How to Impress Cheerleading Judges

As a coach, it’s either very easy or very difficult to tell if your routine is ready for the competition floor. Satisfying judges is no easy task. Competition routines vary enormously as do competition venues since there are many different levels and places for both high school cheerleading competitions and all-star competitions.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. It seems simple, but create your routine around a judge’s score sheet. You will be able to see precisely what they are looking for. With this document in hand, you have basic guidelines for creating a successful routine.
2. Make the start of your routine memorable. A lot of squads begin with music for a natural cue to begin; however, many elite squads open with standing tumbling while cheering. Also, since it is the start, the girls aren’t yet exhausted or winded. Use this to your ability.
3. A skilled choreographer knows how to hide a squad’s flaws and showcase the strengths. In stunting, you want all transitions to be obvious, eye-catching and fluid. Add simple effects like switching stunting legs, double-take, cradle reload or retake to maximize the visual effect of the routine.
4. Be careful of awkward silences between cheer sections. Cradling out to word in the cheer can eliminate this uneasiness. Use transitional words to move into your stunt formations. Make sure the words to the cheer are crowd-oriented. Always take a "cheer with us" approach at competition. Cheers that tell a story, as often the novice squads do, take away from the crowd's impulse to yell with you.
5. Use motions or signs in your stunts to enhance the crowd's response. The level changes in the stunts can catch the attention of spectators and judges. A great transition in the cheer section is stunt groups with signs that transition to a pyramid.
6. Clean, synchronized dancing has taken a back seat to stunting and tumbling. It is an area that needs to be revived and showcased more often.
7. Almost every squad can perform the same set of stunts out on the competition mat. The winner will be the squad that can perform its routine, continue to smile and make the entire event look effortless.