How to Be Accepted Into a Cheerleading Squad With No Tumbling Experience

Co-authored by Adam Shuty

Last Updated: January 24, 2023 References

Becoming a cheerleader is dream for many little girls. Being a role model for the school, having fun at a sport, and having the time of your life is what lots of people want. Cheerleaders have all that. So you want to be on the cheer squad with no tumbling experience? These steps will help you, start reading from step one below.

Steps

1
Look nice. You don't want to look messy when trying out for the cheer squad. Wear a pair of Soffe shorts or a similar brand and shirt that says something about cheerleading. If you don't have a shirt like that, then wear a shirt from a school club or in your school colors. Make sure your hair is in a ponytail with a big bow. Keep your makeup minimal with some long lasting lip gloss, concealer on problem spots, and waterproof mascara. You can wear some eyeshadow if you want, but it is not needed.
2
Make sure you practice everything you learn and know. Practice your dance, cheer, and chant. If you don't learn it until tryout day, learn basic motions, kicks, and jumps. Make sure your motions are sharp and tight. Your motions can't be floppy or it will just look weird. You need to learn a toe touch, herkie, pike, kicks, right, left, and center split, bow and arrow, bridge, punch, hands on hips, daggers, L, K, T, touchdown, buckets, candlesticks, diagonals, among other moves. Practice these every single day until tryouts.

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3
Improve your current moves. Tense up your arm muscles when doing motions. Kick with a straight back, leg, and pointed toe. When doing your jumps, keep your back straight and your legs up. To improve your jumps, follow this jumping routine to make your jumps higher and neater. Do 30 straddle leg lifts on each leg, 30 crunches, 30 oblique crunches, 50 bicycle crunches, 30 squats, 30 squat jumps, 30 toe raises, 30 hops on each foot, 15 "cheerleader" crunches (look them up), 10 kicks on each leg to the front, side, and 45 degree angle, and practice! Doing this every morning when you wake up will give you stronger legs, a higher jump, and help your legs raise higher in your jumps. Stretch everyday too. Do a straddle (left, right, center), pike, touch your toes, pigeon stretch, butterfly, frog, lunge, floor lunge, split (left, right, center), bridge, shoulder stretch, tricep stretch, bicep stretch, wrist stretch, and ankle stretch. Hold each move for 30 seconds to 1 minute. If you do this twice a day everyday along with any other stretches you can think of, you should get your splits in a month!
4
Have good facial expressions. When doing your dance, wink, smile, stick out your tongue, anything that makes people smile and gets the crowd going. If you want your smile to really shine, whiten your teeth with some baking soda, whitening toothpaste, floss, and/or whitening strips. Add some pink lip gloss with some glitter and your smile will really shine.
5
Be confident and loud. They want to hear you when cheer because that's what cheerleading is! And be confident, you always want to be confident when you cheer. Practice having a loud and clear voice at tryouts.
6
Work on the tumbling you have. You may not have any cheer leading tumbling experience but if you have skills from other activities like gymnastics or even circus skills, try working on perfecting back handsprings, tucks, or aerials. You can teach yourself the basics, such as a handstand, cartwheel, and round off. Chances are that they will teach you some tougher moves on the squad. When doing basic tumbling which you have no experience of, make sure your toes are pointed and your legs are straight.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I prove to my parents that I should do cheerleading?

Community Answer

Convince them cheering is your passion and you're ready to fully invest yourself in it.
Question

What happens if I am too small to be accepted into a cheerleading squad?

Community Answer

Usually, you can't be too small to make the squad. Smaller people are great because they are ideal flyers.
Question

What if you want to be a flyer, but are a little scared of being in the air? Should I practice with other people lifting me?

Community Answer

Try going to a local cheer gym's open gym night. The coaches and other cheerleaders there would be more than happy to go through the basics with you, and you can even sign up for a class through the gym.

Warnings

You might not make the squad so instead do all stars or your school's competition squad. Don't let it hurt you. It's their loss anyway.

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Cheerleading is a dangerous sport! Always make sure you know what's going on.

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If you eat an unhealthy diet you may faint or not have enough energy, so make sure to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

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Don't overtrain.

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