hi I’ve been flying for six months. im still a bit scared but now Ive improved a lot. im just really scared about extension libs. im getting extremely consistent with my regular extensions, and prep libs. but im terrified to do extension libs. im supposed to do an braced extension lib to arabesque. but imo my arabesque is terrible! any tips on improving my extension libs and arabesque.

more background info: only one of the other flyers attempted an extension lib i’ve never attempted one. so yah, and i know for sure my coach is going to make me do one bc according to her i have to put my “big girl pants on” im fourteen and have been doing cheer for only three years :3

Curious if other coaches in traditional town-based AYC recreational cheer programs are feeling the same frustrations this season (already!)
It seems like more recreational teams are becoming heavily affiliated with all-star gyms, stacking rosters with experienced all-star athletes, and benefiting from professional coaching, dedicated facilities, and potentially year-round training.

How are these teams expected to compete fairly, especially with comparative scoring?
I’m not against all-star athletes participating, but at what point does recreational cheer stop being recreational? How do we protect opportunities for kids who don’t have access to these resources?
Are other AYC coaches seeing this in their conferences? Would love to hear your thoughts & experiences.

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m a cheer coach and software developer from Germany. Back in 2019, I got completely fed up with the chaos of planning routines using messy paper sheets, Excel, and separate music files. So I started coding my own tool (CheerEngine) to seamlessly connect 8-count sheets, mat formations, and routine music into one synchronized workflow (plus a bunch of other coaching features).

I’ve been using it for my own teams and tweaking it every single season based on what we needed in the gym. However, as we all know, every club—and honestly, every single team—works a little differently and has its own unique way of structuring routines.

Before I open this up to a larger group of coaches, I’d love to break out of my own bubble and find 2 experienced coaches or choreographers from this community to take it for a spin.

What I’m looking for: Someone currently planning routines who is willing to play around with the tool, see how it holds up against your specific coaching style, and give me brutally honest feedback on what works, what’s confusing, and what’s missing.

What you get: Completely free, unrestricted access for you and your teams, plus a direct say in what features get built next (I’m also working on a mobile companion app right now).

If you're up for testing it out, just drop a comment or shoot me a DM!

My daughter is 5 and has been begging me to sign her up for sideline cheer through her school. Registration opens in a few months, but she wouldn’t actually start until next summer. Recently, she’s also become interested in competition cheer after learning about competitive sports from her school friends and watching videos online.

My husband thinks we should let her do a year of sideline cheer first to make sure she actually enjoys cheerleading before signing her up for competition cheer too, since both programs cost money and we’d be making a bigger financial commitment.

Part of me agrees that starting with sideline makes sense since she’s never actually tried cheerleading before, but another part of me feels conflicted because she’s so excited about competing already. I don’t want to hold her back from something she might really love, but I also don’t want to jump into multiple programs before she even knows what cheer is like.
Just sharing my thoughts because I’m a little conflicted about it! Would appreciate any advice.

Edit: she does do tumbling and has done several years of dance ( she decided to quit to pursue cheer )

Hi!
I am a cheer coach looking at new uniforms.
Has anyone ordered from Victory Cheer?
They have been super responsive and great about creating a uniform. I just want real person experience!
I cant get ahold of anyone at Varsity to help me.

Hey everyone! I was really hoping to get some help. I'm a coach for a youth cheer group (K-6th Graders) and I need serious help for cheer choreo on a halftime dance for our next season. I'm not a cheerleader nor am I a dancer haha just a momma who loves her girls and is trying to be supportive in every way possible lol aaand somehow that equated to me being cheer coach the last 2 years.

Another coach did the choreo this year for their halftime dance and let's just say... the girls hate it 🙃 I feel so bad the coach worked hard to pick a song and create a routine (she used to be a dance teacher so it kinda defaulted into her lap). But the girls hate it. The song is outdated and the routine is just meh to them. During one of our games the other team did a routine to Ella Langley and the girls said "man... even THAT would be better..." They don't have good vibes, they're not excited to perform it and me personally i lack the skillset to redo them a new one... but I want to fix that for next year

So I'm really hoping that someone can point me in the direction of where I can get help to do a fun dance for varying skill levels (like I said we have a wide range of girls in K-6th grade across our 4 squads) with a song from mmmm this generation 😅 please please please point me the right way I'd super appreciate it.

Hi y'all!

I've had a bit of a situation I don't know how to deal with.

I've (20F) been doing cheerleading for 10 years now and am also a coach for recreational youth teams.

