Cheer News

In our “Owner’s Manual” column, we ask gym owners to take us “under the hood” and give us their secrets to what keeps their gyms running so smoothly. Find out what gets Jennifer Burke in gear below:

Vital Stats

Name: Jennifer Burke, Owner

Gym: Burke’s Tumbling Academy (BTA)

Location: Swampscott, MA

Founded: 2004 for tumbling; cheer added in 2010

Size: 300 students; 80 cheerleaders

The Dish

The best part of owning my gym is watching the athletes improve on their skills, have fun and fulfill their dreams. Also, I love watching the younger kids fall in love with the sport. Tumbling has always been my favorite part of cheer, so I serve as the head tumbling instructor at BTA. I consciously am not a head coach of any specific team—I enjoy working with all of them!

One of the biggest challenges is having cheerleaders from other gyms coming to me to improve their tumbling skills. That’s often frowned upon by their own coaches. However, nothing makes me happier than seeing these young ladies out there in different uniforms, accomplishing their individual and team goals. My advice to other gym owners is that this is about people, not places.

Also, being a young gym owner has its challenges. My personal goals are to have satisfied athletes that continue to develop. The high expectation in this sport for winning by the coaches, parents and athletes is important to a gym’s success. However, for me personally, sometimes this collides with my own goals, so it’s all about striking a balance.

Watch this Patch.com video featuring Jennifer and BTA!

Who do you want to see featured in Owner’s Manual? Sound off in the comment section.

Whether you’ve just opened your doors or have been in business for decades, one of your primary business concerns is probably attracting new students. Traditional marketing strategies like radio, television, or billboard advertisements can certainly be effective—but they’re also expensive and not guaranteed to get results. Luckily, there are better, more affordable ways to advertise your gym and bring in new business. Here are a few ideas to kickstart your recruiting process:

Snag them in a flash. Boost excitement and curiosity in your program by planning a “flash mob” (a surprise impromptu performance). Partner with community events or festivals, or find a venue that will let you stage your own flash mob—and make sure you have flyers on hand for audiences after the show! It’s also important to time the event strategically (such as around tryout time); for instance, the Baltimore Ravens cheerleaders were able to boost attendance for their annual “Making the Cut” auditions by staging a flash mob at Baltimore’s popular Power Plant Live! Entertainment complex just days beforehand (see picture on left).

Build a virtual tour of your gym. When visitors find you online, letting them “see” your gym can go a long way toward bringing them in for a visit. Many companies offer virtual tour software at reasonable prices or can build and install an interactive tour on your website. Another option is to follow Cheer Extreme All-Stars’ lead by filming and hosting your own tour on YouTube; hosted by owner Courtney Smith-Pope, their upbeat video currently has upwards of 23,000 views.

Get active in localized social media. While sites like Facebook and Twitter are great for national exposure, they’re also an extremely effective means of building a strong local network and keeping your community up-to-date on happenings at your cheer gym. (And did we mention they’re F-R-E-E?) Offer sign-up specials for brand-new Facebook friends or Twitter followers, and encourage your faithful clients to write reviews on Yelp. A recent Yelp study found that 27% of consumers read online reviews when making purchasing decisions, and 85% of consumers are relying on the Internet to find local businesses. Don’t miss out on being part of the “click!”

Give potential cheerleaders a taste of the all-star life. Contact local schools to find out if they have a “try it” sports program; you can also offer to participate in their physical education curriculum for tumbling. (For instance, the Pflugerville, TX school district offers off-campus credit for students who participate in Texas All-Star Cheer’s program.) Also, get connected with the Girl Scouts troops in your area via the national website’s “Find a Council” directory; many troops offer a “Try-It” badge for girls who want to try new sports.

No matter which method you ultimately use, make sure to maximize the opportunity to meet your intention: getting new business. At every event or appearance, it’s crucial to have plenty of promotional takeaway material on hand for potential customers; possible pieces include business cards, class schedules, flyers, postcards, and/or bumper stickers. On social media sites, make sure your website and contact information are clearly listed, and choose photos that best represent the ideal image of your program.

Put these smart strategies into practice, and watch your classes fill up in no time!

On Friday, people across Canada are gathering in memory of Vancouver All-Stars cheerleader Amanda Todd, who took her own life last week after being the victim of online stalking and cyber-bullying for several years. (Before her death, she made this YouTube video to tell her story—warning: video includes graphic images.)

These vigils speak not only to the tragic loss of a 15-year-old, but also to a bigger issue at hand—both in society at large and our industry. Bullying has hit an all-time high, with one out of every four children being bullied and almost half of all children being bullied in some form online. So here’s the question: what can we do as cheer professionals to protect our athletes and make sure the deaths of cheerleaders like Amanda Todd, Peter Blake McCullers, Jeffrey Fehr and others are not in vain?

Here are some ways you can start:

**Sign this petition from Cheer for a Cause to pass H.R. 975, the Anti-Bullying and Harassment Act, which makes it easier for parents and schools to report and act on incidences of bullying and harassment.

