Keep it Simple

Finally!  In my home state, the State Championship has now been scheduled!  It typically takes place in December.  My team and I were not sure if we would have the opportunity to defend our state title this year.  Even more so than defending our title, we are just excited to get back out on the mat!

My mind has now begun to go wild with all of the ideas I have for the routine……

But, then I realize, in our state we can’t do inversions with masks on, and we must practice with masks.  

I then had to dig back to my first two decades of coaching before high school cheer teams could do the kind of inversions in our stunts that they can do now. 

But do we have time to learn all this?  What if someone on my team is quarantined?  What if I can’t have productive practices?  What if……

Instead of asking “what if?”, I decided I needed to regroup and re-strategize my approach.  As all of us cheer coaches know, this year is like no other!  

This year is not about defending our state title.  This year is about so much more.  

First and foremost, I decided I needed to…...

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

With the limited number of practices we were able to have in the Fall, I saw so much potential and we had the talent to increase the difficulty of our stunting from last year.  But, at this point, I haven’t been able to even practice with them since before Thanksgiving.  It is two months until State!

So, I keep telling myself…….

Keep it simple…..Keep it simple….Keep it simple.

This is the phrase that continues to resonate in my head.  The stunts and other skills that they will do this week (when we are finally able to practice again), will be what I know right now, the team can hit.  They will not be stunts that I feel they can get in a month with practice.  

Once they finish learning their competition routine this week, within two weeks, I want them to be able to run each section full out.  This means, they cannot be struggling with any element of the routine.  

I am keeping it simple for several reasons:

Clean and Confident Scores Best

First, COVID or not, a clean routine performed by a confident team will ALWAYS score better.  We need to empower our team for competition to be confident.  Confidence will help them to be more clean when they perform because they will be confident in every motion, tumbling pass and stunt.  

Eliminate Extra Stress

Second, our athletes do not need the extra stress.  I am always a coach to push my team hard and get them to do skills beyond what they thought was possible.  But, this is not the year to focus on hitting the most advanced skills possible.  

As with our own lives, our athletes' circumstances have likely changed drastically. We don't need to add a level of stunts and other skills to our routines that may cause unnecessary anxiety that may be magnified in a year like this.  

For the next two weeks my team will learn the entire routine. The goal is for them to be able to perform the stunt sequences during these two weeks so they can confidently run the routine in sections full out in two weeks. If my team is hitting their stunts and their other skills where they are ready to perform at a competition, then we will upgrade the routine by adding difficulty, one small part at a time.   

However, if they are not able to hit the routine full out in two weeks, we are going to continue to work the routine and determine if anything needs to be simplified.  

Focus on the Basics

Third, this is the year to focus on the basics and building a foundation.  I am optimistic that we will come out of COVID and get back to “normal” - a better “normal”.  If you can have a solid foundation with your motions, stunts, tumbling and other skills, it is a great place to build on for the future.  It always benefits a team to go back to the basics and if that means we need to go back to the basics for a full year, then that will serve your future teams well.  

Remember - Keep it Simple!  

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