Help! It's Summer!

Help! It's summer, and the holidays without cheer reality is setting in for my cheerleader. Quick panic, what do we do??!!!!

OK, breathe. It's OK not to be doing the cheer run for a few weeks, its alright that I feel like I am constantly missing something 5 days of the week, IT'S SUMMER!

We all feel like this don't we? Our beloved squad have just competed their last competition of the season, ICC Summer Jam, and I know that I am biased but WE SMASHED IT! Every team left their heart on the floor, and our little tiny team, well, lets just say the next generation of Panache is EXPLOSIVE!

So now after the high of the last competition of the 18/19 series, we all get a well deserved rest. So what is everyone doing? How are you filling the training time over the next few weeks? (seriously, I need the ideas, comments appreciated! haha) Are your cheerleaders enjoying the rest, or climbing the walls already?!

Over the years we have filled this time with trips to open gyms, trampoline parks, squad meet ups at the park, or swimming, sleepovers, basically anything we can do where the girls can meet up and have fun together.

It is also a good excuse to meet with your cheer mum squad.

We all have friends from cheer that over the years turn into a second family. Those ladies that you automatically sit with at competition, who's children you scream for as loud as you do for your own, who are there when things go wrong and right! I am very, very lucky to have some fabulous cheer mum friends, who are present for me not just at cheer but outside our glitter filled bubble too! One in particular who I cant get through a day without a text, snapchat or phonecall!

So on that note, keep going, lean on your cheer mum squad, don't give up, you will get there! Remember, its only once a year!

Melanie x

The Perfect Pony

Why oh why cant people learn to do a decent pony tail?! This question plagues me at so many cheer competitions. I have to fight the urge to go to parents/coaches and say please can I redo that quiff, why is her bow on backwards, or its upside down! For the love of glitter please clip it!!!!

Ok, I understand that there will be a limited amount of people who are as obsessed with cheerleading hairstyles as I am, and that perfect cheer bow placement is not always top of the list for busy coaches or parents who are at their first cheerleading competition (because lets face it were too busy trying not to have heart failure at the size of the stage our little baby is about to be thrown onto, and wondering if its actually legal to play music this loud in a space filled with so many glittered up faces that were sure 5 different fire regulations must have been breached).

I am a cheer mum of a daughter who is on a team with very high standards, and I decided very early on that I didn’t want to rely on someone else to bun or quiff her hair and was determined to learn myself. I hate feeling helpless or unprepared, and needed to be able to prepare my little princess (demon on comp days before she performs) for her time in the spotlight.

My advice to anyone who is unsure, doesn’t know how, or needs some help with hairstyles is just ask! In my experience if you say can I watch, or will you show me how any cheer mum worth her salt will be more than happy to help (because lets face it, it means one less person in her queue at the next competition!) Practice at home, stick them in front of the tv/ipad for half an hour and figure it out!

I promise you the feeling that when you arrive at competition you wont have to worry about getting someone else to do their hair, not needing to shout at them because you're so worried that their quiff just looks like a bees nest and they just wont damn well stay still, or if their bow is going to fall out on stage (then they stand on it, fall over and break various parts of their anatomy) its totally worth it.

The Coaching Trials

Ok so we have all felt exasperated at our childrens coaches from time to time, and sometimes our concerns are founded. But if you don’t trust your childs coach, how will they? I have felt disappointed in the past when I was told my daughter wasn’t ready for something, and as a parent I felt that she was. I am not ashamed to say that I was wrong. When she was ready she was awarded the opportunity, and in the intervening months had learnt so much that she was able to cope with the pressures her new spot afforded her.

I hate not being in control, so relinquishing it to someone else when she leaves my car and walks into a building is tough for me! I am lucky, really, really lucky. I have found coaches for my little cheerleader who have never stopped supporting her, believing in her, calling her out when she isn’t putting in enough effort, and giving her amazing opportunities for her to challenge herself with.

One coach in particular has an affinity with my daughter that I have never seen before, and if I’m honest I am a little envious of their closeness and how they can understand each other by just looking at the others face. Its like they have internal intercoms, I can ask one what the other is thinking and they will be on the money every time!

She is impossibly naïve and I have spent many times howling laughing while trying to explains the difference between countries and continents to her in my kitchen while using various household items to demonstrate! (I have found that expensive handbags and makeup seem to work the best) or how the strength of an alcoholic beverage doesn’t change if you pour some of it out, just the amount that’s in the bottle………(yes these are genuine debates and I didn’t make them up for comedic value)…..

But I digress, a coach who is in their job for the right reason will always make your child a better person, and not just in a “now I can flick tuck” kind of way. They will teach them to push when they think there’s nothing left to give, believe when they don’t think they can, get back up after a fall and try again, kindness to others when things go wrong, and be part of a team!

Cheerleading teaches children so much more than just what to do on the mat, and a real coach teaches these lessons.