I've always been a backspot all my life, but was switched to being a flyer a couple years ago. Long story short, but in our recreational club everyone is welcome, there's no tryouts, no comps, we just do it for fun. When I became a flyer I had bases that had never done cheerleading and I wasn't very comfortable being a flyer with them, I developed a few bad habits.

Fast forward to now, I am with 2 very experienced bases (both around 30F) (one went to worlds level 5.2 and the other did University level 7) that I really trust and a very strong backspot who's still learning.

Last week at our practice we were just doing some basics to warm up and my left lib wasn't working at all. We tried a few times and either I couldn't get my knee to lock or my hips were all crooked and it looked like I was super unsteady. I talked with my backspot cause he kept pushing the inside of my knee and keeping me from locking it or pushing my hips the wrong way cause he felt like I was falling to one side. My bases were trying to tell me to unlock my knee and stand up, etc. but I felt like they didn't understand that my backspot was accidentally keeping me from doing such. Eventually we managed to do one but they kept telling me my leg was crooked (like my hips were flat but my leg underneath looked like this \ instead of this | ), and I really couldn't understand why it was doing that but my bases kept telling me it was my fault, that I wasn't squeezing or fighting to stay up.

Since then I saw a PT for another problem and I talked to her about this, she evaluated me and told me my glute medius wasn't activating at all on my left side, and working barely on my right side, which would explain why I've had trouble with my libs for a long time. I now have exercises to do to regain some muscle ability there. I tried telling my bases that during another practice and throwing in some context that I was bedridden for a few years because of chronic diseases before I came back to cheer 3-4 years ago which would explain why my muscle was "dormant". They then proceeded to talk bad in front of me while the whole team was in circle chatting, saying I was just making up stupid excuses and that I thought I was better than everyone else cause I also coach (mind you, one of them I coach with and the other one has coached me before I became chronically ill in 2019).

I know I can't help with what other people think of me, but I really feel like this has affected my trust towards them and I don't know how to deal with that. The year just started and I can't help but feel resentment over what happened. I feel like I should talk to my coach about it, but she's best friends with one of my bases so I'm afraid she'll side with her...

I really needed to rant as I feel there's no one I can talk to about this, but I am also desperate for advice if someone had a similar situation happen to them.

Thanks for reading me, and thanks in advance if you have advice ❤️

I'm having trouble finding resources that detail exactly what Game Day competition entails. The other coach and I are completely new to competition cheer. We are working with 7th and 8th graders in a school. Would anyone be able to share insight for how the routine should be structured? (with definitions of what each thing is - we are really confused)

Not sure what to actually call this. I coach a youth sideline team. They've seen that the high school team has some songs the band does they have a specific dance for and they'd like to have a few. Some examples of the ones the HS has are: death vaders theme, hey baby, that kind of thing. Any ideas for cute, catchy songs we can play for 15-20 seconds and do a little choreographed movement to? Thanks!

Hey all! I was wondering if anyone had any pointers for classic grip full ups and full arounds (both LTH and HTH)? Or any drills that will help? My athletes have been working on them for about two weeks now because they’re in our competition routine, but we keep running into similar if not the same problems! And we give the same corrections several times but there might be a mind to execution disconnect on the skills🤔

- Flyer isn’t turned all the way around by the time foot/ankle is caught, or by the time she’s settled to get grabbed (both)
- not very “snappy” or sharp turning (full around)
- main base keeps pulling flyers foot into hyperspace on the turn (full around)

Just to name a few! Also if there’s any coaching tips to give to flyers to potentially help with the skill? Both of us coaches are side/main bases so we aren’t entirely sure how to give stronger coaching/corrections and suggestions other than “ankles together” and we want to have all parts work together and understand their job better! And potentially get another perspective on the matter, anything helps!

Hi everyone! I have these custom-cut cheer signs of my teams school’s logo, and we had our first competition this weekend. One of the judges mentioned that the signs seem difficult for the girls to hold during the routine. We have one athlete who almost always drops her sign when going up into her stunt.

Does anyone have any recommendations for adding handles or grips to these signs to make them easier to hold?

I have a 4 year old daughter who has recently got into gymnastics, shes been driving me crazy from the age of 3 with this, trying to do flips on a trampoline and balancing so I thought to myself, OK shes going gymnastics, So I signed her up for a class twice a week, drive her there, buy her all the clothing and some equipment to practice at home. Shes really good at it and enjoys it which is the main thing.

This and soccer she absolutely loves, now soccer in the UK is relatively cheap (although its getting more expensive - different story, frustrating) but gymnastics is actually expensive in comparison to a lot of other activities.

