Some cheerleaders are so engaged in negative thinking that their performance suffers.
Does this sound like you?
You tell yourself:
If so, read on! (more…)
Yesterday I wrote about how some cheerleaders over-react to a bad practice. Let’s take that a bit further today.
I invite you to think about how you assess a bad day or good day. Do you tend to allow a rough practice ruin your whole day or even your week? Do you float on cloud 9 if you have a great practice? What is the conversation you have with yourself about this? (more…)
Although she was not a cheerleader, Mia Hamm, a star member of the U.S. women’s soccer World Cup 1999 winning team, knows about good days and bad days as an athlete. Here is a quote from Mia that any cheerleading squad can relate to:
“As players, when we are having a bad day, we tend to think in melodramatic terms, that we’ve lost it, that everything’s gone wrong, but usually all you have to do is correct one small element of your game and everything else will fall into place.”
Does this happen to you? If you have a cheerleading practice session where you just aren’t hitting it, do you get discouraged and start thinking that it’s all over? (more…)
One of the joys of attending cheerleading conferences is learning from my colleagues in the cheerleading industry.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending and teaching at Spring Tumbling’s first annual cheer coaches’ conference in Toronto. Mike Pare, President of Spirit Cheer, UCA All Star Director for UCA All Star, and assistant cheerleading coach at the University of Central Florida (whew! – when does he sleep?) offered a class called “Running an Effective Practice” which I attended. (more…)
Cheerleaders are busy people. There’s all that school work to get done on top of hours of cheerleading practice plus maintaining a social life. Many cheerleaders tend to listen to music while they study and in addition to that, they are busy responding to emails and text messages.
Of course, if you ask them how they can stay focused and get anything done, they will tell you they can manage just fine, thank you. But can they?
There is, at this point, a significant body of research on the impact of multitasking and the studies suggest that cheerleaders, like many of us, are fooling themselves into believing that they can get more done by multitasking.
Actually, pushing yourself to perform two or more tasks is extremely inefficient says David Meyer, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Michigan. Dr. Meyer and his colleagues found that people who toggle between tasks lose valuable time in the transitions.
You see, the brain has to refocus each time it switches activities and that time can add up over the course of a day. There is also something called “working memory” which is like “mental counter space,” says Dr. Laura Vanderberg, a biology researcher at Tufts University. There is only so much “mental counter space” and everything we do takes mental energy which takes up room on that mental counter.
Multitasking adds to the drain on the brain’s limited supply of resources.
So, what does this have to do with cheerleading? Well, researchers at Stanford University found that people who try to juggle things such as checking text messages while writing an email or studying, are unable to block unimportant information as well as those who consume one media stream at a time.
In other words, these people are distracted – all the time! They cannot stop thinking about tasks they are not doing. They have trained their brains to be unfocused.
The reason this is important for cheerleaders is because cheerleading – especially tumbling and stunting – require laser focus, meaning focusing on one thing only. A distracted cheerleader is vulnerable to being injured or causing injury.
So the next time you are tempted to do 3 things at once, remember that you are actively training your brain to be inefficient and distracted.
Many cheerleaders are getting ready for Nationals which means Christmas break is not much of a break for some of you! It’s tempting to devote every waking moment to practice but that would be a mistake! Just like the puppy in the photo, it’s important to take time to rest to allow your body and brain to rejuvenate. So, be sure to set aside time for those naps (but not on a coffee table like our furry friend).
The word “routine” here refers to the specific steps you take to prepare yourself for actually performing a cheerleading stunt or a move. In other words, do you just jump into it or do you take a moment to focus, visualize and then act? You won’t be surprised to learn that I am a big fan of incorporating a mental pre-performance routine into your cheerleading practice!
You’ve heard me say over and over how important focus is in any kind of performance. (It’s also a key in reducing accidents and injuries.) So, ask yourself, what do you do to enhance your focus at cheerleading practice? And by the way, this isn’t just about practice; remember what you do at practice will show up at performance so you’re wise to take this seriously.
