School Cheer Stunt Tryout Tips

[NHScheers]

Hi Coaches! I need some tryout advice. (always thinking ahead ) We are looking to revamp our tryout procedures in order to include stunting but we are having trouble trying to figure out how to implement it. Does anyone assess stunting at tryouts? If so, how do you judge it? Thank you!

 

[WinstonsGirl]

Hi Coaches! I need some tryout advice. (always thinking ahead ) We are looking to revamp our tryout procedures in order to include stunting but we are having trouble trying to figure out how to implement it. Does anyone assess stunting at tryouts? If so, how do you judge it? Thank you!

I do, to some extent, but a lot of my kids are also brand new. I'll look for air positions on the ground from flyers, as well as having them do things like log rolls. Tells me pretty quick who can naturally hold hollow and stay tight. The furthest I usually get is holding load positions. And with that, I'm looking for good technique and also who can take coaching and make those changes quickly and keep good technique. Any kid who can do that can be taught, and if they start with good technique, the more difficult stunts come pretty quick later in the year when we add them in.

I don't go much past that, mainly due to time and safety constraints. Seeing someone muscle up to a prep from a terrible load doesn't tell me much, and it's not safe when I have new kids either. They're not ready for that in the first 2 hours of tryouts

 

[acherise]

I definitely asses stunting at tryouts. Our program has all HS age athletes try out together, not separately for JV or Varsity. We have our fall tryouts the last two weeks of August. Over the summer we will hold open gyms one to two times a week to begin to asses tumbling and stunting skills. These open gyms are not mandatory but 99% of our athletes attend each one. A majority of the athletes we have known for some time by the time tryouts come around and we can safely place them into groups. We have a three day tryout. On the first day, they learn a dance and cheer and then we do some tumbling. On the second day we review the dance and cheer and begin to stunt and more elite tumbling. We usually combine previous JV athletes with previous varsity athletes (especially if we are eyeing that JV athlete to make varsity that season) to see how they work together. It takes some tweaking but we usually end up with quite a few successful stunt groups this way. We first have them all go to extensions, if any of the groups struggle we will switch things up and try again until all groups are perfect. We then begin our one leg extended stunts and more advanced to spinning and switch ups when they are ready. This process has worked super well for us as a program! Let me know if you have any more questions!