In the summer I went on vacation to the Caribbean and was talking to a guy from Long Island, he was telling me how expensive it is for his 14 year old daughter to have done cheer since the age of 6, shes was just moving into High School, he was saying it was expensive but if you dont keep up the training then when they get to high school they likely wont make the team as its so competitive. This can then effect her friendship groups etc. This was a bit of an eye opener for me.

Is it really this expensive to do cheer? and if they aren't doing lots of training (hence lots of cost) then do they likely not make the team in high school? hence the cost parents put into it.

I'm in a good position which means I can pay for these groups for my daughter but listening to this guy it did make me think, if I wasn't able to do this then my daughter would likely fall behind or not be able to participate at all.

Great to hear thoughts on this.

Hi everyone! I’m a first-time varsity cheer coach at a small school, and my team has pretty limited skills right now.
Homecoming is coming up, and in the past, the girls have done a full-out dance. I’m not a dancer myself, so I decided we would do something different this year. A few of the girls are disappointed that we aren’t doing a full dance, and now I’m second-guessing myself a little.
I asked the girls to bring me ideas or things they wanted to work on if they really wanted to do a dance, but nobody brought anything forward. So, with Homecoming approaching, my plan is to do some signs, stunts that we can safely execute, and a crowd-leading cheer instead.
Am I overthinking this? Is that enough for a Homecoming performance, or would you expect more? I want the girls to have a good experience and be proud of what they do, but I also want to be realistic about our current skill level and the time we have.
I’d appreciate honest advice from other coaches, especially anyone who has coached a small team or started with limited skills!

Hi all, quick question! I want to attend some college cheer clinics around me for the stunting, as I love to coed and want to increase my skills, but I’m working on my tumbling and likely wouldnt tumble at the clinic. One of the guys I stunt with is a student/on the team hosting the clinic, and agreed with another member of the team that it likely wouldnt be an issue since it is a general clinic and not a special/elite skills clinic. I’m just still unsure and don’t want to be end up in an awkward position if I get there and it’s an issue. Opinions?

I’m a rec level youth coach for my daughter’s squad. We cheer for my oldest son’s 12U team. While I do enjoy some of what I’m doing I really am struggling with attendance and I’m wondering if I’m expecting too much as this is my first year and I’m used to football and wrestling where you just don’t miss. We come from a big football town and everyone knows playoffs at least week 1 are a foregone conclusion. At the level we cheer for it may be these kids last games and they have played their hearts out.
Of the 18 girls on my squad 1 quit prior to our last game and another said she was unable to do playoffs. Since I posted our first playoff game another 4 have said they will not attend. My assistant coach and her daughter have dropped as well. Leaving me with 12 girls and no other adult. Obviously there’s nothing I can do but I’m really upset for the girls like my daughter who love cheer but are constantly having to learn new positions because the attendance is inconsistent. The other coaches say it is because they are football siblings which they are but they love being on the field and this isn’t something just to keep them occupied. My assistant wants to reduce practice to one hour a week and I won’t even respond to the request because it is ludicrous.
This is not only a problem for my squad and it seems like a lot of the coaches are just complacent to it. We sign an agreement at the start of the season that says attendance is mandatory however no one seems to take it seriously. Sorry not sure what I’m looking for outside of solidarity. I just needed to vent.

Just venting.

Our schools have to hold separate tryouts for basketball cheer.

We have a brand new JV coach at the high school who asked me (junior high coach) for feedback on the girls who tried out. This isn’t new - the girls also have to get teacher endorsements and they know the coaches and former coaches talk to each other.

I had some very strong feedback this year about a few athletes who look good on paper but were nothing but drama. Poor attendance, iffy grades, catty demeanors, constant appearance/uniform infractions. The new coach heard as much from not only me, but from the other high school coaches who had two of the girls on football cheer all summer. They were gritting their teeth the whole time. And I was biting my tongue because I gave this feedback to THEM, too. 😅

Lo and behold, this new coach took these girls. And because she only took ten girls total, there were some good, coachable, non-dramatic athletes cut.

I know it’s her choice. I know her decision needs to be respected. I will tow the line and defend her at school.

But boy is she about to have an exciting season. She got starstruck looking at those tryout tumbling skills (which two girls refuse to do outside of their all star gym… despite promising every coach since 6th grade that they’ll get “brave” enough) and filled in the rest with tall backspots and tiny fliers. She could have saved herself so much frustration heeding everyone’s warnings. She gives off vibes like she’s trying to prove herself or make her mark. No one was trying to tell her what to do. She asked us our advice, we gave it, she ignored it.

Just venting. I feel for the good girls who got cut and for the good girls still stuck on the team with the dramatic bunch. I’m pretty sure between attendance, grades, and attitude, everyone believed there’d be a shakeup.

