"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
~John Wooden

"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights."
~John Wooden

Poise

"The key to winning is poise under stress."

~Paul Brown

poise

1 : a stably balanced state : EQUILIBRIUM poise between widely divergent impulses -- F. R. Leavis>
2 a : easy self-possessed assurance of manner : gracious tact in coping or handling; also : the pleasantly tranquil interaction between persons of poise poise of the meeting> b : a particular way of carrying oneself : BEARING, CARRIAGE
synonym see TACT

Fashion magazines will tell you that runway models need to be poised, so you might think that poise is all an act, but really it's about being comfortable, unflappable even. It's about being stable.

Coach Wooden says that his definition of poise is simply being yourself. Not acting. Not pretending to be something you're not, you are who you are and you're comfortable with that. You'll function at your own level of competence. Granted, as a cheerleader you may sometimes have to pretend to be happy and you have to work at being positive- but if you have enthusiasm (love/spirit) then you'll be able to smile and act excited and still be genuine even when life is hard or you're having a bad day.

Poise means that your goal is not to satisfy anyone else's expectations but your own. You give your total effort to becoming the best you are capable of being.

Team Spirit

"Individual commitment to a group effort-
that is what makes a team work,
a company work,
a society work,
a civilization work."

~Vince Lombardi, legendary NFL coach

"If anything goes bad, I did it.
If anything goes semi-good, then WE did it.
If anything goes really good, then YOU did it."

~Paul "Bear" Bryant, NCAA Football coach

"Team Spirit means you are willing to sacrifice personal considerations for the welfare of all.
That defines a team player."

~John Wooden

It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about the squad, the program, the team & fans we're cheering for, the school, the town, the community. You and I are a part of something bigger than either of us alone. We are BULLDOGS.

Boyscouts taught me: God, Country, Family- in that order.
You've heard the old cliche', "there's no 'I' in TEAM."
It's not about me. It can never be about you.
It's all about US.

Be a team player and you'll become a leader.

Happy New Year

Guess what I got for Christmas? A copy of 'Coach Wooden; One-on-One.'
Our friends Anne & Randy go to Shepherd of the Hills Church with Coach in Northridge, CA. Here is a picture of Coach with their daughter, Tasha, she's about the same age as our daughter, Ellie. Anne graduated about 4 years ahead of us at Concordia, then she was the guidence counsellor and later the Vice Pricipal at LA Lutheran Jr/Sr High- so she was a real mentor to me my first few years of teaching and best friends with my wife, Bethany. After the 1994 earthquake when we lost our apartment, we lived in Anne & Randy's Condo when they moved to their first house. Anne tells me that Coach is an amazing speaker and very active at church & community for being in his 90's.

'One-on-One' is an awesome 2 month devotional book that Coach wrote with Jay Carty, a Santa Barbara pastor who played for the Lakers and coaching at Oregon State, bofeore being part of Coach Wooden's staff at UCLA.

I hope you check out at least one of the books I've made links to on these posts, they're really a great way to work on your self discipline, positive thinking and mental and spiritual conditioning. Naturally, if you can't or don't want to buy any of them on the internet, you're more than welcome to borrow any of my copies that I keep in my classroom.

Skill

"A winner is somebody who recognizes his God-given talents,
works his tail off to develop them into skills,
and uses them to accomplish his goals."

~Larry Bird, Boston Celtics

Skill is the knowledge of and the ability to PROPERLY and quickly execute the fundamentals. It means being prepared and covering every single detail. For a cheerleader it means being acurate and sharp. It means being able to keep tempo and stay in sync. It means controling the different aspects of your voice (pitch, inflection, volume & expression) etc. etc.

Webster's defines it this way-

2 a : the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance b : dexterity or coordination especially in the execution of learned physical tasks
3 : a learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability skills>
synonym see ART

And what does it take to develope skills? Work. Practice, practice, practice...

"Skill to do comes od doing"

~ Emerson

"Weare what we repeatedly do"

~ Aristotle

Conditioning

"Some believed my players were simply in better physical condition thatn the competition. They may have been, but they also had tremendous mental and emotional conditioning. You must identify your conditioning requirements and then attain them. Without proper conditioning in all areas, you will fall short of your potential. It is impossible to attain and maintain desireable physical condition without first achieving mental and moral condition."

~ John Wooden

Rest, diet, exercise must be considered. Moderation must be practiced. Sure, that's important. It's important to run, do crunches and push-ups, run eight-count drills, and give 100% every practice and 110% every game. But it's also important to be balanced and well-rounded and self-disciplined.

You must PRACTICE self-control, alertness, risk-taking, goal-setting, cooperating, being loyal, being a friend, working and being enthusiastic. It takes work and it takes practice. If you haven't set any New Year's resolutions yet, I challenge you to resolve to exercise your mind, body and spirit. 1) Read, 2) Walk/Run/or Exercise, and 3) pray/meditate/worship/or serve at least three times a week.

