The author is doing an EPQ (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) at college on how dance, gymnastics and cheerleading can affect how society sees the female form. Anyone who did or does dance, gymnastics or cheerleading will be able to fill this questionnaire out in just a few minutes. It’s completely anonymous.
Eysenck Personality Questionnaires assess the personality traits and temperament of a person. It was first devised by psychologists Hans Jürgen Eysenck and his wife Sybil B. G. Eysenck.

From: Emily
Subject: back hand spring

Sex: female
Age: 14

Message:
hi, i was wondering if a back hand spring is easier than doing a back walk over?
and when i get up in position to do a back walkover i cant walk over. i think it is because of my lack in shoulder/hand strength, but will that be a problem for my back hand spring?

In general, back handsprings are definitely more difficult than back walkovers. They require more strength, more speed and can be more dangerous. Let’s face it, reaching back toward your hands and head is less difficult and less risky than jumping backwards toward your hands and head.

In regard to your back walkovers, your problem is more likely to be a lack of shoulder flexibility than a lack of shoulder/hand strength, but it could be a combination of both.

Achieving sufficient strength and flexibility to do either or both of these skills is a necessary safety factor, not just a necessity to be able to make them.

Before you do back walkovers, you should have a very solid, comfortable handstand (be able to easily hold up your body weight upside down). You need to have enough shoulder flexibility to get your shoulders behind you hands in a backbend. You also have to have enough leg split flexibility to be able to kick over.

Before you do back handsprings, you need to be strong enough to safely catch your entire body weight when you jump backwards onto your hands, which means an even more powerful and comfortable handstand. You also need to have enough explosive jump power and strength to be able to flip completely over. The requirements for shoulder flexibility for a back handspring are actually less than those required for a back walkover.

When you have those prerequisites, then you can work on the rhythm, timing and execution of the skills.

hello there! my high school cheer tryouts are on monday through friday next week. and i just wanted to ask how i can get my jumps higher because right now i can barely get any of them off the ground. i know the stretches and the positions to sit in but none of them have shown any help. and my toe touch’s stink!!!!!!!!!!!! i need to figure out how to twist my legs out when i jump and i just really need help with all my jumps. please (: thanks!

Dear M,
Thanks for writing to us. But every year we get letters like this with cheerleaders wanting to know what they can do in the last week before tryouts to learn a back handspring in a week or build their strength or learn a new skill in a week. Generally, it just can’t be done. You need to start training and getting ready for tryouts way earlier than the week before. Mainly, because you will be competing against people who have been working and training much longer. Hopefully, you have been working out and training for tryouts already.

Normally, I would be telling you about the strength training you could do to increase your vertical jump and what plyometric training you could do to improve your jumps and things like that, but it is too late for any of that. Literally, nothing you do this week is going to make you any stronger by next week that would show up in tryouts. You can’t get your jumps higher in four days.

So all I can do is tell you some strategies to maximize what you already have.

Strategy 1: Since you can’t go higher, you have to do your jumps faster, more quickly. Fortunately, control of this is as much mental as physical. By focused and intense mental concentration, you can do your jumps quicker. Force yourself to move faster and do the jump movement quicker. You can practice that in the next 4 days. Practice getting to the jump position – toe touch, herkie, etc. as fast as possible and then quickly get your feet back under you to land. Faster up to the jump position, faster feet down to the landing.

Strategy 2: For toe touches, modify your toe touch position to the most comfortable and easily reachable toe touch position possible. To figure out exactly what this position is, sit on the ground in a comfortable straddle position (preferably in front of a mirror). Notice that your legs are not straight to the side, but straddled in front of you. Now imagine yourself 4 feet up in the air in that position. Your legs are up even with your hips and are in a “straddle toe touch position” (actually a piked straddle) and this is exactly the position you should be jumping to in your toe touch. Most cheerleaders try to bring their legs up straight to the side, instead of forward, and this is so, so much harder to do well. By bringing your legs to the front, you can get them higher and more quickly and go to your “natural” straddle position. This is something you can and need to practice in the next 4 days.

Strategy 3: Bend and jump your jumps. Make sure when you do jumps, even in a routine that you bend your legs and then jump and don’t try to punch-jump which is much harder to do. You can practice this as well.

Strategy 4: When you make cheer the cheer squad (or even if you don’t), right after tryouts are over, start doing the strength training and conditioning and cheer skill practice, you could and should have been doing for all of the last year. You will either be a better cheerleader this year or you will be really ready for next year’s tryouts.

