13 Ways to Keep Your Team SAFE!

Ensuring the safety of our athletes is one of our most important jobs as coaches. We often only think of safety when it comes to the big issues, such as concussions or falls.

Cheerleading is one of the most dangerous sports to participate in; surpassing even football in concussions and injuries. There are continuously new rules put in place, such as stunt level restrictions or the number of twists you can throw in a layout on dead mat versus on a spring floor.

However, safety starts on a much smaller level. It starts with you. Below you will read 13 amazing tips to keeping your team safe.

1: Strong Foundation

Fundamentals are essential to building higher level skills. Body positions, stunting technique, and strength are a few that are absolutely necessary to keep your team safe. If you do not have good fundamentals (bad technique or poor strength), it is far more likely that something will go wrong and someone will get hurt!

You can build this foundation by Drilling your Skills! It is important to not only drill until the athlete achieves the skill, but continue drilling to ensure that the basis of the skill remains with them. Often, when athletes move on to higher skills, they forget about the basic ones, even thought the basics are the building blocks to the new skill they are trying to achieve.

Skill building does not happen all at once! You wouldn't just dive off of the 50 foot diving platform until you've dove off of the 10 foot, 20 foot, and 40 foot platform first. That would be dangerous! It is also dangerous to allow your athletes to attempt a skill that they are not ready for. Working skill progressions is required to build a strong foundation and understanding of the skill that they will be performing.

Taking baby steps like this can be difficult, and it may not feel as if any progress is being made. Look for little progressions to celebrate! Are you bases more stable? Your tumbler standing up faster out of her skill? Celebrate it! And then keep drilling.

Drilling is not going to do you any good if you do not focus on technique! Practice DOES NOT make perfect, it makes permanent. If you do not practice the right way, then the wrong skills will be built. You have to practice correctly in order to grow your foundation strong.

Building a strong foundation can be a slow process, but it is imperative to do so. Just remember to make sure your athletes know the basics, walk before they run, and practice, practice, practice!

2: Timing Tune-up

Failure to work together is a recipe for disaster! Cheerleading is a team sport, and every athlete has to be working in unison, as a single unit, in order to not only succeed in performances, but to keep each other safe.

Disaster can arise quickly if a flyer tries to come out of a stunt too early, or two tumblers collide due to starting their passes on the wrong count. Practicing doing the right skill at the right time, together, will build the parts to a well oiled machine, that is your cheerleading team.

Stunting is likely the most important skill to focus on when it comes to timing affecting the safety of your athletes. As I mentioned, earlier, if they flyer is on the wrong count, or one of the bases is, it will almost definitely result in the stunt coming down, and your flyer will likely end up on the floor.

Make sure to keep your teams timing on point to avoid these potentially dangerous situations.

3: Fun in the Sun and Embracing the Cold

This should not be news to anyone…most coach training covers the effects of weather on an athletic team. You must be prepared for the weather during that practice and to respond to any potential effects it may have on your athletes.

Let's talk about heat first. The most important thing you can do to keep your athletes safe in the summer is to make sure that they hydrate! Your athletes are working hard out there in the summer heat, and their body is sweating out whatever water they have stored. Not allowing the body to replenish it's water supply will put it at risk for dehydration among other potential health risks.

Additionally, your athletes should get numerous extra breaks. They can use this time to continue hydrating their body but also resting. Exercise inherently warms the body, and exercising in the heat without adequate time to cool down and regulate it's temperature could lead to heat exhaustion or even heat stroke!

Do you know what to do if one of your athletes does fall ill with one of these issues? Make sure you have a safety plan in place for any potential emergency incidences. In this particular case, ensuring that you have a cooler available with ice and cold rags to provide to your athletes that are not feeling well could protect them from the condition worsening. You'll want to put the cold items on the main blood vessels in the body; on the back of the neck, inside of the wrists, and inside of the thighs. This will help cool down your athlete and assist in regulating their body temperature.

Clothing can also aide in ensuring your athletes stay protected from the weather. Many cheerleading uniforms have long sleeve body liners. It is vitally important that you DO NOT require your athletes to wear these under their shells on hot days. Even though the uniform doesn't look nearly as cute without those colored sleeves underneath, your athletes' safety is far more important.

Physical health risks are not the only safety issues to consider. As I mentioned earlier, it is normal, and expected, for your athletes to be sweating if they are out in the heat. Bring towels for your athletes to wipe the sweat off of themselves before they stunt. Having slippery hands or legs could restrict the stunt group from getting a sturdy grip and may result in a fall.

