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Making the Transition

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Making the Transition

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As a gym owner, Kim Braasch of Cheer Tyme gets plenty of requests from athletes and parents alike. But when a talented young athlete named Paul asked to wear the girls’ uniform, it was a situation she hadn’t navigated before—yet one that’s becoming increasingly common.

Like many young athletes who identify as transgender, Paul planned to change his gender and his name, becoming “Crystal.” Not only was Braasch supportive, but so was Crystal’s father, who inspired everyone at the Fairfax, VA-based gym with his incredible support.

But what happens when a parent isn’t supportive?

Liquid Courage: How Safe Are Energy Drinks?

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Liquid Courage: How Safe Are Energy Drinks?

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Hannah is a typical 15-year-old cheerleader. She spends eight hours a day at school, comes home to do her homework and then heads to the gym for cheer practice. With exhaustion setting in, she picks up an energy drink on the way to give the boost she needs to get through the grueling schedule of stretching, stunts, tumbling and dance. Sound familiar? It’s a common practice with many athletes—and cheer professionals, too.

But do energy drinks even work?

Sister Act

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Sister Act

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Ever seen a team of all-star athletes wholeheartedly cheering for their competitors? It might look strange to an outsider, but anyone with a sister gym relationship understands. After all, when gyms forge close relationships, it creates a unique bond like no other. The owners and coaches lean on each other for support, referrals and resources, and the athletes get to know each other and cheer each other on. Just ask Fury Athletics of Madison, 3-D Elite Allstars and North Florida Christian Cheer—all of whom know firsthand how much having a sister gym can offer.

Freeze Frame: Overcoming Athlete Anxiety

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Freeze Frame: Overcoming Athlete Anxiety

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After months of practice, “Heather” had mastered every skill in her routine and her timing was perfect. But once she hit the mat during competition, her face went blank and she froze mid-step. Although she’d been involved with cheer from the age of five, she still experienced periodic bouts of performance anxiety, especially at key moments.

Heather isn’t alone—the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that about eight percent of teens age 13 to 18 have an anxiety disorder. In many cases, a certain amount of anxiety can be beneficial, providing an effective way to handle a difficult situation. But excessive anxiety can, in certain circumstances, become disabling, and for cheer teams, too much anxiety could spell serious trouble.

Bone Broth: A Piping Hot Trend

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Bone Broth: A Piping Hot Trend

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It’s the health trend du jour—everyone seems to be talking about bone broth. And if it’s not on the radar of your athletes and staff yet, maybe it should be. Advocates rave about the drink’s healing properties, and high-profile athletes like Kobe Bryant swear by it. But does bone broth live up to the hype?

Rallying Your Gym Family After Tragedy

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Rallying Your Gym Family After Tragedy

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Chesapeake, Ohio is set on the banks of the Ohio River. At last count, less than 1,000 people live in the tiny town, steeped in railway history. Stuck halfway between the two bridges that connect the town to its neighbor Huntington, West Virginia is Jill’s Tumbleworld. Owned by Jill Greenhill, the gym plays home to the Dreams All Stars and more than 350 athletes, some of whom travel two hours to train. When the girls and boys, coaches and trainers head home after a rigorous practice, they can be seen squeezing one another’s hands three times. Later, there will be a flurry of texts and social media posts that read simply, “Sqx3.”

Starting a Big Sibling Program

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Starting a Big Sibling Program

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Between long practices and mounting anticipation, the months leading up to a big competition can often be riddled with stress—especially for younger athletes who are new to the sport. That’s a big part of the reason Cody Woodfell decided to introduce a “Big Sister” program at his Sunrise, FL-based gym, Cheer Factory. “The payoff is so late in the season, and the older girls really help the younger ones through that,” said Woodfell, who pairs more seasoned senior athletes with Level 1 newbies. “It’s all about encouragement and camaraderie, and [the program] works really well.”

Keeping the Faith: Faith-Based Programs

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Keeping the Faith: Faith-Based Programs

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Amanda Dauzat wasn’t always a cheerleader who prayed. The founder of Denver, CO-based Youth Alive Cheer didn’t discover a spiritual connection with cheerleading until she attended a small Christian college. There, through the guidance of her cheer coach, she developed a relationship with the divine. Now Dauzat offers other youth the opportunity to combine athleticism with faith. “The way I view faith-based programs is like any other,” said Dauzat. “We are a cheer program that wants to teach [our students] life lessons. We choose the Bible to be our guide.”

