Arm Motions

[MAP]

How do I get across to the cheerleading squad that they need to have tight motions on cheers and dances. I have tried various methods to teach tight motions, but this year's squad is a little less experienced then previous years. The obvious things such as practice, watching video, critiques are not working. Any suggestions or solutions would be helpful.

 

[JerseyGirl112]

In high school my coaches would have practices where we would just drill motions for the entire thing when they got frustrated with sloppiness during the summers. It was extreme and seemed like an eternity to me while it was happening but it forced us to be sharp and Im thankful we spent that much time drilling motions. Idk if I'd reccomend a full practice where the girls hold each motion for 5 to 10 minutes like we did haha but something less extreme could maybe be beneficial for your team.

 

[BlockHead]

I know the threat of having to do burpees or bear crawls does catch my CP's attention. :-)

 

[BeckyySueWho]

In high school my coaches would have practices where we would just drill motions for the entire thing when they got frustrated with sloppiness during the summers. It was extreme and seemed like an eternity to me while it was happening but it forced us to be sharp and Im thankful we spent that much time drilling motions. Idk if I'd reccomend a full practice where the girls hold each motion for 5 to 10 minutes like we did haha but something less extreme could maybe be beneficial for your team.

When I was in high school, we did the same deal with having entire practices dedicated to motions/motion placement. I'm lucky enough to now asst. coach at the HS I attended, and we've carried on the tradition as well.

We will have the girls stand in staggered lines and hit each motion (I'm not sure if anyone else uses "these seventeen motions" when teaching, if you're interested in this exercise let me know!) and hold it, we then go around and correct the girls placement, wrists, angles, etc. and then we make them close their eyes and hold their motions as tightly as possible, then we will randomly select a girl and one of us will sneak up and try to move/knock their arms out of place.

My beginners I always try to emphasize the "brick wall" method to hitting motions hard. Act like there is a brick wall behind you, and obviously your arms can't go past that wall. If you don't hit your motion hard enough, then you'll continue to hit the same motion until it's right. I also try to emphasize how hard they should hit their motions with humor, "hit that last motion like it owes you money!" is one my favorites.

 

[BeckyySueWho]

Also, the girls shudder at the words "boot camp" when it comes to the dances we do. When I "boot camp" a dance, that means we are going through count-by-count and we are not going to move on to the next count until every single person is doing it right, even if it takes us an hour to get through one 8-count.