The best athletes believe that good practice and performance (mental) routines get you where you need to be when you need to be there. In other words, in pressure filled moments, it’s good to have a mental routine to rely on to get you focused and back on track.
Here’s a simple pre-practice routine that you can try: Before you jump into anything, pause, exhale slowly three times, and say “focus” to yourself. Then take a moment and visualize with your mind’s eye what you want your body to do. Once the scene is clear to you, exhale slowly once more and proceed.
If you do this often enough, you will have created a simple but powerful routine to get yourself focused and mentally prepared for performance.
It’s part of any cheerleading practice: the team gathers together on the mat to stretch to get those muscles warmed up and loose before they move into tumbling practice. Of course this is necessary to prevent injury but warm-ups also provide a time for the team to chat and laugh and catch up with each other. It’s the more laid back part of practice with less need for intense focus so cheerleaders are free to interact and connect.
A wise cheerleading coach will recognize the team-building value of warm-up sessions and not try to interfere too much with the easy-going chatter that occurs. Yes, the muscles are getting warmed up but so are the connections among team members!
I had the pleasure of observing the Boston University cheerleading team practice the other night. Coach Tarryn Walsh, herself a BU grad and former cheerleader, has put together a compelling group of 21 spirited cheerleaders – 2 men and 19 women – who cheer at BU’s men’s and women’s home basketball games.
Cheerleading is a club sport at Boston University and this is the first time the team has men on board. The team will be competing at NCA’s nationals in April, Coach Walsh said, and so the team is spending time now getting their routine down in preparation for the big event.
Boston University is known for its academic rigor and cheerleaders must find time to keep up with their academics and devote time to cheer practice. We’re talking big time dedication here!
Being a club team, the level of expertise and experience varies among the cheerleaders but everyone seemed to be having a good time and the more experienced cheerleaders were generous and respectful in offering helpful tips to those who were less experienced. Even when a routine was less than perfect, there was a great deal of laughter and camaraderie and – importantly – there was continued effort to do it again and again and again until they got it right! I never saw anyone look disgruntled or disheartened. It seems the team has the right attitude: it’s about fun, it’s about learning, and it’s about connection. It’s also about taking on the challenge of moving out of your comfort zone to take a risk and work towards success. Yep – that’s the right stuff!
You know what it’s like: you zero in on one cheer routine or one stunt and do it over and over until you get it right. But sometimes it seems the harder you try, the worse you do!
Well, there’s a reason for that and it has to do with the science of concentration. I won’t go into all the technical details here except to say that when you engage in narrow-focus attention for too long (like when you rehearse a cheer move over and over), it literally affects your brain!
Yep – you see the brain is the master control panel for your mind and body and if you are stuck in narrow focus, this will induce changes in your muscle tension, breathing, and even the flow of neurotransmitters and hormones.
You see, everything is influenced by how you pay attention.
Now narrow focus serves a purpose. It allows you to see and deal with urgent or important situations and so it can be helpful in the short run but if you stick with narrow focus, you’ll be revving up your brain in ways that aren’t healthy, leading to chronic stress problems.
So, what can you do? You can take mini-vacations or “focus breaks” periodically throughout your cheer practice to offset the negative impact of too much time spent in narrow-objective focus.
For example, make it a habit to occasionally pause during cheer practice and allow your eyes to gaze at some open space. The open space can be a big blank wall or a ceiling. Just take in the largeness of the space. The trick is not to zero in on any one object but to soften your gaze as you take in a sense of background or space. Exhale slowly three times while doing this. This should not take too much time away from your practice and – you will return to it feeling more relaxed and refreshed.
When you gently direct your gaze to and imagine feeling space, your brain will respond by changing its electrical activity. In other words, you will be able to induce alpha waves which are associated with feelings of well-being.
So, take a mini-break, gaze out a window, at a wall, at a ceiling, or close your eyes and visualize the vast expanse of sky or the ocean. You’ll feel better and then you’ll be able to return to your cheer practice with the ability to perform at an optimal level.