The Types of Cheerleaders You’ll Encounter - Part 1
1.) The One Who Can’t Forward Roll
I thought every kid knew how to forward roll, but on every team that I have coached, there was one kid who didn’t know how. I line them all up to start tumbling (we always start with rolls), and one of them always cries. That’s the one. They’re embarrassed so they won’t say anything, but they won’t roll either.
All of the ones we’ve needed to teach have learned. They usually know they need to tuck their head, but they don’t realize you actually have to push yourself over with your hands. It’ll take a few practices, but they’ll get it.
2.) The One that Can Suddenly Tumble
This is probably the rarest type, but a true favorite of any coach. This is the kid that can’t tumble. You ask, and they say no. Then three weeks later they go to one tumbling lesson and come back to practice with a back tuck. The coaches are thrilled, and they put it in the routine. She got that in only one tumbling lesson!
And I’m left with just one question for the girl. Can she go to a second tumbling lesson?
3.) The Comic Relief
This one will drive you crazy if you don’t roll with the punches. Sometimes you’ll want to shake them and beg them to take it seriously. But if you can appreciate their humor, you’ll come away with some great memories. When I was a cheerleader I was very quiet. I never spoke out of turn until I was in a stunt group with my team’s Comic Relief. We had to be separated a number of times.
But she was one of the best kids on the team, and her attitude saved us on more than one tense occasion.
4.) The Outcast
If you put enough young girls together, cliques will form. Someone will be left out. They usually are one of the less talented girls because the really good ones are adopted into cliques. I try to break up the cliques with stunt groups. When kids beg to stunt together, I purposely don’t put them together. Sometimes they end up together anyways, but I try to get them stunting with kids who aren’t their best friends. This helps them get to know everyone and learn to work with others.
Also, it’s very demoralizing when you hear your entire team begging to stunt with someone who isn’t you. So, I tell the kids, “If you ask to stunt with Sarah, you won’t.” I don’t do it as a punishment. It’s just that stunting isn’t a social activity.
5.) The Know-it-All
This kid is exactly what she sounds like. She thinks she knows better than everyone else - including the coach. She’s not necessarily rude about it (although you’ll get your fair share of those too), but she will always be correcting people.
My favorite is when it’s the brand-new girl who has been cheerleading for 5 minutes that tells me I’m doing it wrong. Then I have to nicely explain how she’s entirely wrong. I try to use it as a teaching moment. We try to implement the rule of “Don’t coach each other.” But this next type of cheerleader makes that rule difficult to keep.
6.) The Coach on the Mat
This girl actually does know it all. She literally knows everything, but doesn’t act like it. This is the kid that remembers every count you ever taught. They remember when you changed something from 5 to 7 and why. They keep track of who stunted with who, where people go in formations, and what time things happen. They know other people’s parts of dances and cheers. You move them in a formation and you don’t even have to teach them the new part. They already know it.
So, you find yourself turning to this kid to ask what count something happens on. As this kid gets older, you’re telling them to make up counts for the stunts behind tumbling. You ask them what count they get to the new formation on. They know, so you don’t need to have the team run the whole transition for you.
And you also find yourself asking this kid to teach the girl who was absent the dance. Or go over counts with one stunt group while you work with another. You don’t have to actually work with hers, because they have their own mini coach within the group.
This is a smart kid who has seen a lot of cheerleading. They know that they know everything, but they don’t act like it.
7.) The Best Friend
This girl is best friends with someone who has been on the team for a while. She wants to cheer to spend time with her friend. She’s usually in over her head. She thought she was just going to have fun, but she’s committed to something bigger. Sometimes, the best friend doesn’t make it through the season.
8.) The Little Sister
Similar to the best friend, but with a different motive, the little sister is a common cheerleader type. Their older sister was a cheerleader, so they are too. Occasionally their parents just sign them up, but typically, this younger sister wants to be just like her big sister. Oddly enough, cheerleading skills tend to run in families, so if you know the older one, you’ll have a good idea about the younger one!
9.) The One Who doesn’t like Cheerleading
This kid will be a problem. Her mom signed her up just so she would have something to do. It may be the best friend who after a period of time realizes she doesn’t really like cheerleading. Sometimes these kids quit, but often times their parents make them stay the season because they’ve “committed to something.”
These kids don’t try because they’re not very happy or not particularly enjoying the time. Cheerleading isn’t for everybody. Who wants to try and really put effort into something that they don’t like? I try to engage the kid as much as possible by giving them things to do in the routine, but sometimes they just refuse to try. They do things that make it unsafe for them to stunt with others. Then, I just have to leave them as extra spotters and put them in the back with limited responsibilities.
It’s unfortunate, because I think if they had more to do they may enjoy it more. But on the other hand, if I was playing…say rugby, it wouldn’t matter how much I did. I would have disliked it regardless.
10.) The One Who Wants the Glory Without Putting in the Work
Sometimes this is the best friend or the little sister. Other times, you just get unlucky. Hopefully you’ll only have one (or none!) of these on your team. They want to win, but they don’t want to work hard at practice. They’ll wear the sparkly bow and tell everyone they’re a cheerleader, but as soon as they get a bruise, they sit out for a week.
They can’t possibly stunt with because she’s too shaky. They’re not going to tumble because they don’t need to. And they did their jumps last week, so today they’re just going to mark them. And how much conditioning do they really need to do?
This is another kid I try to get involved and hope they’ll come around. But sometimes, they just refuse to put in any effort. And just as with the kid who doesn’t really like cheerleading, I have to leave them with little responsibility.