Cheerleading has moved beyond the simple sideline activity that featured a few rhymes and loud voices. Cheering is now a strenuous activity requiring exceptional strength, flexibility, coordination and dance skills. You have to be both an extraordinary athlete and artist to succeed at the upper levels. The difficulties involved in cheering create an opportunity for young men and women to showcase their talents, work as a team member and compete against other squads in national events.
Strength
Cheerleaders need strong bodies to perform the stunts and tumbling so integral to the activity. Participants can build their muscles with resistance exercises including ones that use body weight alone such as pushups and crunches and others that rely on small weights or resistance bands. Oak Harbor Cheer recommends its members work their legs by doing repeated tuck jumps so that they can build strength while practicing the landing of jumps. A consistent program dedicated to 30 minutes strength training every other day will greatly improve a cheerleader's ability to handle the physical demands of the sport.
Flexibility
The ability to contort your body into back bends, scorpions, splits and leg lifts is part of being a top cheerleader. Flexibility is often a natural gift but even those that are not particularly limber can improve the situation through a program of stretching. A formal program that can help potential cheerleaders improve flexibility is yoga classes. The European Cheerleading Association reminds athletes never to stretch without warming up the muscles first as this can lead to an injury. Warm up with some light jogging or calisthenics.
Dance Skills
Today's cheerleading features complicated dance routines in addition to tumbling, pyramids and chants. Those that want to compete on top squads should take dance classes in addition to their squads' practice. Ballet, jazz and hip hop are styles that particularly help. Ballet trains the body in balance, strength and grace while jazz and hip hop moves are important because these will be replicated in cheering routines.
Stunts
A classic component of cheering is the stunts involved. These can be as simple as a split at the end of a routine or as complicated as a multi-tiered pyramid. Cheerleaders often specialize as a tumbler, base or flyer in the stunts. Tumblers perform such as acrobatics as cartwheels, aerials, flip flops, front and back tucks and full-body layouts. Bases are the foundations of the pyramids. They safely lift and project flyers that perform a variety of flexibility poses while positioned above the bases. All positions require great strength and agility.
Showmanship
Crowd pleasing is a big part of cheering. Big smiles and exaggerated facial expressions are commonly seen in local and national competitions. Cheerleaders try to capture the audience's attention with their expressions and the way they move and dance. Girls that participate often wear lots of glittery make-up to create even more of the atmosphere of a production. Practice connecting with others with your countenance and especially smiles when preparing for a cheering performance.
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