Sibling Rivalry on the Cheerleading Squad

While having your sibling on the cheer squad with you can be a positive, cheerleaders or coaches may be concerned because of potential conflicts that often arise at least once during the season. Being siblings is completely different than being teammates. The bond between siblings is so strong and impossible to replicate, no matter how close someone may be with a friend or teammate. While this is a great thing, there is the potential hazard of sibling rivalry. Siblings often naturally compete against one another (especially twins). A big part of it is about impressing their parents and trying to be better than the other. Another part is trying to find distance and create space between someone they see almost all day and night. They go to school together, they eat dinner together, they practice together, and they cheer together. This means they probably also have the same friends. Spending so much time with another person is hard; it’s as if you’re attached at the hip! As siblings, it’s important to find time to spend apart from one another. This will greatly help. Additionally, take the time either together or on your own to distinguish one another’s skills. Focus on what makes you different, rather than the same to reduce feelings of rivalry. Maybe one is a great flyer and the other is a powerful tumbler. If you only focus on what you’re both good at, you’re naturally going to want to be better than the other at that thing. Being on a team with siblings also poses its challenges. If a sibling rivalry starts to distract the team or break the team’s unity, talk to your captain and/or coach about the situation. Siblings may be used to treating each other a certain way at home and in their free time and not realize that they need to adjust their everyday actions for the team. Simply asking a leader to step in and help could make all the difference for conflict resolution and save the team from drama that can be distracting. As a captain or coach with siblings on your squad, make sure you look at each member of the team, especially siblings, as individuals. Siblings each have their own strengths and weaknesses that make them valuable to the team. By seeing them as individuals who work together and form one team, siblings won’t feel like they’re being compared. Remember, encouraging healthy competition between siblings will help them to grow as teammates when they are constantly pushing each other to improve. The key is not letting it turn into a rivalry. Have you been on a squad with siblings? Is your sibling on the squad with you? How do you handle sibling rivalries?