My Goals

Goals

Fall Season

My goals for this season revolve around improving my flexibility and strength. My first goal is to acquire both sides of my splits. I currently am pretty close to having my right splits, but would love to have all my splits and enhance of flexibility by the end of the year! I will measure this goal by stretching everyday, even on days off from practice, and observe my progress as I hopefully get closer to the ground, and closer to having my splits! I believe this will improve my jumps, kicks, and tumbling where flexibility is very important. My second goal is to enhance my tumbling and get my back handspring, as well as my back walkover. These are both challenging tumbling skills that I would love to push myself to obtain. I know it will take a lot of hard work and perseverance, but being able to perform these skills would make me so proud of myself! To achieve these skills, I will definitely need to greatly increase the flexibility in my back. Strengthening exercises of my upper body and core will also be important in being able to accomplish these skills. To measure, I will be working hard to stretch as well as using my own time to complete exercises that will push me further towards my goal. Utilizing teammates who have these skills and are good at gymnastics will also help me as they can provide advice and assistance as I try to do these difficult skills. Hopefully through repetition and hard work I will be able to observe myself getting closer to achieving these goals throughout the season!

Winter Season

Moving onto another season of San Marin cheer, I know there is a lot more I can accomplish in my sport. While last season my goals were centered around improving flexibility and strength, this season I want to focus on strength in different ways. I feel more confident in my flexibility as I was successful in working towards my goals last season. I stayed consistent with stretching everyday and staying active, which helped me achieve my goal of obtaining my splits! I now see a noticeable improvement in my jumps, kicks, and overall comfort while doing tricks. While my other goal of enhancing my tumbling and getting my back handspring, as well as my back walkover, did not happen yet, I want to continue to work at it this winter season. My increase in flexibility might be beneficial to gaining these tumbling skills, but I will keep working on strengthening my core and back so I will be ready to successfully preform my my back handspring and back walkover. I can measure the flexibility in my back with back bends/other stretching to record improvement. As far as strength in my core and back, I will continue to perform my exercises and track my progress as time goes on. My current level of strength has somewhat decreased as I recently had an injury that limited my physical activity. I want to push to get back to (or hopefully get even stronger than) my strength before! I will track this progress through increasing weight and repetitons in weight/lifting excercises. I will also be able to measure how current core excercises get easier, which I can then increase the difficulty of. I will know when I have reached my goal when I can visibly see improvment in my physical appearance (muscles), and when attempting skills becomes successful more often. While these backwards skills are slightly scary for me, I want to be able to push through the mental block and achieve new skills. I want to continue to get better at my sport and adding tumbling will definitely be a contributing factor! This season will take commitment and hard work, but I feel confident I can do it!

Performance Evaluation

Fall Season

My experience in cheer has benefitted me in so many ways. Not only has it visibly improved my physical strength and muscle definition, but it has had an amazing mental influence as well. Through stunting, I have gradually felt my whole body getting stronger. Both my upper and lower body has gained more muscle and I feel better about my basing abilities everytime I leave the gym. Cheer has also greatly impacted my ability to overcome frustration and self-doubt. I have an incredible team who has truly become a family. We lift each other up and are there for each other when someone is struggling. Cheer is quite literally about maintaining postive attitudes and spirit, and I really have a team that does this both on and off the mats. I know I will always feel supported and cared for by all these amazing women and am grateful to have found another family through this sport.

As for following up with my season goals, I have noticed great improvement in flexibility as I have kept up with stretching everyday and measuring how far away I am from achieving my splits. I have also been working on strengthening my core and back through various workouts I complete in my free time to work towards improving tumbling skills. I do believe continuing this work will help me achieve my goals and I feel confident I am getting closer everyday.

Leadership is a skill cheer has definitely been a major factor in improving for me. Being apart of a large team that relies on each other for things to work means someone taking the lead and ensuring this is happening. We do have captains, but leadership throughout the entire team is important as well. If a stunt group or individual is struggling, someone will take a leadership role and take the extra time to practice and work with them to make sure they feel supported and motivated. No matter who you are, your voice and opinion matter on our team and we all need to help each other out. Trust and encouragement are hugely essential to our success as a team. So, as taking leadership and being a motivator is something so important in my sport, cheer has greatly enhanced my personal leadership skills. From being a quiet girl who hid in the back, I can say now that I take charge when necessary and will be a leader for my team to contribute to our success.

Winter Season

This has been a challenging and very different cheer season due to the impacts Covid-19 has had on our school, particulary in our sports. Due to restrictions, we had our chances to cheer at many of the basketball games taken away. However, spectators have recently been allowed back at the games, therefore allowing us to attend as well. This made our entire team extremely happy as none of us wanted to miss out on cheering for the winter season. Being back at practice and games allowed for a sense of normalcy, and definitely lifted our spirits. As we knew there were a limited amount of games left, we knew to bring our very best effort and be the best cheerleaders we could be. We worked extremely hard together to perfect routines and stunts, and never let each other give up. We all have a lot of support and care for each other and want only the best. This is a team that is incredible at lifting each other up and full of positive attitude. We are such a close-knit team and I am extremely grateful to have these wonderful people who have provided me so many psychological benefits and taught me so much.

As the season was temporarily interrupted, I decided to take this time to focus on my personal cheer goals. I made it a priority to find time everyday to complete core workouts and continue my stretching to ultimately contribute to my tumbling skills. Stretches for my back such as specific yoga poses and back arcs have definitely improved my back flexibilty. This is great to observe as I know it is a critical factor in achieving my back handspring. I have also been weight-lifting when I am able to and completing excercises such as squats, deadlifts, and many arm and chest workouts. This has been beneficial to my overall body strength, which will help me in almost all activities. I have been able to increase weight and repetitions, meaning I am getting stronger! From staying active and working on myself, I have already seen a lot of improvment, and will continue to do so even in the off-season.

Leadership is extremely important in cheer. We are a large team, but like many other sports, everyone is accountable and relies on each other for success. This allows a lot of room for induviduals to take lead and make sure this is successful. While we have captains that obtain a lot of this responsibility, everyone on the team has a voice and needs to contribute. We all depend on each other and have a lot of trust. Another imprtant factor is encouragement. Especially being involved in a sport centered around this component, we all have responsibilty to perfom this during games, but as well as practice and outside of the gym. We all lift each other up when there are challenges and ultimately work together to be the best we can be. I know I have had many oppurtunites to speak up, help someone out, and overall be a leader for my team. And this has made me more confident about doing so, and increased my ability to demonstrate leadership when necessary in all aspects of my life.