Good luck, let me know how you do and if there is anything else I can help with.

XOXOXOXO
Coach T

Dear T,

Congratulations on your success and your election to your new position.

The first decision about any meeting is whether it is the best way to accomplish your goals. The two goals and responsibilities you have stated in your question are training and a successful season for all.

The fact that you are asking about running a coaches’ camp indicates you are not sure that is a good idea. If you are significantly more knowledgeable and experienced than the rest of the coaches, then a coaches’ camp might be a good idea, but if not, then you may, as you say, insult some of your group of coaches.

One solution, if you do decide a camp is necessary would be to approach some of the most experienced and successful coaches and ask if they would like to prepare one segment of the coaches camp. You could make that either open-ended, ask them what they would like to cover or give them specific responsibilities to cover.

In regard to both a meeting and a camp, especially with volunteers who are already making a significant time commitment is if adding one or both of those is truly worth the additional time away from their families.

My instinct is that one highly structured meeting is what you probably should plan. Prior to that time ask your coaches if they have information and training contributions they would like to make and you will compile all of the information for the meeting. I would consider the meeting optional, to accommodate any conflicts the coaches may have, and supply complete meeting and training materials in digital format (printed, only if absolutely necessary and then only for the non-computer coaches if there is still such a thing).

You should produce all your information in one of four digital formats – Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access. (Or for those of us who no longer use Microsoft Office and use the Free OpenOffice.org Office suite instead with its totally compatible document, spreadsheet, presentation and databse products). Everything that you do, you should do keeping in mind that you (or someone else) will be doing this again next year and you don’t want to have to redo all that work again. You will undoubtedly want to add material next year (and every year) but the whole purpose of the digital format is so you don’t have to redo work you or someone else has already done.

If it were me, I would be producing materials for three groups (unless you would be stepping on someone’s toes) – coaches, parents and cheerleaders. There may be other people responsible for producing materials for one or more of those groups, like parents, for example. You do not want to waste time duplicating someone else’s work or stepping on someone else’s job responsibilities. Your job is big enough.

Let’s start with what you can produce for the cheerleaders. (Note: this also can provide coaches with coverage of basic training without being insulting. You give it to them to give to their cheerleaders and they have to check it out so their cheerleaders don’t know more than they do).

A PowerPoint presentation of the skills, positions and cheers they will be using, probably split by levels will be an excellent teaching tool for cheerleaders and refresher course for coaches as well. Since pictures and videos ought to be an important part of the training process and PowerPoint presentation, you could hold a coaches camp camouflaged as a combination video and picture session. Everyone’s cheerleaders will have a blast dressing up, being photographed and filmed posing and demonstrating for the training materials.

You are covering a very wide range of ages of cheerleaders, so if you do not already have your own defined cheer age levels, I would suggest you break your training materials into beginner (ages 3 – 4), intermediate (ages 5 -7) and advanced (ages 8 – 12). Produce different age-appropriate materials geared to each level.

For cheerleading programs, safety has to be the number one priority. It is likely reason enough to hold a coaches’ meeting. Safety topics could include: a proactive cheer safety program, doctor’s exams, cheerleader safety education, strength, flexibility, and physical preparation, general and specific supervision system and protocols, practice and game warm-ups, dangers when sideline cheering, parent drop-off and pick-up safety rules, stunting spotting and safety rules, First Aid availability, written practice and game Emergency/Accident contact system and procedures, Accident/Near-Accident Evaluation and Review, safe stunting skill progressions, safe tumbling skill progressions, safe spotting of tumbling, safe practice attire and cheerleading practice and game safety rules.

The PowerPoint presentation for your Cheerleaders could include: cheer safety, cheer fitness, flexibility for cheerleading, individual goals, cheer positions, cheer jumps, cheer tumbling, cheers and cheer stunts. Ultimately, if not for this year, you will want different PowerPoint presentations for each of the different ages/levels of your cheerleaders.

Your coaches meeting and coaches’ training information could include: All cheer safety topics, practice and game schedules, cheer squad goals, suggested practice formats, cheer tumbling skills checklist by age/level, stunt skill checklist by age/level, positive coaching methods, successful teaching methodologies and the psychology of coaching.

Hope that helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Subject: Back Walkovers and Backbend kickovers

Hi. Well, my problem is that I have to have a back handspring for cheerleading and at my gym they tell me that I almost have it but now that I have a new instructor I have to get my back bend kick over and back walk over. Please tell me the fastest ways to have these.

