**Disclaimer: The following passage is done at the author's personal capacity and is not representative of Wildcards nor is it directed at anybody in particular. Any resemblance to any individuals/teams is not intentional and should be taken as purely coincidental. Reader discretion is advised**
Natural Selection (noun)
The process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.
- Charles Darwin
So how does the above theory fit into the cheerleading we have today?
I have coached and set up 3 high school teams and 2 open category teams in my 7 years of competitive cheerleading. Unfortunately, out of the 5 teams that I started, 3 have already closed down. The good news is, the remaining two teams are still going strong. Team Spectrum has been active since 2005, and Wildcards has been active since 2008.
The fact remains: more teams, more competition. Less teams, less competition. Less competition = less avenues to nurture and develop talent. Less talent = harder to teams to sustain = more teams will close down.
Helping cheerleading to ''grow'' is a collective nation wide effort. I personally see it EQUALLY IMPORTANT to grow our existing resources (teams in terms of their overall skill level) as well as to fight against attrition (teams exiting from the local scene).
Starting up a team is not easy. Maintaining a team is even more difficult.
Don't take my word for it. Look at the number of local cheerleading teams we have here, and see if their website is still active. Do you math.
Since I have discussed about how to build cheerleading in my previous post, I shall discuss about how to prevent more teams from exiting the local scene in this entry.
1) Team coaches need to upgrade themselves constantly
Why? Because if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got. Even if you are 10 time National Champions, you cannot assume that just because you are running in front, the person behind you will not run faster to catch up. Even if your team did not do well last season, that does not mean that they will not do better this season. People DO get tired of losing. It is the same as failing your driving test again and again!
If the coaches themselves get complacent, they will be the #1 root cause of a team's downfall.
Coaches themselves must constantly upgrade their skills and ensure that what they are teaching is the most efficient method. While I agree that there is no ''best'' method, there are certainly very ''outdated'' methods that are no longer relevant today. For example, I do not believe in spending hours teaching the whole team how to do a cartwheel, nor do I believe in spending hours conducting physical training. Cheerleaders should be responsible for their own physical development outside the mats, not during training. Training time should be used to improve the techincal aspect of the sport. Here in Singapore where the pace of life is so fast, time is really everything. Spending hours at practice does not equate to being ''efficient''.
My definition of ''efficient'' is: the ability to learn a stunt within certain training hours on the mats. For example, being able to teach a pop double twist dismount in 3 training hours is efficient. Not being able to execute a double twist after 90 hours of training on the mats is inefficient.
2) Your team should avoid ''not competing''
To the best of my knowledge, teams who stopped competing for one season rarely made it back the following season. Even if they did, it would be another one-off thing. And that is it. You never see them again.
The best explanation I can offer from my personal experience is: most existing members saw no more incentive to carry on training. It is the same as studying for exams. Most people study hard for their subjects because they know they have a paper they need to pass. I am not saying that exams are the best guage for one's ability, but exams (competitions) are probably the most tangible common goal everybody in the team can aim for. A team cannot operate without a goal. Training for a certain stunt for ''personal achievement'' is a personal goal. It is not a team goal. Individuals may have different reasons for wanting to carry on cheering (eg: the company of team mates) but competitions are probably the most tangible milestones most people can relate to.
Competitions have deadlines. Deadlines require you to achieve certain results. And the competition mats is probably the best place to validate the results you have worked so hard for.
3) Pay your rent, regardless of your seniority.
Members who have graduated/are graduating AND still want to go back to their team to train should contribute. Think of it as paying rent for using the team's resources. Contributing can come in the form of helping to train newbies or giving suggestions on how to cut short the learning curve for example. Such members must have genuine intentions of helping the newer generation to grow and put the newer generation in front of their own satisfaction. Remember, if your team ceases to exist, there will be no place for you to train.
Cheerleading follows the theory of National Selection. To ensure perpetuation of future generations, we must quickly identify favorable traits to ensure the survival of existing teams. The above 3 points are experiences I have derived that ensured the survival of the team I am managing. It may or may not work for you. If whatever I have mentioned does not make sense, don't do it. However, if whatever you are doing presently is not working out right for your team, you may wish to try the points which I have shared.
