It can be a wonderful experience to coach youth cheer but you need to be sure you know how to do so successfully. As a coach, you are also a role model. In addition to teaching the children the fundamentals of cheer, you are also teaching team spirit, cohesiveness and kindness. A cheerleader should be someone that others want to be around. They should make you smile and want to cheer. A grumpy cheer coach won’t even be able to instill that in her own squad, much less to the visitors and spectators.

Here are some beginner tips to coaching youth cheer:

Know the Fundamentals Yourself

Use the Internet to find programs that will help teach you what you need to know to be a great youth cheer coach and learn how to do the cheers yourself. You can use videos to help you learn how to do the moves correctly. Mastering the moves yourself will make it easier to teach them to your squad.

Before you allow your cheer team to do any drills, do warm-ups for both their arms and legs. Pushups are good for working the arms and exercises like squats, crunches, straddle-ups and lunges are great for the legs. When performing jumping drills, music can help the squad stay in sync. Counting aloud and calling out the moves can also help.

Make sure everyone on the team has proper training. They should know what position they should be in, what moves to do and how to do them correctly. All spotters should receive proper training as well to reduce the risk of injuries.

Complete Certification Programs

Everyone must be certified before coaching youth cheer and different states may have a different set of requirements. There are certification programs available to help you get the training you need to be certified. However, the state may still require additional training before you can be certified depending on which state you live in.

It is also a good idea and may be a requirement of your state to receive training in first aid before you become a youth cheer coach.

These tips will get you started on the basics but to be a great cheer coach, you should always be learning and growing, right along with your squad. So don’t stop here; keep studying, learning and growing as a coach.