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COACHING RESOURCES
Tryouts
The way you conduct cheerleading tryouts is key to developing an effective program. There are many factors to cover when planning and executing tryouts, the most important being your organization and commitment to upholding the high standard you set.
Type of Team
Identify what type of team you are forming. Is its purpose to represent a school, compete or cheer for games? If you are forming a competition squad chances are your requirements will be more demanding and strict. You will probably need everyone to be able to tumble and have excellent jumps, as well as require more practice time. If your team is a school team cheering for games, tumbling is a plus, but probably not as important as character.
When & Where
Determine when you will conduct tryouts. Most teams hold tryouts in the spring so they are able to attend summer camp and prepare for the upcoming year. If you hold tryouts in the fall, do so as early as possible. It takes time to prepare a team for cheering at games and for performances.
Decide how and where tryouts will be held. Announce tryouts at least one week before the date. If you're a high school team, make sure you inform the junior high and middle schools so the incoming freshman will know about the tryouts. If you are a pop warner or all star team post flyers in gyms, youth centers, schools, etc. You may want to require those trying-out to add their names to a sign-up sheet. That way you will know how many to expect and will be able to check on their grades (for school).
Judges
Decide who you would like to judge tryouts and if you will be judging. Some coaches prefer not to be a judge. This is just a personal preference. Some coaches ask the school principal, teachers or football coach to judge. For best results, I do not recommend this unless the above people know something about cheerleading. Otherwise, they will score someone high because she has a nice smile (yes, I've seen this happen). A better panel of judges would be former cheerleaders (so former they don't know the people trying-out), parents of former cheerleaders and cheerleading coaches from other schools (click here to read some debate on this topic).
Rules
Create the rules for your team, decide when practices will start, when and where you will be going to camp, approximately how much uniforms will cost, how often practices will be held and anything else you expect from the team. You must do this early on. It will save you from conflicts down the road. Also decide how you will handle absences on the day of tryouts. Chances are, there will be at least one person who doesn't show up on the day of tryouts due to illness, family emergency, etc. Decide now how you will handle this so you are prepared when it happens.
Requirements
As stated early, requirements will vary depending on the type of team. Consider tumbling, dancing, cheering, jumping and stunting ability as well as overall spirit. Once you know what elements you need to make up your team, you can determine what requirements the tryouts will be composed of. Here is a suggested list of material a school team would need for trying-out: A show cheer (these are long), four to five 8-counts of a dance and two to three 8-counts choreographed by each participant on her own. Be sure to include a jump in the show cheer. You may also want to require certain jumps. For competitive teams include a tumbling sequence, standing back handspring or back tuck (depending on the level of the team you are forming), etc.
Choreography
If you have been a cheerleader and feel comfortable choreographing the dance and cheer, then go for it. However, many coaches are parents, teachers, etc. who are new to cheerleading. If this is the case, you have a couple options. You could ask an outgoing senior cheerleader to choreograph. This works well because she will know what level to make the dance and cheer. If you see potential problems with this, ask the school's dance teacher, a dance teacher of a local dance studio or former cheerleaders.
The Week of Tryouts
Most teams conduct tryouts in one week. It is important for everyone to show up to every practice. Take roll each day and calculate this into the tryout score. This will show you how committed each person is to cheerleading. Reward the hard working participants who are dedicated. A suggested schedule follows:
Monday: First tell all the participants what you expect from them. This goes back to all the rules, camp dates, practice commitments, money obligations etc. you came up with earlier. Make this very clear. Print all of this out and make them take it home for them and their parents to sign. Some participants will tryout despite their parents not allowing them to. This step will help prevent big problems in the future. Require this paper to be signed and returned in order for each participant to tryout. Hold firm to this.
Explain to everyone how tryouts will work. Most of the participants will be completely scared. Clarify for them that they are not being judged at the practices. They are only being judged on the final day.
Have everyone warm up together and then go over the basic motions and jumps. This is very important as for many this will be their first experience with cheerleading. Next, teach them the dance. If you have a couple choreographers helping, you may want to break up into groups. Let the participants know they can bring a blank tape to record the music on.
Tuesday: Have everyone warm up together and then review jumps and the dance several times. Next, teach them the cheer. Once again it may be helpful to break up into groups. Be sure to make copies of the words to the cheer to handout to everyone.
Wednesday: Have everyone warm up together, review jumps, the dance and the cheer. Let everyone divide up into groups as they choose and allow them to work on whatever they need help on. This will also give them a chance to choreograph the end to their dance. At the end of the practice have everyone come together to do the dance and cheer together a couple times.
Thursday: Have everyone warm up and review all material. Then sit everyone down and remind them how tryouts will work: Each participant will be given a number. Shorts and a t-shirt (school colors), hair pulled back, tennis shoes and not a lot of makeup are the expected garb. No cheerleading uniforms. Each participant tries-out alone or with one other person. When it is someone's turn, she enters the room by rallying (yelling, tumbling, jumping) and goes to the center of the room facing the panel of judges. When her breath is caught she performs the cheer. Once she and the judges are ready she performs the dance (both the required counts and those choreographed by her). If two participants are trying out together, a judge may ask for something to be repeated. The participant then exits.
Mock tryout: For those who want to, allow them to practice the above. This will help them remove any jitters. Of course, they won't be judged on this.
Friday: This is the day of tryouts. Hand out everyone's numbers (ex. megaphones cut out of paper which they can pin to their shirts). Go over once again how everything will work. Let everyone stretch as they need. As a group, have everyone perform the cheer in front of the judges. This won't be judged, but it helps calm nerves.
Everyone leaves the room and the tryouts begin as listed above. Once everyone has tried out, the scores are totaled and the team determined. Bring everyone back inside and announce by number who made the team. This is the most difficult part of tryouts. If the team is young (pop warner/youth) it may be better to call each participant at home rather than announcing the team. That way, those who don't make it will be at home with their parents and don't have to see the excitement of those who did make it.
Judging Form
Here is a suggested list of how to score.
Physical Appearance (10 points)
- Clean, hair pulled back, confidence, poise and moderate make-up.
Cheer (5 points each)
- Execution
- Sharpness
- Voice (loud and clear)
- Jumps
- Spirit
- Facials
Dance (5 points each)
- Execution
- Timing (on the beat)
- Confidence
- Facials
- Enthusiasm
- Creativity/Difficulty (for additional 8-counts)
Additional (5 points each)
- Entrance
- Gymnastics
- Attended all Practices
This list will of course vary depending on your requirements and what is most important. Average all the judges' scores together. List everyone's scores from greatest to least. Believe it or not, but there will be a natural break in the numbers. Those above the break make the team, those below don't.
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