Elite athletes learn to sense how their bodies respond to all sorts of variables.  They learn this so they can then adjust their bodies’ arousal level to match the moment. If they are too revved up, they can calm themselves down; if their energy levels are low, they can rev up a bit. 

I hope you can see how useful it would be to be able to fine-tune your body to match and respond to the demands of the moment. 

To help you do this, try this:  Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes.  Slow your breathing down by exhaling slowly through your mouth several times, inhaling through your nose. Once you are quiet, with your mind’s eye, do a body scan, beginning with the top of your head and moving down to your toes. 

Just notice if you are holding any tension anywhere in your body.  If you detect tension, try to release it with your out-breath. 

A typical body scan goes like this: 

• With your mind’s eye, “see” in slow sequence:
• The top of your head
• Your forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, lips, and jaw
• Your neck
• Moving around to the back of your head, the back of your neck
• Moving down to your shoulders, your upper back
• Middle back, spine, lower back and seat
• Now back up to the front of your shoulders
• Your clavicle, your sternum, upper chest and rib cage
• Your upper stomach and your lower abdomen
• Now your upper arms, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands and fingers
• Move down to your pelvis
• Your upper legs, knees, calves and shins
• Now down to your ankles, the soles of your feet
• The tops of your feet and finally your toes 

The above exercise is an introduction to your body, if you will. I realize that this is impractical to do on a regular basis but if you do it a few times, you will learn how to quickly identify and release unwanted tension in your body. That way at practice or especially at high stakes events like tryouts or competitions, you’ll be able to better control your body’s response to stress.

Here you see one of the Northeast Elite teams, from Rochester New York, showing good form while warming up before their performance on Saturday, March 21st.  Northeast Elite has a devoted parent team that travels with the cheerleaders and coaches to many of their competitions.  In the photo below, one of the parents shows her support and her sense of humor!

And here are (below) Joanna Borelli (on the left), who is co-founder of Northeast Elite, with her daughter, Janice next to her and another cheerleader and coach (sorry…didn’t get their names). This was taken immediately after their excellent Saturday performance.  The team went on to win the championship in their level on Sunday. 

 And because their love, emotional and financial support are so essential to the success of cheerleaders everywhere,  I just had to add a few more photos of some of the parents who attended Nationals.  As you can see, some go through extraordinary efforts to come up with just the right “look.”  Below you will meet some fathers of cheerleaders from the Wildcats of PennDel, a rec team.  The parents refer to themselves as members of Wildcat Nation.  And they do look…uh..rather wild, don’t you think?

 And one more from the world of Wildcat Nation, here are some dads and a few of the coaches from the PennDel Wildcats. 

 As you can see, Nationals was great fun.  Don’t miss it next year!

Cheerleading success depends on many factors but what was clear at Cheer Ltd Nationals at CANAM was that a huge part of the success achieved by cheerleaders is due to the ongoing financial and emotional support delivered by their parents.  Nationals was filled with parents who demonstrated their pride and love for their offspring by many means including wearing all sorts of costumes and attire.

Below is Jerry Thomas, proud father of Jenna who cheers for the Angel Sharks of World Cup Ocean in New Jersey.

And here is Beth Whitman who has three kids in cheerleading; two are with the Greensboro All Stars and one with the Cheer Exreme.  Beth’s shirt caught my eye for its philosophical  message.  I think she is right on in her thinking!

More to come…stay tuned!

What do coaches tell their squad before they perform?  Here (above) is Dee Haase giving her girls encouragement and direction.  Dee is coach of the UItimate Athletics of Ohio in North Royalton. And here are her girls (below) stretching before their warm-up.  Oh, to be young and limber! 

Family members and friends of the cheerleaders made up a big portion of the crowd and they certainly were a colorful and fun addition to the festivities as you can see from the photos below. Fans of the Patriots of Tennessee demonstrate that you don’t even need shirts to show your support…just paint it on!

