffect.org
If you’ve ever been to a cheerleading competition, you may have had the pleasure of seeing a special-needs cheerleading team perform. The pleasure comes from seeing the focus and determination on the cheerleaders’ faces as they perform and the sheer joy of triumph when they finish. All their hard work has paid off and now they want to celebrate! And we all celebrate with them. We salute their courage, their resilience, and their vitality. Bravo!
I have been thinking about writing a post about this topic for a while now and lo and behold, Bill Presson provided a link on Facebook to an article that appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. The reporter is Karen Kadilac and it appeared in Thursday’s paper. I will be borrowing from this article for my post. (more…)
As a cheerleader, you know that to excel at your sport requires countless hours of practice, conditioning exercises, and focusing on the details. Along the way you will enjoy the exhilaration of success and probably the pain of defeat. You will make mistakes and some of these will be public. Some missteps may cost your team a first place standing at a cheerleading competition. Some mistakes may be embarrassing.
And yet – it is the making of those mistakes that you have your best opportunity to shine. You have the chance to show people that you are a good sport; that you are gracious and accepting of your blunders; that you view mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. You also can become more empathic and compassionate towards others who slip up.
Remember, it’s up to you to determine how you will respond to set-backs and mistakes. Show the world what you’re made of – good stuff.
We all have fun on Facebook. It’s an easy way to connect with friends and keep up on the latest cheerleading news. But – there is a downside to Facebook and that is that there are sleazy predators out there who might pose as friends but who do not have your best interest in mind.
Today, Bill Presson, Chairman of the Parent Action committee of the USASF, posted a warning on his Facebook Wall about a person called Christian Stocker who is watching Cheerleading Facebook accounts, linking to Facebook sites and then reposting pictures and videos of kids along with other sexually explicit pictures and videos. (more…)