Expert: Chris - 6/16/2010

Question
I'm a cheerleader for my middle school and i have very low jumps how can i get my jumps higher before school is back in from summer

Answer
The best advice I can give is to do hip flexers and work on your ab muscles. One quick and easy thing to try is when you stretch and sit in a straddle sit with your knees/shoe laces facing the back (rolling your hips). This will teach your hips to roll and make your toe touches higher. I used to have terrible jumps in 3rd and 4th grade and then that summer I started tumbling. The tumbling was a disaster, but my instructor made me do half an hour of conditioning after each lesson and it was almost all ab work. The next season my jumps improved 200%. It's nearly impossible to lift your legs higher without strong stomach muscles. Hip flexers can be annoying and sometimes painful, but they do help. I'm sure there's instructions for them on the internet so if you don't understand the following explanation try looking around online. They're very common.

1. Sit on the floor in a straddle position with your knees/shoe laces rolled to face behind you (point your toes too just for extra practice with that).
2. Place your hands flat on the floor in front of you (between your legs).
3. Lift your right leg up and hold it. Some teams do an 8 count, others 10 seconds. Take your pick.
4. Repeat steps 3 and 4 5-10 times as you get stronger.
5. Repeat steps 3-5 on your left leg.
6. Repeat steps 3-5, but lift both your legs in the air.

So hip flexers and abs are the two main things you should focus on. Aside from these few things your best bet is to work on your technique. If you're dropping your chest or something it will make your jumps very difficult (trust me I do it all the time). So concentrate on your technique while working on strengthening your core. The good news is that even if your jumps don't dramatically improve, having stronger abs helps in all aspects of cheerleading.