The 4 P’s of Motion Technique

In today’s cheerleading world, everyone focuses on the “fun stuff,” like stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, tumbling and dancing. Cheerleaders often forget to practice the most important part of being a cheerleader, which is to lead the crowd. Motions are the easiest form of leading the crowd, but are often overlooked. If you follow the Four P’s of Motion Technique, you can incorporate them more to lead your crowd and good motion technique can be just as effective as other skills.

Placement
When learning or practicing motions, it is important to check to make sure you have proper placement of each motion. Using a partner or a mirror will help you to master motions. Each motion should feel comfortable and be exactly the same for other side. When critiquing each motion, be sure that your arms are completely locked out without hyper extending elbows and the wrist should be straight in line with your arm.

Perfection
Once you’ve mastered the placement of each motion, it is time to learn how to hit those motions perfectly every time. Using motion drills to counts or music will help you develop muscle memory for every motion. It’s important to get proper muscle memory for each motion so that you don’t learn to hit the motions in the wrong place. After creating a motion drill begin to change the order of the motions and gradually speeding up the drill, to begin to learn to be even sharper. Be sure to include both sides of any motion that are created with one arm. You don’t want to have a great right punch and not be able to perform a left one.

Precision
Now it’s time to learn how to have perfect timing with your teammates. The following methods are a few effective ways of getting your team’s motions sharper. First, put your team in
a bowling pin formation. Then make sure everyone knows the same motion drill and then start practicing the drill at a fairly slow pace. Make sure everyone is hitting the motion at the same time and with the same placement. Once everyone has mastered their timing and placement, then it is time to start speeding up the motion drill. When the drill gets fast enough you will notice that the team will begin to develop the same timing and placement in their motions.

Performing
Sharp motions add great visual effect to your performances. This is why it’s very important to drill everyone on the correct technique and placement of their motions. If they practice it correctly, they will perform it correctly. It becomes more difficult for the coach to perfect a routine if you skip these important drills.

Incorporate the Four P’s of Motion Technique into your practices. You will see improvement in everyone’s motions regardless of their talent level. Once everyone is confident and comfortable doing motions you can begin to use them more to lead your crowd at games, which can be just as effective as using stunts, pyramids, etc. If you have a competition team, including these drills as a normal part of practice from the beginning, will mean that you don’t have to worry about last minute run-throughs to clean up motion sequences during competition season.

More from Sideline Cheers

• Looking for Cheerleading Cheers and Chants?
• What to Expect for High School Cheerleading
• Cheerleading Fundraising Ideas for Football Season

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Cheerleading for Children  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• We Cheer 2  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

Cheerleaders prep for hours in search of 2½ minutes of perfection

By Steve Almasy, CNN

July 15, 2011 11:58 a.m. EDT

Training for 2:30 of cheer perfection

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• All-star cheerleading combines gymnastics, dance and cheerleading moves
• Cheer Extreme is a North Carolina-based program with a winning tradition
• Many girls practice 2 to 3 hours several days a week to perfect their routines
• The prestigious world championships are held each May

CNN Presents will broadcast a look at the intense world of competitive cheerleadeing as part of a special broadcast Sunday night, July 17, at 8 p.m.

Raleigh, North Carolina (CNN) — Mikayla Raleigh probably can’t remember what french fries taste like; she last ate them when she was 13. Instead of candy bars, she downs whole grain energy bars. She eats almonds because she’s read that they help with balance.

She’s an athlete who watches precisely what she eats but focuses on her training and her teammates.

The 16-year-old high school student knows that to win gold, everything has to be perfect, from her technique to her health to her coordination.

The ultimate goal: leading her team to a world championship. She works out just about every day in the weeks leading up to the competition, and some practices last three hours.

Mikayla, a rising cross-country star, isn’t preparing for a race. She’s getting ready to compete with 19 other girls for a world championship in all-star cheerleading.

More than 200,000 athletes take part in competitive cheerleading where high-flying stunts, powerful tumbling and tight synchronization yield winning scores in a growing network of competitions.

The most prestigious event is the World Championship of All Star Cheerleading, held annually in early May.

“Like I tell everyone, it’s like the Olympics of cheerleading,” Mikayla told CNN just before her team competed in the event. “There’s just nothing that compares to the feeling of hitting a hard stunt or flipping through the air and then hearing the crowd roar when you hit it. If you experience it, it’s just like the happiest feeling ever because … they’re hard skills and they’re exciting skills.”