Thanks so much.

In one sense, backbend kick overs and back walkovers are a progression for back handsprings. They obviously go backwards, turn over and require supporting bodyweight on the hands. There is one big difference – back bend kick overs and back walkovers require much more shoulder and back flexibility than a back handspring does. In back handsprings an athlete can literally jump past a certain amount of shoulder flexibility limitations.

We tend to teach the skills simultaneously with the more flexible athletes getting back bend kick overs and back walkovers sooner and the stronger athletes getting their back handsprings first. But we are not the ones teaching you, so here is what you need to do to get bend kick overs and back walkovers as fast as possible.

First before we talk about how to get those as fast as possible, let’s cover the basics. For any of these skills you need to be strong enough able to support yourself in a handstand position. You should be working handstands daily. We have our athletes compete holding handstands for time, walking handstands for distance and counting the number of walking steps on their hands and doing handstands for time and handstand push-ups against a wall. At this stage, if your handstand is weak, we recommend 25 – 100 handstands per day. (You said you wanted to learn fast).

We also recommend all cheerleaders do strength training and/or weight training. Weight training is more suitable for teenage cheerleaders rather than younger cheerleaders.

After strength, the main problem with learning these skills is developing sufficient flexibility in the shoulders, lower back and legs (splits). If you are not flexible enough, you will never learn the skill. When you are flexible (and strong enough), you can learn it in a day. If you can’t yet do a walkover, your problem must either be a strength or flexibility problem.

It has been proven time and time again that the best, most effective time efficient method of learning any skill, including back bend kick overs and back walkovers, is to be strong and flexible enough to do the skill before you try to learn it.

If you are not sure which (or if you need to work on both) test yourself. For strength, if you can hold a handstand for three to five seconds and or walk about five walking steps on your hands, you should have enough minimum upper body strength to do a back walkover.

A back bend test will give you an idea of whether you have enough shoulder flexibility (although if you are strong enough and cannot do a back walkover or back bend kick over), you are most certainly not flexible enough.

A back bend good enough to do a back walkover should have the shoulders straight above or past the hands. This is what you will need to have in order to do a back walkover and back bend kickover.

It seems fairly likely that your problems stem from a lack of shoulder (and/or lower back) flexibility. This is all too common a problem. And repetitions of back bend kick overs and back walkovers with or without a spot are likely not the best way to improve flexibility and strength levels, certainly not fast enough for what you want to do.

We are going to recommend a number of drills, skills and exercises that can and will increase your daughter’s flexibility level, but first we have some safety cautions. Doing too back walkover type skills and exercises without having sufficient shoulder flexibility can cause too much stress on the lower back. This can lead to any number of injuries including stress fractures and create short and/or long-term back pain.

The flexibility for back walkovers is a combination of shoulder flexibility and lower back flexibility. It would be wise to develop shoulder flexibility first in order to avoid over-stressing the lower back. Any lower back pain is an indication that sufficient shoulder flexibility has not been developed and the lower back is being overstressed.

We recommend that you first work on partner shoulder stretches and when you have made significant progress in improving shoulder flexibility, you can work on some of the lower back stretching exercises.

Partner stretching allows the shoulders to be stretched farther than just working in a backbend can do and targets shoulder flexibility rather than back and lower back flexibility. Stretching should be done carefully and just to the point of pain, but it will not be uncommon for gymnasts doing partner stretching to experience some pain. Make sure you are communicating. Stretching for periods of time from a minimum of 10 – 60 second sets is desirable and effective.

Improving flexibility is a function of time. The more time you spend working on it the faster you will improve. If you sit in a split for 24 hours straight, it will most likely be flat down on the floor by the end. Of course you may not be able to walk, but you will have your split down.

The lesson to be learned is that you will need to spend time working on your flexibility if you want it to improve. The harder and longer you work, the sooner you will reach your flexibility goals. You can get flexible enough in a few days or a few weeks if you spend enough time working on your flexibility each day.

The most effective way to improve flexibility is usually partner stretching. A partner can use their weight and strength to stretch your shoulders and legs farther and faster than you can by yourself. This will speed your progress.

You should choose a partner who is your size or larger and is as strong or stronger than you. Match your size and strength closely if you are going to be helping your partner stretch also.

