Ah, what a wonderful year we have had at nationals, awards nights, show cases, competitions and summer camps..... ow wait.. No that was suppose to be the year we had before Covid hit the scene!
Well, the show must go on and tryouts are now coming up this month! Get your ear plugs ready as all you’ll be hearing is 5,6,7,8 for a while as your child is frantically trying to get skills back for try outs that they haven’t done in 4 months.
But as coaches we say... WORRY NOT. This break from training has been hard on us all.
For athletes to not see their fellow team mates that they only see at training due to not living close, going to school together and/or being too young to have a phone to communicate with. Not feeling any motivation to get out of bed and practise, even if it is a zoom class with their coach pushing them and having mum shouting to get out of bed- there’s just no self drive, which makes all the difference. No competitions planned to look forward to or work hard for. No future excitement that’s anything like normal, we joke and say its tough being a kid... But actually at the moment, it kinda is!
We talk about this new normal, but do our kids really look at it like that? Can they adjust like we do as adults or do they just see it as them being practically grounded for 4 months? Some of them really have had a ‘home holiday’ where they have done diddly squat for 4 months and really got time to BE A KID but with that has the hard work ethic of life actually worn off too.. and now were trying to bring them back down to reality. For them it must feel like torture and on the flip side as a adult I guess you could say it would feel like going to the Maldives for 3 weeks and coming back to work in 24 hours! OUCH!
For parents, over night you had to gain a degree in every subject, learn every kind of sum for maths, take on the romans and learn about every spotting technique to support your child in cheerleading known to man, in record timing, while trying to keep food on the table for the family and keep your sanity! Pretty impressive don’t you think?
God, you deserve a break, that trip to the Maldives would definitely be great right now huh?!
For coaches, we have tried to increase our fun and encouragement by 1000 so it comes across as a some what normal amount through the screen. Tried to stay patient without to much worry for the situation of our future in the business and our livelihoods. More than anything tried to keep things alive within the club and keep ourselves motivated for ‘our new’ day to day jobs.
However with all of this going on and try outs now coming up as coaches we are starting to receive those emails:
‘Will she make the team without her normal skills’
‘He’s so worried about coming as he doesn’t feel fit enough’
‘Should she bother coming try outs if she cant do anything’
‘I don’t want them to go down a level’
Yes, these are all things your child might be worrying about and now you as a parent are worrying about too. BUT, as coaches we have already had this in mind from the get go of lock down. We knew some kids would come back rocking all their new skills, some may have developed some mind blocks and some may feel as though they have lost every skill they gained in the season just gone.
But we take it back to what we say to the kids day in day out.
DO YOU TRUST US?
Trust us to make the right decisions for the teams going forwards next season. Don’t see the level that your child cheered on last season on the list? Well obviously we didn’t think it was needed this season. TRUST US
Trust us to put your child on the team that is right for them and will ultimately make them better at cheerleading. Not gymnastics, not jumps, not flying, but the whole package. TRUST US
Trust us to get their skills back without coach mum and dad hounding them at home, trust that we can make it work with the right formula when they get back to training. TRUST US
Trust that we will pick the right competitions for each team to do well in and that location, price and ease is only a small part of the decision making for the whole seasons plan ahead. TRUST US
Because this year, like no other, will be the year where we make the biggest changes to how things work, bringing fun back into a class environment, how we need to dig deep and how we really work as a team to make up for lost time.
We want you to know that no matter what the situation from home over the last 4 months has been like, there is always a space for your child within our cheerleading family and that no matter how they come back to us, they will be drilled back into the athlete they used to be and better!
Come to try outs and have fun!
See the coaches and let the athletes see some of their friends and go home knowing that they will soon have something very exciting to look forward to!
Your Coach Syd 😊