- Jan 12, 2016
- 7
- 0
Hello to all. I have a question about young adult athletes new to the sport. I coach a non-competitive team at my alma mater, our team includes both experienced athletes and those with no experience. This year we had more girls who had never cheered before make it on the team. Two of our girls who are international students are very, very committed and love cheer. They approached me this past weekend asking if there are other ways to stay involved after basketball season ends in Feb/March. They will be on campus this summer, but we will not hold practices and our facilities will have restrictions due to summer programs going on. I am looking for potential ways they might be able to stay involved with cheer.
If they were younger, I would definitely push them toward all star (they are somewhat familiar with it but don't know specifics since they're not from the US). I am hesitant now due to age - one is 21 and the other is 18. There is a gym about an hour away with IOC5 that I thought about bringing up, but am not sure if I should. They also have classes for tumbling and stunting, but I am not familiar with how the gym handles it (especially since they are level 1/2). I think it would be wonderful for them if they could join a team to continue cheering, as well as get some practice over the summer, but realistically I don't think they would make a team due to skill level. I was also thinking of encouraging them to try camps or clinics.. but again, they're already in college and in my experience those are geared toward younger athletes or teams going to camp together. I would have to mention these in a certain way due to time/travel/cost involved.. I don't want them to get the impression that they'll go to all these clinics and be able to make a high level team.
Any suggestions or ideas on how to approach this? Are there things I am not thinking of? I have never worked with "non-traditional" cheerleaders in this sense, they're my first two international students as a coach, so any advice is very helpful and appreciated.
If they were younger, I would definitely push them toward all star (they are somewhat familiar with it but don't know specifics since they're not from the US). I am hesitant now due to age - one is 21 and the other is 18. There is a gym about an hour away with IOC5 that I thought about bringing up, but am not sure if I should. They also have classes for tumbling and stunting, but I am not familiar with how the gym handles it (especially since they are level 1/2). I think it would be wonderful for them if they could join a team to continue cheering, as well as get some practice over the summer, but realistically I don't think they would make a team due to skill level. I was also thinking of encouraging them to try camps or clinics.. but again, they're already in college and in my experience those are geared toward younger athletes or teams going to camp together. I would have to mention these in a certain way due to time/travel/cost involved.. I don't want them to get the impression that they'll go to all these clinics and be able to make a high level team.
Any suggestions or ideas on how to approach this? Are there things I am not thinking of? I have never worked with "non-traditional" cheerleaders in this sense, they're my first two international students as a coach, so any advice is very helpful and appreciated.