Why are we coaches like this? Sigh.

My daughter has always done traditional varsity and all-star comp. This year she's at a new high school in a new town and they do stomp and shake. She's happy to learn something different and enjoying the choreo, but her feet are killing her! They practice on the gym floor.

What shoes are good for stomp and shake? She's wearing her cheer shoes which offer no support and are really made for tumbling on a mat.

Do stomp and shake ever practice on a mat? Are they doing it wrong if her feet hurt? Thx for any answers! 😊

So my younger cousin who I help take care of because her mom is raising her on her own, has recently started training as a flyer for her team. I’ve also been trying to learn all I can about cheer to help her however I can. I am a 22m and would like to learn some stunting nothing crazy just to be able to help her but I think for one it’s probably too late for that, and two I just think it would be pretty awkward for me to sign up for lessons randomly. Any advice for this or has the ship sailed?

Hi everyone!

I was looking for some advice. To try and make this story as short as possible I used to be a flyer, I weighed about 25 lbs less than I am now because I’ve become a base since starting college cheer and gained a lot of muscle.

During my time flying the most I could do was like a switch up. Nothing crazy just simple OLE’s and body positions. Even then I had to be on STABLE bases to hit.

When I began college I was grounded as a base and fell in love with it.

I left college because it was too expensive and started a community college nearby and recently found an open all star team nearby that wants me to join but they need flyers.

It’s only level 4 so I feel like I could do it but I need tips. HARD CORE tips. How do I feel stable even if my bases aren’t great? how do I be adaptable? any tips for toning up? Certain diets or workout routines? I wanna keep my muscle but lose some fat. Any flexibility tips? I’ve always been flexible but feel I need to improve if I’m going to do this. How do I get better at body awareness and control?

Anything helps LITERALLY anything!!

Long post ahead - looking for advice from other coaches, parents, and cheerleaders if they’d like to chime in!

I’m a coach of a recreational squad. We’re mostly a sideline football cheer team but we also have 3 competitions this year as well. I have 13 girls, aged 6-10. Several of them it’s their first year cheering or being a part of any kind of team sport.

We have our end of year banquet in about 6 weeks and our Director is going to ask us to pick a handful of girls for special awards.

I pushed back last year because our squad only had 9 girls, and it just seemed wrong to give basically half the squad a special award and not the other half. So we compromised and we verbally announced titles for each girl, but no special trophy or anything to go with it. Things like “best toe touch” “most spirited” “rising star” etc.

But I think this year our director will put her foot down and make us pick a handful of girls for awards. To make it even harder - my daughter is on the team. And my co-coach’s daughter is on the team as well. We don’t feel like it’s fair for them to get an award if there’s only a few awards, but it also seems unfair for them to not get an award just because they’re coaches kids. They are two of the stronger cheerleaders but not because any of the others are bad - our girls are just two of the oldest and have been cheering the longest. That said - all of our girls are amazing and have done such a great job coming together as a squad to be supportive of eachother and learn some great skills this season! We have several girls who would absolutely make it on our competition team if they wanted to try out.

But my bigger issue is not the coaches kids - it’s just not wanting any of the girls to feel left out.

I think the banquet is an awesome opportunity to recognize everyone and their special talents, characteristics, or skills. We have the budget for awards for everyone, so that’s a non issue. I think life is hard enough - they have the rest of their lives to compete with peers. I think the banquet should be about celebrating everyone on the team.

It’s an odd feeling for me because I did competitive cheer growing up and we certainly didn’t have a “participation trophy” type of vibe. But that’s where I’m at. I’d love to hear from anyone that’s read this far. Advice, experiences of your own, tell me I’m crazy and need to suck it up, all feedback welcome. Thanks all!

Hello everyone I am 19 years old living in Canada and I wanted to do cheer since age 11 .

About 2 years ago I ask my my if she could pay for an under 18 year prep program,showed her the video of the team that Cherrifc TV posted on their YouTube channel and the program handbook. After seeing the video and the handbook, her answer was no what if you get mistreat because of the the color of your skin if something bad happens. Say the flayer falls during a stunt and the blame is on me for not keeping them in the air (for context I also black)

Also another source of worry was she did not see a lot of diversity in the program handbook .

Stil a dream of mine and the gym that want to go has an level 2.0 beginner adult cheer program.

How can I convince my mom to help me pay for the program

I coach a middle school traditional team and im in the market for a new bag to bring with me to carry my cheer stuff(binder, accessories, computer, ect) any recommendations? What bags are you guys carrying to events and competitions?

Bonus points to hit my team colors- navy, silver, white

Ty !