Expert: Chris - 8/2/2011

Question
Okay so. I am really wanting to try out for my eighth grade cheer squad. My coach has been encouraging me, likewise my family and friends. I am just very nervous. There are alot of girls trying out this year and she only keeps 15. How do I get past worrying about messing up? And this is my first year. What are the things I will need to know such as positions? What do I need to wear to tryouts?
Also. I take dance so I can't take tumbling classes. However, I can do a cartwheel, roundoff, front limber, front handspring, etc. But when it comes to back walkover/kickover, and back handspring I am kinda scared to fall or something. My aunt helps me and we have spring floor and mats in the basement so I won't get injured. What are some was I can get use to going backwards? Or something that will help me getting kicked over?
Thankyou for your time.

Answer
Okay so let's tackle one concern at a time. Worrying about messing up is not important. Just convince yourself that you can do it. If you practice it (they'll teach you something to do at tryouts) you'll be fine. And coaches/tryout judges understand how nerve-wracking trying out is and a LOT of people make mistakes. If you do make a mistake just keep going. It can be impressive to coaches to see someone make a mistake and be able to recover without that one mistake ruining their whole tryout. Remember to smile and look like you're having fun. That's the MOST important part. If you look like you're having fun the coaches/judges will be drawn to look at you. The more you get noticed, the better off you'll be.

The positions are base, flier, and backspot. You'll need a coach to teach you these things. If there's a clinic or practice before tryouts then that's where you would learn. Otherwise, if they know you've never cheered before I'm sure they don't expect you to know how to do it. If you're small they'll probably have you fly and backspots are usually the tallest girls. Everyone in the middle is a base.

At tryouts you should wear your hair in a high pony tail with ALL hair out of your face. If you have side bangs, clip/bobby pin them to the side and off your face. If they're bangs that come down straight in front you can just leave them normal and put the rest of your hair up. Use hair spray to manage any frizz or flyaway and clips and bobby pins can also help. Also, wear a bow in your hair to complete the look. You can always go to a craft store and just buy about a yard of ribbon to tie in your hair. You should try to tie it in a bow around a hair tie or when you tie it in your hair loop it through your hair tie so it doesn't slide out. Also, if you have any cheerleader friends that have a bow you can borrow it, but ribbon works just as well. That's what most people (including me) that I know do when they try out. As far as clothes go, just wear cotton shorts and a matching T-shirt. Also, if you try out in a group you should try and match your clothes to each other. They don't have to match exactly, but if you all wore for example, black shorts and a white T-shirt (or maybe team colors if that works out), it can add to the image and get some easy points!

Now it sounds like you have a "mental block" about going backwards, and I have to say I don't blame you. It can definitely be scary. But you need to sort of trick your brain into being able to do it. Here's how that works. If you say to yourself "I'm going to be scared," "I'm going to get hurt," "I might fall," or "It's going to be scary," your brain actually takes these thoughts as instructions as to what to do. So your own thoughts can trick your brain into thinking these negative/scared thoughts are the truth. Then you get scared. Of course LOGICALLY you know these are just thoughts and not necessarily true, but your brain chemicals think these thoughts are truths and use it's instincts to prevent you from going backwards if it thinks you will get hurt. So instead you need to think "I can do this. I can do a back bend, back walkover, etc. and it will be fine. I can do this." If you think those things (or whatever applies in any situation) your brain will take THOSE thoughts as positive instructions and it will be much easier. It may take a little time to unlearn those negative thoughts, but if you put your mind to it, you'll be fine.

Also, visualization actually helps. Your brain cannot understand the difference between visualizing yourself doing it and actually doing it. If you visualize yourself doing it perfectly then your brain is tricked into actually thinking your body did the skill. (The brain kind of sounds dumb, doesn't it?) Anyways, I didn't believe this stuff about positivity and visualization for a LONG time. But I used to be afraid to twist down and it was a lot of years of frustration. Finally I was so desperate I spent a few weeks thinking positively and visualizing and it worked! Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't a miracle and it wasn't perfect, but it helped a LOT. Don't knock it until you try it because I did and I wish I'd taken that advice a lot sooner than I actually did.

Good luck! Let me know if you need anything else.