As cheer coaches, our lives are busy, busy, busy. The to-do list is never ending, and the last thing you want is another task, especially one that you have to do before every practice. I felt the same way a couple years ago.
Creating a written cheer practice plan may seem like a low priority, but trust me when I say that it is worth the few minutes of investment! When I first started coaching, I just ran practices how I was used to them being run in high school – stretch, kicks, jumps, work on a little bit of material if we need to, then stunt and/or tumble. Being the only coach for a team of 18 cheerleaders, I quickly felt overwhelmed, and there were days that I would leave practice and think, “We didn’t really accomplish anything today.”
Enter the cheer practice plan.
Our athletic department requires coaches to create and keep practice plans, and the first day I actually did it, I was amazed at how much better I felt about the day. We were able to achieve so much because I knew we only had a certain amount of time blocked before we needed to move on, and I had a renewed sense of confidence in my own ability to lead effectively.
There are several reasons to use a written cheer practice plan:
- Manage your limited time – There are so many things to work on during cheer practice and only a limited amount of time. A written plan will make sure you have time allotted to focus on each element.
- Stay focused – It is easy to get sidetracked during cheer practice. Having a couple goals for each practice and time blocked specifically to work on those skills gives you something to work toward.
- Track progress – A practice plan gives you a place to easily keep a record of what was worked on, which skills hit, and which ones still need some work.
- Earn trust – When you come to cheer practice with a written schedule and stick to it, athletes know you mean business and they trust that you have the big picture in mind. It also shows athletes that you care enough to put in the extra time.
- Liability protection – One reason my athletic department requires all coaches to keep written practice plans is to document when we give safety reminders. In the event someone is injured and a parent pursues legal action, having this written documentation may help offer protection by verifying that safety protocols were being followed and that athletes were instructed on proper technique.
Before we dive into how to plan out practices, make sure to grab your FREE printable cheer practice plan. This is the same one I use every day and has made all the difference in running efficient practices.
Making your practice plan doesn’t have to take a ton of time. I keep a stack of blank plans at my desk at work and jot them down in just 10 or so minutes during my lunch.
Have your cheer practice plan in front of you? Good. Let’s walk through it together!
How to plan a cheerleading practice
Schedule
The main section of your practice plan is your schedule for the day, so let’s start there. I have left this box wide open to allow room for doodles, diagrams, and formatting your schedule however you need to.
The first step in planning a cheer practice is to take a mental inventory of everything that you need to consider:
- Setup time
- Warmup & stretch
- Jumps
- Sideline/Game day material
- Competition Routines
- Stunt work
- Tumbling
- Strength & conditioning
- Any upcoming special events to prep for? (clinics, homecoming, parades, fundraisers, etc.)
- Poster making/decorating for game days
- Team building
- Game plans
- Recaps and notes from last game/performance
- Announcements & reminders
- Cool down stretch
- Clean up time
When you write it all out, it can look overwhelming. How on earth are you supposed to fit all of this in?
The answer is: you can’t, and that’s ok. You don’t need to do all of these things during every practice (or even every week)
Every day will look a little different depending on where you are in the season and what events you have coming up. Here are a few of my actual practice plans from different points throughout a season. You’ll see there are some things that stay pretty consistent, and others that vary depending on the day.
There is not a one-size-fits-all formula and not one “right” way to create a cheer practice plan. However, here are some tips that I have learned over the years:
- Always block out time for a thorough warmup and stretch. Whenever possible, block out five minutes for a cool down stretch as well. I like to combine the cool down with announcements – yay for multitasking!
- Find patterns in your schedule to create a bit of routine. For example, my team attends a tumbling class at a local gym on Wednesdays after practice, so we typically won’t work tumbling during practice those days. Thursday practices during football season, we spend the last half hour making game day posters for the cafeteria and making our game plan.
- Work backwards from major dates and build out from there. For example, if your first competition is in September, you can work backwards to say, “Okay. We need to run X-number of full outs before the competition, so we need to finish learning the routine by X-date. That also means that we need to have these skills solid by X-date, or they won’t be in the routine.” Mark those on your calendar so you always have them in mind.
- Maybe I’m too lax, but I always leave a 5 minute buffer at the beginning of practice to finish setup.
- Be specific. Rather than just putting “Stunt time,” write out what specific stunts you want to work on.
- When in doubt, schedule more time for an activity than what you think you will need.
- Don’t forget to work in time for fun every once in a while. Even if it is just a quick round of lover’s leap or head/shoulders/knees/toes/pom in the last 5 minutes.
- Your frequency for strength and conditioning will be unique to your team based on your team’s goals, skill level, and how involved they are in your school’s S&C program (if you have one).
- Remember – you don’t have to fit every task into every single practice. Some things will be a once a week activity, and some may happen less than that.
- For the most part, I don’t write in water breaks, I just give [lots of!] water breaks as needed throughout the practice. However, when we are outside or during summer practices when the school’s A/C is off, I am more intentional about scheduling several 5 minute breaks throughout practice to make sure everyone is staying well-hydrated.
Attendance
While I keep a separate attendance spreadsheet, it is oftentimes easier to just make a quick note of tardies/absences on the plan without having to drag out and flip through my entire binder. I can then go back through and update the real attendance spreadsheet later. It also makes it easy to see who was absent for a practice when reviewing a plan later in the season.
Goals
Identify 2-3 goals for each practice. These ensure you are working toward something specific and create a sense of accomplishment when you can check them off at the end of the day. Make sure these are attainable (but still challenging enough)!
Announcements
I am the worst at remembering announcements, so this box is especially helpful for me. I always save these for the end of practice so it is fresh in everyone’s mind when they get home. You can schedule announcements during your cool down stretch to save some time by multitasking.
Notes
This is the second most important section of your cheer practice plan. I use the notes section to give myself a quick recap of how practice went:
- What safety reminders were given? What technique was reviewed?
- What new skills did we get? Which ones were close?
- Was something not working in a stunt group? Make note to watch the video back and figure out what isn’t meshing.
- Was there anything on the schedule that you didn’t get to?
- Were there any injuries? How were they addressed?
- Did anyone show excellent leadership? Make note for end of season awards.
- Was anyone acting out of character? Make a note to keep an eye on them. It could just be an off-day, but could also be something bigger that you should check in with them about.
Again, writing down the notes may seem tedious, but it doesn’t have to be. I’ve found I can typically get all my notes written down in less than 5 minutes while the team is still putting away mats or as soon as I get home that night. It doesn’t have to be extremely intricate, just hit the big picture items so that you can know what to work on the next practice.
Final Thoughts
While you should try to stick to your cheer practice plan as closely as possible (otherwise what was the point of making it, right?), there will be times when you need to deviate from the plan. That is perfectly ok!
Some days you will need to spend an extra 5-10 minutes on a skill or part of a routine because you are so close to getting it right. Other days, you will come in with lofty goals just to find that the team is having a rough day and you need to scale back a bit to keep everyone safe. Sometimes you’ll find that you simply underestimated the amount of time something will take. This is a part of the learning process, and being able to adapt quickly is all part of coaching.
I hope that this breakdown will help you organize your practices for a successful season, and if you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your printable practice plan sheet before you go!
