Expert: James - 11/25/2008

Question
hey jim, i've always been athletic, and throughout high school i played football, basketball, and ran track. for my junior and senior year, i was cheered on by the illinois state champion cheer (all girls medium tinley park) and i always wanted to tryout ever since freshman year, but they were good, and were not willing to go coed because i was the only male interested.
at any rate...
now i am at u of i, and after walking on the football team for a month, i was not bulky enough. i am 6'4" 180 lbs (slot reciever) anyways.. i know two of the cheerleaders on the coed team, and we were talking one day and they said jokingly i should join the team.. without knowing my past desire to cheer... and they talked to their coach, and told her i was intereseted.  the next day, i went to one of their practices, and it is something i would like to do, also, the coach was interested in me, and quickly told me of the upcoming clinics etc, and of course tryouts in april..
bottom line. i need to learn how to be a cheerleader.
i know to make the blue(less talented) squad, i need to be able to toss shoulders and hands extention while the orange (more talented squad) requires stretch with a full cradle and a standing back tuck.  i've been reading your answers to some other questions like this one, but it did not seem there was anyone as inexperienced as me. i do not know what workouts i should be doing in the weight room, nor do i know how many sets or reps. furthermore, i do not know any cheer/ stunting vocabulary, and i realize you'll tell me to practice flicks or something, and i have no idea what that means. if you can explain this, or if there is some sort of database to find this terminology, i would appreciate it along with any tips pointers etc on making the squad.  this is something i want to do for me. i am willing to work hard to make this all happen.  does this all make sense?

Answer
Take out the walking on the football team and this sounds like me a few years ago when I became interested. First off the term "flick" and "toss" is interchangeable. That is simply the act of tossing your girl. When someone tells you to practice your flick you simply grab the girls waist, do the "1-2" count, her dip and flick her up (as though you were tossing her to a stunt) but simply see how far you can toss her up and then catch her waist again and gently let her back down. You do that until you get the power and speed into your toss high enough to get the girl up to stunts. You mentioned toss shoulders and extensions. I'm assuming you'll also have to be able to do a chair (which is the easiest of stunts, thats where you toss the girl up and she sits on your hand) and a toss to hands (thats where you toss the girl up and catch her feet at your shoulders). Basically in the weight room you want to do military presses (this will help you go from hands to extensions, libs, stretches etc..), power clings (will help the speed and power of your toss) and lots of leg workouts because the more power you have in your legs the easier it'll be on your arms. If you've read some of my past answers then i'm sure you've heard me say this and i'll say it again. Nothing substitutes for actually stunting. Grab one of your buddies from the squad and have him bring a girl by the gym so you can start working on your stunts. I was fortunate enough to be friends with girls who cheered at 3 or 4 different universities and I was constantly stunting before I tried out the first time.