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Prep Your Team for Competition

By Laura Ngo, Eden Prairie Competition Coach

Before you go onto the mat, does the team have a positive attitude? Are they excited? Are they confident? These questions you should ask your team before every competition. When prepping your team for a competition, those questions need to be answered in yes.

First ingredient in prepping your team before a competition is ensuring a positive attitude. When you team realizes that they will do their best to be successful and that the routine will be awesome, the stunts will hit, and being pumped up before they get out onto the mat, this will ensure a positive outcome. Keeping the air serious but also to maintain the positive attitude will help in a victory.

Second ingredient is being excited! Sometimes competing every week can be difficult to keep the team motivated. What I do with my team is let them suggest some input to the routine to make it better. This way they get to participate in the choreography which will help the routine be more exciting for the team. In addition, to keep the kids excited is to bring in new people (other coaches, staff from cheerleading gyms or cheerleading companies) to come watch the routine, give suggestions, and to bond with the kids. Sometimes a new face helps to further along the routine and keeps the excitement up for the team.

The last ingredient is to be confident. No matter what be confident. The coach has to be confident, the team has to be confident, and even their fans need to be confident. Maintaining confidence across the board will help the routine stay fresh and exciting for the team, judges, and the audience. Teams normally feed off of each other and having that confident air will make the team have a successful season. Make sure that there is confidence in everything the team does and also in the coaching style. With confidence victory will be at your reach.

Too much of any of these ingredients will give the coach and team into overload. This will back fire. Just be careful and strategic in your coaching. Make sure to keep the team also in reality so that they stay humble. Having too much of anything will have an adverse effect rather then positive.

In conclusion, when prepping your team be confident, excited, and have a positive attitude! With these elements you will be victorious! Good luck!