Expert: Chris - 10/22/2010

Question
QUESTION: My daughter is a flyer for an all star cheer team, level 2. She is a strong tumbler, flexible, and small for her age, but her stunts are not sticking. She is a flyer for 3 stunts in the routine and she is having difficulty with all 3 of them. Would putting her in a gymnastics or ballet class improve her ability to stay tight, her balance, etc.? If not, do you have any other suggestions? Thanks, Storm


ANSWER: Storm,

I hate to prolong you getting the answer to this question, but I think I could help more if I had some more detail. First of all, how old is your daughter? Young girls tend to make different mistakes than older girls. Also, does she have the same bases in all 3 stunts or are they different girls?

What stunts does your daughter do? I'm very familiar with level 2, but are we talking about one leg, two legs, extended, tosses, etc.? I have different tips for tosses and two feet than one foot...I've been doing this a long time and have made every possible mistake as a flier and I know how to fix a lot of them.

Also, this may be difficult for you, but could you describe what the problem is? Is she falling, bobbling, or unable to pull body positions (heel stretch, scorpion, etc.)? If she's falling could you tell me where she falls? If she's consistently falling to one or two places I can probably figure out what the problem is. I know it's hard to explain via the Internet, but if you could do your best I think I could help out a little bit.

If you don't mind, could you tell me if your daughter is scared? If she is she's probably mentioned it. Some girls are scared-I always was-but other girls seem to be fearless. If she's scared/apprehensive I have tips, but if she's not scared then hearing that advice would just bog everybody down with too much unnecessary information.

As far as ballet goes I don't know anything about it. Gymnastics would help I'm sure. It teaches body control and strengthens your core which is good for flying. But instead of gymnastics (unless she wants to do gymnastics of course) maybe she should just take a tumbling class. That's all she'd really need for cheerleading purposes, and even if it didn't help her stunting having tumbling is always, always good.

So I'm sorry I can't be of more immediate help. I know when people ask questions they're looking for quick answers, but I think if I knew more I could give more quality advice.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks, she is already in tumbling classes. She can do round off multiple backhandsprings and almost has her round off backhandspring back tuck by herself. One of her side bases is with her in all 3 stunts, but her back spot and other side baser switches. In the first stunt she pulls a heel stretch to a scale to an arabesque (sorry if I mis spelled it). She can pull it fine on the ground, but it does not stick in the stunt. Her other stunt she pops up , down, and up again. I don't know the name of it, but it rarely hits. The last stunt is a group stunt they , stand her up , walk her out to the split (it is like she is doing the splits in the air), then bring her back up, to connect with the pyramid. When they connect she is suppose to kick her leg to the side , which they then hold. She wobbles so much, it falls, then they try again, etc., etc. She is 8 years old. In the last 3 weeks she has fallen forward and hit her face, top of her forehead more than once. At first she wasn't afraid. She flew last year on a level one team, with level one stunts, and loved it. Unfortunately, at this point I do believe she has become afraid. They do not use front spotters. When I asked the Coach she said she is not staying tight enough and that her side basers are not holding her up at the same height. So, according to the Coach she needs to be more tight and her side basers need to hold her more even. I just know I don't want her to get a serious injury or lose her love for flying.

ANSWER: First of all, if she's only 8 even if we can't fix this for this season, don't be discouraged and don't let her get discouraged either. Kids' bodies change a lot and from one year to the next you'd be surprised what a difference there is. For example, when I was 8 I couldn't do anything besides a low pop, and by the time I was 10 I could do extended one legged stunts. I didn't do anything besides cheerleading either so it was just my body growing and maturing.

Anyways, for right now here's my biggest piece of advice. Whenever your daughter flies tell her to make sure that her head, shoulders, HIPS, and feet are all in line with each other. Even when she's pulling the heel stretch, scale, and arabesque, her hips should be directly under her shoulders. If she moves her hips she's going to fall and it makes it hard for bases, especially if they're inexperienced, to catch her. In the scale and arabesque make sure her chest is still perpendicular to the ground. If she's dropping her chest, even if she's up, it doesn't take much for the stunt to collapse and the flier will inevitably fall on her face. If her hips aren't in line with the rest of her body, she's going to fall. There's no way around that.

