Coaching Youth Cheerleading - ASEP

Coaching Youth Cheerleading

by ASEP

NEW, 152 pages

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About Coaching Youth Cheerleading

We’ve got spirit—how ’bout you? As a newly anointed youth cheerleading coach, you’ve demonstrated that you have the spirit to coach, but what about the know-how? Even if you were a cheerleader in a previous life, being a cheerleader and coaching a cheer squad are two different things. Not to worry: Coaching Youth Cheerleading will help you sort out the herkies from the handsprings and provide you with the tools and knowledge to run your cheerleading squad with confidence.

Written especially for coaches of cheerleaders ages 14 and under by cheerleading heavyweights Varsity Brands and the American Sport Education Program (ASEP), Coaching Youth Cheerleading is the definitive guide for youth cheerleading coaches. Dozens of drills, games, and cheers are all supplemented by photos depicting correct form and position. Also included are introductions to techniques for performing cheers and dances, partner stunts and pyramids, and jumps and tumbling routines. Highlighted throughout the book are coaching tips you can reference quickly.

In addition to the basic skills and responsibilities for cheerleading, you will gain valuable insight on general coaching concepts such as coaching philosophy, communicating with squad members and parents, and preparing for the season. You’ll also learn basic sport first aid protocols for injuries and illnesses you might encounter during practices or games. A glossary of cheerleading terms, assorted forms and checklists that you can copy for use with your own squad, and 30 cheers and sidelines will help you begin building a foundation of material.

About ASEP

Coaching Youth Cheerleading was co-written by Varsity Brands and the American Sport Education Program (ASEP).

Varsity Brands was founded in 1974 and today trains more than 350,000 young people at various summer camps annually. As the largest cheerleading educational company in the world, Varsity Brands has helped to expand cheerleading's popularity through several educational entities including the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) and the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA), and its ESPN televised national cheerleading championships. Varsity Spirit is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.

ASEP has been developing and delivering coaching education courses since 1981. As the nation's leading coaching education program, ASEP works with national, state, and local youth sport organizations to develop educational programs for coaches, officials, administrators, and parents. These programs incorporate ASEP's philosophy of “Athletes first, winning second.”

About Cheerleading

Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles introduced the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota. However, it was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!”, making Campbell the very first cheerleader and November 2, 1898 the official birth date of organized cheerleading. Soon after, the University of Minnesota organized a "yell leader" squad of 6 male students, who still use Campbell's original cheer. In 1903 the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma was founded. Cheerleading started out as an all-male activity, but females began participating in 1923, due to limited availability of female collegiate sports and men being drafted for war. At this time, gymnastics, tumbling, and megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used. It is estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants overall are female, but males still make up 50% of cheering squads at the collegiate level.
Cornell University cheerleader on a 1906 postcard

In 1948, Lawrence "Herkie" Herkimer, of Dallas, TX and a former cheerleader at Southern Methodist University formed the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) as a way to hold cheerleading clinics. In 1949, The NCA held its first clinic in Huntsville, TX with 52 girls in attendance. Herkimer contributed many firsts to the sport: the founding of the Cheerleader & Danz Team cheerleading uniform supply company, inventing the herkie, (where one leg is bent towards the ground and the other is out to the side as high as it will stretch in the toe-touch position) and creating the "Spirit Stick". By the 1960s, college cheerleaders began hosting workshops across the nation, teaching fundamental cheer skills to eager high-school-age girls. In 1965, Fred Gastoff invented the vinyl pom-pon and it was introduced into competitions by the International Cheerleading Foundation (now the World Cheerleading Association or WCA). Organized cheerleading competitions began to pop up with the first ranking of the "Top Ten College Cheerleading Squads" and "Cheerleader All America" awards given out by the International Cheerleading Foundation in 1967. In 1978, America was introduced to competitive cheerleading by the first broadcast of Collegiate Cheerleading Championships on CBS.

In the 1960s National Football League (NFL) teams began to organize professional cheerleading teams. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders soon gained the spotlight with their revealing outfits and sophisticated dance moves, which debuted in the 1972–1973 season, but were first seen widely in Super Bowl X (1976). This caused the image of cheerleaders to permanently change, with many other NFL teams emulating them. Most of the professional teams' cheerleading squads would more accurately be described as dance teams by contemporary standards; as they rarely, if ever, actively encourage crowd noise or perform modern cheerleading moves.

The 1980s saw the onset of modern cheerleading with more difficult stunt sequences and gymnastics being incorporated into routines. All-star teams started to pop up, and with them the creation of the United States All-Star Federation (USASF) ESPN first broadcasted the National High School Cheerleading Competition nationwide in 1983. Cheerleading organizations such as the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA), founded in 1987, started applying universal safety standards to decrease the number of injuries and prevent dangerous stunts, pyramids and tumbling passes from being included in routines. In 2003, the National Council for Spirit Safety and Education (NCSSE) was formed to offer safety training for youth, school, all star and college coaches. The NCAA requires college cheer coaches to successfully complete a nationally recognized safety-training program. The NCSSE or AACCA certification programs are both recognized by the NCAA.

Even with its athletic and competitive development, cheerleading at the school level has retained its ties to the spirit leading traditions started back in the 1890s. Cheerleaders are seen as ambassadors for their schools, and leaders among the student body. At the college level, cheerleaders are often invited to help at university fundraisers.

Cheerleading is currently most closely associated with American football and basketball. Sports such as association football (soccer), ice hockey, volleyball, baseball, and wrestling sometimes sponsor cheerleading squads. The ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2007 was the first international cricket event to have cheerleaders. The Florida Marlins were the first Major League Baseball team to have cheerleaders. Debuting in 2003, the "Marlin Mermaids" gained national exposure and have influenced other MLB teams to develop their own cheer/dance squads.

Coaching Youth Cheerleading