Some heartwarming moments came with the Special Needs Competitions.  Four teams competed including the Ladybugs and Bugs, The Cobras, The Bobcats of Cumberland County, and the Rockingham Lions.  These cheerleaders had trained just as hard as anyone and they demonstrated poise and enthusiasm.  And we all cheered our hearts out for them.  Below is a photo of The Cobras getting into position to begin.

More photos from Cheer Ltd Nationals at CANAM will be posted tomorrow.  And if you have any you’d like to add, please send them to me!

Meet the Higher Ground Christian Cheerleaders from Robbinsville, North Carolina.  I asked them for a little “attitude” when I took this picture and they readily complied. They were getting ready for warm-up on Saturday when I met them.    

Although I witnessed a lot of hard work, there was plenty of fun, too, as you can see in the picure below.  Music played between performances and everyone and anyone was invited onto the mat to dance. I saw a lot of fancy footwork and big smiles. 

Speaking of fun, a new boy band, called appropriately enough – WOW – performed on Saturday night.  Five good looking guys with great voices, fantastic choreography, and snappy songs won the hearts of more than a few cheerleaders in the audience.  This photo isn’t that good but it will give you a sense of their performance.  Just imagine you can hear the squeals of delight and screams of excitement as WOW lived up to their name. 

Be sure you keep on visiting this blog because I will be showing you more photos from Cheer Ltd. Nationals at CANAM!

This sign (above) was the backdrop to the festivities this past weekend in Myrtle Beach.  Cheerleaders competed in two huge arenas and warmed up in a third. And these trophies (below) were enticingly displayed in the arenas throughout the competitions as a reminder to all exactly what the goal was!  

 Meet the World Cup All Stars (above) from Freehold New Jersey! This was taken in the warm-up arena.  They look ready, don’t they?

And here are Jasia and Trinity (below) from the Twisters of Richmond Virginia.  This was taken before they competed.  I think this photo demonstrates the kind of affection that comes from working hard with your team-mates.

 It was my pleasure to attend Cheer Ltd Nationals at CANAM.  I had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people and to see first hand all the work that goes into a major competition – work done by not only the cheerleaders but their coaches (of course) and the organizers of Cheer Ltd.  The planning that went into this is mind boggling!  I will be writing more about Nationals all week and I’ll be including photos I took so be sure to check in to see if you will appear on this blog!

 Here is one last photo for today which sums up how all the parents feel about their cheerleading sons and daughters!

It’s Sunday in MyrtleBeach (well,actually it’s Sunday most places!) and I am at the Sheraton Convention Center attending the CheerLtd Nationals Cheerleading Competition.

What an event! I’ve been told there are 5,000 cheerleaders and about 15,000 spectators.  You can imagine the excitement (not to mention the noise level) as thousands of cheerleaders chant in the hallways and parents and friends encourage them!

I have taken some photos which I will put on this blog over the next week or so.  So, stay tuned for some great photos and stories about this wonderful event.

And I promise to get back to writing about tryouts but I’ve been distracted with traveling and observing the competitions.

For those of you who have asked about my new training program -The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions – I can tell you that the product is ready but the web site is not.  I am waiting (patiently) for my web guru to finish it. You can still get the program if you like by writing or calling me and I will personally see that you get it!  To remind you, this is a 2-CD set plus a 40 page workbook that teaches you how to leverage the power of sport psychology to transform your performance.

Ok…back to the competitions!

 Cheerleaders and cheer coaches are gearing up for cheerleading competitions all over the nation – and beyond!  Some of you have already participated and some of you are getting ready to go.

This year I will be attending Cheer Ltd Nationals in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The event takes place from Friday, March 20 – Sunday, March 22nd. It’s not too late to register so if you are interested, check out the website at http://www.cheerltd.com or call directly at 1-800-477-8868.

I am excited to be attending this event and I do hope, if you are attending, you’ll look for me and say hello. 

