25 cheer goals for tumbling, stunts, jumps and the whole team

Personal cheer goals for beginners and tryouts

Personal cheer goals are the ones only you can hit: showing up, knowing the words, and a voice the crowd can hear.

• Go to every practice for the first 8 weeks of the season.
• Learn the tryout cheer and dance, and run each one 20 times before tryouts.
• Learn the words and motions to 10 sideline chants.
• Yell one chant so a friend in the top row of the stands hears every word.
• Write down one correction from your coach after every practice for 4 weeks.

Cheer tumbling goals

Cheer tumbling uses the same skills as the gym floor, so the steps look a lot like gymnastics goals. Learn each new skill on mats, with a coach and a spotter, and never try one at home.

• Do 10 cartwheels and 10 round offs in a row without a break.
• Do 50 back handspring drills on a barrel mat each week for 6 weeks.
• Land a standing back handspring with a spot 20 times, then try it without one when your coach says yes.
• Land a round off back handspring back tuck 10 times in a row with your coach watching.
• Move up one tumbling level this season, in the order your coach sets.

Cheer stunting goals for flyers, bases and back spots

A stunt belongs to the whole group, so count the hits that stay up from start to finish. Your stunt group already sees every rep, which makes it the easiest accountability partner to find: share your count with them once a week.

• Hit 10 clean preps in a row as a stunt group.
• As a flyer, hit a heel stretch on each leg 5 times in a row.
• As a base, lock out your arms on every extension for a whole practice.
• As a back spot, count every stunt out loud for 4 weeks of practice.
• Catch 20 clean cradles as a group before the first competition.

Cheer jump, motion and flexibility goals

Jumps, motions and stretches can be trained at home, and they are what the crowd sees first. Sharp arms, big facials and a voice that carries are performing skills, the same ones behind acting goals.

• Do 3 sets of 10 toe touches at every practice for 6 weeks.
• Hit a toe touch with both legs at hip height or higher, checked on video.
• Hit a hurdler, a pike and a toe touch in a row, each on its count.
• Hit high V, low V, T, touchdown, L and K on the count, 10 times each in a mirror.
• Get flat on the floor in your left, right and middle splits.

Cheer team goals examples for the season

Cheer team goals count what the squad does together all season. A sideline squad spends game day cheering the football team, whose players set their own goals for football players for the same season.

• Hit 3 clean full-outs of the routine in a row before the first competition.
• Hit zero at one competition this season, with no deductions.
• Cheer at every home football game and 5 basketball games this year.
• Get every member to 9 practices out of 10 this season.
• Do 20 minutes of team conditioning once a week for the whole season.

What is a good cheer goal?

A good cheer goal counts clean hits, not one good try. A stunt that stays up once and falls three times is not ready for the routine. A review of 27 studies of goal setting in sport found that process goals, the ones about how you carry out a skill, had by far the largest effect on performance. Goals about winning had the smallest. "Win nationals" is the direction. "Lock out on every extension" is the goal.

Cheer also hands you a ladder. The all-star rules of the U.S. All Star Federation run from level 1 to level 7. In level 1, tumbling keeps a hand or a foot on the floor, like cartwheels, rolls and walkovers. Level 2 adds a back handspring, level 3 a series of them and a running back tuck, and level 4 a standing tuck. Each rung is a goal you can see.

Make each goal specific and hard enough to stretch you. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals beat being told to do your best. Hard does not mean unsafe: the same rules define a spotter as a person whose main job is to protect the head, neck, back and shoulders of the person on top. New tumbling and new stunts belong at practice, with a coach and a spotter.

How to track cheer goals

Write down your clean hits before you leave practice. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that the effect was larger when the progress was written down or shared.

Practices and game days are a day count. Toe touches, drills and clean hits are amounts that add up. The fitness side of cheer, the jumps, sprints and planks, works like fitness challenge ideas: one session at a time.

A new skill does not arrive on a set date. A picture that fills a little with every practice shows the drills that came before it.

Frequently asked questions

What are examples of cheer goals?

Hit 10 clean preps in a row as a stunt group. Do 3 sets of 10 toe touches at every practice for 6 weeks. Land a standing back handspring with a spot 20 times. Hit 3 clean full-outs in a row before the first competition. Each one can be counted at practice.

What are good cheer team goals?

Count what the squad does together: clean full-outs, stunts that stay up, practices with everyone there. Hitting zero at a competition is a fine direction, and the counts at practice are the way there.

What are the levels in cheerleading?

All-star cheer under the U.S. All Star Federation uses levels 1 to 7. In level 1, tumbling keeps a hand or a foot on the floor, like cartwheels and rolls. Level 2 adds a back handspring, and each level above it allows harder flips and twists. Your coach decides when you move up.