Your Camp Home Cheer or Dance

Going to cheer camp usually means bringing a piece of your creativity with you in the form of a camp cheer or dance. Check with your camp to see if you are required to bring material from home Even if it is optional, you should considering preparing something. This will give your team a focus before camp and they will be able to work together for the first time as a team. Debuting this cheer or dance at camp can be a victory or a disaster. So I decided to list a few ways to make your camp cheer a success story.

Know the Requirements

Make sure you find out from the cheer camp company what the requirements are for the home cheer and/or dance. Some camps do not have this and others have special requirements like no stunting in the routine. Make sure you build your routine based on the requirements. Follow the rules!

Choose the Skills to Utilize

Even before you sit down with words in front of you, you may want to think through how much you want to pack into this cheer. Decide if you want a jump, tumbling, stunts or all of the above. Think through your squad’s strengths and the formations. For the cheer know whether it is best to have a performance cheer or a crowd-oriented cheer for your organization’s cheer camp

Find the Words

Words can be the hardest part of creating a camp cheer. Now that you know what you want to put into it, you’ll need to put together a cheer long enough to accommodate those skills. Search online and pull pieces together that you like and that aren’t the same, everyday cheerleading words that you’re familiar with.

Create Formations

Before you consider motions, you’ll want to figure out a formation that will best display the skills you choose to incorporate. If you have tumblers, make sure they have enough space and that they will still be in a formation even after they tumble. Put your best jumpers in the front and center areas, and sprinkle your next best ones around the edges. If you decide to put a stunt in your cheer or dance, be sure your formation sets up simple traffic patterns for your cheerleaders to reach their stunt groups.

Add Motions

This is the fun part. Since you have the formation and the skills figured out and placed in the cheer, you may now begin adding in the motions. Traditional cheer motions are always a great place to start. I would even consider adding a couple of “dancy” motions in for variety. Because you already have a formation, you may also want to consider different levels or ripples for your the squad to make an added visual impact. For a dance, consider using motions to do formation changes.

Edit for Difficulty

Don’t overwork your team. Cheer camp represents a difficult time where a new squad first gets it all together. You want to use skills that they have mastered cleanly and that they can accomplish when they’re tired (because they will be). You can always make it more difficult at camp if they’re up to the challenge, but hitting their egos with a “watered-down” version is not usually the best way to start off a year.

Use What you Have

You can always avoid starting from scratch. You should consider using your tryout cheer/dance. It is recommended to only use it if you have an original one and not one you learned off YouTube or another video. Using your tryout material will save you time and you will be able to get ready quicker.

Your squad’s cheer camp experience is a catalyst for your entire year. Be a success story by showing how your team can work together with a cheer that they can accomplish victoriously. Building a squad of confident, strong cheerleaders is the goal—start here with a knock-out camp cheer.

What is your process for preparing a camp cheer?

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