Expert: Pamela Enders - 6/21/2009

Question
Hi, I have been a cheerleader for 6 years and have been a
flyer almost the whole time. I have no fear of doing
basically any stunts, and have done great. However, just
this past year I joined a coed squad, and since I am working
up to cheering in college, my coach decided it would be good
for me to start working on some coed partner stunting. In
the beginning of the year, my base and I did a pretty good
toss to hands, but only with someone else helping on the
side. The base is completely strong enough to do it, and has
done it by himself with other girls. However, now I am
experiencing some sort of mental block. I am afraid to do my
job. I know that I would be safer if I just did the correct
thing and allowed the base to do his job, but for some
reason my mind is not cooperating. We were getting fairly
good and now we are back to square one. I know the
technique, and I have heard numerous tips. But it is really
a complete mind game, and I'm not sure how to get over the
mental block. Help please! I really need it for college
cheer!!

Answer
Dear Meagan,

You are right – it is a complete mind game!  You have spooked yourself out and now you must find a way to retrain your brain and body to do what, on some level, you know you can do!

As a sport psychology coach I know that the body does what the mind thinks so it is essential that we get you thinking in the right way.  We need to boost your confidence in yourself and in your partner.

First, have you had a conversation with your partner?  Does he have any suggestions?  Is he emotionally supportive of you?  (That’s essential…you must feel he is “there” for you in every way.)  It may be a good idea to spend a bit of time outside of cheerleading together – maybe with a small group – just to have some fun and get to know each other better. If you can share some laughs it will lighten the situation for you both and reduce some of the tension.

Speaking of tension, it is likely you are tense and a tense body is not as free and flexible as a relaxed body.  To help you reduce the body tension try this simple technique:

So, right now, as you are reading this, slow down your breathing by exhaling slowly – as slowly as possible three times.  Ready?  Go ahead and do it…take your time. Now do it again!   With each out-breath, tell yourself that you are relaxing more and more.
Whenever you feel worried or anxious, slow down your breathing by doing this. When we are anxious we don’t think clearly and right now you need to think clearly, right?
You have acknowledged that this is a mental block meaning that you know you are capable of executing the stunt with your partner, you are just not doing it.  Your mind isn’t letting you.  This is probably because you are telling yourself something negative.  Can you identify what that negative conversation is?   Take a few moments and look inside to see if you can figure out what you are telling yourself.  For example, you might be telling yourself something like:

“I can’t do this.”  Or – “He’s going to drop me.”  Or – ????  Write down all of the things you are telling yourself (this is important).

Now ask yourself if these statements are good for you or harmful to you?  Harmful, right?

Now, ask yourself if your statements represent the truth or are they distortions of the truth. Likely, they are distortions in that they do not accurately reflect reality.  In looking at your list of negative statements, try to reframe them so they are neutral or positive.

For example, if you wrote, “I can’t do this.”  Next to this statement write, “I know I can do this; I just need to boost my confidence.”  Or -  instead of telling yourself  that you’ll never be able to do a stunt with your partner, tell yourself, “I am working on correcting my problem. Each day I will build my confidence more and more.”
WARNING!  Only write what is true.  Don’t write something positive if it isn’t true – your mind knows the difference.
The next technique is visualization which is really a way to retrain your brain.  Right now you are visualizing and you may not even know it.  Each time you think about how you can’t do a stunt with your partner you are, in effect, creating a picture in your brain of yourself failing!  So, we need to correct this, right?
Here’s how to go about it:
1.   Find a nice quiet place and while sitting up, close your eyes.
2.   Exhale as slowly as you can 3 – 4 times.
3.   Say to yourself, “With each out-breath, I am relaxing more and more.”
4.   Once relaxed, see yourself, with your mind’s eye, in a safe place, a place you feel ultra comfortable, secure and happy.
5.   Really enjoy being in your special safe place as you continue to focus on your out-breath.
6.   Now, shift your focus and see yourself in your cheerleading practice spot, beginning to do a tumbling move or jump or something you know you do well.
7.   See yourself executing the move with grace and ease and “feel” yourself enjoying it; enjoy your success.
8.   Now assign a power label or cue word for this successful execution. It can be anything.  For example, you could simply call it “success” or “good move.”
9.   Once you have your power label, visualize and feel the whole successful routine again only this time say your cue word to yourself.
10. Repeat over and over.  Each time you do this, you will be creating brain and muscle memory.  
11 Now, see yourself in your practice spot only this time, you are planning to do a stunt with your partner.
12.  See yourself getting ready to do this.
13 .If you feel any anxiety during this phase, stop visualizing the move and return to your favorite safe place or to the easier tumbling move.
14. Stay in your safe place or with your easier tumbling move until you feel relaxed.
15.   Once relaxed, return to visualizing the stunt with your partner  and repeat your cue word to yourself again.
16.   Keep repeating this process until the anxiety associated with visualizing the stunt is manageable.
17.   Do not expect the anxiety to disappear completely at first, the goal is MANAGEABLE ANXIETY.
18.   Once you can, in your mind’s eye, execute the stunt with your partner, repeat over and over using your power label.


This visualization accomplishes several things.  It helps you ease into the idea of a partner stunt while minimizing your anxiety and it also engraves the successful execution of the move in your brain.  You will be training your brain to feel and think in the way you want.  You will also be learning how to control your thoughts and feelings rather than have them control you!

Now, one last thing; when you next begin to do any stunt, take a moment to focus, exhale slowly, say your power label to yourself and see yourself executing the move successfully. Then go ahead!  So the routine is: pause, exhale, “see” and “feel” and then do.
Here is another idea.  This is called an Outside-In Visualization.  Find some videos of other cheerleaders doing partner stunts (they should be good of course!).  Watch them several times and as you do so, really focus in on how the girl looks and how she might feel.  Imagine how she might feel as she moves her body and holds her position and how she might feel as she completes the stunt.  After you do this, try this visualization:

Choose your power word or positive trigger - a word or phrase that is associated with being calm, confident, strong, and focused.

• Sit in a quiet place, eyes closed, and notice your breath.
• Exhale slowly several times.
• Use your out-breath to relax, to let go.
• Scan your body with your mind’s eye, noticing any tension and releasing it with your out- breath.
• Resume focus on your out-breath, letting go, relaxing.
•  With your mind’s eye, see the cheerleader you have watched on the video, performing a stunt with her partner.
• Notice with as much detail as possible how the person looks, and moves.
• Imagine what she is thinking and feeling...what it is like to be in that ideal state.
• Now imagine you are having similar feelings and how you would feel like that person.
And now imagine that you are becoming that person…you are now the person executing the stunt successfully.
• Once you are able to experience these feelings, (ideal state), use your cue word or phrase that you can associate with this ideal state.
• Practice this connection several times.

So there you have it – lots of ideas and techniques to try!  If you want more info on the mental game of cheerleading, check out my blog at www.confidentcheerleadingblog.com
Let me know how you do!  Good luck!

Pamela Enders