NCA Colege Nationals

Every April hundreds of cheerleaders travel across the United States to compete in the NCA College Nationals. Teams work year around to show their skills on the huge outdoor stage called the Band Shell in Daytona Beach Florida. The cheerleaders can look forward to one week of outdoor practices, tumbling in grass, icing sore muscles, playing in the ocean, and of course competing. Last year Lindenwood University was able to send two teams to Nationals. An All Girl team that competed in the DII division, and a Coed team that competed Intermediate. In each division the top nine teams get to go to the finals, and everyone else has to re-compete in the Challenge Cup. The winner of the Challenge Cup moves on to the finals, creating a top ten. Those top ten teams then compete one more time to determine the winner.


Last year at Nationals Lindenwood All Girl did not score high enough in prelims to make it right on into the finals: we had to re-compete in the Challenge Cup. After a day of practicing outside in between palm trees and working to clean up our routine we competed in Challenge Cup. We did an amazing job and ended up winning the Challenge Cup. We were in tenth place going into finals with one more chance to compete. We preformed on last time on the Band Shell and gave it everything we had. We ended up winning the chorography award as well as placing third all around! Jumping from tenth to third was the biggest jump in Lindenwood History, and no All Girl team has ever placed as high. It was great to be a part of such an amazing team. I cannot wait to see what Daytona Beach brings us this year!!

Congratulations Kyle!!

Kyle Gadke is the winner of this week’s Who’s Who of 2008- 2009 Cheerleading Competition! We will be posting next week’s nominees and winner shortly.

All Girl Stunting

Stretch Your Imagination

(A perfect stunt for any all girl team!)

Flyer and bases: Load into a prep (ready to do a lib).

Flyer: On the correct count jump and push off the ground with your left foot. Keep all your weight on the right foot. Once at the top, keep your chest up, and feet together (do not hit a liberty).

Main Base: On the correct count lift the flyer straight up, using primarily your legs, following through with your arms. At the top, lock your arms out. Make sure that the stunt is over you, don’t lean forward or throw with your back. This will cause serious back pain.

Secondary Base: Having one hand on the bottom of the foot and the other on top on the foot (almost like your gripping a sandwich), on the correct count push the stunt straight up. Make sure you are close to the main base, as well as keeping the stunt over top of you.

Back Spot: On the correct count push the flyer up, with your left hand under her behind, and your right hand on her right ankle. At the top, hold the right ankle with both hands, making sure that the stunt is at the top and taking weight off of the main and secondary bases.

Flyer: With your left foot, kick up a heel stretch.
Main, Secondary bases, and back spot: keeping everything the same, secondary base may drop the left arm for show.

Flyer: While performing the power press, hold your heel stretch. Be sure to keep your body very tight, as well as keeping your chest up.

Main Base: On the correct count, dip with your legs, giving the flyer a slight “pop.” Keeping the flyers foot close to your body bring her foot down into a sponge position, then lift the flyer back into the extended position. Make sure that you keep your feet in place and be sure not to move around under the stunt. Beware the flyer will grab your shoulder.

Secondary Base: On the correct count, dip with your legs, again giving the flyer a “pop.” Staying in close to the main base, hold the flyers foot tight as you bring her down and then push her back up.

Back Spot: On the correct count, keeping both hands on the flyer, allow the bases to pop the flyer. When she comes down slow the flyer by putting your left hand on her behind, and keeping your right hand on her ankle. Then push her back up and regrab the flyers ankle. Make sure the stunt is back at the top.

This is a great stunt for half time shows or just when cheering on your team!

How to Get the Perfect Standing Tuck

The standing backhand spring has been mastered, and you’re looking to increase your tumbling skills. A standing tuck is in your future. The standing tuck is a level four skill, and once mastered can make learning running tumbling a lot easier. Here are step by step instructions on how to get a solid standing tuck.

Step one: Stretch- It is important before you do any physical activity to stretch. Pulling muscles hurts so don’t even give your muscles a chance to get injured.

Step two: Jump and set- How you get the height in your standing tuck is jumping and setting your arms. (A good set- While you jump you swing your arms, keeping them straight, right up to your ears). A good way to start practicing your set and jump is to perform tuck jumps. Pull your knees to your chest while setting your arms. Setting and jumping go hand and hand. So a high jump and the ideal set is the perfect start to your standing tuck.

