High School How To Get The Most Of Your Competition Warm Up Time?

[Johnna Thompson]

I am a competitive and varsity high school coach. We are still new to competition and I'm trying to figure out still how to make the most of the warm up time before we take the mat.

If things go bad during warm up's (ex: a stunt falls) how do you over come it?
How do you get your cheerleaders to take warm up's serious?

 

[alexacheer2010]

I am a competitive and varsity high school coach. We are still new to competition and I'm trying to figure out still how to make the most of the warm up time before we take the mat.

If things go bad during warm up's (ex: a stunt falls) how do you over come it?
How do you get your cheerleaders to take warm up's serious?

Go in to warmups with a plan. My coach always prepped us with things like "first mat is baskets, then opening stunt, etc." Then you don't waste time in warmups communicating what is happening next. If a stunt falls in warmups, do it again. In my experience that helped to reinforce, "ok we can do this" and helped everyone to calm down.

 

[HC Coach]

I usually stretch, kick, jump and possibly warm up stunts on 1 mat and then run the routine on the big mat. I generally don't stop the routine if a stunt falls. I'll make them do that stunt again after running the routine. That way, they have done the stunt more than once, got the jitters out over the stunt and then can cool/calm down before going out to compete.

 

[SparkleSpankies]

Depending on how warm-ups is set up.. stretch area, tumble, full floor or x on one floor etc depends on how I structure. About 15 minutes before my warm-up time I get them stretched and we visualize. Asusme there is 5 and 5 in this scenario. When we get into the warm-up gym, no matter what, tumbling goes first (its a pain point) followed by something that may need a little extra time for each group. We then take the large mat, run each stunting part with counts only, do the entire cheer full out. We then hit anything that has possibly fallen. If there is time left we walk through jump/tumble formations and then head on out.

I am very calm in warm-up. So it helps the team out too, they tend to be more relaxed.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Some teams actually rehearse what they'll do in warmups, over and over again at practice, so that they are more than prepared when they actually go into warmups.

 

[SarahS]

Some teams actually rehearse what they'll do in warmups, over and over again at practice, so that they are more than prepared when they actually go into warmups.

Always. Prep the way you want to compete. Competition includes a specific warm-up set-up and timing - why wouldn't you practice that?

 

[Official OWECheer]

Always. Prep the way you want to compete. Competition includes a specific warm-up set-up and timing - why wouldn't you practice that?

Centennial HS did that for UCA, and it seems to have served them well.

 

[ilikebigbows]

Some teams actually rehearse what they'll do in warmups, over and over again at practice, so that they are more than prepared when they actually go into warmups.

We did this for Worlds. We would come into practice and stretch, and we would warm up as if we had a time limit at a competition, then we would wait about 10 minutes "backstage" and go full out. Sometimes we would only wait 2 mins and sometimes we would wait 20, because you never know how a comp is going to run. It was very structured and it led to a very relaxed and confident warmup at every competition!

 

[GForce]

Some teams actually rehearse what they'll do in warmups, over and over again at practice, so that they are more than prepared when they actually go into warmups.

We did this! Each competition has a different set of warm ups/mats so the week leading up to a competition we started each practice off like warm ups and our coach told us how to do it. Like 4 minutes on three mats to tumble, next 2 minutes warm up stunts and then full mat run thorough (or whatever it was). It always made us more confident heading into warm ups.

 

[ScottyB]

Rehearse the warm up process atleast 5-7 times in the 2 weeks ahead of competition. Some years we would do a full rehearsal everytime so that when you are out under the lights after a shaky warmup you can still know how to make it a successful run

 

[AScheer]

The full week before competition, we begin every practice like competition warm-ups. This helps a lot! We compete UCA school comps, so every competition warm-up is different. I always contact the person running it to find out the set up of the warm-up room. Some are multiple mat stations with x amount of time on each. Some are like nationals with a full floor for x minutes. We never waste time in the warm-up room stretching, kicking or jumping. We do that before we go into the room, so that as soon as we step on a mat, we are ready to go. Part of practicing warm-up rotations includes them knowing what groups go first, which tumblers go first, how to fit all of us on 2 strips to warm-up standing, etc.

Don't over do it either and wear them out. Sometimes the competition will give you an insane amount of time on the mats. One comp last year, we did what we needed to do and then talked in a huddle the rest of the time. I know the guy working the mat thought we were crazy, but we did our job for our warm-up and didn't need the extra 8 minutes we still had left on that mat.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Some teams actually rehearse what they'll do in warmups, over and over again at practice, so that they are more than prepared when they actually go into warmups.

I've always found this to be really helpful. It also calms any nerves your athletes may have because warm-ups become a comfortable routine.

I also do a showcase practice before competition, where we will warm up exactly like competition, wait "in the hole," and then perform to an audience.

 

[SparkleSpankies]

We did this! Each competition has a different set of warm ups/mats so the week leading up to a competition we started each practice off like warm ups and our coach told us how to do it. Like 4 minutes on three mats to tumble, next 2 minutes warm up stunts and then full mat run thorough (or whatever it was). It always made us more confident heading into warm ups.

We do the same. It is very helpful!