- Nov 16, 2011
- 100
- 215
Every time I get to see a practice video of world champion teams, I literally note everything the coach says, how they run their practice etc. and then do the same the next time I coach.
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At our gym, some of the kids actually go in together on a private lesson. This significantly reduces the cost. My daughter and one of her friends are doing one together this weekend. Instead of paying $30, we pay $15 each and still get lots of great instruction.Just googled £30 and its around $48! Ah okay, people seem to have privates all the time in the US, how do you guys afford to have them so often?! Wow lucky you! I'd love to have that! Yes hopefully :D
At our gym, some of the kids actually go in together on a private lesson. This significantly reduces the cost. My daughter and one of her friends are doing one together this weekend. Instead of paying $30, we pay $15 each and still get lots of great instruction.
Have you tried showing them videos of really strong teams in their division? Like if they're a level 3 skill-wise, show them strong level 3/4s as opposed to level 5s? That way they can see a strong team in their reachable skills and the next one up- it shows them what 'perfection' looks like for where they are now, and gives them a place to strive to.the bad thing about it is that they try to compare themselves too much with the usa-teams, so they often feel like if they will never be good enough. i try to make clear to them not to compare with them, because kids in the usa have so many more years of experiance and are likely to get retired from cheer at the age they started.
:eek:
that's such a great idea!! thnx, i will try that. although i know they look up especially to those "famous" teams, at least that way they see not all teams in the USA are like that.Have you tried showing them videos of really strong teams in their division? Like if they're a level 3 skill-wise, show them strong level 3/4s as opposed to level 5s? That way they can see a strong team in their reachable skills and the next one up- it shows them what 'perfection' looks like for where they are now, and gives them a place to strive to.
-i contacted many gymnastic teams nearby to get my cheerleaders in their tumbling classes, unfortunaly nowhere it was possible because to get in the tumblingclasses they needed to do a tryout and you needed at least a BHS to get in. so several joined in their regular classes where they worked on the vault and other equipment, for the tumbling-part they worked the whole year on a roundoff. their roundoffs are close to perfection, but they only learn one pass/year.
-I often hear American coaches complain that the parents are too involved. I wish the parents of the kids I coach would be more involved. the parents here dont understand anything about it, buy their kids uniforms to wear at practise, they dont understand why routines dont have pompons,... get upset when i make a comment their kid is absent too often.
-there are only 4 teams in the country here that do cheerleading with stunts, tumbling. about 10 others call themselves cheerleaders too but only dance with hardly any clothes on.
-i wish we could do more competitions like in the usa. here we have nationals, once a year...because they never compete much, they are so nervous they mess up alot.
-I'm the only coach in my country that got educated before starting (went to some coaches camps and visited some usa-teams to get advice and learn how to teach stunts) and who only coaches the team. all others are girls between 17 and 22 years old, who learned all they know from youtube videos and they are a member of the team. so they coach themselves and their teammates. they also have hardly any knowledge on rules and safety. when i see them do another illegal stunt or a spotter standing on the wrong place, I used to tell them, but they only get angry or call me "jealous because my team doesnt know how to do that stunt"...
-some teams here dont even use the right names for stunts. they give it their own name or translate it. ex. extension: the very high tower....:banghead:
-the gym where we train gives us the leftover gymhours, because the "sportsteams" need to get priority. so we got odd training hours and not half the amount of hours I want.
-I try to teach my team something about the history of cheer and usa-teams too. only when i asked them about their favourite teams, one said: world cup. and another said: thats not a team! thats a championship! she confused it with worlds:)
the bad thing about it is that they try to compare themselves too much with the usa-teams, so they often feel like if they will never be good enough. i try to make clear to them not to compare with them, because kids in the usa have so many more years of experiance and are likely to get retired from cheer at the age they started.
-difference between usa and my country when it comes to the bring it on-movies. in the usa cheerleaders laugh with it, here they think thats the reality. :eek:
We have hosted two girls from Germany. I also know that Jamfest has the Jamfest Europe event. Four years ago in Munich, it was mostly gymnastics, now I know for a fact that there are at least 25 cheer gyms in Germany. It is growing. I am sorry you are having problems, it s growing though because of athletes like you! I hope you find a great gym!I'm from Finland and I hate it in my country that if you aren't on a national winning-team, you get to compete only 1-3 times a year. If you aren't good at cheerleading, you don't get to compete, because there are no levels. Only mini, junior and senior. And senior is basically level 6, so if you want to continue cheerleading after you turn 15, you must to start doing those level 6 pyramids. When I was a junior, i loved basket tosses, especially kick-fulls and kick-doubles. No I don't get to do those :(
Also I hate that we don't have a spring floor so tumbling is the weakness of every team. Teams barely have full squad BHS but they do level 6 stunting. But luckily things are changing and in 5-10 years spring floors should be common in Europe :)
We have hosted two girls from Germany. I also know that Jamfest has the Jamfest Europe event. Four years ago in Munich, it was mostly gymnastics, now I know for a fact that there are at least 25 cheer gyms in Germany. It is growing. I am sorry you are having problems, it s growing though because of athletes like you! I hope you find a great gym!
This post is verified by Chad Mulkey!