Teen Aged Teams

[riptidecheercoach87]

How do you handle the teen age group? What kind of incentives do you offer to make them better at practice?

 

[SarahS]

How do you handle the teen age group? What kind of incentives do you offer to make them better at practice?

Doing well is the best reward for hard work. Take the time to help teens learn the benefits of internal motivation as opposed to external incentives. Fun team bonding activities can be used as an incentive to work hard, but the reward comes in the form of a better team and better relationships as opposed to candy or buttons or bows. Sure, everybody likes to get rewards like that, but those incentives offer no long term benefits.

I'm a fun coach, promise, even though I sound like a stick in the mud lol. I've coached for many years and many ages of kids, and I love working with teenagers best. Watching their confidence soar with every new skill gained is worth more than any prize I could possibly offer.


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[Shanna]

Its also helpful to allow them to have input with routines, cheers, dances etc. I've coached high school cheer for 9 years and I've found the amount of pride they have after a meaningful contribution is a prize in itself. We also tend to do the fun things like secret sibling and team bonding exercises of their choosing at the end of practices. A little healthy competition with the other local teams helps a little :)

 

[Cheermom4lyfe]

I coach 17 rec league 11-14yr olds. I was feeling so inspired as our season progressed....their skills improved tremendously and we accomplished far more than I originally envisioned. In my naivety, I thought the recent drama between 2 girls was simply frustration with their stunts not always hitting and pressure from me as we focus on an upcoming performance. I thought it was all about Cheer, so I tried a couple of different strategies to help in the past 2 weeks. Turns out they simply do not like each other and are no longer controlling/hiding it. We now have bickering btwn the 2 and gossipy/catty behavior from their friends during water breaks and off the mat. Their drama is sucking the life out of practices and me personally. The idea of reworking stunt groups & formations 4 practices away from their performance is depressing and it pisses me off because how dare these two ruin everyone else's experience. Any advice is much appreciated!!! I know with teen girls comes drama, but I have truly been blindsided by the downward spiral since they are such a strong squad otherwise.


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[FTSP]

I told the young ladies on my team that the drama stops at the gym door. I don't care I they are friends outside of the team but they are a team and will act like one during practice. And will condition if they can't


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[JoFTZEW21]

Definitely do not talk to them like they are little kids. I've been cheering for 5 years with teenage girls and i still notice that is the number one thing that makes them mad. Being a teenage girl i know sometimes practices can make you irritable, or crabby, a lot of times girls with give our coaches attitude. The best way to deal with it is probably to give them a warning and if they continue make them sit or condition. If you threaten that we will have to condition: TRUST ME THEY WILL STOP WHATEVER THEYRE DOING THAT YOU DON'T LIKE. I've never seen a time where the conditioning threat didn't work.

We also like being involved with the routine and it really makes us feel good when our opinions are taken into consideration :)

 

[MsElizabeth]

I give out beads at my gym. At the end of practice, I choose who I believe demonstrated the best leadership, sportsmanship, etc and they get a white bead. Once they get two of those they can trade it in for a red, then once they get two red it's one blue. Two blues gets them a new gym tshirt. My kids LOVE new tshirts.


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[Cheermom4lyfe]

Thanks everyone!! I had the "no drama" talk at the beginning...obviously needs reinforcing. I was going to waste practice time tonight talking to them, but I'm not, I will talk AFTER practice, on their parent's time instead. I decided to pull one from the stunt group for the sake of our performance. Also have another coach coming tonite to help them shift their focus back to the routine. They're probably tired of my voice after 3 mos :)


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