**Make a statement. Follow in the steps of the University of Louisville, which posted this photo on Twitter this week to speak out against bullying, or CheerFactor All-Stars and Phoenix All-Stars, both programs which are spearheading anti-bullying campaigns.

**Contact us at CheerProfessional or leave a comment if you’ve dealt with bullying in your gym or want to share ideas for anti-bullying initiatives. We’ll be covering this issue in our Winter 2013 publication and want to hear from you.

Mixing business and pleasure is certainly standard practice in the all-star industry—many gym co-owners are married, and plenty of coaches end up dating after spending so much time in close quarters. But can keeping things all business affect the relationship once you get home from work?

“People usually take their business home because it’s useful to talk to someone who has no connection to it,” says Dr. Margaret Clark, professor of psychology at Yale University. “But if you both happen to be in the business together and one of you is complaining, you don’t have a nonjudgmental person to talk to because they’ll have an opinion, too. You don’t get that sympathy.”

Clark says it’s natural for people who work together or who own a business together to want to talk about it after hours, but she advises against it. She says that instead of venting to your spouse or significant other, find someone else who will listen. “You’re mixing two relationships that operate with different rules,” says Clark, who has a Ph.D. in psychology and whose research is in relationships and emotions. “In the personal relationship, what’s ideal is that we’re responsive to each other’s needs, desires and goals, whereas in a business setting, it’s not so need-based, so these two things can conflict.”

Laura Rosenberg is a Chicago-based licensed clinical professional counselor who specializes in relationships and sees several clients who are both working together and romantically involved. She says the way to keep business in the gym and your personal relationship out of the gym is to come up with a “workplace version of a prenup.” It should cover areas such as, “’How are we going to handle affection at work? We’ll only take our breaks together twice a week. We’re going to go out with our friends one night a week. How do we handle it if we fight or break up at work?’ These are some of the things that have to be addressed if you want a healthy relationship,” says Rosenberg, who’s been in private practice for 15 years.

Clark agrees. “Have the rules be very clear for the business setting,” she says. “At the gym, [you should have the mindset of] ‘Here’s how we deal with things, and this is how we do it.’”

Rosenberg’s Do’s & Don’ts

Do be upfront that you’re dating and be professional. Try to minimize touching, flirting, and kissing at work.

Don’t spend all your time together outside of work.

Do make sure you spend time with girlfriends or guy friends or alone.

Don’t talk about work when you’re out on dates. If you need to complain about work, have others in your life that you can talk to about that.

Do have an idea of how you’re going to handle things if the relationship ends.

–Jackie Pilossoph

With the many demands of coaching and running a gym, finding time for your own workouts can often pose a challenge. (Understatement.) Fortunately, the rules of exercise have changed, and “workouts on the go” have become increasingly common. With the right approach, you can get an effective workout in just minutes a day, wherever you are. Get our experts’ four top tips below—and go, go, go!

Join Your Team During Practices.

Your number one job is to coach safely and effectively, but that doesn’t mean you can’t multi-task. While training time with your team shouldn’t count as your only daily workout, burning a few extra calories never hurts. “Be certain to consider this your low intensity time on the clock and use it to help you accumulate activity during the day,” says Shannon Fable, a former cheerleader for the University of Florida and an ACE certified personal trainer. Fable recommends getting a pedometer to monitor your level of activity during the day and running extra laps around the mat once the team goes home.

Make Do With the Minimum.

There are tons of ways to sneak in exercise while on the go and most of them require no equipment whatsoever. For a quick workout with no equipment, Fable recommends doing 10 each of the following:  squats, push ups, squats jumps, triceps push-ups, burpees, crunches, oblique crunches, and a 60-second plank before repeating. Podcasts and phone apps are also great options, according to Jennifer Galardi, a health and fitness expert who works with some of the hottest bodies in Hollywood, including Kim Kardashian and Carmen Electra. She recommends yoga, plyometrics, squats, planks, interval training—all things that can be done solo in a small space.

Take Advantage of Travel Opportunities.

Don’t use travel as an excuse to stop working out. Many hotels have incorporated workout rooms in their facilities, so you can usually exercise without even leaving the building. Fable also recommends trying out the app Nike Training, which offers options for workouts that last anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. “If you’ve been monitoring how much activity you get in a day when you’re at home, set a goal to reach the same numbers while you’re traveling,” says Fable.

Make the Most of Split Workouts.

Don’t have time to spend an hour running? Don’t despair. It’s possible to get good results by working out in smaller chunks of time several times a day. “I’m a big fan of getting done what you can in the time you have,” says Galardi. Sneak 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the middle of the day, and 20 minutes later in the evening and you’ll have gotten a full, effective workout all without even realizing it. For this to work, though, you need to give each short workout your all. “The best tip I have on making the most of a brief session? Be present. Execute your workout with the same diligence you teach your students and you’ll be successful,” says Galardi.

-Diana Bocco