First Year Cheer Coach Advice
This post covers first year Cheer Coach Advice. You coach cheer because you love it! I know that you want to have a successful cheerleading season, so here are some of my top tips for a first year cheer coach.
Start with a Plan & Be Organized
Create a season long calendar with all of the important events that your cheer team will be part of. Schedule your practices to prepare for these events.
These events can include:
- Football Games and Basketball Games
- Rallies and School Events
- Parades and Community Events
- Competitions and Performances
Now that you have your cheer calendar set, make sure you have all necessary paper work and forms. Keep them all in one place by creating a Cheer Coach Binder or store them digitally.
Check out my post here on what to keep in your Cheer Coach Binder.
Choose the Right Assistant Cheer Coaches
Reflect on your values as a cheer coach and what you envision for the program. Find assistant coaches who align with your values and beliefs as a cheer coach. Who you choose to coach with you is one of the most important decisions that you will make as a first year cheer coach.
Create a Cheerleading Handbook
Another vital tip for a first year cheer coach is to outline the rules and expectations of your cheer program. Include an attendance policy and consequences when expectations are not met. If you are looking for an example of an attendance policy, check out my post Cheer Team Attendance Policy
As you are writing each rule of your contract, think through your reasoning. This will ensure you can confidently explain WHY the team has this rule.
For example: Rule: Cheerleaders must arrive on time and ‘Game Day Ready’ Reason: The team needs enough time to warm up for performances to ensure safety and preparedness of the team. By being late or not being ready, we lose valuable time to warm up for performances.
Your cheer team will be more likely to respect the rules put into place when they understand how the rules actually benefit them.
Include an acknowledgement page for all cheerleaders and their parent/guardian to sign as soon as possible. You can check out my Editable Cheerleading Handbook on TPT.
Safety First!
Follow the correct skill progression in all cheerleading skills. Enroll in training to educate yourself on skills before teaching them. Make sure your team has ‘hit’ their routine many times during practice before performing the routine for a halftime or performance. ‘Hitting a routine’ means that every stunt, jump, dance, and tumbling sequence was executed safely and completely.
The crowd at football and basketball games don’t usually know the difference between a ‘hard’ skill and an ‘easy’ skill. It is better to perform a simple but CLEAN routine than it is to perform an advanced but sloppy routine.
Be Consistent
Be consistent in your expectations and any consequences. If you say there will be a consequence for a broken rule, you have to follow through every time for every one. The cheerleaders are watching how much you enforce each expectation and want to see that you stay true to your word.
Be consistent at practices, games, and events. You should do the same type of warm up and drills at every practice. This helps practice to run smooth.
Clear and Timely Communication
Decide how you will communicate with your cheer team and their parents/guardians. Some ideas include: Google Classroom, Band, GroupMe, ClassDojo, Remind, etc.
Clearly communicate all events far in advance to cheerleaders and their parents/guardians. Include dates, times, locations, expectations, what to wear, etc. Post information in a concise, easy to read format.
Oftentimes, frustration occurs because of lack of communication. Lack of communication is totally avoidable!
Looking for an editable calendar? Check out my Editable Calendar resource.
Be Kind & Collaborate
The cheer world is smaller than you think, you never know how everyone is connected so be kind to everyone and speak kindly about everyone. When you are at events with other cheer coaches, get to know them! I have found that cheer coaches love to support each other and we all benefit from collaborating with others!
Choose Your Battles
Choose your battles, but do not compromise on safety or integrity.
Here is an example of choosing your battle: Let’s say that your cheer team wants to perform a sideline dance to a new song that they showed you. If you don’t love the song, but it is appropriate and fun, just let them perform!
Include The Cheer Team in Making Certain Decisions
Create more buy in from your cheerleaders by including them in decisions such as: spirit days, ideas for future practice outfits, creating some cheers or dances.Communicate the responsibilities of the coaches so that cheerleaders understand which decisions are ultimately always up to the coaches. For example coaches should always decide: tryouts, captains, lineups, stunts, etc.
Order Items Earlier Than You Think You Need To
When placing orders for cheer uniforms and clothing, ask the representative how long you should expect to wait for your order to arrive. If your cheer team needs their cheer uniform for the first game, place the order to arrive a couple of weeks before the first game to prevent issues with delayed shipping.
Reflect
If I am being honest, coaching cheer is hard and some days truly feel defeating. In those moments or days, focus on WHY you love to coach. As a cheer coach, you cannot just be a coach because you love cheer. You have to be a cheer coach because you care about the cheerleaders that you coach! Be proud of yourself! You are making a difference in the lives of your athletes.
As a first year cheer coach, reflect throughout the cheer season on what went well and what you can adjust to improve upon for the following season! Update the cheerleading handbook to reflect updated rules and expectations that you want to tighten up for the following cheer season.
Enjoy your year of coaching! You will learn many lessons along the way, so give yourself grace. Your cheerleaders appreciate your leadership and guidance more than you know, Happy Coaching!