Step three: The Rotation- At the top of your jump, quickly and tightly pull your knees to your chest (This should occur after your set). Make sure you don’t throw your head back, and keep your eyes open. Stay in the “ball” shape until your see the floor.

Step Four: Landing- Once you see the floor the only thing you have to do is open up from your “ball shape.” This will allow you to stand straight up, therefore landing your tuck. But be careful if you open to soon you will under rotate and hit your knees to the floor, and if you over rotate you will fall flat on your behind.

The key to getting the perfect standing tuck is that it takes a lot of practice. A standing tuck is the hardest skill to get consistent. So be patient and keep working hard. The hard work will all pay off, and you will be able to show off your new skill.

Cheerleading… Sport or Activity?

It has been the question that has been argued back and forth in high schools and colleges everywhere, Is cheerleading a sport or is it just an activity? In the past it has been the understanding that cheerleading is just an activity. However this is 2008 and times have changed! More and more people are starting to classify cheerleading as a sport.

Now the fact is cheerleaders don’t shoot free throws, and we don’t tackle other people for balls but we do tumble, stunt, and compete. Now normally the argument could be ended at that simple fact. WE COMPETE! We are not scored like normal sport teams, but we are scored. Starting out with points and every mistake that is made points get taken off. Perfection is expected. We have two minutes and thirty seconds to impress the judges, and if that is not done, we will not win. To get to where we need to be when we compete we have to practice.

A cheerleaders practice is just as hard as any other sport teams practice. A normal practice is more than two hours long. We have to stretch and pull our legs to our head. We defy gravity and flip upside down while doing full twists. And the obvious, we hold girls in the air (or be held) while the flyers contort their body into tear drop shapes while being ten feet in the air. It is strenuous work that requires a lot of physical and mental strength. Not to mention it is very dangerous.

Cheerleading has become the sport with the most injuries. This includes football, basketball, and hockey. We break our noses and our arms. We tear our ACL’s and ligaments in our ankles. We go into recovery, push through it and go back to our team as fast as we can. We put our hearts and souls into everything we do. Emotionally investing everything we have into that two minute and thirty second routine, just because WE LOVE OUR SPORT!!!!!

A Look Inside

With two all girl teams and one large coed team, Lindenwood University is dominating the mat! With three two hour practices, and two hour work outs a week these college teams are well are there way to getting a championship ring. With Nationals the beginning of April and NAIA in February these teams are taking every opportunity they can to prepare for these competitions.

At every football and basketball game you can see the teams performing difficult stunts and practicing their tumbling so nothing goes wrong in the future. Holli Linden said, “We are working really hard to get and maintain our skills now so we don’t have to worry about it when Nationals rolls around!”

In previous years Lindenwood University has done very well at Nationals and NAIA. Lindenwood has won NIAI for six years in a row, for the exception of a devastating second place finishing to Missouri Valley. As well as making a name for themselves at Nationals when placing second in 2006.

Keep an eye on the Lions this year, they are putting in the work and taking the extra time to perfect everything from jumps, to stunts, to tumbling. We will see if their hard work pays off. Good Luck Lions! To read more about the Lindenwood Lions click HERE.

Incredible Jumps

Cheerleaders do not just want to do a jump; they want to perform the best jump that they can. So after you have mastered the basic jump, it is time to make your jumps better than ever! Here are tips to not only make your toes touch the sky but also teach you proper jump technique.

STRETCH- Warming your muscles up and stretching before activates are very important to keeping you safe and perfecting your jumps. Stretch not only when you are getting ready to work out, but also stretch when you have free time. This will lengthen your muscles and make your jumps even higher.

PUMP THE IRON- Jumping takes a lot of leg muscles. The more muscles you have to push off the ground, the higher the jumps will go. So take some time out of your busy schedule and hit the weights (focusing on quads and caves), you will be amazed at how much your jumps will improve!

TAKE ADVICE- It is obvious that you cannot see the jump as you are performing it. There for, ask your coaches and team mates for help. They can tell you if you need to point your toes or keep your chest up.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE- You may have heard your mom say practice makes perfect, well, she knows what she is talking about (I know surprising!). The best way to get amazing jumps is to practice them. The harder you work, the higher your jump!!