Partner Stretches

WARNING: Improper techniques in partner stretching may cause injury.
Partner stretching may not be appropriate for very young, relatively untrained or relatively inexperienced athletes. Care must be taken with all partner stretching done by inexperienced athletes.

WARNING: We do not recommend doing partner stretches to increase lower back flexibility.

Don’t Put Excess Stress on Joints

On all partner exercises where the partner is pushing or pulling on the arms, they should be holding the arm above the elbow to avoid excess pressure on the elbow joint. The same is true for leg split exercises. It is often best to help with partner leg splits by pushing above the knee if the force is at all putting any sideways pressure on the knee.

Partner Shoulder Stretches

• Partner Shoulders – sit in pike, arms straight out behind. Partner lifts upper arms and picks gymnast up.
• Partner Backbend – have one partner grab ankles of other, go up in backbend, partner pulls shoulders, lift lower back.
• Front prone, arms by side and lift. Pull on upper arms and stretch shoulders.
• Front prone, arms straight by ears and lift by pulling on upper arms to stretch shoulders.
• Hands clasped behind head, pull elbows together.
• Arms straight to side, pull together behind back.
• Hands clasped behind back, pull elbows together.
• Front prone shoulder stretch (arms by ears, lift arms above elbow).
• Lift leg while in split (left, right, straddle).
• Push on shoulders stretch (hands on medium or high beam).
• Kneeling split stretch (left, right, straddle).
• Partner shoulder stretch on stall bars or beam (gymnasts place hands side by side with head tucked under chin to the chest). Partner pushes down on the shoulders
• Back to back – partners stand back to back, One partner grabs the upper arms of the other who is holding their arms straight up by their ears and lifts them off the ground by bending forward stretching their shoulders.

Another effective but not as quick a shoulder flexibility exercise utilizes a stick (like a cut-off broom stick). Athletes inlocate/dislocate (move stick over the head forward and back) holding the stick in all of the possible grips (regular grip, reverse grip, elgrip, invert grip) holding the stick with the hands as close as possible. Ideally you will go straight over the top, but twisting the stick from side to side still will help.

Athletes may hang from a bar with their hands together and head forward chin on chest to stretch shoulders.

Partner Leg Split Flexibility

(you should do both your right and left splits to maintain an even body balance. Even though you don’t need to do straddle splits to learn walkovers, it probably is still a good idea to do straddle split exercises for your cheerleading career).

• Partner Wall Splits – Stand against wall, lift leg, partner pushes leg as high as possible.
• Wall Side Splits – Stand sideways against wall, lift leg to side split, partner lifts and pushes leg as high as possible.
• Back Prone Partner Leg Splits – Lay on back, lift one leg. Partner anchors bottom leg with their leg and leans weight on upper leg.
• Partner Seated Straddle Split – Sit in straddle split facing wall. Partner pushes split with feet on your buttocks.
• Partner Straddle Split – Get in straddle split on floor. Partner pushes down on split.
• Back Prone Straddle Splits – Lay on back, straddle legs. Partner leans weight on upper legs.

Once shoulder flexibility has been improved, a variety of lower back exercises can also be done. You may do the following individual shoulder and lower back exercises:

• Shoulder Flexibility
  • Bridge, push shoulders over and past hands.
  • Kneel, Front shoulder stretch, full extension.
  • Wall front shoulder stretches.
  • Shoulders at full extension (Sit in pike with arms and hands as far back and close as possible).
  • Shoulders at full extension, leg lifts – bang knees to shoulders (Tuck, pike and stalder).
  • Kip to backbend.
  • Kip through handstand to backbend.
  • Valdez to backbend.
  • Backbend and hold.
  • Shoulders at full extension.(Sit in pike, slide out straight arms as far behind as possible with hands together)
  • Inlocate, dislocates.
• Lower Back Flexibility
  • Rocking backbends.
  • Torso – circles (left and right).
  • Reach into backbend.
  • Backbend, lift legs and arms. (Right, Left.)
  • Backbend, drop hips.
  • Walking Backbend races.
  • Set-ups (Front and side prone arch ups) (front and side).
  • Twisting Set-ups.
  • Leg Overs – (Back prone, 1-2 legs up, lift leg(s) and drop (Left and right).
• Leg Split Flexibility
  • Splits (left, right, straddle).
  • Straddle split, rock all the way forward and back.
  • Split, lean all the way forwards and arch back, bend back leg and touch head. (In both left and right splits).
  • Slide to splits (no hands).
  • Helicopter splits (Swing leg, split to split).
  • Walking splits (no hands).
  • Lift, arms by ears, split to split.
  • Over-splits (feet up on mat).
  • Jump to splits.
  • Straddle jump to straddle split.
  • Back prone dynamic straddle splits.
  • Scales (Right. Left) (Front, back and side).
  • Scales with relevé (Right, Left) (Front, back and side).
  • Scales on toe (Right, Left) (Front, back and side).
  • Split jumps (Right, Left and Straddle).
  • Punch, Punch Split jumps (Right, Left and Straddle).
  • Straddle toe touch jumps.
  • Barré split stretching (Right, Left and Straddle).
  • Straddle split push-ups.
  • Splits (Right, Left and Straddle) between two mats.
  • Straddle split, one foot on mat, 1-arm pushups (Right, Left).
  • Needle scale (Right, Left).
  • Needle scale kicks (Right, Left).
  • Handstand forward roll through straddle split to front prone (no hands).

