Competitions

I love competitions especially the ones the team have to travel for. I’ve gone to Georgia, Dallas, and Indiana a few times each and there just blasts each time, even the Orlando competitions are fun. If you’re lucky, you get to travel with a plane filled with cheerleaders sometimes from your own team or it can be mixed with other teams so you meet other cheerleaders. Ever since I started to travel, my team has liked to stay in the same hotel or they pick three hotels we can pick from to stay at. The experience of staying together makes the trip more enjoyable. The past few years when I traveled out of state my team usually meets up in fun places around the competition area or even just a few of the girls and guys from the team will meet up for lunch or shopping.
The Orlando competition has to be one of my favorites. In the hotel we stay at, the competition is in the convention center in the hotel so there is no need to drive or worry about leaving things behind. The competition is held at the same place every year, the Gaylord Palms. Its HUGE hotel and I would say at least 97% of the guests are cheerleaders and there families. The hotel warns other costumers not to stay there during the competition because everything is being used by the cheerleaders like the pool, the shops, and the restaurants in the hotel. The Orlando competition has a great way to balance hard work and play.

Trust!

Trust is very important in life in general. In high school, because some of us are so juvenile, we can gain, lose, and spread trust all the time and unfortunately in cheerleading it cannot work this way. Some of you watched the video in my last post about flying and were impressed with the strength and skill that pair of cheerleaders had. Well they not only have the strength and skill they have trust with one another. Without trust, how can you allow someone to catch you while spinning and flipping down? It just isn't possible! Many teams bond before they start to practice and it’s a great way to learn trust games and just hanging out. I'm sure many of you have heard of the trust fall and that is a great trust game! The trust fall is when one person closes their eyes and trustingly leans back and falls while there partner stands behind them and catches them at any point of time before they reach the floor. The goal is for the person with their eyes closed to not move their legs, stay tight, and continue their fall without stopping. There are plenty of other games but that is a simple one to gain trust. Trust is essential with your teammates as well as coaches not only in stunting but it’s definitely a big factor in stunting.

Flying

A flyer, also known as the top girl, is the girl that is known for being thrown in the air. The flyer has many responsibilities while she’s in the air. The top girl needs to have flexibility, balance, and strength. The bases do a lot of the work getting the flyer up but once the flyer has hit the maximum height the bases can go the job is all hers. Flyers never stand in the air and do nothing; they always pull some sort of flexibility stretch. Common ones are a heel stretch, scorpion and an arabesque. While holding these positions the weight of the flyer shifts and that's where balance and strength comes in. The fly needs to stay tight so the bases can hold her. The number of spotters under the flyer can change; there could be four cheerleaders, three cheerleaders, two cheerleaders, or one.
My favorite stunt is with is one cheerleader underneath me and it’s usually a strong guy. With my experience I don’t like having to have so many arms catch me when I come down, I'd rather focus on one to grab and that one base will only be focused on me. In my other post I mentioned that I want to fly in college and when I fly in college I will be trying out for a one man group which is obviously one guy underneath the fly. One mans are very cute and they just look so cool in my opinion.
Check out this VIDEO!

A Cool Fact

I found out a really interesting fact about cheerleading in college over winter break! I told you guys how I want to cheer in college, I think it will help me meet other guys and girls who know the school, I would make friends, and bond with people with a common interest and the excitement cheering at a college game is something I would be so down to experience! Therefore, at my job, I work at a gymnastics gym where there are some older cheerleaders, I found out that if you make the cheer team of the school you could make it into the school. I'm not sure if this is with every sport but I don’t see why not. I thought this was so exciting because I am a well-rounded student and I do have a great talent. Since I am not the absolute best student, I think that if I tryout it would be a great advantage for someone like me to go to University of Florida without having met all the requirements of what they ask in academics. I hope what I was told about making the team and being in the school is true I will need to do more research but with this thought in my mind I am already preparing for the tryouts.
I was happy to share with my parents this news so I told them I want to learn how to fly again. I am a base (I know I'm small but I am very strong) and in college I don’t think someone my size will be able to pick up a college sized girl. College flyers are all very tiny so I have asked to be put on a diet so I can become smaller and then once I’m at the weight I need to be my parents are putting me in private lessons. I have flown before when I was younger but then my coaches moved so I do know a little bit about flying. I feel that being a strong tumbler is an advantage for me to make the team so being a fly would just be another advantage for me so I really hope my effort that I am starting to put in now will pay off when I try out for schools!