Avoiding the Lazy Coaching Trap

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Avoiding the Lazy Coaching Trap

It’s Friday night at the Cheer Pride All-Stars gym in Whippany, NJ. Coach Erin Shane signals The Summit-bound Junior Level 1 team to enter the gym. Clad in fire-colored practice gear with bows neatly placed on their crowns, 15 female athletes quietly line up in four rows, hit a “T” and prepare to perform a timing drill for jumps.

Shane begins to clap to the rhythm of her counting to keep the team’s unified left kicks timed to her beat. The team doesn’t flinch as she pauses to hit a strong, poised “T” to demonstrate proper motion technique. The squad reaches 20 kicks smoothly and quickly, then Shane continues the process again on the opposite side.

Mission: Fulfillment

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Mission: Fulfillment

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It may sound like just another trendy buzzword, but “volun-tourism” is a very real trend. A 2008 study by Tourism & Research Marketing found that an estimated 1.6 million volunteer tourists take “ethical” holidays where they have an opportunity to experience another culture while performing philanthropic actions. If you’re thinking about joining their ranks, get inspired by these three inspiring stories from cheer professionals who’ve been there and done that:

The Wide World of Supplements

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The Wide World of Supplements

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In Morgantown, all-star gym Champion Training Academy sells USANA nutritional supplements and weight loss products as part of its adult weight loss/group fitness program. Over in Katy, Texas, Xcel Athletics All-Stars hosted a Valentine’s Day shopping event earlier this year at which one of the vendors was Advocare. Some gyms are also selling Advocare on-site, such as Green Bay-based Tri County Gymnastics & Cheer, and many cheer professionals moonlight as Advocare reps in addition to their work at the gym.

Vision Boards: Your Success GPS

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Vision Boards: Your Success GPS

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Walking into Cheer Fusion in Fredericksburg, Virginia, it’s hard to miss the colorful posters lined up above the mirrors. Filled with platitudes like “Practice Like a Champion” and goals like “I would like to cheer for college and get a scholarship,” these homemade vision boards provide a creative source of motivation for the gym’s teams—as well as a much-needed means of focus and direction.

Stretch Into Success: Yoga in the Gym

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Stretch Into Success: Yoga in the Gym

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When Megan Eacret’s business partner left Cheer San Diego to start her own program—taking some of their clients with her—Eacret was faced with a dilemma: shortage of flyers. Rather than feeling discouraged, Eacret embraced it as a welcome challenge. “Some of our athletes who had only flown a prep or two as needed in pyramids were given an awesome opportunity to develop their skills and become full-time flyers,” shares Eacret.

5 Surprising Mood-Boosters

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5 Surprising Mood-Boosters

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Julie Johnson’s secret to sanity? Instant smoothie gratification. The Extreme Allstars coach brings her Nutri Bullet blender everywhere she goes for that quick fix she craves—and needs. After all, Johnson is often working in the Melbourne, FL-based gym past midnight.
“I know it sounds funny, but it’s true,” Johnson says. “It gets fruit into my system really quickly. I add a little peanut butter. That gets me going for a few hours.”

Head Games: Overcoming Performance Anxiety

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Head Games: Overcoming Performance Anxiety

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Minutes before taking the floor, an athlete crumbles: her heart rate spikes and her breath comes in quick, shallow gulps. While backstage is chaotic, her panic is centered on something else: what will happen next, performing in front of the crowd. As her coach, you’re not sure what to do before she walks onstage—calm her, convince her it’s just like practice or remind her to have fun. Sound familiar?

Give to Live: The Benefits of Volunteering

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Give to Live: The Benefits of Volunteering

Six years ago, Jon and Tammy Estes, co-owners of Miss Tammy’s All-Star Company in Cleburne, Texas, sought a way to make a difference in their community. As satisfying as it was for them to work with local youth in the gym environment, the couple wanted to do more. When a local boy developed neuroblastoma (the most common form of cancer in children), they knew they’d found their cause.

Research has shown that volunteering can provide a number of physical and emotional benefits. Estes and his wife discovered this firsthand when they designed T-shirts bearing a “Children’s Cancer Arm Bands” logo to help fight pediatric cancer.

Carbs: Sorting Fat from Fiction

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Carbs: Sorting Fat from Fiction

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When the Chico Cheer All-Stars travel to UCA Nationals in Orlando, team owner Tiffany Hayes schedules team meals at restaurants such as Planet Hollywood, where her athletes eat chicken sandwiches, pasta and Caesar salads. “While all of the options might not be as nutritionally valuable as what we would choose to make at home, they are much better than having the athletes grab ice cream and churros for dinner while running around Disney World,” says Hayes.

