While researching more for my first answer, I found an amazing video made by one of the most well known athletes in the cheer industry Gabi Butler. She is known for her flexibility and strength and has cheered for the top two cheer gyms in the United States, won Worlds, and is only 15. Gabi Butler has cheered for Top Gun, California Allstars, and Trinity Athletics. Her video was very helpful and a great resource for my senior project.
Cheer Stretching With Gabi Butler
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Friday, May 31, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Blog 19: Senior Project and ESLRs
1. What ESLR have you excelled in most in your senior project?
I believe I have excelled most in my senior project at being an effective communicator. I listen effectively and communicate appropriately while also demonstrating the importance of working interdependently.
2. Please explain why you think you have excelled in this ESLR.
I believe I've excelled in this ESLR because one of the few things I am good at is communicating. Though it's taken a long time for me to learn how to effectively (and appropriately) learn how to communicate wih others, I know that I've excelled at it the most my senior year. Having to work on my senior project by myself has really made me reach out to sources and people I don't know.
3. Provide evidence from your senior project to support your claim (evidence is a photo of something you are doing, photo of something you made, etc)
I believe I have excelled most in my senior project at being an effective communicator. I listen effectively and communicate appropriately while also demonstrating the importance of working interdependently.
2. Please explain why you think you have excelled in this ESLR.
I believe I've excelled in this ESLR because one of the few things I am good at is communicating. Though it's taken a long time for me to learn how to effectively (and appropriately) learn how to communicate wih others, I know that I've excelled at it the most my senior year. Having to work on my senior project by myself has really made me reach out to sources and people I don't know.
3. Provide evidence from your senior project to support your claim (evidence is a photo of something you are doing, photo of something you made, etc)
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Blog 18: 2 Hour Meeting Answer #3
1. What is the most important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team?
2. Always prioritizing safety when attempting skills is an important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team.
3. A. All-Star cheerleaders unfortunately get injured often due to multiple reasons, such as improper supervision/coaching, improper technique in stretching or conditioning, or making a simple error when tumbling or stunting. According to Dr. Kurt Bryant, the majority of athletes that come to his office to be treated for an injury, especially sprains and strains, are cheerleaders and gymnasts.
B. According to a study done by Brenda Shields on the most common injuries that occur in cheerleading, stunting is the most dangerous aspect of cheerleading due to fall-related injuries such as concussions, sprains, strains and breaks. It is because of this that it is essential athletes always attempt every skill, especially harder skills such as tumbling and stunting, with upmost caution.
C. I know from first-hand experience that becoming injured during the season puts a very long hold on progressing in any aspect of cheer. I experienced two injuries during my season because of improper conditioning and treatment, and I was unable to tumble, jump, or even do my dance full-out during practice for over a month. You can't stop practicing something and expect to be able to do it perfect again after a month of not doing it. Since I had to focus on re-perfecting my skills more than once throughout the season, it took valuable time away from me working on skills outside of my level such as a backhandspring.
4. Aside from literally experiencing the negative aspect of this answer first-hand, the multiple scientific studies I've read on fall-related injuries and the lecture I attended by Chiropractor Kurt Bryant were really insightful about how important it is to keep safety a key factor in everything you attempt while cheering. They taught me that simple things such as making sure you have a coach spotting you when attempting a new skill, or always tumbling on a spring floor are simple things athletes can do to prioritize their safety that will make such a huge difference short-term and long-term.
5. I plan to study all three of my answers more in depth. The towers assignment has shown me what topics I need more research on, and and it's mostly on my three answers, especially my first and second answer.
2. Always prioritizing safety when attempting skills is an important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team.
3. A. All-Star cheerleaders unfortunately get injured often due to multiple reasons, such as improper supervision/coaching, improper technique in stretching or conditioning, or making a simple error when tumbling or stunting. According to Dr. Kurt Bryant, the majority of athletes that come to his office to be treated for an injury, especially sprains and strains, are cheerleaders and gymnasts.
B. According to a study done by Brenda Shields on the most common injuries that occur in cheerleading, stunting is the most dangerous aspect of cheerleading due to fall-related injuries such as concussions, sprains, strains and breaks. It is because of this that it is essential athletes always attempt every skill, especially harder skills such as tumbling and stunting, with upmost caution.
