Tryout Tips!

Tackle the Tryout Jitters!

The moment of truth has arrived - cheerleading tryouts - your one chance to show the judges you've got what it takes. In those crucial minutes, you can step up our skills or fall out of the running for a spot on the team. So why do some people's tryout performances far exceed their usual skill level, while others perform way below what is expected of them? The answer lies in how they prepare for that all-important final cut.

Some athletes train for a tryout situation by following their usual, everyday practice routine. But the successful athlete trains specifically for the on-the-spot type of performance a tryout situation demands. Without this type of mental and physical preparation, tryouts can be extremely nerve-racking, turning into a difficult obstacle for even the experts and train your brain as well as your body, and you'll be sure to shine at your next tryout.

You Gotta Believe

Graig White, the director of performance enhancement at Ritgers University in Camden, New Jersey and Sports Fitness Director for American Cheer Express, says, "More often than not, pre-tryout jitters come from not believing that you're well enough prepared. Once you can convince yourself otherwise, you perform at a much greater level." Translation : Be prepared. Graig offers the following tips to hel ready yourself for the big day.

Believe in yourself. This is where the mental training begins. Nine times out of ten, a person performs poorly because she doubts her ability.

Take care of things you can control. Eat well, get lots of rest and don't allow life's little distractions to cause your focus to stray. Become single-minded, focusing only on your ultimate goal (though not to the point of obsession).

Don't strive for perfection. Perfection is an unattainable goal and the quest for perfection only adds unecessary stress, putting you in a position to fail. Practice with the goal of performing to your fullest potential and then go out and do just that.

Train Tough

"Cheerleaders deal with the same mental pressure most athletes face," says Karen Cogan, PhD, outreach and practicum coordinator for the University of North Texas (Denton, Texas) Center for Sport Psychology. "This demands extreme mental toughness and a training program for the mind, as well as the body. The environment you train in every day is much different from that of a tryout pressure situation," continues Karen. "Many times, you train with one level of anxiety and then go into a high-stress tryout situation where you are put on the spot to perform at your highest level. If you have never trained mentally for that, it is extremely difficult to handle the increased pressure." To keep your anxiety in check, Keren offers these tips :

Set up a mock tryout situation where teammates and coaches act as judges or spectators. This allows you to practice the "one chance only" situation with added pressure and forces you to perform in a high-stress situation.

Use mental imagery to "see" yourself in front of the judges performing to your maximum ability. Do this over and over, especially the day before and the day of tryouts and you will find you are much more relaxed when the real deal rolls around.

Create your own pre-performance mental plan to follow as you mentally prepare for any stressful situation.

You should follow your routine (withlittle to no variation each time) right along with your physical preparation. Your mentl plan should help you become focused and bring your anxiety level down. But remember, it's always good to keep a small level of anxiety the get the adrenaline flowing and keep that competitive edge.

Head's Up

"Mental preparation is the key," says Karlene Sugarman, MA, a sport psychology consultant in northern California and the author of "Winning The Mental Way." "It's easy to prepare the body, but if your mind's not straight, you're going to get beat every time." To get your mind on the right track, Karlene recommends these pre-tryout suggestions :

Don't place an added importance on the situation. This probably the greatest downfall of most athletes because it places extra stress on that one performance. Go out and perform just like you did when you were at practice and pretend in your mind that you are just at practice. Tell yourself there is nothing special about this performance and there are no added consequences.

Use "thought stopping." Replace the negative thoughts that can overtake your thinking with positive ones (called positive "self-talk") to pump yourself up for the big moment. "I can't do it" becomes "I can do this. I've done it a million times."

Don't depend to heavily on "good luck charms." Often, these are things that are out of your control and you want to be able to control as many aspects of your mental preparation as possible. If you always have to eat a certain food before a tryout in order to perform well, and that food is not available, your mental stability may be threatened and your physical performance will suffer.

Here are some hopefully helpful tryout tips :

Practice, practice, practice. Practice jumps, motions, and spirit.

Once you know the tryout material, do it over and over until you could do it in your sleep. You don't want to go blank out there.

If you wear make-up, wear it mostly around your eyes to accentuate your eyes.

Make eye contact with each judge.

Tons of phony facial expressions (laugh, smile, suprised, sneaky, embarrassed, I'm too good for you, etc..)

Tuck in your shirt.

If you have short hair or when you pull back your hair and have fly-aways (horns, wispies, whatever), please clip it back or down. You don't want to brush your hair behind your ears out of habit in the middle of your dance.

Be LOUD.

Get sharp motions. Make it look like you can't see the transition from one to the next.

Don't go wwwoooooooooo! Judges hate it! Instead say, "go big red", "let's go razorbacks!", "non-stop to the top"......

When you walk onto the floor, walk like a cheerleader(bounce to make youe ponytail bob).

Insert a "come on!" inbetween words of your cheer.

Point your toes everytime they leave the floor.

Keep your thumbs in.

If you mess up, just smile and jump back in. If the coach told you that they allow another chance, ask the judges if you could try again please.

Practice with a friend. Use constructive critisism.

Bring a blank tape to the clinic and get a copy of the dance music to practice at home.

If you have to do a group cheer, practice with your group and make sure everyone is together.

Tumble. Even if you can't do a round-off, you'll still get more points for doing a good cartwheel.

You won't make the squad if you're too shy, afraid to yell, don't know the material, don't have sharp motions, don't make eye contact, and don't smile.

Make sure you practice in front of a mirror.

Make sure you go tee-tah before tryouts. You wouldn't want to mess up because you might pee all over the floor.

Take private lessons.

Don't be afraid (or too proud) to ask questions.

Have fun.

Yell from your diaphragm, not your throat (military style).

Practice especially on your toe touch, it's required.

Work on flexibility.

Cut your words short, don't sing.

Do exercises to make your abs, legs, and arms stronger. These are the most used muscle areas in cheerleading. You should start these excercises at least one month before the actual tryout date.

Go to the clinic, if provided. If not, join an area cheernastics program.

At the clinic, keep comments about other girls to yourself.

Remember tryouts actually start when you walk through the door at the clinic. The coaches are watching and they can decide who they want on their squad. Even if the judges are deciding, the coaches have a heavy influence.

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