Journaling: More Than Words?

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Journaling: More Than Words?

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When Alexandra Allred made the first U.S. Olympic women’s bobsled team in 1994, she expected to train hard, eat healthy food and get plenty of sleep. What she didn’t expect was that she’d become an enthusiastic journal keeper.

While living at the Olympic training center in Lake Placid, Allred’s coaches encouraged her to write down descriptions of her workouts, including any injuries and “off days,” as well as dietary intake. “I was recording everything and it became a daily habit,” she says. “I was writing if my workout was good or bad, how I felt about that and why. After a while, I could see patterns emerge.”

A Long & Winding Road for LGBT

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A Long & Winding Road for LGBT

Have the industry truly come a long way? CheerProfessional explores the treatment of gay athletes in all-star cheerleading.

For Mike Blaylock, director of Midlothian, VA-based FAME All Stars, all-star cheerleading’s evolving attitude toward gay athletes in sports can be summed up one way: The fact that he can talk openly about his upcoming wedding to his partner of five years, Adam, in the gym.

The Juice on Juicing

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The Juice on Juicing

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7:30 am: workout. 10 am: marketing strategy meeting. 3 pm: tumbling class. 5 pm: all-star practice. 8 pm: perfectly balanced, high-nutrition meal you lovingly prepared at home. If you found yourself nodding until that very last part, you’re not alone—amidst all the demands of a typical day at the gym, finding time to eat ideal meals is often a tall task. So how do celebrities and star athletes stay energized and fit on their jam-packed schedules? The whispered word on the street is “juicing.”

Operation Thin-spiration: Body Image Issues for Athletes

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Operation Thin-spiration: Body Image Issues for Athletes

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Lettuce-only salads, one slice of meat per day and strict rules against pasta, soda and bread—these are the staples of a popular “Worlds diet” making the rounds online (where Tweets like “Oops! So much for my Worlds diet” are standard fare). “I often hear my athletes saying, ‘Have you seen that gym’s Worlds diet?’” says Tanya Roesel of Midwest Cheer Elite. “It’s a bad time of year for body image. Everyone’s going to Florida, where they’ll be either in swimsuits or the spotlight.”

Mind and Body Medicine: Meditation!

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Mind and Body Medicine: Meditation!

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Ozell Williams has always been a man in motion. When not cheering at games or competing with his squad at the University of Colorado – Boulder, Williams is entertaining Denver Broncos fans with his power tumbling team, the Mile High Tumblers. Though stillness doesn’t come naturally for the college junior and Tumblers’ founder/CEO, Williams swears by regular meditation—a habit he says helps to heal his body, recharge his mind and optimally manage his multiple endeavors.

Healthy Eating: Planting the Seed

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Healthy Eating: Planting the Seed

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Mo’ meat, mo’ problems? That’s the premise of documentaries like Forks Over Knives, which explore the theory that animal-based and processed foods lead to degenerative disease and other health issues. The popularity of such films—coupled with a mass movement toward healthier eating—points to an overall trend: plant-based diets are hot. A 2012 Vegetarian Resource Group survey found that 7.3 million Americans are vegetarian, while 22.8 million others follow a vegetarian-inclined diet.

De-Stress R/x

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De-Stress R/x

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Take two deep breaths and call us in the morning? Not quite that simple—but we’ve unearthed a few smart ideas on how to stamp out stress. Whether you thrive in go-go-go mode or are feeling the burn of burnout, whether your gym is miniscule or massive, it’s imperative to cope properly and decompress—even if you have to “schedule” time to do it. To find out how to turn a breaking point into a turning point, we turned to several busy cheer professionals and expert Zohar Adner for their hard-earned advice on achieving balance.

Squad Bullying: How to Deal

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Squad Bullying: How to Deal

Last October, many in the cheer world were left reeling when former Vancouver All-Stars cheerleader Amanda Todd committed suicide as a result of bullying. (“Rest in peace and fly high,” many wrote on their Twitter feeds.) For years, Todd had been the target of widespread bullying—both online and offline—after a stranger tricked her into taking a shirtless photo, then ruthlessly spread that picture around the Internet. A YouTube video the 15-year-old made a month before her death told the story of her anguish via handwritten notes; one of the notes read, “I have nobody. I need someone.”