Cheerleading
By: Bella Rosario
Introduction
After Cheer leading for six years and winning competitions every year, I have some skills and things to teach you. There are lots of different things to do in cheer leading, like stunting, Jumps, cheers, and competitions. Something to always remember is to have fun and show off your skills.
Jumps
There are different types of jumps that cheerleaders do. For example, the hurky, hurdler, pike, and toe touch. A hurky is when you face forward and kick straight out in front of you with one foot and the other foot is bent in the back of you. A hurdler is the same thing but you face to the side. A pike is when you kick both feet straight out in front of you at the same time. Finally, a toe touch is when you do a straddle in the air and you try to touch your toes without putting your head down.
Stunts
There are different types of stunts. Some include, hitches, extensions, awesomes, basket tosses, preps, and one mans. All of these can be hard or easy. Preps are when the bases have their hands in front of their chest holding the flyer. An extension is when the bases are holding the flyer in the same place as the prep, but their hands are all the way up as far as they can go. Then an awesome is when they hold their flyer in line with their eye brows. A hitch is when the flyer has one foot in an awesome and the other foot is in a prep in the bases arms. A basket toss is when the bases put their hands crossed holding on the each other and the flyer jumps in and then they throw their flyer in the air and catch their flyer. A one man is when one person, usually a boy by himself, stunts with a girl and they can go into extensions, preps, or an awesome.
Competition
You want to have a lot of planning time before competition to make the choreography and learn how to do everything if it is your first time cheering or first time on a competition team. Before competition day, plan to go to a place to get ready for competition. For your hair, try a poof and a high ponytail. I like straight or curled ponytails. For your makeup, try to add a little sparkly eye shadow, but you don’t want too much on your face. You may think that bright red lipstick is too much but it’s not. Just don’t go to crazy, so I like bright red lipstick.
Motions and Facials
Motions and facials are important because you can get better scores and it just looks like you want to be there cheering. With your motions you want to have sharp straight motions. What I mean by this is that you don’t want to have broken wrists and your arms should also never be bent. Your facial expressions also need to be peppy and where you look excited and happy to be cheering. Also, with your facials you can do a lot of different things and be creative. Some things I like to do are kissy lips, big smile, and simply just raising your eye brows. I know this one is a little weird but, just open your mouth and have a surprised and excited look on your face like you just got a present that you absolutely love.
Stretches
When you are stretching some good stretches are the flamingo, butterfly, back bend, bridge, and straddle. A flamingo is when you bend one leg to where your foot is touching the other legs knee, then do it again with the other leg. A butterfly is when the bottoms of your feet are touching and you try to touch your feet with your head. A back bend is when you have your hands and your feet on the ground then your back is facing the ground, but is not touching the ground. A straddle is when you point your toes and face forward to try to touch your toes.
Glossary
Sharp- Having stiff, fast and straight motions that all hit at the same time with the squad.
Broken wrists- When your wrist is bent and does not look like a straight line