I would like to end off this entry by a video from Wong Fu productions. Enjoy.
For more information on the theory of Natural selection, click here.
- Charles Darwin
So how does the above theory fit into the cheerleading we have today?
I have coached and set up 3 high school teams and 2 open category teams in my 7 years of competitive cheerleading. Unfortunately, out of the 5 teams that I started, 3 have already closed down. The good news is, the remaining two teams are still going strong. Team Spectrum has been active since 2005, and Wildcards has been active since 2008.
The fact remains: more teams, more competition. Less teams, less competition. Less competition = less avenues to nurture and develop talent. Less talent = harder to teams to sustain = more teams will close down.
Helping cheerleading to ''grow'' is a collective nation wide effort. I personally see it EQUALLY IMPORTANT to grow our existing resources (teams in terms of their overall skill level) as well as to fight against attrition (teams exiting from the local scene).
Starting up a team is not easy. Maintaining a team is even more difficult.
Don't take my word for it. Look at the number of local cheerleading teams we have here, and see if their website is still active. Do you math.
Since I have discussed about how to build cheerleading in my previous post, I shall discuss about how to prevent more teams from exiting the local scene in this entry.
1) Team coaches need to upgrade themselves constantly
Why? Because if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got. Even if you are 10 time National Champions, you cannot assume that just because you are running in front, the person behind you will not run faster to catch up. Even if your team did not do well last season, that does not mean that they will not do better this season. People DO get tired of losing. It is the same as failing your driving test again and again!
If the coaches themselves get complacent, they will be the #1 root cause of a team's downfall.
Coaches themselves must constantly upgrade their skills and ensure that what they are teaching is the most efficient method. While I agree that there is no ''best'' method, there are certainly very ''outdated'' methods that are no longer relevant today. For example, I do not believe in spending hours teaching the whole team how to do a cartwheel, nor do I believe in spending hours conducting physical training. Cheerleaders should be responsible for their own physical development outside the mats, not during training. Training time should be used to improve the techincal aspect of the sport. Here in Singapore where the pace of life is so fast, time is really everything. Spending hours at practice does not equate to being ''efficient''.
My definition of ''efficient'' is: the ability to learn a stunt within certain training hours on the mats. For example, being able to teach a pop double twist dismount in 3 training hours is efficient. Not being able to execute a double twist after 90 hours of training on the mats is inefficient.
2) Your team should avoid ''not competing''
To the best of my knowledge, teams who stopped competing for one season rarely made it back the following season. Even if they did, it would be another one-off thing. And that is it. You never see them again.
The best explanation I can offer from my personal experience is: most existing members saw no more incentive to carry on training. It is the same as studying for exams. Most people study hard for their subjects because they know they have a paper they need to pass. I am not saying that exams are the best guage for one's ability, but exams (competitions) are probably the most tangible common goal everybody in the team can aim for. A team cannot operate without a goal. Training for a certain stunt for ''personal achievement'' is a personal goal. It is not a team goal. Individuals may have different reasons for wanting to carry on cheering (eg: the company of team mates) but competitions are probably the most tangible milestones most people can relate to.
Competitions have deadlines. Deadlines require you to achieve certain results. And the competition mats is probably the best place to validate the results you have worked so hard for.
3) Pay your rent, regardless of your seniority.
Members who have graduated/are graduating AND still want to go back to their team to train should contribute. Think of it as paying rent for using the team's resources. Contributing can come in the form of helping to train newbies or giving suggestions on how to cut short the learning curve for example. Such members must have genuine intentions of helping the newer generation to grow and put the newer generation in front of their own satisfaction. Remember, if your team ceases to exist, there will be no place for you to train.
Cheerleading follows the theory of National Selection. To ensure perpetuation of future generations, we must quickly identify favorable traits to ensure the survival of existing teams. The above 3 points are experiences I have derived that ensured the survival of the team I am managing. It may or may not work for you. If whatever I have mentioned does not make sense, don't do it. However, if whatever you are doing presently is not working out right for your team, you may wish to try the points which I have shared.
I would like to end off this entry by a video from Wong Fu productions. Enjoy.
For more information on the theory of Natural selection, click here.
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