To teach her to stay tight have your daughter lay on the ground with her hands at her sides and her feet together. Tell her to tighten up like she's flying and then grab her feet and lift them off the ground. As you lift them her whole body should come off the ground in a straight line (like she's diagonal with the floor). If she's not tight, when her hips start coming off the ground her back will stay on the floor and she'll be bent at the waist. Once she can do that hopefully she'll have a better understanding of staying tight.

One of the biggest mistakes fliers make is not tightening their upper bodies. Her back, stomach, and shoulders should be tight, not just her legs and knees. She should imagine a string attached to her belly button and shoulders that's pulling her up towards the ceiling. The reason she's falling forward is probably a combination of her upper body not being tight and her hips and chest not all in line. However, it is possible that she's doing something called "toeing." This means that when she's up in the stunt she's putting all/most of her weight in her toes instead of keeping her weight evenly placed over her whole foot.

Things you should look out for:
-Her hips not in line with the rest of her body. She can be sticking her butt out it's pretty obvious, but her hips can also go left or right.
-Toeing
-Upper body being tight
-Chest up/perpendicular to ground in all stunts

Let me know if this helps and what, if anything, changes. If one of the stunts is a pyramid (where her arms are connected to another flier's arms), make sure that when/if she falls she lets go of the other fliers because then she can try and catch herself and help her bases out a little bit.

Good luck with all of this and don't hesitate to ask another question because I enjoy helping especially with flying. Overall make sure your daughter doesn't get discourage. Don't always tell her what she's doing wrong and what needs to be fixed. Give her advice, but don't criticize because chances are her coaches and teammates will do enough of that. If your daughter gets frustrated tell her that as she grows things in her body will change (and her bases' bodies). She probably won't understand because I didn't when I was that age, but at least you can have a little piece of mind with that fact. Always be encouraging because it's easy for a flier to get really down on herself. You seem pretty helpful and encouraging so I don't think this will be a problem for you but I felt like I had to mention it anyways.

Let me know how things go.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks, last question. When she falls forward , what is the safest way to fall.  
Should she put her arms out in front to try and catch herself or would that lead
to breaking her arm? Should she tuck her head and cover her head with her
arms? Basically, if she has to fall what is the safest way to fall?

Answer
Whenever she falls in any direction it's best to try and maneuver her body back to the center of her group as much as possible. If she's falling forward there's really no one to catch her, but once she realizes she's falling if she can lean back a little bit so she'd land where her bases can easily catch her she would fall to the floor less. Also, when she is falling and it looks like her face is going to hit the floor, there's two options. It all happens so fast that I don't think she'd have time to cover her head with her arms.

I personally would stick my arms out, but it can lead to broken/sprained wrists. At the same time, falling on your face can lead to a broken nose and concussion. The option a lot of people "choose" (it's sort of more instinctive after a while) is to try and turn and land on their side or back to protect their face. Obviously if her head hits the mat, she'll have a concussion and a headache. It won't be serious and I honestly wouldn't worry about it too much as it will be a short term problem.

Of course we don't want that to happen, but there's going to be bumps and bruises in cheerleading. I know there's a lot of information going around about how dangerous cheerleading is, but usually it's safe. You can get hurt doing anything, you know? One of the worst injuries I've ever witnessed cheerleading was when I was coaching. A girl did a basket toss, was put down, and went to move to the next formation. As she walked she tripped on her ankle or something and broke her foot. That kind of thing is reported as a cheerleading injury, but it could have happened walking down the street too. What I'm trying to say is she should always protect her head and face and the easiest way to do so is to try and land on your side and shoulders rather than allowing her head to hit the mat. But if you worry about how she can prevent getting hurt you're going to go crazy. Kids are going to get hurt, but always think about whether they're hurt or injured. Kids can't differentiate between the two. Kids I coach (10 year olds) will fall and their head hits the floor and they claim to their parents that they blacked out. Obviously as a coach I saw it happen and the girl rolled around crying as soon as she fell so it was clear she didn't black out. So kids are going to exaggerate because in their minds it seems worse.