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Complete Cheerleading - Justin Carrier and Donna McKay
Complete Cheerleading
by Justin Carrier and Donna McKay
NEW, 248 pages
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About Complete Cheerleading
Fire up the fans, inspire the team, and win cheer competitions with the help of Complete Cheerleading! This guide is your all-in-one source for mastering the increasingly challenging individual and team techniques of cheering.
Packed with jumps, stunts, tosses, and more, this comprehensive book includes more than 100 skills that are essential to clean routines and crowd-pleasing stunts. Almost 200 great photographs show the proper execution of the skills, and two of cheerleading’s top coaches provide helpful coaching points throughout the book. Chapters on choreography, competition, and conditioning make this an essential tool for improving both individually and as a squad.
Perform with precision and flair. Whether you cheer on a supportive or competitive squad, Complete Cheerleading will make your next event your best yet!
About Justin Carrier
Justin Carrier worked for the National Cheerleading Association (NCA) for 11 years, most recently as director of curriculum, until 2004 when he was promoted to director of events and championships. As the curriculum director, he was responsible for training materials, manuals, books, and curriculum for youth, high school, all-star, and college levels. He has appeared in many of the NCA's training videos and speaks regularly at coaching clinics around the country. Carrier is head instructor for many of the NCA's largest camps, and he personally trains more than 5,000 athletes and 400 high school coaches each summer. In addition, he created and developed the coaches certification program for the NCA from 2000 to 2005 and coauthored curriculum for safety programs for both the United States All- Star Federation (USASF) and the National Council for Spirit Safety and Education (NCSSE).
About Donna McKay
Donna McKay has coached high school cheerleaders for almost 20 years. She has served on the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Spirit Rules Committee, on the National Spirit Group (NSG) Spirit Advisory Board, and twice as president of the Iowa Cheerleading Coaches Association. McKay was named the National Federation Section IV Coach of the Year in 1997 and received the NCCC National Outstanding Cheerleading Service of the Year Award in 1995. She compiled a cheerleading handbook, which was distributed to all Iowa high schools, and has twice revised the NCA Coaches Manual.
Her cheer squads and program have earned numerous national distinctions, including recognition as one of the NCA's Best of the Best and an NCA Top 1000 Squad, as well as selection to cheer at the McDonald's All-American Basketball Game on ESPN. Her squads have won two state championships, been awarded four Sportsmanship Trophies at boys' state basketball tournaments, and consistently received Distinguished Academic Achievement Awards. Almost 80 cheerleaders from McKay's squads have been selected to Iowa All-State Squads. She has judged competitions since 1993, speaks at conferences, and coordinates the NCA/NDA National Coaches' and Directors' Conferences. McKay holds an MSE degree in educational administration. She is a teacher and coach in Mason City, Iowa.
Reviews
"Complete Cheerleading is an excellent resource for veteran coaches, new coaches, and cheerleaders themselves. From skills and stunts to crowd involvement and camp selection, this book will help anyone involved in cheering become even more successful!"
Bill Patterson
Senior vice president, marketing
National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Alliance
"Wow! Complete Cheerleading contains a lot of great information about all aspects of cheerleading. I especially encourage everyone to read the section on pep rallies—my favorite!"
Billy R. Smith
President and founder
Cheer Gyms Association
About Cheerleading
Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles introduced the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota. However, it was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!”, making Campbell the very first cheerleader and November 2, 1898 the official birth date of organized cheerleading. Soon after, the University of Minnesota organized a "yell leader" squad of 6 male students, who still use Campbell's original cheer. In 1903 the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma was founded. Cheerleading started out as an all-male activity, but females began participating in 1923, due to limited availability of female collegiate sports and men being drafted for war. At this time, gymnastics, tumbling, and megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used. It is estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants overall are female, but males still make up 50% of cheering squads at the collegiate level.
Cornell University cheerleader on a 1906 postcard
In 1948, Lawrence "Herkie" Herkimer, of Dallas, TX and a former cheerleader at Southern Methodist University formed the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) as a way to hold cheerleading clinics. In 1949, The NCA held its first clinic in Huntsville, TX with 52 girls in attendance. Herkimer contributed many firsts to the sport: the founding of the Cheerleader & Danz Team cheerleading uniform supply company, inventing the herkie, (where one leg is bent towards the ground and the other is out to the side as high as it will stretch in the toe-touch position) and creating the "Spirit Stick". By the 1960s, college cheerleaders began hosting workshops across the nation, teaching fundamental cheer skills to eager high-school-age girls. In 1965, Fred Gastoff invented the vinyl pom-pon and it was introduced into competitions by the International Cheerleading Foundation (now the World Cheerleading Association or WCA). Organized cheerleading competitions began to pop up with the first ranking of the "Top Ten College Cheerleading Squads" and "Cheerleader All America" awards given out by the International Cheerleading Foundation in 1967. In 1978, America was introduced to competitive cheerleading by the first broadcast of Collegiate Cheerleading Championships on CBS.
In the 1960s National Football League (NFL) teams began to organize professional cheerleading teams. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders soon gained the spotlight with their revealing outfits and sophisticated dance moves, which debuted in the 1972–1973 season, but were first seen widely in Super Bowl X (1976). This caused the image of cheerleaders to permanently change, with many other NFL teams emulating them. Most of the professional teams' cheerleading squads would more accurately be described as dance teams by contemporary standards; as they rarely, if ever, actively encourage crowd noise or perform modern cheerleading moves.
The 1980s saw the onset of modern cheerleading with more difficult stunt sequences and gymnastics being incorporated into routines. All-star teams started to pop up, and with them the creation of the United States All-Star Federation (USASF) ESPN first broadcasted the National High School Cheerleading Competition nationwide in 1983. Cheerleading organizations such as the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA), founded in 1987, started applying universal safety standards to decrease the number of injuries and prevent dangerous stunts, pyramids and tumbling passes from being included in routines. In 2003, the National Council for Spirit Safety and Education (NCSSE) was formed to offer safety training for youth, school, all star and college coaches. The NCAA requires college cheer coaches to successfully complete a nationally recognized safety-training program. The NCSSE or AACCA certification programs are both recognized by the NCAA.
Even with its athletic and competitive development, cheerleading at the school level has retained its ties to the spirit leading traditions started back in the 1890s. Cheerleaders are seen as ambassadors for their schools, and leaders among the student body. At the college level, cheerleaders are often invited to help at university fundraisers.
Cheerleading is currently most closely associated with American football and basketball. Sports such as association football (soccer), ice hockey, volleyball, baseball, and wrestling sometimes sponsor cheerleading squads. The ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2007 was the first international cricket event to have cheerleaders. The Florida Marlins were the first Major League Baseball team to have cheerleaders. Debuting in 2003, the "Marlin Mermaids" gained national exposure and have influenced other MLB teams to develop their own cheer/dance squads.
Complete Cheerleading
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