Who’s Nick, you ask? He cheers for Morehead State and won UCA’s 2017 Partner Stunt nationals. Before transferring to Morehead, he cheered for me at KU for four years. So is this a post about my amazing coaching? Haha –…
Read more
As a cheerleader, do you ever feel like your coach isn’t happy with you or the team, but you’re not sure why or what to do about it? As a coach, are there things your squad keeps doing that drive…
Read more
If you ever find you or your squad struggling with motivation or progress, the “What gets measured gets improved” concept from management quru Peter Drucker can help immensely. Here are a few ways I used it when I coached KU: When you’re…
Read more
“But I thought setting goals was the right thing to do,” I can hear you thinking. And you’re right — my click-bait title is a bit misleading. Goals are okay, but a goal alone won’t help you much. A goal is…
Read more
A few years ago at college nationals, another coach asked me how we got our KU girls to stunt so clean. I’d seen his team’s routine, and they threw some great stuff, but he was right that even though they…
Read more
When giving skill instruction, I believe explaining the ‘why’ helps kids learn to self-assess their technique, which gives them more opportunity for learning in the future. But there’s not always time for explanations at practice (and especially games and comp…
Read more
Gideon Ariel ran a study where a group of men lifted weights for 7 weeks, which increased their max squat by 6 pounds. Then, Gideon told them he’d give them steroids for their next 4 weeks of lifting. During those…
Read more
For most cheerleaders, learning a new skill involves trying it and listening to the coach’s spoken instructions. It’s worked for years – it’s how I usually coached too – but it’s not the only way to learn, and it might…
Read more
At the 2015 UCA College Nationals, KU (the squad that my wife and I coached) was one of only a few Div1A Large Coed teams with a zero-deduction hit in finals. And it felt GOOD!!! LOL. But why did 18 teams…
Read more
