Advice for a First Year Cheer Coach
Choose Your Battles
Coaching high school cheerleaders is so rewarding. However there are times when it can be tough to coach teenage girls. Choose your battles.
Include The Team in Making Certain Decisions
Ensure you have a clear distinction of coaches decisions and cheerleader's decisions. For example, as coaches we decide lineups, stunt groups, captains, etc. Cheerleaders help us to decide on practice clothing, how they wear their hair for certain games, themes for spirit week, etc. Establish that the coach has final say.
Create a structure so your team knows when they help make decisions and which decisions are made by coaches.
Over Communicate, but Keep It Concise
Decide how you will communicate with your team and their parents/guardians. Parents appreciate knowing the schedule as soon as possible. At tryouts, try to give the cheerleaders and families as much information as possible. Then post the information.
If you are using a communication app, create a concise post with all of the important information for an event so that families and cheerleaders can refer back to that post.
If you are using email, I recommend as events come up send out reminders with important information at least three weeks in advance. Then I send a reminder email again two weeks in advance and the week of the event.
Parents are busy and unfortunately might miss an email. It is better to over-communicate rather than under-communicate. Poor communication leads to frustration and confusion, we don't want that!
Be Organized
Be organized to help you feel prepared. Be organized because it helps your team and coaching staff respect you and your decision making because you have thought through important decisions by being organized and prepared. I recommend keeping a binder with important information as well as a Google Drive with documents you need to access or keep track of.
Check out my post here on what to keep in your Cheer Coach Binder.
Have A Plan
Create a calendar of events for the year including practices, games, fundraisers, competitions, etc. Then, plan the routines for each game and rally if possible. Then, plan your practices to ensure you are prepared for your performances. Plan your lineups and stunt groups before practices.
Be Consistent
Be consistent in your expectations and any consequences. Be consistent at practice. You should do the same type of warm up and drills at every practice. This helps practice to run smooth.
Have a Cheerleading Contract
Think through your expectations for your team and create a cheerleading contract. This should include an attendance policy. Have your team and their parents/guardian sign this cheerleading contract as soon as possible.
Check out my post about Cheer Team Attendance Policy here.
Enforce Rules for Safety & Unity - Not Just Because
As you are writing each rule of your contract, think through your reasoning. This will ensure you can confidently explain WHY the team has this rule.
For example:
Rule: Cheerleaders must arrive on time and 'Game Day Ready'
Reason: The team needs enough time to warm up for performances to ensure safety and preparedness of the team. By being late or not being ready, we lose valuable time to warm up for performances.
Order Items Earlier Than You Think You Need To
Cheerleaders often order custom practice outfits, uniforms, bows, etc. We order from Varsity who recommends 8 weeks for processing. Order at least two weeks earlier than you think you need to so that the items come in by the time you need them.
Arrive Earlier Than You Think You Need To
It is just better to be early than it is to be late. Early arrivals are professional and in the unfortunate case you have to adjust stunt groups or somebody forgot their poms, an early arrival helps you to work out any mishaps.
Be Kind to Everyone
You never know how everyone is connected. Be kind to everyone.
Collaborate
Collaborate with your coaching staff. Collaborate with cheerleading coaches from other schools! Collaboration over competition.
Hire Coaches Aligned With Your Values
This is so important. Your fellow coaches make a huge impact on your season. Choose coaches who you trust and coaches who have the same values as you when it comes to coaching.
Focus On Why You Coach
Coaches do not make a lot of money, that is a discussion for another time. That is not the point I want to talk about when I say to focus on your WHY. Coaching is HARD and some days feel defeating. When you can focus on WHY you coach, it helps you to let the bad days and the bad moments go.
One year, my mantra was "My job is to love these kids." And as cheesy as it sounds, it helped me to focus on the fact that I was coaching to serve the athletes. My job is to help and encourage them. How can I do that best? By making decisions from a place of love for them.
Reflect
Be proud of yourself! You are making a difference in the lives of your athletes. Throughout the year reflect on what is working and where you can make adjustments. Sit down at the end of the season and update your cheerleading contract. Chat with your coaching staff about what went well this season and what changes you can make to improve the following season.
What advice do you wish you had heard during your first year of coaching? Let me know by commenting below!
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