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Starting a Cheerleading Team
(This article was originally an email written in response to questons for help on starting a cheerleading team program for a rugby team in Italy) Since you didn’t indicate the level of your rugby team, we have to be somewhat general in our answer to your request for more information and we are already planning and have notes for books on starting and coaching/managing cheerleading squads/teams, but you undoubtedly don’t want to wait for us to finish them. We also must confess to little idea about the level and status of cheerleading in Italy (Imagine that, Americans that don’t know much about Europe, only their own country). So we don’t know, for example how extensive and how young cheerleading programs go in your province. Here in the United States, there are numerous cheerleading programs starting at age 5, so there are always experienced cheerleaders available at every level from which to draw a team without having to start at the beginning and teach all of the basics. We apologize in advance for the somewhat unorganized approach. We are used to having a great deal of time to organize our thoughts and writing for our books and like to be very compete and organized. But here are some ideas for you to consider and steps to take to start cheerleading team. In general, the age of the cheerleaders matches the age of the players on the team. High school cheerleaders cheer for high school athletes. College cheerleaders cheer for college athletes and professional cheerleaders (say ages 18 – 28) cheer for professional teams. The status of cheerleaders also usually matches the amateur or professional status of the players. Professional cheerleaders are paid and are expected to work and train full-time. Semi-Professional and amateur cheerleaders have all their expenses paid for, although amateurs often have to fundraise to pay for their expenses. In America, there are two types of cheerleading – competitive and cheering for sports teams. Competitive cheerleading is very big here now and cheering for teams has taken somewhat of a back seat in the amateur levels. We will assume you are interested in a team to cheer for the rugby team and that won’t compete in competitions. This allows considerable latitude in choosing and setting up teams and, if desired, specialists. In addition to a regular cheer squad, specialists in stunting, tumbling, break dancing and flag runners can be employed to provide a more spectacular presentation. The best source for choreography ideas for cheer squads is videos of last year’s National Cheerleading Championships. In the United States we like to get copies of the NCAA Collegiate Division I National Cheerleading Championships and cheerorganizatons like the UCA federation's National Cheerleading Championships to keep up with the latest. There are a number of cheerleading federations, but many of them are small operations and do not havenot as consistently high a quality of competition. We also use MTV videos as inspiration for cheer dance moves, although the graphic sexual dance moves are not appropriate, there is much to see and learn. We might mention, at this point, that cheerleading is currently the most dangerous sport for women in the United States. Many of the flyer and pyramid stunting injuries come about because coaches are not professional or experienced enough to demand the rigorous physical preparation and level of practice necessary for the safe and consistent execution of those skills. You must be vigilant about this because no one wants to look down at a young, beautiful and talented girl who has been permanently injured because of a preventable accident.
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