The Mycenaean

Leesville Road High School cheer team is having tryouts July 31 and August 1. There are over 30 students trying out for the cheer team. Here are tips for doing well.

Jumps

In cheer, there are different types of jumps like toe touch, hurdler, pike, etc. With jumps, it is very important to have pointed toes in any jumps to make it look prettier.

Along with pointed toes it is also important for the height of the jump to be high and maybe higher than other people trying out. 

Then to complete the jumps with pointed toes and high jumps is making sure arm placement is right when jumping. For different jumps requires different arm placements. If the arms are not in the right placement it can make the jumps look bad even if toes are pointed and the height of the jump is good.

Tumbling

Tumbling plays a big part in cheer when trying out because depending on what type of tumbling is being thrown or how much tumbling is being thrown can boost a tryout score by a lot. 

A minimum level of tumbling to be thrown should be a cartwheel or a roundoff. It will gain points in the tumbling section but not by a lot.

For the Leesville cheer team, it is recommended to have a standing back handspring or a roundoff back handspring. When throwing any type of back handspring, it is important for legs to be straight and arms to be locked out. 

Throwing back tucks is not required but is better to throw it because it will gain more points than a back handspring would. When throwing a back tuck it is important to make sure the height is good and to rotate fast enough in order to land the tuck.

Throwing advanced tumbling like back handspring series, back handspring tuck, roundoff back handspring tuck, roundoff back handspring layout, or roundoff back handspring full will boost the tumbling score by a lot. 

A very important thing when it comes down to tumbling is sticking the tumbling which means to land a tumble without moving or stepping after landing. 

Stunt

Stunting plays a huge part in cheerleading because that is the majority of what people do in cheerleading. With that it is very important to use good techniques when stunting to make the stunt feel and look better. There are different positions in a stunt group which are the main base, side base, flier, and backspot. 

To be a strong main base or side base, it is important to be strong enough to hold up a stunt. Going to the gym daily to lift weights or doing exercises helps become a stronger base and make basing easier. It is also important to use good technique because if not using good technique it can cause injuries to the body. 

To be a strong flier (the people in the air) it is very important to know how to squeeze and use body control on different parts of the body. Doing exercises to work on the core and working balancing on one leg or even on the hands will help to become a good flier.

To be a good back spot it is important to a stronger leader because backspots are the leader of the stunt group. With back spotting it is also important to be a fast thinker and have fast movement because when something goes wrong in the stunt group leaving the flyer to fall, it is important to know how to respond in the right way. 

Motions

Even though motions can’t gain as many points as tumbling, stunting, or jumping, it is easy to max out the amount of points in the motion section if the arms are in the right placement and if the motions are sharp. 

The main thing with having good motions is making sure the arms are tight and are not sloppy. It is really easy to have sloppy motions without noticing in the evening, so in order to work on having good motions is looking in the mirror and doing the motions. 

Overall, what coaches and judges look for in a cheerleader is making sure they have a positive attitude and can be coachable. It’s very important to have a positive attitude because a cheerleader should light up the room and should make everyone be in a good spirit.