New Coach Survival Guide

Congratulations! You are setting off on the adventure of a lifetime…COACHING! We are so happy to have you as part of our coaching community!

You are probably feeling very excited and a little nervous to get started. Maybe you don't know what to get help on because you just don't know what you don't know. And that's totally okay!

THIS IS FOR YOU!

We are going to share our top tips for new coaches to make sure that they start their season off organized, confident, and prepared!

These tips can also be a good reminder for veteran coaches to avoid burn out and get the most out of your cheerleading season.

1: Decide What Your Goals Are and Focus Practice Time on Those Things

This is one where I see a lot of coaches get overwhelmed. They don't have clear goals for their team. They may have an idea of what they want - but they don't have anything solid. Decide on your goals!!

Write them down. Talk to your athletes about them or have them help you decide on the goal. Get everyone on board and they will be more likely to work hard to achieve them.

With that in mind, you have to be intentional about making time to work toward those goals. If you want team 360 ups, by October, then you need to dedicate time, every practice, to drilling stunt basics, strength conditioning, timing drills, and ultimately practicing the skill itself.

Now, obviously don't do this all practice every practice. We can't neglect our other cheer components. But just spend an extra 10-20 minutes working on it.

Remind your athletes what they are working toward when they groan about conditioning again. It is your job to progress your team, and this is how.

2: Set Clear Expectations and Follow Through on Consequences

 This is make or break when it comes to earning the respect and dedication of your team.

Make sure that you, your staff, your team, and your athlete's parents are all fully aware of your expectations and what the consequences will be if those expectations are not met.

It is human nature to push boundaries and teenagers are masters of it. Add to that, coaches are finding a lack of accountability for athletes at home, and parents that make excuses for their children. You will get a lot of excuses and backlash if this is not clear and consistent.

Now don't get me wrong…there is always one. Someone will do this anyway. But it is far easier to hold your ground when you have a consistent system that they are well aware of.

Also, make sure that you follow through on the consequences! Expectations are just words on a paper unless there is follow through.

One of the best ways to set your expectations is to go over them in a parent meeting at the beginning of the season with athletes and parents and have them laid out in a contract that your athletes and parents have to sign.

After that, it's just up to you to uphold the expectations.

3: Get a Good Planner/Binder

I don't just mean one from Target with the months and the weeks broken up in it. Even if you use this, it is not doing everything for you that you need.

You will have fundraisers and money to keep track of, budget information, uniform orders, athlete clothes sizes, cleaning schedules, event schedules, random ideas that need a home, goals, and so many other things to keep track of. I beg you, put it all in one place!!

Get a giant binder with templates and pocket separators and a binder pencil holder so you have somewhere to essentially keep your brain when it doesn't want to work for you that day.

We have an excellent 60+ page, newly updated Comprehensive Coach's Planner that has all the templates you need to stay organized and sane this year.

4: Practices are CLOSED

Closed practice means that the only people allowed to be present are the athletes and your coaching staff.

This is important because typically, the only people who actually want to be at practice are parents, and sometimes friends of an athlete.

Friends are a no go because they are easily distracting to an athlete, and this is disruptive to practice. Parents who want to watch practice are usually either looking to start issues or coach their own athlete - often despite not having a clear understanding of what the athlete actually needs to be successful.

This second type of parent may not be disruptive in the moment but will affect your athletes outside of practice and that will eventually carry back into practice.

Best to avoid all of these situations and just close your practices

5: No Phones!

Phones are a huge distraction and can be an easier source of bullying during practice. Often times, when coaches allow phones at practice, athletes will be on them every single water break they get. This takes up more time during breaks and longer to refocus the team back on the mat because they are now distracted with something outside of their immediate practice requirements.

Eliminating phones from practice also keeps athletes from texting or messaging each other to talk down about a member of the team during practice. Yes, I realize this can happen just as easily after practice but here's the difference. Bullying usually has a leader, and that leader is looking to get people on their side. If that leader can message other athletes during practice to put down another, then the mood shifts during practice.

However, if that leader can't message anyone until after, then practice, and the immediate feelings of that athlete are better protected. This better allows you to reinforce that when they are on the mat, they are a team - no matter what social circles they run in outside of practice.

I am not saying that bullying is okay even in this delayed scenario. If you know it is happening, you need to discuss it with the athletes involved and remind them of your no bullying policy in the contract that they signed at the beginning of the year.

6: Basic Tumbling Skills Translate to Stunting Skills

This is a hill I will die on. Our athletes need to know how to tumble with skills up through a roundoff. Tumbling warm up drills are excellent for the body as a whole and great to help teach agility, tightness, and body control.

Then forward and backwards rolls help with rotating stunts and dismounts, learning how to distribute their weight and not being afraid of that motion.