If we talk about the heat then we also need to talk about keeping our athletes safe in the cold. Frost bite is a very real concern during those late season football games, it Is imperative that we provide our athletes with the proper gear to protect their bodies for the many hours that they are required to be outside in the elements for. This should include pants, jackets, gloves, and earmuffs or a headband. Some teams also choose to have hand and/or foot warmers for the athletes to keep their fingers and toes nice and warm (since those are the must vulnerable to frostbite).

Changing your athletes clothing to protect them from the elements may mean that stunting or tumbling safely is not possible. THIS IS OKAY! If stunting or tumbling isn't safe, focus on your crowd interaction cheers, dances, and jumps. If your team gets bored of only cheering for 3 hours, take the opportunity to let your team have some fun! Have a dance party, a handstand competition, or other fun activity that is entertaining for both the athletes and the fans.

In addition to using warm clothing and potentially warming devices for the extremities, it is also important to take extra time for your athletes to warm up before the game. Their muscles are cold and will cool down easily based on the temperature throughout the event. Ensure that your team minimizes their risk of pulling or straining a muscle by extending the warm-up process and then keeping your team moving throughout the entire time that they are in the cold weather.

Finally, have some blankets and extra heating devices available for any athletes who are not tolerating the cold well.

4: Strong Looks Good on You

Conditioning is not everyone's favorite part of practice. However, it is one of the most beneficial. Exercising to build muscle is one of the best ways to prevent injury. Strong muscles and ligaments will be accustomed to the strain exercise puts on them when they go to perform at practice/games/ competitions/etc.

Exercise also contributes to the resiliency of bones and ligaments in the body. Slowly getting the body used to the weight and strain that it will experience during the sport, will prepare it to endure the same, making it less susceptible to injury.

Strength is also important for any cheerleading skills. Athletes need the strength to hold up the flyers, for flyers to stay tight, to tumble, and to jump. Strength is imperative to successively completing numerous skills in cheerleading, and conditioning is the way to get there.

Additionally, cardio is a necessary part of your conditioning routine. Sideline cheerleading can last around 3 hours. That is a long time to perform. Cardio stamina is necessary to help your team get through no only these "marathon" events, but also at competitions where there are multiple bursts of energy needed, for each round of warm up and then on the competition mat. 2 minutes and 30 seconds of stunting, tumbling, jumping, dancing, and cheering, is A LOT!

Our athletes need to be prepared to accomplish this without feeling that they are going to die after they are finished. This is especially important for the athletes that may have asthma. Strengthening the cardiovascular system, slowly during conditioning could make it easier for these athletes to accomplish their skills and prevent and asthma attack.

5: Top Notch Coaches

As tough of a pill as it may be to swallow, our athlete's safety is up to us, the coaches. If we are not educated on the risks and how to mitigate the safety factors, then we cannot properly protect our athletes. We have to able to accurately recognize the early signs of overuse in our athletes, as well as potentially hazardous situations that our athletes are in.

We need to be able to recognize when our athletes are pushing through a minor injury or overexerting themselves during conditioning as well as practicing a new stunt, throwing a new tumbling pass or other situation that is at higher risk for the athlete to get injured. If we are not aware of these situations, we cannot adequately protect our athletes.

If an injury were to happen, it is our responsibilities as coaches to be able to adequately respond to the situation to ensure that the injury does not get any worse and that we are able to aide in healing the injury as quickly as possible. If an injury or emergency were to occur, what is your plan? How will you respond? Knowing what this will look like before it happens will save precious moments of confusion if/when it does.

Additionally, knowing how you will respond will keep you calm in the moment for your athletes so that they do not panic. If there is confusion around your response, your athletes will be able to tell and will create further sense of uneasiness that will be harmful to your athletes.

Finally, you need to be aware of what your athletes; bodies require to work at their full potential, and provide it to them. If your athletes' bodies are not prepared for the work they will be doing, then they will not be able to do the work well. And as we've learned, doing the work poorly is a major ingredient for an injury to occur.

6: Fabulous Falls

Falls are a part of cheerleading. No matter how well you prepare your team, they are going to happen. The real victory is to teach your team how to do this inevitable action, safely. Even though falls are inevitable, does not mean that we cannot prevent against them.

Use soft mats and surfaces to train tumbling skill before slowly moving them to harder surfaces. This is part of the progression drills that we discussed earlier. Once the athlete is able to throw the skill with good technique the vast majority of the time, you can allow them to move on to the next surface. You can also train you cheerleaders on how to fall!

