Addressing The Issues Today’s Cheerleaders Face

As cheerleading grows in recognition and popularity, there are many issues (new, old, and expanding) facing today’s cheerleaders. As a coach, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest news and issues and know how to handle them when one of them affects your squad. There are several major issues affecting today’s cheerleaders. Here are just a few of them: Balancing School, Life, and Cheer As cheerleading grows in skill and competitiveness, cheerleaders practice nearly every day of the week. On top of practice, stretching, competing, and attending games and pep rallies, cheerleaders attend school, study, and keep up with homework. This doesn’t even include social activities, like school dances, sleepovers, birthday parties or other events. Especially with younger cheerleaders, a good coach helps their squad balance individual schedules. Once in a while, plan a meeting and ask your cheerleaders how they’re handling their classes and whether or not they’re feeling overwhelmed. Make sure they still have some time in their schedule to hang out with friends and be a kid. This will help prevent them from quickly burning out. Cheer Celebrities Thanks to cheerleading shows, like “Secret Diary of an American Cheerleader” and “Cheer Mashup,” and the televised airing of cheer competitions, top cheerleaders have become celebrities in the cheer world. Some of the biggest cheer celebrities include Maddie Gardner and Cami Branson. With the increase in cheerlebrities, cheerleaders now have role models to aspire to be like. They look up to cheerlebrities like Maddie Gardner and often want to become a cheerlebrity themselves. As a coach, help your cheerleaders reach their goals but don’t let them constantly compare themselves to cheerlebrities. In their goal to become as successful and skilled as Maddie or Cami, they may push and pressure themselves too hard. Remind them that they are their own person and it takes time to get better. Social Media Social media is great to utilize for your squad. You can instantly share a message with your team, notify them about a change in the practice schedule, or leave an inspirational “great job today!” note. However, with the positives come the negatives. Social media makes it easy for rumors to spread and for comments to be misunderstood. If you utilize social media at all, whether it’s a discussion board, blog, or Facebook, keep an eye out for bullying, rumors, or insensitive comments. Social media gives people the confidence to say things they wouldn’t normally do so in person, and unfortunately, this includes insults and bullying. If you use a social media platform, set out rules and guidelines for your cheerleaders and reiterate that you will not tolerate bullying. If you find, see, or are notified of any negative comments, remove it immediately and speak with your squad. Stereotyped Roles in the Media Along with the growth of cheerlebrities is the growth of cheer in the media. Although this means more inspiring and uplifting stories of cheerleaders in the community, it also means cheerleaders are at risk for the spreading of stereotypes. Cheerleading stereotypes give cheer a bad name and most of them are completely inaccurate. Don’t let these stereotypes get your cheerleaders down. Encourage them to fight back by proving the stereotypes wrong – get good grades, work hard, give back to the community, and more! Plan Ahead Once you’re aware of the issues, you can plan ahead to incorporate or exclude them from your program schedule for the year. As you continue to research today’s issues and stay updated on current events, you’ll be a better coach for your squad. What issues do you believe cheerleaders currently face? What can be done to address them?