Material Makeover

Quick ways to update some of your outdated material.

Every couple of years it is a good idea to go through some of your cheers and chants and evaluate what is working and what isn't.  Sometimes we have cheers and chants on our list that we hear parents say “I know that one! We did it when I was in school!”  This is probably a good sign that your material needs some updating.

Here are a few things you can update and how:

Chants

Some schools take their chants and re-learn new moves every year.  Our school keeps chants from year to year but we take out the ones that are the least successful and add new ones from camp.

One fun way to get updated chants is to take your chant list, assign a chant to a pair of cheerleaders, and have them make up new motions or new words with the current motions.

Cheers

Go through your cheers and see if you can incorporate stunts, jumps, tumbling, signs or poms into each one.  This will give the crowd something to look at other than just the cheerleaders yelling at them. 

The cheers then selves may need words updated or specific motions that are no longer appropriate or trendy.  You can always try the mash-up idea with your cheers and chants too.

Dances

If your squad has a dance that they really like doing you can change it up by simply changing the music.  Find a new song on the radio that gets everyone up and moving.  While top hits are never a good choice for competition routines, they can be very effective when working with the crowd. 

You can also do a dance mash-up.  Mash-ups are usually when you take two songs and mix them together to make a new song.  You can do this with your dances.  Have each girl choose her favorite 8 count from any dance that your squad does and take turns making up a new dance with those favorites.

My favorite way to make up new dance moves it by using chants.  Most chants are set up on an 8-count beat.  Just take those motions and set them to counts an add music!  This works really well if you need band dances or fill in 8-counts when working on choreography.

One thing you don’t want to do is get rid of the crowd involvement cheers and chants. Those take a few seasons to catch on anyway, if you change them all the time the crowd doesn't know WHAT you want them to do!

Best of Luck!!

*\o/*

CW3

Xerox

This is going to seem a little out of the way, but stay with me…

When I hear the word Xerox, I think of copy machines or copies.  When I apply the word copy to the cheerleading world, I think of the original “Bring it On” movie.  For those of you who have not seen it, the quick and dirty version of the story is this:  The new captain of the Toro’s cheer team is presented with information that the previous captain was stealing cheer routines from another school, the Clovers.  The previous Toro’s captain would video tape the routines and teach them to her team, they would then go on to win national championships with those “stolen” routines.  In the movie, the new captain of the clovers decides that she is going to make sure that her team makes it to nationals.  Chaos ensues, the Toro’s have to come up with their own routine, and “SPOILER ALERT” the Clovers win the national championship.  Because of the hard work that the Toro’s put in to make sure they had an original team they are happy with their performance… 

This brings me to the question, is it all right to copy, or imitate routines that you see online or from other schools?

My short answer is Yes it is ok, but with limitations.

If you go so far as to perform the routine EXACTLY like the original, down to the music, NOT OK.  This is the same as copying your neighbor’s answers on a test. 

If you watch a routine and see a stunt, dance move, transition, or cheer and adapt it to fit what you are doing, this would be fine.  There is very little in the cheer world that has not been done.  If we look at our chant list there are many chants and cheers that have been passed down from generation to generation.  They had to start somewhere.  Especially when you hear parents say, “we did that one when I was in school.”  Chances are the parents that are saying this didn’t come from the same area.  In football, how many times have you seen, or heard, of plays and offences set up from multiple schools?  Right now, the Pistol Offense is big in the college world from Coach Ault at Nevada.  He developed an offense that is now being used by Oregon, UCLA, Alabama, and even some NFL teams are picking it up, just to mention a few.  Is Coach Ault upset that so many teams are using it?  Probably not, they don’t have his team, his coaches, or knowledge of the plays.  Teams watch the film and adapt it to what they need.

The same goes for the cheer world.  In fact, if you attend a cheer camp in the summer that is run by any of the major companies you are learning the same material that is being taught to 100,000 cheerleaders across the nation.  Chances are you are taking the dances and cheers and adapting them to what works for your team.  If you aren’t its ok too, that was the point of those routines.  If you go online and snag a great dance off Youtube, there really isn’t anyway to tell if it was “original” or learned at camp.  Many of the same issues come up with stunting.  When someone comes up with a creative load or transition and performs it at nationals many of the teams go home and work on duplicating that stunt.  Often times the cheer companies also duplicate those stunts to teach to the masses.  It’s just the reality of sports.  Again, for you football fans, how many teams in history have run the “statue of liberty” play?

As a coach, I am asked why I post videos of my team performing at games and assemblies.  The concern is that other teams will take the ideas and perform them in competitions against us.  My response is always this.  “Feel free to copy our choreography.  If you choose to perform it against us, you better know it better than we do.”  My routines have the advantage of my teaching and my vision.  If someone wants to watch it online and try to teach it, they may not know the tricks and techniques that I used.  Because of that, it wont get taught exactly the same, thus adapting it for what they need. 

It has been said that imitation is a form of flattery.

