Category: Editorials

In recent days I listened to a podcast that led me to the idea of treating each thing I learned as a building block, like a Lego. Each is a piece that isn’t that impressive on its own but can be combined with other blocks to make something impressive. I imagine the most blocks came… Continue reading Building Blocks

When I started cheering, at least once I moved to the summer camp instructor and coaching side, “Perfection before progression” was a phrase I consistently heard. Although I heard it I don’t remember seeing it consistently on the competition floor. Fast forward about 20 years and I still hear coaches preaching it. I also feel… Continue reading Perfection Before Progression?

It’s time for another random idea. I’d like to see an event that already eliminates teams each round, like college nationals, which advances about half the teams, or Worlds, which advances 10 teams, give priority to teams that don’t drop. First guarantee advancement to any team without a fall. This means you and your fans… Continue reading Hit or Miss

Valorie Kondos Field presented Why Winning Doesn’t Always Equal Success as a TED Talk.

Happy New Year! As one year ends and another begins many of us think of the changes we’re going to make to our lives. Sometimes it’s adding something and other times it’s removing something. For those of you in the cheer and dance community I’d like to suggest changing points of view. For the next… Continue reading Happy New Year

As a coach do you realize how significant your role can be in a child’s life? If you name the adults a child spends the most time with in a year the list will probably start with Mom & Dad, then move to their teacher. The person after that may very well be a coach.… Continue reading Know Your Role

I spoke with some parents that were disappointed their daughter was removed from a team mid season. The team was the type of marquee team that could win any event they attended, including Worlds. Their daughter had been a member of the program for several years, finally making her dream team and deservedly so. The… Continue reading Long Live Loyalty

Here are some more random ideas I’ve had. I don’t anticipate any getting implemented, but think they’d be interesting to try. Benefit of the Doubt I’d like to try not giving teams the benefit of the doubt about what skills were performed. Instead of a team with 5 groups performing 2 true double ups, 2… Continue reading More Random Ideas

Everything in your routine should either be beautiful or Invisible. Many apply the beautiful part to the major skills in their routine, stunts, pyramids, tumbling, etc., but sometime skip the details, motions in the air, landing the tumbling, and timing of skills. There are a few options for making something invisible, taking it out, hiding… Continue reading Beautiful or Invisible

What do you focus on when trying to make your team elite? You can’t do everything, at least not all at once, so you need to decide where to spend your time first. There are 15-16 scores on the major scoring systems I looked at. Some scores separated difficulty from execution, stunts and tumbling for… Continue reading You Can’t Do Everything