C. I know from first-hand experience that becoming injured during the season puts a very long hold on progressing in any aspect of cheer. I experienced two injuries during my season because of improper conditioning and treatment, and I was unable to tumble, jump, or even do my dance full-out during practice for over a month. You can't stop practicing something and expect to be able to do it perfect again after a month of not doing it. Since I had to focus on re-perfecting my skills more than once throughout the season, it took valuable time away from me working on skills outside of my level such as a backhandspring.
4. Aside from literally experiencing the negative aspect of this answer first-hand, the multiple scientific studies I've read on fall-related injuries and the lecture I attended by Chiropractor Kurt Bryant were really insightful about how important it is to keep safety a key factor in everything you attempt while cheering. They taught me that simple things such as making sure you have a coach spotting you when attempting a new skill, or always tumbling on a spring floor are simple things athletes can do to prioritize their safety that will make such a huge difference short-term and long-term.
5. I plan to study all three of my answers more in depth. The towers assignment has shown me what topics I need more research on, and and it's mostly on my three answers, especially my first and second answer.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Blog 16: 2 Hour Meeting Answer #2
1. What is the most important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team?
2. Keeping a strong mentality, especially in tumbling and stunting, is an important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team.
3. A. Mentality is everything in sports; all aspects of it. In a very general sense, you have to always have a strong mentality when it comes to playing a sport in general. Athletes have to be able to mentally motivate themselves in preparation for the game or performance or whatever it is they're doing. 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.
B. One of the biggest things that stops an athlete from progressing is developing a mental block. According to 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."
C. Mental blocks can occur in any aspect of cheer, but they most commonly occur in tumbling and stunting, which are the two things paid most attention to when determining whether or not an athlete has progressed a level or not. For example, an athlete with terrible toe touches can be on a level 1 team or on a level 5 team, but an athlete with only level 1 tumbling skills like a backwalkover cannot be on a level 5 team where athletes throw tumbling skills like full twisting layouts.
4. My most important source to find this answer would have to be my Interview 3 with my mentor and coach, Rene Gonzalez. I asked him what he believed the most important/significant aspects of cheerleading as a sport were, and he said mentality. I hadn't really thought of having an answer like mentality because I was so focused on my answers being physical things like tumbling or stunting, but talking to him about the importance of mental toughness, especially in cheer, really brought how important it is to my attention.
5. The next thing I plan to study for my second answer is muscle memory and whether or not there are studies done on how it specifically affects cheerleaders. Muscle memory is one of the ways you can overcome mental blocks, and overcoming mental blocks builds mental toughness which is something essential to every athlete in All-Star Cheerleading.
2. Keeping a strong mentality, especially in tumbling and stunting, is an important factor to progress to a Level 2 All-Star Cheerleading team.
3. A. Mentality is everything in sports; all aspects of it. In a very general sense, you have to always have a strong mentality when it comes to playing a sport in general. Athletes have to be able to mentally motivate themselves in preparation for the game or performance or whatever it is they're doing. 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.
B. One of the biggest things that stops an athlete from progressing is developing a mental block. According to 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."
C. Mental blocks can occur in any aspect of cheer, but they most commonly occur in tumbling and stunting, which are the two things paid most attention to when determining whether or not an athlete has progressed a level or not. For example, an athlete with terrible toe touches can be on a level 1 team or on a level 5 team, but an athlete with only level 1 tumbling skills like a backwalkover cannot be on a level 5 team where athletes throw tumbling skills like full twisting layouts.
4. My most important source to find this answer would have to be my Interview 3 with my mentor and coach, Rene Gonzalez. I asked him what he believed the most important/significant aspects of cheerleading as a sport were, and he said mentality. I hadn't really thought of having an answer like mentality because I was so focused on my answers being physical things like tumbling or stunting, but talking to him about the importance of mental toughness, especially in cheer, really brought how important it is to my attention.
5. The next thing I plan to study for my second answer is muscle memory and whether or not there are studies done on how it specifically affects cheerleaders. Muscle memory is one of the ways you can overcome mental blocks, and overcoming mental blocks builds mental toughness which is something essential to every athlete in All-Star Cheerleading.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Blog 10: Senior Project Update
1) What are you currently doing in your Independent Component?
I am currently going to practice 2 times a week (3-4 times a week during the week preceding a competition). Each practice is 2 - 3 hours, although it is more commonly 3 hours. I am going to start counting my practices as hours for Independent Component next week, when my doctor says I am fully cleared to start practicing again. Since I've been sick lately I haven't been practicing like I normally do. These last 3 weeks or so I've been taking it easy since I've been in bad health. However, this week I have been stunting and I threw my backwalkover at practice on Monday and Wednesday for the first time in over a month. I will be tracking my progress for Independent Component starting on Monday, the 10th of December.