And yes, if you want other kids to take cheerleading seriously as a "SPORT," that means that YOU HAVE TO take practice seriously, focus, work and get as much out of it as you can.

Itentedness

Itentedness means keeping your eye on the prize and raising the bar. It means staying motivated by staying focused. We should always set realistic goals, concentrate on achieving them and resisting all temptations to give up and stay determined and persistent.

I told Varsity once we got the step-up into a half-extension "prep," and the cradle-catch that NEXT we need to work on getting it up with an elevator and get it all the way up into a full-extension. NOW that we have our chants and sidelines down, we should develop some floor-cheers and we should borrow, make-up, and re-coreograph new chants.

Now that JrHi cheer has most of the chants down, we deed to add conditioning time and begin learning the fundamentals of stunting.

Can we do these things? Like "Bob the Builder" would say, "Yes we CAN!"

Author & Coach Brian Brio says that there are 2 kinds of questions that hurt and 2 kinds that help:

When you catch your self asking these, STOP-
Hopelessness-inducing questions- "WILL this work?
Hopelessness-assured questions- "Will this EVER work?"

Try asking THESE instead-
Possibility-inducing questions- "HOW will we make this work?"
and Exciting Possibility-inducing questions- "How will I contribute so that we MAKE this work for the squad and our school?"

I really want to reccomend Beyond Success and the updated Beyond Success; 15 secrets of a winning life both by Brian D. Brio. He's a former high school swim coach and motivational speaker & writer. He uses Coach Wooden's 15 pyramid blocks better than I have and it's a pretty easy/quick read, even for teenagers. Think of it as along the lines of Chicken Soup for the Soul only with the success pyramid.

Initiative

"With courage and initiative, leaders change things."

~Rev. Jesse Jackson

Every cheerleader needs to work on the ability to make decisions on their own and act on them. Never be afraid of failure, but learn from it. No matter what, there are going to be times when you're gonna make mistakes or when something you try isn't going to work the way you hoped. No one is perfect. If you let fear paralyze you, you'll never achieve anything.

I've never had captains because I don't want popularity contests, and I don't want political battles. EVERY cheerleader is a leader. ANY cheerleader can begin any chant and the rest of the squad should jump on board. Besides just how they perform at a game, initiative means that cheerleaders bring their ideas and controbutions to practices. It means they become the "movers and the shakers" at school because they start projects and programs, through student council or other clubs, or just sparking trends, beginning or maintaining traditions and setting an example.

Alertness

" Alertness and courage are life's shield."

~Phillipino Proverb

"As you strive to reach your personal best,
alertness will make the task much easier.
Be observing constantly,
quick to spot a weakness and correct it or use it,
as the case may warrant."

~Coach John Wooden

This means constantly observing what's going on around you. It means keeping an open mind. It means always being eager to learn and improve. It means to "look alive," and "stay-awake."

Obviously this is important during a game so that you don't look rediculous. You have to know what's going on in the game in order to call appropriate chants, stop chants when it's the right time to stop, key-into what gets the fans to respond, the needs of your squadmates, etc. These are skills that get built with experience.

Obviously it's important while stunting to stay focused, to keep your eye on the flier and make sure that she never hits the ground.

But perhaps most importantly, it's important when it comes to self-awareness. Were you AWARE that your grades were slipping? Were you AWARE that adults were watching when you were smooching your beau? Were you AWARE that preschoolers were around when you were kussing?

Self Control

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquuers his enemies;
for the hardest victory is the victory over self."

~Aristotle

"While we may not be able to control all that happens to us,
we CAN control what happens inside us.

~Benjamin Franklin

"He who conquers his anger has conquered an enemy."

~German Proverb

How can you have any kind of work ethic, or any cooperation without self control? Besides that, without self-control, you cannot remain loyal and you're liable to lose friends. Having self control, means being responsible and it's part of maturity. I tell students that to be responseable is being response-able, that means being able to control your RESPONSE to anything that happens and anything that anyone else says or does.

Cooperation

"Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much."

~Hellen Keller

"We must be willing to learn the lesson that cooperation may imply compromise,
but if it brings a world advance it is a gain for each individual..."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Listen if you want to be heard. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. It should go without saying that a cheer squad is going to go nowhere if they can't cooperate. Cooperate with their coach and with each other during practice, cooperate with each other during a game or during a stunt. If a train has 8 cars and all 8 want to go in different directions, it won't go anywhere.

Loyalty

"Be loyal to people in their absence. Then watch how others begin having more faith and confidence in you, because they know you won't be talking about them behind their backs."

~Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Effective People
I reccoment 7 Habits of Effective Teens

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

~Vince Lombardi

Coach Wooden expects members of a team to be loyal to themselves, but all so to everyone depending on you in order to keep your self respect. When you're a member of a squad, you can't flake out or walk off. Your teammates need you at games and at practices. You can't let them down.