High School What Do Judges Look For In A Cheer Section?

[Stiggy]

Sharp clean motions and very strong loud voices. Also good transitions never hurt.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

We are putting together our gametime cheer for UCA right now but am stuck and was hoping for some suggestions. First problem, my team only has 7 girls on it. We have a very crowd involved cheer and will be using poms, but am having trouble coming up with stunt/stunts to involve all 7 girls. I just feel that it is too remedial to have one extension and one prep or one extension and two girls with signs. I'm trying to keep the stunts simple as it seems that's what UCA wants, but with only 7 I'm just getting stuck. Any suggestions would be wonderful.

 

[SparkleSpankies]

shoulder sits, single base prep level, you can get 2... just some thoughts.

 

[coach.elle]

There's no shame in using shoulder sits! I love em...

 

[Tosh]

There's no shame in using shoulder sits! I love em...

No shame whatsoever....Our girls (I don't coach them, but my daughters are on the team) do shoulder sits in their cheer every year. It is an effective way to lead the crowd using poms.....

 

[nnuiqtiac]

Make sure your stunts aren't hard. You want your stunts to be solid...whatever stunt is easy and solid for your team is what you should do in your cheer.

Always have people working the crowd up front. You always want people in the front with signs, poms, or megaphones to make sure the crowd stays involved.

Make sure each part of your cheer has something your crowd can yell with you. If you are saying "Go Eagles" make certain you have up signs that go with that. UCA wants an easy crowd effective cheer. The more people you have yelling with you the better off you will be.

Most importantly your cheer should be easy to follow for the crowd & judges. Hope this helps you! Good luck!

 

[MHSCheercoach]

Thank you for the feedback. I so appreciate it. Keep the ideas coming if anyone else has some suggestions. You all rock!!

 

[Heather Mc]

Saw this on the UCA facebook page today, their webinars are usually really good, they might be able to help, too:

It's time to sign up for the next UCA Coaches Academy. Here are the details:​

Topic: Breaking Down the UCA High School & Rec Competition Judging Sheets​

Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2012​

Time: 3:00 pm CDT​

Featuring: Carlos Munoz, UCA National Director- Competitions

Register now- http://bit.ly/UCA-Coaches-Academy1​

 

[AScheer]

We are putting together our gametime cheer for UCA right now but am stuck and was hoping for some suggestions. First problem, my team only has 7 girls on it. We have a very crowd involved cheer and will be using poms, but am having trouble coming up with stunt/stunts to involve all 7 girls. I just feel that it is too remedial to have one extension and one prep or one extension and two girls with signs. I'm trying to keep the stunts simple as it seems that's what UCA wants, but with only 7 I'm just getting stuck. Any suggestions would be wonderful.

What about two mans or shoulder stands? There are also thigh stand/prep/hitch transitions you could do that would only require 6 stunting for 2 groups (extra girl up front for crowd). You can get creative with only 7.

 

[MissBee]

Saw this on the UCA facebook page today, their webinars are usually really good, they might be able to help, too:

It's time to sign up for the next UCA Coaches Academy. Here are the details:​

Topic: Breaking Down the UCA High School & Rec Competition Judging Sheets​

Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2012​

Time: 3:00 pm CDT​

Featuring: Carlos Munoz, UCA National Director- Competitions​

​

Register now- http://bit.ly/UCA-Coaches-Academy1​

I HATE that they hold these Coaches Academy webinars during the school day! Some are at 11am....I'm the cheer coach AND a teacher in the school-I can't stop teaching my 4th period class to watch the cheer webinar!

 

[dreambigcheerhard]

My team always has a cheer section in our comp routine, we're trying to go by UCA this year. My team and coaches want to have 3 stunt groups in the back (we have enough people to make 5) and people cheering in the front with signs and poms. They wanted to have the stunt groups basket (I HATE baskets in cheers, no one would listen) and then do 360's to sponge or prep. I argued that the judges would rather see 5 two-man stunts with the flyers holding poms and signs, and then have the whole team do motions or something. What do you guys think, who was right? Most importantly, what do the judges want? Thanks!

I agree with you. The stunts should all be sturdy because you must be able to cheer loudly to be able to lead the crowd. Some good stunts are single base prep/extentions and single base hitches like this: http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/120/0fbced78752347b4a493150706d90f3d/l.jpg
you can change the difficulty by the way you get on and if you press it up to an extention or a lib. make sure the stunts are still enough that you can hold signs for the crowd to spell out

 

[celtics youth cheer coach]

Does anyone have tips for a youth school team attending competition brands
- cheer max- Cheer Max, Cheer Competitions, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky and
-spirit solutions- http://www.spiritsolutions.com/ ?

Both follow AACCA competition rules but I've yet to figure out what they actually want in a cheer. We used to stick with the 1 minute cheer and 1:30 music because certain competitions require the full minute of cheer. This year we've changed up our schedule though and all of our competitions allow as long of a music portion as we want as long as we don't exceed 2:30 total. I'm debating on if we'll be better off doing a short 30 sec cheer and longer music portion. Any tips?

I welcome all tips and ideas on all aspects of these competition score sheets! lol. Even though we're youth elementary, we follow the same rules as high school other than we don't do baskets.

Thank for the help!

 

[LittleMissA17]

Something I've noticed a lot of teams do is have the major spell out of their school name (if it flows well) with everyone on the floor doing spell out, and if you have a long school name, take advantage of your team size and give everyone a sign. Then through the cheer use your school name (if you can break it up) and then 2 simple colors. This can also work with a mascot and have girls with megs/poms.

Also now with the new rule of keeping poms in your hands, have the stunt groups in the back (the emphasis of simple stunts that everyone is saying is great here) and have a few reliable tucks or handsprings in the front and then those girls can lead the crowd.