Basics for a stunt

When you think of cheerleading what is the first thing that comes to mind, my first idea is stunting. Stunting takes a lot of patience and strength. When you are going to form a stunt you need two bases, a flyer, a back, and if needed a front. When starting a stunt your back yells out so that your stunt group can hear you “half 1 2”, then you usually start in a smush, then you go into a half. When you are in the half you have to always keep your knees locked and never look down. Whenever you are going to come down from a stunt you can call “smush 1 2”, or you can do a cooler way like for example “cradle 1 2” which is basically where both of the bases pop you up and extend your legs like if you were laying down and open your arms out on each side of your body, when you are coming down you back person should have their arms curled up so that they can catch your arms when you come down. There are other ways to get down from a stunt but I personally haven’t done them yet.

Some basics for stunting are how you get into a stunt. Usually to have one foot in the main bases hands (the main base is on the right side of the flyer), or you can do a jump in which is basically what the name of it means. When doing a jump in, the flyer starts on their tippy toes and jumps in on three when doing a 8 count. When starting a stunt both bases should have your legs staggered and bend your knees but you MUST keep your back straight, with your hands they should be cupped so that the flyer can put there feet in the bases hands and feel secure while in a smush. When going up into a stunt the most used body part is the legs. When lifting up your flyer, you are using your legs to stand up, you are also using your arms to lift up your flyer to a half or full.

Tumbling skills

Some easy tumbling skills are a somersault, a cartwheel, and a round off. Some of the little more harder ones are a backwards somersault, a handstand, and a backbend. The hardest ones are an aerial, a back walkover, a front walkover, a front flip, a backflip, a back handspring, and a front handspring. It takes a lot of time to get the hang of how to do these tumbling tricks but once you know how you always want to be doing it.

If you really want to get the hang of doing tumbling, you could try a tumbling class. If you don’t have the money for it at the moment, you can just search up videos on YouTube. Some equipment you need is a mat, and gym shoes. In cheer tumbling is mostly used in a dance, like for example going from one place to another. When you do an Arabian (which is a type of stunt) when your flyer is coming out of the stunt they do a walkover. One of my favorite tumbling skills are a round-off or a cartwheel. Tumbling is a part of cheer, but I wouldn’t say it’s a big part of cheer.