In today’s society I feel like educating our children on the dangers of bullying from early on is necessary. Playing a team sport is a great way to get kids to bond.
With my cheerleading squad we start from the beginning of the season in encouraging them to get to know one another and how to work together.
One way we do this is through games. It’s fun for then and entertaining for the coaches. For example we will give them and object or machine and they will have to find a creative way to make the machine with their bodies. For example we had girls pretend to be a toaster. Several stood in front while one on the side pretended to be the button that gets pushed down. The girls behind them all bent down (as if they were bread going into the toaster) and then popped up at the end. We’ve seen lots of creative “machines” like a blender and even a selfie stick.
Another way we encourage the team to bond is by giving them assignments to work on as a group. Our girls create their own hello cheers to perform for the opposing school. I let them sit in a group, come up with their own formations, words and motions. I may provide my input from time to time, but it is really great to see their creative minds working together to accomplish something. I think that they really feel better about it in the end as well knowing that this was “their” cheer, not something that was given to them to learn.
One more suggestion I may have is to create a big sis little sis program. At the school where I coach we do this 2 different ways. On the middle school level it worked out that we had the same number of 8thgrade girls as we did 7th grade girls. So I just paired them up one on one. That pairing is their fundraiser buddy, the one that they contact for extra help, support and encouragement. It was important for my 8thgraders to start gaining that leadership skill, but also for my 7th graders to feel like they had another outlet to go to besides the coaches. At the high school level each Varsity cheerleader has multiple Junior varsity and freshman girls as her “littles”. We don’t do captains so this is a great way for the girls to share their skills and get to know the younger girls that look up to them.
So what are some ways that you bonded together with your squad?
Your cheerFIT Ambassador,
Julie
Julie
Julie is passionate about all things cheer and fitness and loves being able to share fitness tips and motivate others. While she enjoyed her time as a cheerleader from middle school up through college, she is finding a new love for the sport through coaching. Over the past few years Julie’s love for fitness has grown from being a hobby to being more of a passion. As a do it all rock-star, not only is Julie a coach, but also a mom of 3 very active kids. Family is very important to her and she is excited to grow closer to the cheerFIT family of ambassadors.