Handstands help with alignment is ALL positions. Handstand hops help bases drive through their shoulders while maintaining their technique and form.

Cartwheels are important for again, teaching body control, since each limb is doing something just slightly different. This takes focus and awareness that our stunters need to work together smoothly.

Finally, roundoffs teach power and speed. Again, vital for stunts that want to get to even a smooth intermediate level. Just do a quick warm up and run through all of these at the beginning of practice each day. Dedicate one day to drilling the skills themselves and watch how your stunting improves.

Also, if they want to cheer in college, they will need tumbling, so you should help set them up with strong basics and allow them the opportunity for advancement.

7: Train Jumps!

Everybody hates jumps. They're the second hardest cardio event in a cheer routine if you tumble, but far less exciting then tumbling.

But they are a great, easy crowd pleaser, and anyone can learn how to do it well. It just takes a little dedication.

Jumps are easy to train in 10 minutes each practice and totally worth the effort. On top of getting great, consistent jumps quickly, it's also a fantastic endurance builder which is so necessary whether your team is on the sideline or competition mat.

8: Fundraise Early and A Lot!

Many cheer teams do not get much if any funding from their school. You may have to fundraise to purchase uniforms, mats, bows, warmups, poms, signs, music, flags, shoes, go to camp, and a lot more. And unfortunately, not a single one of those things is a cheap as you would expect/hope they would be.

So decide on what fundraisers you want to do, get a high return one started asap to help with the start up costs of the season. Plan others quickly behind and spaced out where it makes sense around your other events.

Try to do at least 3-5 each year. No idea where to start with this?

We have a Free list of over 100 Fundraising Ideas to get you started!

9: Recruit Help

Do not try to do everything on your own! This is a recipe for burnout. A lot of us are Type A personalities who want it done our way (the right way…) and don't trust anyone else to do as good of a job as we will or we don't have the energy to talk through what we want with someone else and remember to check in with them to ensure it's done. But, this is exhausting.

So, rely on your assistant coaches. Give them regular jobs to do that you then do not have to worry about. Do the same with your captains/team leaders/seniors. Put them in charge of warm ups/stretching/team bonding/etc. Recruit 1 or multiple team parents (often called Team Mom).

Figure out their strengths and play to them. Someone might be great with crafts and can help you DIY some of your required materials. Maybe one is super organized or connected in the community, put them in charge of running the fundraisers, maybe one will bring snacks to games for the team, one could be your designated crowd participant, there are endless options for getting people involved and making your life easier and the teams experience better. Let them help.

10: Be a Role Model

This one is a little vague but it's a good reminder. We, as coaches, are mentors and role models to our athletes. We demonstrate when to have fun and when it's time to get down to business.

We demonstrate problem solving, dealing with conflict, sportsmanship, teamwork, and all of the valuable life lessons that our athletes should develop during sports activity.

We need to be aware that they are a reflection of us. So when we show up angry, and short sighted, and easily overwhelmed…our athletes are going to feel the same way.

11: Make Nice with Your Athletic/Activities Director

This one could save your sanity alone! Many cheerleading teams are not a priority for their schools. Because of this, AD's often don't get very involved in cheerleading and let coaches do their own thing, or they do the opposite and micro-manage something that they don't understand.

Both of these have pros and cons, but essentially, this equates to an AD that doesn't know what your program needs and likely doesn't respect you as their coach. It is important to set clear expectations with your AD about what they will be involved with or not involved with. Have regular conversations about where the budget is, where the money is going, and why certain equipment/material/events is important for the success of the team as a whole.

I've found that having this conversation in a way that shows you AD that a successful cheerleading program looks good for the school, and that having nice uniforms, improving skills, and having the backing of the entire school body makes the school look like they have strong community, extra-curricular opportunities, and cohesion.

Learn what is important to your administration and frame the conversation so that you are contributing to those factors as a cheerleading that has their support.

12: Set Firm Boundaries for Yourself

You will give a lot of yourself to this position and your team. But you are not available 24/7 (maybe excluding certain emergencies). Like we said before, it is human nature to push boundaries and some people thrive on it. So if they can text you at 10pm when you're trying to fall asleep, and you still respond…THEY WILL KEEP DOING IT!

Set hours and a communication avenue that you will use to respond to parent or athlete inquiries. For example, you will be available over email, and you will only respond between the hours of 10am and 7pm. They can text you with emergencies only or on game day up to 2 hours before the event and 1 hour after. Be very specific and stick to this.

Also, you will spend a lot of time outside of practice preparing for practice - ordering uniforms, equipment, designing signs, building routines, finding music, etc. etc. the list goes on. Set limits for yourself on when you will work on cheer outside of practice during the week and do your best to not let it exceed that time.

This will protect your mental state from feeling like you are constantly working on cheerleading and will free up time for you to spend with your family or doing other things that you enjoy.