As I have mentioned before, I have created a new training program for cheerleaders called – The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions.  The program includes 2 CDs and a 40 page workbook.  It will be available on my soon-to-be new website – hopefully in the next few days but if you are interested in learning more or wish to purchase a program right away, please contact me and I will handle it personally.

Hope to see some of you in Myrtle Beach!

Readers – are you on Facebook? If so, please become my friend and join my Facebook Group – Confident Cheerleading.

It’s that time of year when cheerleaders are either getting ready for a big cheerleading competition or they have just been in a competition. Either way, the fact is that some of you will bring home a trophy and some of you won’t. 

How do you handle not winning?  Part of the answer lies in how you define “winning” in the first place. 

Pro athletes and Olympic athletes focus on Process or Performance goals more than Outcome goals and this helps them manage the disappointment of not being in the winner’s circle. 

They know, and you should, too, that they ultimately have no control over the outcome of anything!  

For cheerleading, you cannot control who your competitors are or how talented and skilled they are compared to you; you cannot control who on your squad might be ill or injured;  and you cannot control the skill and performance of every person in your squad.  All of these factors, and more, affect the outcome of a competition event. 

Do you see if you focus on Outcome only that you are likely to be disappointed? 

So why not focus on Process or Performance goals instead? 

Here’s an example: Way before the competition, consider what your personal cheerleading goals are in relation to the competition routine.   Be specific and detailed.  Perhaps you want to improve your inverted back tuck sequence. Maybe you want to refine some other stunt.  And there will be other goals such as improving communication with a stunting partner or maintaining focus, achieving a clean landing, etc.  

These are all Performance goals that you have control over since you are the one investing the time and effort in achieving the goals. Keep track of how you are progressing.  At the time of competition then, your focus will be on executing your part of the performance as well as you can.  Your goal then is not to win per se (that’s an outcome goal) but rather, to excel in performing your part of the routine.  

Assuming your hard work pays off and you have succeeded in improving the things you wanted to, you can, at the very least, take pleasure in accomplishing that goal. 

Of course I realize that there is disappointment in not placing and I’m not trying to make light of that.  At the same time, you can learn to minimize the pain of losing or not placing if you focus on Performance goals rather than Outcome goals. 

Are you on Facebook?  Please become my friend and join my Facebook Group – Confident Cheerleading.

It seems like cheerleading competitions are happening everywhere!  But then, this is the big season. 

My new training program – The Mental Game of Cheerleading: Training for Competitions will be available very soon but until then, here’s a visualization that can be very powerful to do just prior to your performance. 

Follow these steps: 

• If possible, find a quiet spot where you can sit upright with your eyes closed.  If this is impossible, simply close your eyes to block out all the distractions around you.
• With your eyes closed, exhale slowly three times.
• Repeat and say to yourself, with each out-breath I am relaxing more and more.
• Now, with your mind’s eye, see yourself sitting alone in the audience, looking at the empty stage or performance space.
• As you look at the empty performance space, you see someone you admire, someone who has been very important to your development as a cheerleader, come on the stage. This person stands on the stage.
• Now someone else who has been important to you, a person who has been supportive of your desire to be a fantastic cheerleader, also comes on the stage and stands next to the first person.
• And now a third person, also someone who you know cares about you and is rooting for your success, enters the performance area and stands next to the other people.
• If there are more people you can think of who have helped you or whom you admire and respect for their competence and expertise (even if you don’t know them), visualize them coming on the stage, too.
• Once everyone is on the stage, see them smiling with encouragement at you.
• Now you come onto the performance space and embrace everyone there, taking in their good wishes and support.
• After you have done this, the people leave the stage and leave you there alone but you know you are really not alone since you have taken in their support, their wisdom, and their expertise; you have soaked it up and you feel great!
• You see yourself standing tall on the stage, confident, poised, and eager to perform. 

I hope you will give this a try.  And if you do, please let me know how it works. 

Are you on Facebook?  Please look me up and “friend”me.  Also, please join my group –  Confident Cheerleading – http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=33441578364