Q&A for How to Be Accepted Into a Cheerleading Squad With No Tumbling Experience

Convince them cheering is your passion and you're ready to fully invest yourself in it.

Usually, you can't be too small to make the squad. Smaller people are great because they are ideal flyers.

Try going to a local cheer gym's open gym night. The coaches and other cheerleaders there would be more than happy to go through the basics with you, and you can even sign up for a class through the gym.

You can jump higher by focusing on pushing off the mat before you hit your jump. Incorporate all your energy into the jump that you are doing while staying tight! Strengthen your leg muscles with exercises like squats to increase the height you can jump.

Trust yourself. If you stay calm and motivate yourself, you'll have nothing to worry about. Always tell yourself that you can do it. Even if you mess up the first few times, it's okay because you are still learning.

You don't need to learn how to be a professional gymnast overnight to become a cheerleader. All you need is the basics, such as high kick, loud voice, good coordination for the cheers, toe touch, and maybe a cartwheel. Then ,let your coach help you learn more.

Yell from your diaphragm. It might sound weird, but cheerleaders are taught to yell from their bellies, so it comes out loud and clear. This also helps you from not losing your voice.

You can use gym shoes for practices, but you may need a specific shoe for games and events.

Cheerleading is an art. You need to build on flexibility and coordination which can take years for your cerebellum to develop new neural pathways.

It would be helpful if you did. A teammate or coach can help you learn, and you don't have to be a professional tumbler right away.

Learn the basics either by yourself or with help from a friend who does cheer. Usually at tryouts or evaluations, they teach everything you need to make the team. It would be good to watch videos on YouTube of tryout dances to see what it's like, but no experience is needed, you will learn everything you need at practices.

Of course not. Just keep practicing. I couldn't do one for years, and then one day I just got it. Part of cheerleading is patience and dedication.

Some homeschool co-ops have cheerleaders.

Probably not. Check with your school to see what the basic requirements are.

It may be harder to make the team, but it doesn't mean it's impossible. Dancing is actually one of the easier skills to learn, so you can always ask your future teammates to help you with your moves.

Yes, because you could be a base or a wing during practices.

Yes, that is considered a type of tumbling.

Keep stretching every day to improve your flexibility.

No. Forget your size and just focus on your love for cheerleading. They accept you based on talent, not size.

If you try for a level one cheering squad, a round off, cartwheel, back or front walkover, and handstand are all strongly recommended.

Yes, but it would help if you had contacts in while you did jumps and stunts, especially for games.

As long as you can do the jump, that's all that really matters. Don't get too caught up in what it looks like, just try your best and you will get better over time.

This depends on the team you're trying out for. If they have a good team, they most likely will have good tumblers. This doesn't mean ALL of the girls are going to know tumbling, so you won't be alone! I think you'll have a pretty good chance of making the team if you have great technique on all of the other parts of the sport.

It doesn't matter if you don't remember. Just learn again. You could even get better than you were before. Start out with what you know, then work your way up to more advanced skills.

If those are the only skills you have, yes. However, you could practice roundoffs also. Those are similar to cartwheels, check out this article on How to Do a Roundoff .

Probably not. If the cheer uniform actually shows your acne, try using an acne soap to keep it under control. if that doesn't work you can wear a higher backed uniform.

You might want to start off with something easier than a backflip. Maybe then you can get help from a peer or coach who can do one and gradually work your way up to it.

Most competitive cheerleading gyms will offer classes that you can attend to practice your skills. They usually have a variety of classes, specialized for jumping, tumbling, stunting and conditioning.

Stretch a lot, as often as possible. It took me about 8 months to do a split stretching once a day, so stretch 2-3 times a day. You need good balance to tumble, not flexibilty.

Practice makes perfect. Work on your stretching outside of team practice, and ask your coach if there's any way they think you could improve.