Yesterday, you saw how a seemingly innocent question from a cheerleading coach led to a nasty interaction with a cheerleader (all hypothetical, of course). 

According to Transactional Analysis (TA), the way your Parent, Adult, and Child ego states or personality parts are constructed depends on your own history – the way you were treated by parents, siblings, and other people in your life plus your own life experiences. (more…)

Yesterday I showed a simple transaction between c cheerleading coach and a cheerleader.  The coach reminded the athlete about cheerleading practice time and the response was neutral. 

Today, as promised, I will show how a simple interaction can result in conflict. (more…)

If you’re a cheerleading coach, you are always giving feedback to your athletes.  Chances are, unless you’ve gotten specialized training, the way you deliver feedback is similar to the way your coach gave you feedback. 

It may seem simple.  A cheerleader attempts to execute a toe touch and fails.  What do you do?   (more…)

How do you build a successful, cohesive cheerleading team?  What are the elements you would put in place?  Sometimes cheerleading coaches are busy juggling so many responsibilities that they don’t take the time to consider this challenge.  (more…)

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…)

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…)

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.

This is yet another cognitive distortion that can interfere with cheerleading success.  In this case, you go beyond the evidence you actually have and reach a conclusion that makes things look worse than they are. It takes three distinct forms: Labeling, Mind Reading, and Fortune Telling.

Today I will deal with Labeling.

Here’s an example – You are finishing a practice session in which you just couldn’t hit an inverted back tuck. Each time you tried, you rotated a bit too soon.

What do you tell yourself?  If you tell yourself, “I’m a lousy flyer,” you are Labeling yourself. You are now “a lousy flyer.”  Instead of saying, “I couldn’t get it right today so I better ask coach for advice,” you ended up applying a negative label to a complex event.

Labeling leaves out more than it includes and it ignores the complexity of a given situation. There could be many reasons why you are having trouble with an inverted back tuck, but if you quickly Label yourself a “lousy flyer” you are closing off the opportunity to learn what’s interfering with your progress.

Here’s a better way of handling this situation: “I seem to be having trouble with my inverted back tuck.  It’s frustrating. I wonder what I’m doing wrong.  I can ask coach or some of the other cheerleaders to watch me and tell me what they observe.  Once I know what I’m doing wrong I can get help in correcting it.”

Do you see how this way leads to a plan of action?  Once you have a plan of action, your frustration will diminish because you have hope that things will improve!

So, watch out for Labeling!