2) The most recent piece of research I've gotten for my senior project would have to be my first cheer competition of the season. My team competed for the first time against another team and we got first place! I've been to many All - Star cheer competitions, but I've never competed in one before, so I learned a lot from my experience of being on a team and having to go through the day as an athlete and not a spectator. Being able to review the scoresheets from the competition and see what the different aspects of our routine were scored would have to be the most resourceful thing I got out of the competition. My science fair project has to do with the scoring of tumbling and stunting sections in routines and focuses on how to maximize the score of the routine. So this competition was very useful for that aspect of my project. In addition, since my senior project is focusing specifically on stunting and tumbling, the scoresheets were very helpful since they're divided up into three sections: stunting, tumbling, and dance/formations. This competition made me realize how crucial those aspects of the routine are, and it reinforced my confidence in choosing the right aspect of the sport to focus on. The next place I will be going to in my project will be to excel at these categories of the sport, which will be easy since my routine is currently under a 'makeover' process in which our choreographer is adding more difficulty to the stunting and tumbling aspect of our routine.
3) This is a picture of my team, coaches, and I at our competition with our 1st place trophy and banner!
I am currently going to practice 2 times a week (3-4 times a week during the week preceding a competition). Each practice is 2 - 3 hours, although it is more commonly 3 hours. I am going to start counting my practices as hours for Independent Component next week, when my doctor says I am fully cleared to start practicing again. Since I've been sick lately I haven't been practicing like I normally do. These last 3 weeks or so I've been taking it easy since I've been in bad health. However, this week I have been stunting and I threw my backwalkover at practice on Monday and Wednesday for the first time in over a month. I will be tracking my progress for Independent Component starting on Monday, the 10th of December.
2) The most recent piece of research I've gotten for my senior project would have to be my first cheer competition of the season. My team competed for the first time against another team and we got first place! I've been to many All - Star cheer competitions, but I've never competed in one before, so I learned a lot from my experience of being on a team and having to go through the day as an athlete and not a spectator. Being able to review the scoresheets from the competition and see what the different aspects of our routine were scored would have to be the most resourceful thing I got out of the competition. My science fair project has to do with the scoring of tumbling and stunting sections in routines and focuses on how to maximize the score of the routine. So this competition was very useful for that aspect of my project. In addition, since my senior project is focusing specifically on stunting and tumbling, the scoresheets were very helpful since they're divided up into three sections: stunting, tumbling, and dance/formations. This competition made me realize how crucial those aspects of the routine are, and it reinforced my confidence in choosing the right aspect of the sport to focus on. The next place I will be going to in my project will be to excel at these categories of the sport, which will be easy since my routine is currently under a 'makeover' process in which our choreographer is adding more difficulty to the stunting and tumbling aspect of our routine.
3) This is a picture of my team, coaches, and I at our competition with our 1st place trophy and banner!
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Blog 9: Working EQ and Possible Answers
(1) What is the most efficient way to excel at tumbling and stunting in All-Star Cheerleading?
(2) I am not going to revise my EQ at this time
(3) Possible answers are knowing what can be achieved for each level, the way the judges score you, how to train for certain skills, experienced coaches, stretching, strengthening, and getting over mental blocks.
(2) I am not going to revise my EQ at this time
(3) Possible answers are knowing what can be achieved for each level, the way the judges score you, how to train for certain skills, experienced coaches, stretching, strengthening, and getting over mental blocks.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Blog 2: Topic Choice
A.
My topic is All Star Cheerleading because cheerleading is something I have been involved in since a young age, I'm very passionate about it, and I feel that people have a lot of misconceptions about it. For a long time society has had stereotypes about cheerleaders and it hasn't been considered a serious sport. People don't understand how hard cheer really is, the amount of work you have to put into it, the blood, sweat, and tears shed over it. I'm not too sure what I'm specifically going to focus on within All Star cheerleading, but I'm leaning towards something involving choreography since it's something I enjoy learning, teaching, and it's something I excel at. I've already set up a date to talk with the head director of my gym to help me determine exactly what I want to focus my topic on.
B.