I know, you may be asking, "But, Coach TJ, falling is falling, there is no particular way to do it, it just happens." This is wrong! Falling can 'just happen' (thought usually there’s a reason!) but when it happens, we can mitigate the potential injury risk by teaching our flyers who to stay tight, round their backs, tuck their chin in, and be aware of where their arms and legs are. This takes time!

It will not happen in a single practice. But it will make it easier for the bases to catch the flyer without catching an elbow to the face or for the flyer to land the ground without sticking their arms or legs out to catch them (that may get broken in the process) or hitting their heads on the ground.

Spotters are also essential to this process. You can train spotters on how to safely spot the stunt and prevent the flyer from landing on the floor. This goes from making sure the spotter pays attention to the stunt, remains quiet for the stunt group to communicate, and keeping their hands up and fingers together to be quick in responding without breaking their fingers.

7: Rules are Rules

Cheerleaders are trained to push through minor injuries for the benefit of their team. Many teams do not have the luxury of alternates that can cover for an injured athlete; and cheerleading is a sport that heavily relies on your teammates.

As we all well know, if one athlete misses or sits out of practice, most of the team is affected and cannot have a fully effective practice that day. However, as tempting as it is when you're one week out from Summit and your athlete sustains an injury to put them back on the floor to push through, this must be avoided!

Specifically, if the athlete has seen a doctor due to injury and they are not medically cleared to practice, THEY SHOULD NOT PRACTICE! Even if your athlete 'feels fine' and wants to get back on the mat. You to encourage them that their health is more important and stick to the rule of waiting for medical clearance before allowing the athlete to participate.

Additionally, it can be difficulty to stick to the safe progressions for stunting and tumbling. Flipping and flying to the air and an exciting skill to learn, and many athletes (and coaches!) want to jump right in and work on the big skills.

Toddlers do not run around right after birth. They have to build up strength in their body, they crawl - learning what it feels like to have opposite arm and leg motions, then they cruise furniture - finding their balance, walking around comes next, and finally their coordination and strength is such that they can successfully run.

The only difference here, is that our toddler in the example, is not very likely to get injured by attempting to run before they can crawl or walk. However, our athletes, will. Cheerleading is a dangerous sport, and we need to teach them the proper way to execute skills to minimize the risk that they face. Slowly working through drills before moving on to the next skill can be frustrating for everyone.

Just remain positive and encourage your athletes to build their foundation first.

8: Abs of Steel

Everybody loves that 6-pack ab look. And though the look may not be as important in cheerleading, the strength training that goes into the aesthetic is. The core is the single most important muscle group when it comes to cheerleading.

We use it for EVERYTHING! Stunting, tumbling, jumping, dancing, if you're not squeezing your core…you're doing it wrong! And that's why training the core muscles regularly is so imperative to the safety of our athletes. We've all seen bases who base with an arched back…Ouch!

That poor form is a result of poor ab strength. They aren't strong enough to constantly squeeze their core to keep their back straight. This is going to result in so many injuries. And just how core strength will help the technique of our base in this example, it will help the technique of all of our skills!

Back and front walk overs need good core strength to successfully achieve, jumps need core strength to keep our chest up and get our legs higher, stunting needs it to keep our group tight together and our flyer solid.

Without the proper abdominal strength, our cheerleaders are going to struggle in completing most skills in a safe and successful way.

9: Gulp, Gulp, AHHH

WATER IS YOUR FRIEND!

I mentioned this earlier, but hydration is key for all athletic activity. Your body is sweating and the athletes need to be able to properly replace the water they are losing to avoid issues such as dehydration, muscle cramps, etc. without water, muscles will start to tighten, as they do not have the same elasticity.

Think about Play-dough…when it's fresh and damp, you can pull it, squish it, squeeze it, and it takes a lot to break it apart or get permanent creases. However, let that playdough dry out, and it's as brittle as a saltine cracker! You barely have to touch it for it to fall apart.

That's a lot like how our muscles react, so make sure that our athletes are hydrated!

Water will also improve circulation to avoid headaches and promote healing for those athletes that have already sustained an injury.

10: Cheerleaders are determined...almost too determined

I mentioned earlier that cheerleaders are practically trained to push through minor injuries for their team, because sitting out will cause significant issues in the structure of the practice and routine. This is precisely why it is so incredibly important for us coaches to be able to recognize the signs of overuse in our athletes.

When we recognize that our athlete is pushing themselves, we need to put a safety plan in place to ensure the injury does not worsen, even if we are going to allow them to continue to practice.

The first thing we want to encourage is rest, ice, and elevation. If they are going to practice with the sore body part, it should be braced, if possible, to limit movement. When not in practice, the athlete needs to lay the injured part on a pillow, elevated slightly above the heart, with ice on it. They should not be using it outside of practice unless absolutely necessary until they are recovered.

