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 Taking
It To The Extreme, Creating Winning All-Star Cheer Routines
By Steve Sucata
Over the past few years the skill level and difficulty of All-Star
cheer routines has skyrocketed. In order to keep up with that trend,
cheer teams and their choreographers are finding that it is not
enough to just have a good All-Star cheer routine, to win at competitions
they need to find ways of making their routines more extreme.
In doing so, cautions Angela Rogers, Co-founder of Cheer Athletics
in Dallas, Texas, “You need to ensure that all of the skills
performed in your cheer routine are executed very  well.”
A former collegiate All-American, Rogers has been coaching, choreographing,
and judging All-Star cheer routines for the past twelve years and
has choreographed numerous National Championship winning All-Star
cheer routines.
“Often teams will have as a goal creating the hardest routine
out there, but just because a routine has difficulty, if it is not
performed well, it will not score well,” said Rogers. A sentiment
echoed by Diana Miller, Co-Owner/Choreographer of Pro-Spirit all-Stars
in McKinney, Texas.
“The choreography has to be something that the cheerleaders
can do and do well. Sometimes choreographers try to put hard material
on cheerleaders that cannot perform hard material. Whatever you
choose to bolster an All-Star routine, the cheerleaders must be
able to nail it. Coming up with new and creative stunts is great,
but if they cannot be performed cleanly they will not impress the
judges,” said Miller.
Miller — a former collegiate All-American gymnast and cheerleader
— has been featured on ESPN and has been coaching, choreographing,
and judging All-Star cheer routines for over twenty years and has
a number of National Championship winning routines to her credit.
“When creating a winning routine you need all the elements,”
says Miller. “Choreographers need to look at each competition’s
score sheet to see what is expected of a routine. If you are not
looking at the score sheet, you are not being a very smart choreographer,”
added Miller. “Concentrating on only one or two areas such
as stunts and jumps can lead to a low overall score.”
What appeals to judges according to both Miller and Rogers, are
routines with well-executed skills and solid choreography. “Movement,
transition, and all the elements outside of the basic skill areas
need to flow seamlessly,” said Rogers. “You cannot just
do one skill section, walk to the next, and start up again. A choreographer
needs to create a routine that is solid from beginning to end. A
routine where a judge or spectator doesn’t have a chance to
take their eyes off it or even catch their breath.”
“A winning routine has to entertain,” adds Miller.
“You want the judges to put down their pencils and watch it
like they would a Broadway show. The routine should not look rushed
and look almost effortless in its execution in addition to being
enjoyable for the cheerleaders to perform.”
“Attention to detail in a routine such as crisp high jumps
with toes pointed, vivid facial projections, and cheerleader unison
are also important elements of winning routines,” says Melissa
Scorza, owner of Washington, Pennsylvania’s Extreme Cheer
and Dance All- Star Team. “Staying focused and executing each
element in the routine is key.”
“Some routines are so choppy they are hard to watch and
judge,” says Miller. She suggests choreographing routines
in specific sections that focus on a particular area of scoring,
but that also flow into each other so that the overall routine is
easy to follow and judge. “Special attention needs to be paid
to transitions and formation changes, “ added Miller.
So, what can you do to beef up your All-Star cheer routines? Miller
suggests starting with music. “You need to come with music
that is really outstanding and sticks out in a cheer routine. Often
routines in a competition can tend to sound the same,” says
Miller. “Find music that shocks the judges and treats them
to something they don’t expect.”
In adding extremity and difficulty to an All-Star cheer routine
Miller and Rogers both feel that many choreographers have a tendency
to only concentrate on a few sections of a routine instead of striving
to increase the difficulty of the entire routine.
A pitfall of some choreographers according to Miller is to double
or triple up on one particular skill category such as stunting.
“That can work well if you have a great stunting team,”
says Miller. “But if a team stunts once and earns a good score
and then come back with a second stunt section and a cheerleader
falls because they are tired, that good score will be negated.”
With the widespread use of “spring floors” in All-Star
cheer competitions, Miller and Rogers also see tumbling as an area
where All-Star cheer routines will really start to become more extreme.
Although limited in “running” tumbling to single flips
and double twists, Rogers feels extreme routines will start to increase
the number of tumbling passes like that of a power tumbling event
in which each pass will get longer and contain multiple skills such
as a front, to whip, to full double. In “standing” tumbling
Rogers feels ending a routine with a full twist, double full twist,
or adding a standing full (standing back tuck with a full twist)
is a great way to make a routine extreme.
With regard to stunting Miller and Rogers feel extremity will
be found in more twisting and flipping to get to the top of a stunt.
“Double downs are now considered a necessity to score well,”
said Miller. Miller also feels more twisting basket tosses, adding
a standing back tuck to combination jumps, and creating really visual
and transitional pyramids will be areas in which routines will become
more extreme.
With cheerleaders now executing skills one might see at an elite
gymnastics meet, look for cheer teams and choreographers to continue
to push the envelope with regard to extremity. In the end, when
it comes to creating winning All-Star cheer routines the fundamentals
still apply; they need to exhibit creativity, variety, and balance
and be able to be executed perfectly.
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