3B Lessons of a Cheerleader

When I first walked into the gym of Dodd Middle School six years ago, I did not realize how important cheerleading was going to be to me. Ever since the day I made the middle school team, my days were always filled with something that was cheer related, whether is was a practice, private tumbling classes, fundraising or coaching the youth cheerleading program, I always had something going on. Though most of the time I never set specific times when I was going to practice or coach the youth teams because my coaches were in charge of scheduling, I never thought that I was wasting time, I loved everything about cheerleading. Even when I would go to tumbling classes, I didn’t have to convince myself to go to the class, I was always excited to practice and improve my tumbling skills because it made me a better and stronger cheerleader. Practices were mainly structured around working as a team. We would practice stunting, synchronization, and perfecting our overall look but all of this also requires practice outside of the small time frame we were given in the gym. My coaches would strongly encourage us to work out daily and to practice our dance/cheer/jumps at home because our main concern during practice was to fix the little mistakes and to work on the timing of everything as a team. Practicing outside of the gym didn’t ever feel like an extra task that I needed to do, I wanted to become better and perfect my skills. I was strongly motivated to put the extra effort in not only for myself but for the good of my team. Cheerleading is not only about individual skills but the group effort to put on a winning routine.

I learned so much from cheerleading throughout middle school and high school. I learned the value of teamwork, dedication, and motivation. Teamwork was one of the first things I learned when I started. Lifting another person into the air requires the help of three others to make sure the flyer goes up and comes down safely. We would also work together by helping each other when we were stuck on a dance move we didn’t get or when a stunt wasn’t going up correctly. Teamwork is very important to every cheerleading team. Dedication was also a huge part of cheerleading, if you weren’t at every practice, game and event my coaches often thought you didn’t care about performing with the team and they would switch your position with someone who was showing their dedication. This also enabled the motivation to make it to every practice, every game, so there was no possible way the position you deserve would be taken away from you.

The lessons I learned through cheerleading are skills I can take beyond the competition floor. Learning how to communicate and work with a large group of individuals, being 100% dedicated to a team, and being motivated to do better are all skills I can use in college and in becoming a preschool teacher. I am hoping that cheering in college will also open me up to new experiences and new lessons that I can also take from after my college adventure is over. Cheerleading taught me many things over the years, and I’m very fortunate for those lessons.