We all know athletes, think that "it'll be fine" and likely won't listen to our advice to help them heal. In which case, it is our job to keep an even closer eye on the athlete for additional signs that the injury is worsening. If these signs appear and the athlete is not taking steps to aide in recovery, a plan needs to be made that will ensure rest, ice, and elevation; even if that means they sit out and do so during practice time.

With all of this, we can't throw them back in to the mix too early after sustaining an injury. Recovery is a long process, and our bodies are vulnerable while trying to heal. If there is an injury and the athlete is removed from practicing, we need to ensure that they are given the appropriate time that they need to recover from the injury so as not to injure themselves again, and likely worse. A strained ACL can turn into a torn ACL very quickly if not allowed to properly recover and strengthen.

11: To Drill or not to Drill?

Overuse isn't just an issue that athletes create for themselves. Coaches can also contribute to the overuse of athletes’ bodies, as well. Especially when it gets close to competition season, we coaches may feel the need to drill timing, drill stunts, drill tumbling, drill, drill, drill.

However, studies have shown that just forcing athletes to do a single activity over and over again until they get it perfect, does not actually yield results.

Rather, breaking down the skill or activity that you are trying to accomplish, will build a more thorough understanding of the activity and will yield better results.

Additionally, throwing full outs on repeat for a full 2-hour practice is just a bad idea, plain and simple.

When we constantly drill our athletes on the same thing, they are bound to get tired…and when they get tired, their form and technique suffer, which is increases the likelihood that an injury could occur. This repetitive from of practice is also discouraging to athletes.

They are either doing it correctly, but another team member isn't so they have to keep doing it. Or they are they athlete that is doing it incorrectly, and likely doesn't understand how to change what you are yelling (I'm assuming) at them for.

Drilling over and over on a specific skill is also going to exhaust the muscles that are being used. They're going to get weaker and weaker, until they are unable to correctly perform the skill (which happens quicker than you think!). Because it's not about whether they can or can't do the skill, it's if they can do it correctly.

Drilling a skill that is being done incorrectly, is going to solidify that poor muscle memory for the athlete and that is a bad habit that you will have to attempt to break later.

Overall, drills have their place, but they need to be limited, positive, and broken down so that the athletes can understand them.

12: Food as Fuel

Year after year, we are seeing an increase in eating disorders and shame that athletes have for their bodies. This can lead to improper and unhealthy eating habits. Cheerleading is one of the top sports that these numbers are so high in.

This could be due to being in front of a crowd every week, performing their best at competition, wearing tight or cropped uniforms, or wanting to be the lightest flyer. Whatever the reason is, youth athletes are vulnerable to the pressures of the sport and often feel that their food intake is the only part of their lives that they have full control over.

It is vital to encourage healthy food habits early. Remember that food is fuel, it is necessary to have enough fuel for your body to function.

My favorite comparison is putting gas in a car. If there's not enough gas in the car, then it's not going to run properly, if at all. And if the wrong gas is in the car, say you put diesel in a Tesla, that could harm your engine, and again, the car will not run properly.

Food is the exact same way. We need enough food for our bodies to function, and athletes even need a little more to give them enough energy to successfully get through the strenuous exercise that their bodies perform. They also need the right food.

Eating a Hershey's chocolate bar and drinking a Coke right before practice is not going to make your body feel well and could result in a sugar crash part way through practice. Instead, we need to fuel with the right foods, opting for a Gatorade and baby carrots, or water and grapes.

These foods will avoid a sugar crash, ensure hydration, and are designed to burn more slowly in the body so that the athlete has energy and fuel for longer. Helping our athletes understand the importance of food and the vitality that good food has on our performance will help keep them healthy and strong throughout the season; as well as mitigate their risk of poor body image or eating disorders.

13: Winning is NOT the most important thing!

If you became a coach to win competitions. You're in the wrong profession. Especially at the youth levels, sports are designed to foster growth and character building in young athletes.

These positive factors need to be a core part of our values that we live and practice daily for our athletes. Unyielding desire to win is going to inevitably lead to an overlooked injury that worsens, pushing skills that athletes are not ready for, and will destroy the confidence of team, because if they are not perfect, they're never going to be good enough for you.

All of these things are safety concerns! While building up our athletes we need to also promote their health and safety. Failing to promote those things, and build them as people and athletes, is failing as a coach.

This doesn't mean that winning is not important and that you are a bad coach for pushing your team to do their best. It only means that while pushing them, you are doing it with their wellness in mind.