Absolutely!  If you see something you like, make it work for you.  Don’t be upset when you see your material being performed by someone else.  It means it was good enough that they took the time to repeat something great!

Cheers!

*\o/*

CW3

Hey, Hey Here we GO!

Here is a chant list to get you started. 

Changing the names, mascot and colors can make it your own!

CHEERS!

*\o/*

CW3

DEFENSE

1. Break Through Fight Back Defense Attack
2. Defense X Defense X D D Defense
3. Defense, Defense, Lets Go Defense, Hold (P) (P) That Line
4. Hey * Hey Defense * Hold That Line
5. Hey! Turn Up The Heat, Push ‘Em Back Big D
6. Hit High, Hit Low Tigers, Lets Go!
7. H-O XX L-D, Xx Hold ‘Em Hold ‘Em Big D
8. Hold The Line, Hold The Line, Defense Hold That Line
9. K-I-C-K * Block That Kick
10. Push ‘em back, Push ‘em back, Push ‘em back big D
11. Put That Pressure On Go Get ‘Em * Big D
12. Tigers, Hey X X Take It Away
13. T To The A To The K To The E, Take That Ball Away
14. T-A  K-E Take That Ball Away
15. Take it away, Make that Play, Take that ball away
16. Take That Ball Away, defense take that ball away
17. They Got * We Want It * Get That Ball
18. Tighten Up The Defense I Said Hold (*X) That (*X) Line (*XX)
19. You got the ball we want the ball Hey, defense defense

GENERIC

1. (Stomp Clap Stomp Stomp Clap) Red and Blue
2. 7-3-1 SHS
3. ATT-ACK Tigers Attack
4. Be Aggressive, B-E Aggressive, B-E-A-GG-R-E-SS-I-V-E, Aggressive, B-E Aggressive
5. F-I-G-H-T Fight Tigers Fight
6. G-O G-O Lets Go Lets Go, Lets Go Tigers
7. G-O Go Tigers High Go
8. Go G-O, Go Tigers Go
9. G-O Lets Go Tigers, G-O Lets Go.
10. Go With A G And O, Go Tigers Go
11. Hey All You Tiger Fans Stand Up And Clap Your Hands X X XXX X X XXX Now That You’ve Got The Beat, This Time Lets Stomp Our Feet SX SXX SX SX SXX
12. Hey Crowd - Yell SHS, SHS.  Hey Crowd - Yell We’re The Best, We’re The Best.  All Together Now SHS Yell It We’re The Best, SHS Yell It We’re The Best
13. Hey You out in the Crowd, If You’ve Got Spirit Let’s Clap Out Loud (Slap, Clap Clap Out In Slap Clap Clap Out In Out In Slap Clap Clap Out In) S-H-S!
14. It’s A Time Out So Shout It Out, Lets Go Tigers
15. It’s Time To Begin, The Kick Off To Win
16. Lets * Go * S H S Lets Go
17. Red * Blue, Go Tigers, Go Tigers Go
18. Red Blue and White (Slap Clap) Come On Tigers Lets Fight (Slap Clap)
19. Red, Blue Let’s Hear It. Catch the Spirit
20. Move from side to side show that Tiger pride
21. Tigers, In The House, Yell Go, Fight, Win
22. The Beat
23. Turning Up The Heat * Tigers * Cant Be Beat
24. Victory XX To-Night, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, Victory XX To-Night
25. We Are, Together We Are, Together We Are the Tigers
26. Were Out! Were Out To Get A V-Vi-Vic-Tory
27. W-I-N  Fight To Win
28. You Know It, You Know The Story, So Tell The Whole Wide World This Is Tiger Territory

OFFENSE

1. 1^st And 10, We Want To Win, Offense Run Through
2. Down the field, down the field, score score
3. First * And Ten * Go Fight Win
4. Move Fast * Block Hard * Push That Ball * 10 More Yards
5. Move it x down the field, lets score 6 more
6. Move It, Get To It, Touch Down, Touch Down
7. Move The Ball Down The Field, Move That Ball Lets Score
8. Now’s The Time Offense  X X X Move That Ball
9. Offense Jump To It, We’ve Got The Ball Lets Move It
10. Onward To The Goal Post, Tigers Strive To Win, With A T-O-U-CH-D-O-W-N
11. Railroaders x x Railroaders x Score 6 more
12. Run it, now catch it, Tigers score 6
13. S-C x x O-R-E x x  Score Score Score
14. SCO X* RE Score Railroaders
15. Six More * Six More X Come on Tigers lets Up That Score
16. Tigers* Score 6 Lets Go, Move That Ball.
17. Take It All The Way (P) First Down
18. Touchdown, Touchdown, Lets Score 6
19. Come On * Tigers * Lets Go X X X
20. Here We Go Tigers Here We Go X X
21. Hey Hey Here We Go S-H-S
22. Railroaders x x Railroaders x Lets GO Tigers
23. Tigers are The Mightiest
24. Yell It Louder Now, Let’s Go Tigers!