Mikayla cheers for Cheer Extreme Allstars, which has six gyms in North Carolina (and one in Virginia) and more than 900 athletes in the program. Mikayla trains at one of the team’s bigger facilities, in Raleigh.

The team’s website claims “850 national championship titles and counting.” Cheer Extreme’s large senior team won world championships in 2010. Mikayla is on a smaller team, with 20 girls (plus alternates).

She wants to bring another title trophy back to Raleigh. Her training is intense, probably the most fanatical on the team.

Mikayla Raleigh cheers during the world championships in May in Orlando.

“She is one of those kids that would be in the gym 23 hours of a 24-hour day every day if she could. It means that much to her,” said Kelly Smith, Mikayla’s coach.

Mikayla writes down every workout because she said it makes her accountable and helps her train smarter. Her log has notes on all of her practices and at-home sessions since last year’s world championships.

“So I’ve done 224 since,” she told CNN in April.

Winning over the judges in 150 seconds

The routines in competitive cheerleading, known as all-star cheerleading, are 2½ minutes of music-pumping dance and quickly executed cheerleading stunts mixed with gymnastic moves.

“It’s not traditional pompom. The sole purpose of your team is to compete against others. I really can’t stand pompom. I like the athletic part of it and like the stunts and tumbling, and that’s what I’m really into,” Mikayla said.

Maddie Gardner, an 18-year-old member of the Cheer Extreme world championship team, cheers for her high school team, too, but said there is a huge difference between the two teams. Especially since at school, she cheers for other athletes to win, and with Cheer Extreme, she’s part of the team.

“It’s representing yourself and being part of something that’s just so special,” she said.

And it’s special to a lot of girls. Most of the girls on the top Cheer Extreme teams have their parents drive them for two hours or more from other cities to the two main practice facilities. (The other is in central North Carolina in Kernersville.)

Cheer Extreme co-owner and head coach Courtney Pope said many of the girls get home from school, pack a bag, jump in the car at 4 p.m., get to practice at 6, practice until 9 (or 9:30), then head home, getting into bed about midnight. Homework is usually done in the car.

One girl is from Orlando but stays with a host family in North Carolina.

For many this is the pinnacle of their times as cheerleaders. Some do go on to cheer in college, a few assisted by scholarship or stipend money.

Jim Chadwick, president of the United States All Star Federation — the governing body of the sport — said parents and kids shouldn’t sink a lot of money into cheerleading hoping it leads to college grant money. The payoff comes from the friends you make and the way being a part of a team prepares you for being an adult, he said

“People should participate in this because of the life skills you get from it,” he said by phone. “And if, oh by the way, you are able to get some help on a scholarship, then that’s a plus.”

To compete at the elite level can take $3,000 to $5,000 a year — on level with travel soccer teams, he said.

It takes commitment

Pope said the team practices every week of the year. It’s just the number of sessions and the intensity of them that varies.

During the summer, the kids do miss time for vacation, but the gym is open most days of the year. Pope said they even practice while schools are closed for Christmas break so the girls can maintain fitness and avoid getting hurt because they were a bit out of shape when they tried a move.

And practices sometimes take up big chunks of the day — especially for the coaches. Pope, who looks over 22 teams through the week, said on the primary practice days of Saturday and Sunday, she is at the gym from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. Teams usually put in two to three hours.

All that time on the mat can make a mind and body weak. But Pope said that’s OK.

“If you only come in and you hit when you’re perfect, then you don’t know how to fix things when they go wrong,” she said. “That’s the way that we’re able to, you know, maintain such a high level of, of accuracy in competition because we don’t just do it when we’re perfect, we do it when we’re going to make a mistake, and they have to get through it anyway.”

The governing body doesn’t want athletes getting in over their heads so they issue guidelines to who can do what.

Coaches and athletes are certified, Chadwick said. That means coaches have to have someone attest to their training. There is a written component where the coaches demonstrate they have read the rules and safety guidelines, he said.

“And there’s a hands-on portion where they actually have to show our testers the proper technique for spotting various cheerleading moves and stunts,” he said.

Braces and braces

Watch a video of the Cheer Extreme team and you’ll notice several girls have braces — on their teeth and on their ankles.

But Pope said the sport isn’t that risky.

“We have had surprisingly few career-ending or long-term injuries,” she said. “We roll some ankles here and there or have some strained wrists or tendinitis and that kind of thing, but it is not superiorly dangerous by any stretch of the imagination.”

