Formations - Beginner

Walk Out - 20 girl squad

Front

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Back

Change formation to lift

The last girl in the 2nd row steps out to back spot the 1st lift. The last girl in 4th row steps out to back spot the 5th lift. That leaves 5 groups of 4 for 5 easy halves or 1, 3, and 5 can be fulls or 2 and 4 can be fulls depending on your difficulty level. You can start out your season in halves and at the end you can all be in fulls with practice. I usually have all flyers lead the lines.

Front

Lifting groups
__1_____2_____3_____4_____5_

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_X_X_________X_X_________X_X_
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We Coach Youth Sports

Over Coaching

Coaching youth cheerleading is fun for me or else I wouldn't do it. I love spending time with my kids and I appreciate the hard work everyone on my squad puts out every practice, game, and competition. Of course there is always discipline and correction that needs to take place but NOTHING like what I seen the other day at my girls softball game. I was embarrassed for the team. The coach was so negative towards the girls, mind you they are 8 and 9 year olds. They are already nervous and when you have a coach yelling at every pitch or every at bat its putting it way over the top! Coach I would just like to say, if you do not like what you are doing then do not do it. The girls were so worked up they didn't even know what to do. If you have a problem with a call, you can't start yelling at the umpire in front of those kids! You can't start an argument with the other coach! And then expect your players to go out and do their best. Wake up coach! What does it say about how you feel about your team, when during the last 2 innings you coaches are sitting in the dugout yelling and dictating to your team? That you gave up on them. One of the worst things you can do. You need to be confident in your team and show them that. Maybe, they just might surprise you.

We Coach Youth Sports

Cheerleading Competitions

If you are a youth cheerleading coach turn on ESPN tomorrow at noon. The USASF Cheerleading Worlds is on. Like I have said before this is a great resource. Get a notepad and if you want, call up your assistants, and get some great ideas!!! Make them your own by changing a few things. I know the difficulty level is way out of reach but that shouldn't matter if you have alittle imagination you can make adjustments. Watch the formations and transitions, listen to the music, and see whats new, there is always something you can come away with. Have fun with it and be creative for your age group. It would be a good idea to tape it so if you missed something, also because it seems to go by pretty quick.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!
We Coach Youth Sports

The Perfect Squad

First of all there is never a perfect squad, especially in recreational cheer. There are no tryouts, we take everyone and I wouldn't have it any other way! I love to coach kids and coaching means teaching. At my level, 3rd and 4th grade, at first it is about learning how to control their bodies, which is definitely more difficult to teach to a girl who is not well coordinated. But that is the reason why you are there. If you can help just one girl on your squad become better coordinated you have done a great job.

We Coach Youth Sports

Coaching Youth Sports Help

Every youth coach can use some outside advise. We Coach Youth Sports has opened up their Coaching Youth Sports Forum to the public. We guarantee answers to your questions unlike other coaching forums out there. I was on one forum (not mentioning any names) and seen a post from a youth football coach about getting help with his youth football team. The post was made in early September and no one gave him an answer until the middle of November!! His season was either over or coming to an end depending on if he made the play offs. I found that to be unacceptable. As a youth coach you know time is of the essence, you have no time to be fooling around. Searching the Internet looking for answers can sometimes be time consuming and you usually come up short. That's why we decided to give a guarantee. It is a very simple process join the forum ask your question, leave a comment, or suggestion. The forum is set up to discuss any youth sport. Whether it's cheerleading, football, baseball, soccer, hockey, or any other youth sport your questions have a guarantee answer within 24 hours.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!
We Coach Youth Sports

Coaches Aide-Teen helpers

My last entry was more of a rant and I do apologize. But I do know we all feel like that sometime. Just for the record I've snapped out of it and back on the ball. Last week was a busy week. I had lots of phone calls from girls moving on to H.S. that still want to be involved with the organization. Which is a great thing however I don't think they realize how much work their freshman year is going to be, especially if they will be trying out for their H.S. cheerleading squad. As 8th graders they were king of the hill and that's not how it's going to be for them next year. They have to pretty much start all over and prove themselves all over.
Don't get me wrong I love having a coaches aide or aides, I started out as a coaches aide. As a head coach it can be difficult on deciding on the right assistants and aides. There are lots of books out there on how to coach kids and some are really good, I have a few myself. But I like the DVDs better they give you more useful information that you can watch over and over, lend out to your assistant, your aides, or what I do is set up a girls night and invite the coaching staff over and watch them together. It can be hard to find quality instructional DVDs at a book store or sports store. I go to Active Videos, there should be a link somewhere to your right. GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!

We Coach Youth Sports