I-Poly Citizen: This year, I'm not going to procrastinate. I've honestly gotten better at not doing it these last few years and I'm going to make sure I don't kill myself this last year and I have time to enjoy life and be a senior. I'm going to make sure all of my senior project components are done and turned in on time, that I coach once a week, go to every practice and know I'm the only person to blame if anything falls through in my project. I'm going to keep a very open mind and a positive attitude about anything that gets thrown my way in the project or in cheer while also encouraging my peers to do so. This in turn will help me to become a better citizen of the I-Poly community.
Effective Communicator: This year I'm going to be more receptive to feedback and opinions on my senior project since, like I mentioned before, cheer is a group effort. Although I can give my opinion over and over again about this and about that, cheer is looked at differently from different people, and I'm going to use my team and my coaches and the kids I coach as much as I can to give the most consensual, unbiased, fact based answers for my senior project. These are the reasons I will become a more effective learner, especially since I struggle in this area.
Effective Learner: Since cheer is a team sport and we rely on each other all of the time, much like everything we do at I-Poly, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that my senior project is a solo project and I'm going to try to personalize it as much as possible. I'm also going to gain as much knowledge as I can from my coaches not only on a team-based level but as an independent cheerleader to ensure I can relay all the aspects of the sport to the best of my ability in my project. This is how I'm going use the distinctness of cheer and my personality in my senior project to be a more effective learner.
Effective User of Technology: I plan to look up most of my research on the internet this year. Since there aren't many nonfiction books on cheerleading, and more specifically all star cheerleading, most of my research will be either from lectures, interviews, or internet articles. There's only one or two cheer magazines I know of. Since I'm going to be on the internet so much I plan on learning how to sift through research quickly and efficiently, being able to pull stuff that's useful and leave stuff that isn't. In addition, I'm going to have to learn how to customize my blog and use excel and many other computer programs to create spreadsheets and handouts for my senior project. This will make me a more effective user of technology.
My topic is All Star Cheerleading because cheerleading is something I have been involved in since a young age, I'm very passionate about it, and I feel that people have a lot of misconceptions about it. For a long time society has had stereotypes about cheerleaders and it hasn't been considered a serious sport. People don't understand how hard cheer really is, the amount of work you have to put into it, the blood, sweat, and tears shed over it. I'm not too sure what I'm specifically going to focus on within All Star cheerleading, but I'm leaning towards something involving choreography since it's something I enjoy learning, teaching, and it's something I excel at. I've already set up a date to talk with the head director of my gym to help me determine exactly what I want to focus my topic on.
B.
I-Poly Citizen: This year, I'm not going to procrastinate. I've honestly gotten better at not doing it these last few years and I'm going to make sure I don't kill myself this last year and I have time to enjoy life and be a senior. I'm going to make sure all of my senior project components are done and turned in on time, that I coach once a week, go to every practice and know I'm the only person to blame if anything falls through in my project. I'm going to keep a very open mind and a positive attitude about anything that gets thrown my way in the project or in cheer while also encouraging my peers to do so. This in turn will help me to become a better citizen of the I-Poly community.
Effective Communicator: This year I'm going to be more receptive to feedback and opinions on my senior project since, like I mentioned before, cheer is a group effort. Although I can give my opinion over and over again about this and about that, cheer is looked at differently from different people, and I'm going to use my team and my coaches and the kids I coach as much as I can to give the most consensual, unbiased, fact based answers for my senior project. These are the reasons I will become a more effective learner, especially since I struggle in this area.
Effective Learner: Since cheer is a team sport and we rely on each other all of the time, much like everything we do at I-Poly, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that my senior project is a solo project and I'm going to try to personalize it as much as possible. I'm also going to gain as much knowledge as I can from my coaches not only on a team-based level but as an independent cheerleader to ensure I can relay all the aspects of the sport to the best of my ability in my project. This is how I'm going use the distinctness of cheer and my personality in my senior project to be a more effective learner.
Effective User of Technology: I plan to look up most of my research on the internet this year. Since there aren't many nonfiction books on cheerleading, and more specifically all star cheerleading, most of my research will be either from lectures, interviews, or internet articles. There's only one or two cheer magazines I know of. Since I'm going to be on the internet so much I plan on learning how to sift through research quickly and efficiently, being able to pull stuff that's useful and leave stuff that isn't. In addition, I'm going to have to learn how to customize my blog and use excel and many other computer programs to create spreadsheets and handouts for my senior project. This will make me a more effective user of technology.
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