Published studies on reported injuries generally focus on high school and college cheerleading, where participants often practice on hard gym floors. While admitting more can be done to keep athletes safe, all-star cheerleading advocates say they use bouncy gymnastics floors, require safety rules be followed and use plenty of spotters. They point out that while the number of injuries has increased in the past decade, the number of participants has grown even more and the cheerleading season is longer than other sports.

Still year-round strain on a body and mind can lead to mishaps. Both Mikayla and Gardner had injury concerns going into the world championships.

Gardner lost sleep over a mild knee injury that threatened to keep her from competing. But she said that even if she were in a cast, she would still be in the lineup “because that’s how much I care about the team and the sport.”

Growth period

Chadwick said the popularity of cheerleading is stabilizing in the United States, but internationally the sport is seeing the kind of growth this country saw about 10 years ago. Pope said membership increases at Cheer Extreme by double-digit percentages each year.

RELATED TOPICS

• North Carolina
• Sports
• Raleigh

Many of the girls on the senior teams have been in the program for years. They have grown to be close friends, Pope said, and the challenges of cheerleading make them better people.

“I truly believe that this experience and the life lessons and the teamwork … and all the things that are gained from being with a group of people for 10 years like this and traveling together — the same kids, is just immeasurably important down the road,” she said.

And Gardner said that despite the long days of practice, she feels like she’s not missing out on life.

“I feel like I’m experiencing an even more exciting teenaged time period because I get to do all these things that other people my age don’t get to do,” she said.

“And even though it may seem like I’m missing out on a lot of the typical activities that teenagers participate in, I get to do all of that and more because my team is like my group of friends that I get to hang out with every day.”

More from Sideline Cheers

• What to Expect for High School Cheerleading
• How to Get Started in All-Star Cheerleading
• Cheerleading Fundraising Ideas for Football Season

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• We Cheer 2  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• All Star Cheer Squad: Nintendo Wii: Video Games  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

Like the tightly woven fabric of a cheerleading skirt, cheerleading is woven into the fabric of American history and culture. Cheerleading traditions run deep and its imagery, well, it’s as American as apple pie.

In 1898, when Johnny Campbell did the first “cheer” to energize the crowd at the University of Minnesota, he created a model that appeals to the collective conscience of all Americans. Just as Americans like to cheer for their heroes, cheerleaders lead the crowd in rooting on their team through good times and bad. Cheerleaders champion great causes and are role models in our schools and communities. Cheerleaders want the best for all of us. Cheerleaders don’t give up. What’s more American than that?

In times of trouble, Americans rally around those in need – and so do cheerleaders.

Across this great country, cheerleaders commit their time and effort to helping those affected by tragedy. One example is the recent Joplin, Missouri tornado – many teams have helped or pledged to help in the rebuilding. This type of good will is not the exception; it’s the rule – because cheerleaders are leaders in good times and bad.

At the national level, spirit companies dedicate their time and resources to make a difference in this country.  This year, Varsity is teaming up with St. Jude to support its life saving mission of finding cures for children fighting cancer and other catastrophic illnesses. The National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) is proud to be an official sponsor of The Make-A-Wish Foundation, a nonprofit organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Cheerleaders aren’t the only ones volunteering in their community, but it is a common thread that runs through cheer teams across America.

More from Sideline Cheers

• Cheerleading Cheers and Chants – Basketball Chants
• Baylor University Cheerleading Becomes a Sport
• Is Cheerleading a Sport? Here We Go Again…

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• American Cheerleader  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• We Cheer 2  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

from cheerleading.about.com:

Choose a state in a region of the US or select a different country to find a cheerleading competition near you.

Northeast

Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont

Midwest

Indiana
Illinois
Iowa
Kansas
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
North Dakota
Ohio
South Dakota
Wisconsin

South

Alabama
Arkansas
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia

West

Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Hawaii
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New Mexico
Oregon
Utah
Washington
Wyoming

More from Sideline Cheers

• Looking for Cheerleading Cheers and Chants?
• Cheerleading Cheers and Chants – Basketball Chants
• 2 New Cheerleading Chants to Learn

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Coaching Cheerleading Successfully - 2nd Edition (Coaching Successfully Series) (9780736056250): Linda Rae Chapell: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Cheerleading for Children  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

Words to cheerleading cheers and chants for basketball season

Get new Cheerleading, Pom & Dance Routines to learn in step-by-step lesson videos each week as a Sideline Star Member.

