Best Answer: The most important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team is keeping a strong mentality, especially in tumbling and stunting. Mentality is everything in not only cheerleading but every sport you do. It is the foundation for playing or participating in the sport at all. In a very general sense, you have to always have a strong mentality when it comes to playing a sport because you have to be able to mentally motivate yourself in preparation for the game or performance or whatever it is you're doing in that sport. If you don't even have a want or desire to play the sport then there is no way you're ever going to progress at it. In addition, having a strong mentality is essential because the more mental toughness you have, the easier it will be to overcome mental blocks. According to my mentor Rene Gonzalez, a mental block is "when an athlete gets stuck on a certain skill and are too afraid to do it because they overthink it." This occurs very often in tumbling. Debbie Love, the number one tumbling expert in the world for cheerleading, says that mental blocks are one of the most frustrating situations for both a coach and an athlete, and can be onset by multiple factors. Lack of progression, fear of injury, being easily distracted, school stress, family stress, and being forced to repeat skills when fatigued are all things that can and do cause mental blocks. It is imperative coaches know how to deal with athletes who have mental blocks, generally and individually, because it can take anywhere from a couple minutes to years to overcome a mental block. If an athlete is unable to overcome a mental block and learn new skills, they will be unable to progress.
(2) After I did my 10 hours in the summer I realized I didn't want to focus on the coaching aspect of cheer because a) Dominic was going to do that, and b) I really wanted people to look at my project and see how hard cheerleaders worked, to see that All-Star Cheerleading is a sport, and I wanted to expose that really raw, hands on aspect of the sport. So my EQ became focused on progressing at the sport itself, and the physical way to measure progression in cheer is through skills and movement among team levels. When I conducted my third interview, which was with my mentor, Rene Gonzalez, I realized that progressing wasn't all about physically seeing progression in an athlete through skills, and that a good cheerleader isn't a cheerleader who can pick up skills lightning quick, what makes a cheerleader good if the effort they put forth, the determination they have to push through mental blocks and stay mentally strong throughout the season. After watching my team interact with each other at practice and competitions I realized that the most important thing wasn't whether or not you came in on extra days to work on your skills or whether or not you had perfect technique in conditioning and stretching, it was about being able to push through mentally and be there with your team. To put aside the bad day you had at school or the fight you had with your parents, or even the death of a close relative. It is about being able to mentally stay strong for yourself and your teammates; that mental drive and motivation is the most essential part of an athletes progression, because as soon as it disappears, so does their progress. They can do as many perfectly techniqued pushups as they want, it won't matter though, because that's not what was going to make them progress. Their mental drive is what will always be the number one most important factor in an All-Star cheerleaders progression.
(3) Problem: One of the biggest problems I faced, especially later on in the year, was finding good, credible research that was not from my mentor. As my answers formed and my project became more specific, it became harder and harder to find research relevant to my answers that was about All-Star cheerleading. In the beginning of the year it was easy to find research on cheer in general, but as we did the Towers assignment and I came up with my second and third answer I realized I needed a lot more print research to back them up. In addition, my second and third answers changed literally two weeks ago. So I had to cram research checks at home.
Resolution: As my research became more specific, I tried to become more specific about where to look for it. I tried looking on University's websites, college databases, places I knew I'd find good, credible research that I'd get a lot of value from.
Problem: I was injured three times during the season, all of which had a big affect on my project since I was focused on trying to progress. I had a knee injury, which I re-injured later in the season, and a back injury. I was unable to tumble for 3 weeks after my first knee injury in January, and unable to tumble for a month from my back injury which I got in March. I also re-injured my knee while my back was injured during April. Since I couldn't tumble I couldn't work on tumbling skills outside of my level, which is what I need to do to progress.
Resolution: Accidents happen, and sometimes they're out of our control, but I dealt with my injuries to the best of my ability through multiple doctor visits and physical therapy. I really focused on strengthening specific parts of my body after they had been injured to make sure I built my strength back up and to prevent re-injury.Thankfully my injuries never got in the way of me competing at any competitions, and as soon as I got the okay to start tumbling again I'd work extra hard to make sure I was at the level I needed to be at to work on progression skills.
(4) One of the important sources for my senior project would have to be my mentor Rene Gonzalez, and more specifically my Interview 3 with him. My Interview 3 gave me my second answer, which is my best answer, and it gave me a direction to head in for my third answer. My mentor always stresses how important mentality is in All-Star cheer, and I always kind of disregarded it because I felt that the most important factors of progressing would be physical things like tumbling or stunting. So this interview really opened my eyes to the fact that my answers didn't have to be physical things.
My other most important source would be a journal article I found from the American Academy of Pediatrics titled "Cheerleading Injuries: Epidemiology and Recommendations for Prevention." It was written by the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, and focuses on how the increased popularity of cheerleading over the last 20 years has caused a dramatic rise in cheer-related injuries. It was the first article I had found that had All-Star Cheerleading so prevalent throughout it. It really focused on the safety issues cheerleaders everywhere face due to unqualified coaches, lack of funding for proper equipment, and lack of recognition as a sport. This article basically gave me my third answer, which is always prioritizing safety when attempting skills. I learned that injury is most commonly due to improper technique in the execution of the skill, unqualified coaches teaching kids elite skills, or skills being practiced on dangerous ground such as wooden floors, grass, etc. The article gave great injury prevention recommendations and advice. I know from firsthand experience how much injuries affect an athletes progression throughout the season, and this article stressed and highlighted the importance of preventing these injuries from happening.
(5) My product is the amount of skills and experience I've gained from
this season of cheer. My team was fortunate enough to attend the most prestigious
cheer competition open to lower level teams, The Summit. We had to qualify to
even receive a bid to the competition by placing first or second at a national
competition and receiving a percent of perfection score of 90% or more on our
routine. After placing second and receiving a perfection score of 94% at Duel
In The Desert in December of last year, my team received a bid to The Summit.
After our normal season was over, we still came to practice nearly every day
for a month before The Summit. The normal All-Star season ends in the beginning
of April, but The Summit took place on May 4th and 5th in Orlando, Florida, so
my team worked harder than we had the entire season for the last month of
practice while all other teams were enjoying their last practices together by
hanging out and messing around. I had practice every day for nearly two weeks
before the competition, weekends and everything. Our coaches wanted to make
sure we perfected our skills, so that what we took to The Summit was our
absolute best. I was unfortunately nursing a back injury, so I couldn't tumble
most of the time, but as soon as I was cleared to practice again, I made sure
my backwalkovers were down perfect and that all my stunts hit effortlessly. The
change in my skill level since the beginning of the season, my first
competition, and my final performance at The Summit are drastic. Not only did I
gain new skills during the season, I was able to perfect them.
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