All cheerleaders should spend at least 10 minutes a day working on flexibility. For more rapid improvement like you are trying to make, an hour or more of partner and hard flex workouts are recommended.

Once you are strong enough and your shoulders and good side split are flexible enough, you should be able to learn to do a back bend kick and back walkover in a matter of a few minutes. You will most likely be able to do the back bend kick over first and then later a back walkover.

Good luck and if there is anything else we can do for you, please let us know.

Have Your Own Questions?
Ask The Cheer Coach
If you have questions relating to cheerleading, we will do our best to provide you with answers to the best of our ability.

Spotters for Every Stunt, Pyramid and Basket Toss

Strong, experienced spotters are necessary for safety during learning progressions, especially when crash mats, tumble tramps and spring floors are not available for training.

Safe Teaching Progressions

The best safety program, though, is thorough mastery of previous skills and every prerequisite to each skill before moving on to the next step.

Review Basics

Every cheer tumbling practice should start out with a review of the basics checking for proper technique and execution.

Strength and Flexibility Required

As with any cheer program, the first requirements are that the cheerleading participants are strong and flexible.

Positive Strength to Weight Ratio

Being overweight invites injury for any cheerleader, who are even more susceptible because the surfaces on which they train and perform which are are not greatly padded. The wrists, ankles and knees are the most susceptible to injury for cheerleaders.

Warm-Up First

To avoid or minimize the possibilities for injury, an extensive warmup period should always precede any cheerleading and tumbling activity. Thorough warm up, especially of the neck, wrists, ankles, knees, shoulders and back, can be a major factor in the prevention of injuries.

Master Skills to Build Confidence

Because of the harder surfaces upon which cheerleaders perform, it is even more critical that proper learning progressions are followed to fully develop a strong skill base and confidence factor. Each skill should be mastered before moving on to the next skill and the next surface.

Equipment Progressions

Specialized cheer training centers or gymnastics facilities are often the best place to train for cheerleading because of their equipment – safety pits, resi-pits, crash mats, tumbling strips, tumble-tracks and trampolines.

Learn New Skills in a Fully Equipped Gym

Regardless, complete advantage should be taken of all available training equipment during the learning process. Special equipment set up configurations should be used to aid progress and safety, especially in the learning of handsprings and somersaults

Mat for Safety

Soft crash mats on the trampoline, crashpad hills, mats stacked up level with the trampoline so cheerleaders can tumble off the end of the tramp onto crash pads are all useful training setups.

Download the following cheer fonts to use in your marketing and intra-squad cheerleading communications:

Cheerleader Font

Color Guard Font

Oh My Stars Font

School Spirit Font

Seeing Stars Font

Team Spirit Font

Varsity Font

• Is there supervision at all practices, games, competitions, and special events?
• Is adequate matting provided?
• Are cheerleaders properly warmed up for each practice, game, competition, and special event?
• Is every stunt, basket toss and pyramid safety spotted?
• Does the squad follow a conditioning and flexibility program?
• Is the coach trained in proper skill development progressions?
• Is the coach trained in safety procedures and first aid?
• Are the cheer competition safety guidelines being followed?
• Is there an emergency plan in place?
• Is first aid equipment available?
• Is a telephone for emergencies quickly and easily available at every practice?
• Are mats and professional spotters provided at every competition?

Continuous Improvement Program

It is recommended that the cheer coaches and the cheerleading supervisor meet periodically to discuss needs, objectives and goals of the program.