Here’s a list of basketball chants and a floor cheer for cheerleading halftime performances.

Blue & White, That’s right
Let’s hear it for the blue – blue
Let’s hear it for the white – white
Louder now, shout it out
Blue and White X
Blue and White!

Friend us up on Facebook for cheer contests, prizes & giveaways!

More from Sideline Cheers

• Basketball Cheers and Chants – Words, Notes and Cheer Moves Part 1
• Looking for Cheerleading Cheers and Chants?
• Cheerleading Cheers and Chants – Basketball Chants

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Coaching Cheerleading Successfully - 2nd Edition (Coaching Successfully Series) (9780736056250): Linda Rae Chapell: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• We Cheer 2  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

New words to cheerleading cheers and chants for basketball season!

Get new Cheerleading, Pom & Dance Routines to learn in step-by-step lesson videos each week as a Sideline Star Member.

Here’s a list of basketball chants and a floor cheer for cheerleading halftime performances.

Friend us up on Facebook for cheer contests, prizes & giveaways!

More from Sideline Cheers

• Basketball Cheers and Chants – Words, Notes and Cheer Moves Part 2
• Looking for Cheerleading Cheers and Chants?
• Cheerleading Cheers and Chants – Basketball Chants

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Coaching Cheerleading Successfully - 2nd Edition (Coaching Successfully Series) (9780736056250): Linda Rae Chapell: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• We Cheer 2  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

New Cheerleading, Pom & Dance Routines to learn in step-by-step lesson videos each week for Sideline Star Members!

Here’s a preview of “Can’t Be Tamed” Miley Cyrus Mix – Cheerleading Pom Dance. You can learn it in the full-length tutorial video on Sidelinestar.com:

This is a pom dance for intermediate level cheerleaders. Use your formations, motion variations, and get ideas for how to set up a visually appealing sideline dance or halftime routine in our instructional step-by-step video. View hundreds of our Cheerleading Cheers, Chants, Sideline Dances and Cheer Dance Routines to learn when you join.

Log in and Learn the moves to the “Can’t Be Tamed” Cheerleading Pom Dance Routine and many more in step-by-step Lesson Video tutorials!

This music mix is available from our partner, CheerMusicStore.com. Use promo code: SIDELINE when you check out to receive 10% off your cheer mix purchases.

Neeley is a Collegiate Cheer Coach, former USA National National Champion and veteran instructor for over 12 years. She’s the founder of Sideline Star & Member of the Pro Cheer Leader panel! Contact Us to work with Neeley or a Sideline Star choreographer near you.

Follow @SidelineStar on Twitter for all the new lesson video updates!

More from Sideline Cheers

• Preview: Miranda’s Beginner Hip Hop Cheer Dance to “Beggin’” Tutorial Video
• New! Learn this Sideline Cheer Dance to “Feel It” Cheer Mix
• Maryna’s Sideline Dance to “Hey” Bandsong – Lesson Video Preview

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• We Cheer 2  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• All Star Cheer Squad: Nintendo Wii: Video Games  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

New Cheerleading, Pom & Dance Routines to learn in step-by-step lesson videos each week for Sideline Star Members!

Here’s a preview of Maryna’s Sideline Dance to the “Hey” Bandsong. You can learn it in her full-length tutorial video on Sidelinestar.com:

This is an intermediate level Sideline Dance. View hundreds of our Cheerleading Cheers, Chants, Sideline Dances and Cheer Dance Routines to learn when you join.

Log in and Learn the moves to Maryna’s “Hey” Routine and many more in step-by-step Lesson Video tutorials!

Maryna is a Collegiate Cheerleader, former USA National High School Champion & Member of the Pro Cheer Leader panel at Sidelinestar.com! Contact Us to work with Maryna or a Sideline Star choreographer near you.

More from Sideline Cheers

• Preview: Miranda’s Beginner Hip Hop Cheer Dance to “Beggin’” Tutorial Video
• New! Learn this Sideline Cheer Dance to “Feel It” Cheer Mix
• Neeley’s Hello Cheer 2010 – Lesson Video Preview

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Coaching Cheerleading Successfully - 2nd Edition (Coaching Successfully Series) (9780736056250): Linda Rae Chapell: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• All Star Cheer Squad: Nintendo Wii: Video Games  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

from insidecheerleading.com:

USA cheer has announced the coaching staff and training facility for Team USA’s 2010-2011’s season. Dallas, Texas will be home base for the 2010-2011 Team USA athletes.

