National Cheerleading Week on March, 2025: cheerleading nationals!?

National Cheerleading Week 2025. ADORA: National Cheerleading Week! March 1st National Cheerleading Week

Hey! I'm going to Disney for nationals too!!!! First of all its really fun. So my advice is to use fast passes. If you've already been to Disney world you'll know what i'm talking about but they keep you from waiting in LOOONNNGG lines. One time I went on the Tower of Terror 3x in a row using fast passes! Also just stay with your team and you will have a blast! I love UCA Nationals.. Hope this helps. :) (PS. Are you going to ALL Stars in March or HS in Febuary??-- because the time of year depends if the parks are crowded or not)

cheerleading?

How to Be a Cheerleader

Cheerleading is not just a bunch of popular girls jumping around. It is a real sport. It requires gymnastics, weight lifting, jumps, running, core strength, and stunting. It is a national sport, and only athletes can cheer competitively.

Steps

Get fit if you aren't already.

Stretching is vital before starting the dance routines*Be flexible. Look up cheer stretches. You need a good toe-touch, herkie or pike. Stretch every morning and every night. This will lengthen your muscles. You need good back, leg, and arm flexibility for stunts, jumps, and tumbling.

Get strong. Unless you are a flyer, you need to weight lift at least three times a week. You will be stunting and lifting about 60 pounds in every stunt you can throw up, so you need strong ab leg and arm muscles.

Run about three miles three times per week or do aerobics at least 4 times a week. During your rounds, you will get exhausted if you are not trained for endurance. Distance running will strengthen your endurance, and make you that much better for competing.

Strengthen your core. You need to keep your abs in shape for cheerleading. Doing 50 situps a day and/or 25 V-ups will increase your jumps dramatically, make stunting easier.

Good exercises for your arms are curls and arm raises, and good exercises for your legs are squats, calf raises, mountain climbers, and frog jumps.

Develop an exercise plan to get into shape.

Eat a healthy diet.

Learn essential cheerleading skills.

Jump correctly. Keeping a solid prep, shoulders back, and whipping your legs to your arms will give you a solid jump.

Find a good gymnastics center in your area and learn skills such as back handsprings, aerials, front tucks, back tucks, and series gymnastics. Enroll in a tumbling class at a gym 6-8 months before tryouts. This will help you a lot in tumbling.

For a varsity level, you should have cupies, full-reload-full, double-downs, 180 ups, and a liberty (minimum). If a solid liberty is achieved, then arabesques, bow 'n arrows, scorpions, and heelstretches should be tried.

Look the part. Make sure your hair is neat and brushed, and you may want to put it up in a ponytail. You should also get the proper clothing -- shorts, tees, crop tops, tank tops, etc. At tryouts and practice, make sure that your shorts are not too little or too big. Be sure that you are wearing team colors. Your uniform should be clean, pressed and sharp at all times.

Speak loudly and clearly without yelling. Screaming will hurt your voice and it will make it harder to chant. Use your chest voice; this will give you power to be loud in front of a crowd. Be loud; but remember, you don't want to be high pitched (you don't want to sound like a chipmunk).

Try out. Be on time and enthusiastic. Know the routine in advance and be prepared to follow instructions. Ask existing cheerleaders for more information. During your tryout, make eye contact with the judges. And smile. It helps them to see that you will really "interact" with the crowd.

Listen to the captain and co-captain and respect their management of the team. When you are walking to practice, have a smile on your face and greet the coach(es). Ask them how they are doing.

Practice at least 3-5 times a week. Go over your cheers and routines again and again and again...And then do it once more. Practice with your teammates as much as possible, so that you can get synchronized.

Keep a positive attitude. Always have a smile on your face! When you are at a game, remember that you are there for one reason: to get the crowd pumped up, no matter how your team is doing. If you have a friend on the team or squad, have them help you before tryouts or clinics...if you already know some of the material, you will impress the judges.

Tips

Realize that people look up to you. When in your uniform, be more outgoing and friendly with everyone and represent your team well.

DON'T smoke, drink alcohol, do drugs, or anything negative like that in your uniform. It could result in having a bad team reputation or getting kicked off the team.

Practice the routines, jumps, tumbling and chants with a friend or family member watching. They can tell you how you did.

Find some friends to back spot you, help you with back kickovers, front handsprings, back handsprings and any other difficult moves.

Never be late for practices, games, and competitions.

Bring water and a backup outfit for everyday incase something happens to yours or one of the other girls needs to borrow something. This includes hairbrush, deodorant, and extra socks.

Flyers: if you are cradling, remember to snap your body and never come down flat. Always keep your legs and arms locked, and keep your butt tight to help your bases stay close to the stunt. Don't shake when you are in the air - it is very hard on the bases when they are trying to do other things with your legs.

When getting in, don't push your bases out - keep your legs together!

Bases: don't shake, because that will make the flier unsteady. Never walk out on a stunt; keep close to the other base.

Always keep tight when dancing, cheering or stunting. This makes for a cleaner performance.

If you make a mistake, just flash the crowd a big smile and pretend that was what was supposed to happen. Don't get angry or look confused; just keep going.

Bonding with your squad is very important. If you are split into cliques when you are cheering at a game or competition, you will not be as strong of a group as you could be.

Flyers: To keep from toeing, lift just your big toe in the air and keep the other toes down--it will lift up the front of your foot just enough so it is flat in the bases' hands.

Warnings

Be sure to stretch before and after practice or you might pull a muscle or worse.

Don't attempt moves without training first. If you don't know how to do stunts, tumbles etc., wait until you're taught or you could injure yourself. It will also annoy other team members if they have to pick up after you.

NEVER be afraid to ask for a spotter in any skill you do. It is always better to be safe and if you are not 100% confident in the skill you're doing, you could seriously injure yourself and others.

Wear no jewelry, loose clothes, baggy clothes, etc.

Keep in mind that cheerleaders for professional NFL teams make very little money, in the range of $75.00 per game for about 10 games during the season, so also plan on having a real career.

Read the March 31, 2007 story in the New York Times for more information about the rising injury rate in this sport.

Things You'll Need

Spirit or school spirit, at your discretion

Pom-poms (for practice and maybe for tryouts)

A perpetual winning smile

School colored practice clothes

Ponytail, depending on whether you think this is appropriate for your gender

Cheerleading shoes, especially for flyers--they make stunting much easier.

All the best :)

Did Dunbar High School win the national cheerleading championships (think Cheerleader Nation)?

I love that show. Okay, I cheated last week and looked up the school website and yes they won.