Sherry Cooney will return as head coach for the all girl team for Team USA, with Tony Nash as the assistant coach. Cooney has National Championships as an athlete and coach. She has coached teams at George Mason University and the University of West Georgia, and is also a certifier for the safety organization, AACCA. Nash, former coach for the National Champion Morehead State University team, is the current coach of the all girl team at Indiana University, and is joining the Team USA coaching staff for his third year.

David McDowell will be the head coach for the coed team for the second year in a row after leading the team to a world championship in 2010. McDowell, a former National Champion at the University of Kentucky, has more than 10 years of coaching experience and is the current coach at the University of Alabama. Leroy McCullough, coach for Oklahoma State University’s spirit squads, who won two National Championships under his leadership, will serve as assistant coach.

Choreography responsibilities for the teams will be shared by Brad Habermel and Justin Carrier. Habermel, a former University of Louisville cheerleader is co-owner of Cheer Athletics, and has choreographed routines for teams all over the world, as well as bowl games and the served on the 1996 Olympics Opening Ceremonies choreography team. Carrier cheered at University of North Texas and has choreographed routines for dozens of championship high school, all star and college teams. He was recently inducted into the USASF Hall of Fame for his contributions to the all star cheerleading community.

“We are excited to be working with this first class team of coaches,” says Bill Seely, Executive Director of USA Cheer, the governing body of cheerleading in the United States. “They are some of the best coaches our sport has to offer in training and fostering well rounded athletes from every segment of cheerleading.”

The training headquarters for Team USA this year will be at Champion Cheer in Dallas, Tx., owned by Jennifer Graham and James Johnson. “The entire Champion Cheer family is so excited to host Team USA,” says Graham. “Training side by side with the best cheerleaders in the nation will be a true inspiration for our athletes. We are honored to support Team USA as they go for the gold!”

Team USA will compete against teams from more than 60 other countries from around the world in April 2011 at the ICU World Championships in Orlando, Florida. Over the last two years, Team USA has taken home 11 gold medals and one silver. Cheerleaders interested in trying out for the team can visit the USA Cheer website at http://usacheer.net/ for more information.

More from Sideline Cheers

• Baylor University Cheerleading Becomes a Sport
• Is Cheerleading a Sport? Here We Go Again…
• Cheerleading Worlds 2010 – Dates Announced

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Coaching Cheerleading Successfully - 2nd Edition (Coaching Successfully Series) (9780736056250): Linda Rae Chapell: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Cheerleading for Children  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts

New Cheerleading, Pom & Dance Routines to learn in step-by-step lesson videos each week for Sideline Star Members!

Here’s a preview of Neeley’s Hello Cheer 2010. You can learn it in her full-length tutorial video on Sidelinestar.com:

This is a hello cheer for beginner – intermediate level cheerleaders. Use your mascot, school colors, and get ideas for how to set up a visually appealing hello cheer in our instructional step-by-step video. View hundreds of our Cheerleading Cheers, Chants, Sideline Dances and Cheer Dance Routines to learn when you join.

Log in and Learn the moves to Neeley’s Hello Cheer 2010 and many more in step-by-step Lesson Video tutorials!

Neeley is a Collegiate Cheer Coach, former USA National National Champion and veteran instructor for over 12 years. She’s the founder of Sideline Star & Member of the Pro Cheer Leader panel! Contact Us to work with Neeley or a Sideline Star choreographer near you.

More from Sideline Cheers

• Preview: Miranda’s Beginner Hip Hop Cheer Dance to “Beggin’” Tutorial Video
• Maryna’s Sideline Dance to “Hey” Bandsong – Lesson Video Preview
• New! Learn this Sideline Cheer Dance to “Feel It” Cheer Mix

Sideline Cheers Marketplace

• The Official Cheerleader's Handbook (9780671612108): Randy Neil, Elaine Hart: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• Coaching Cheerleading Successfully - 2nd Edition (Coaching Successfully Series) (9780736056250): Linda Rae Chapell: Books  (Amazon | Sideline Star)
• All Star Cheer Squad: Nintendo Wii: Video Games  (Amazon | Sideline Star)

Ask Sideline Cheers To Recommend Your Posts