IDEAS

SURVEY

The first idea that I had was to create surveys. If you have not been to that section, you should at least go and check it out! I was a first year coach, and I had no idea of how well or bad I was doing, so I created a very generic survey. In my second year of coaching I created the first survey that is on that page. I thought that if I could get inside of the girls heads that in the long run I would be better off. The use of that survey worked great! At first they were a little nervous with the idea, but they warmed up to the idea. They were insistent that I would be able to recognize their handwriting, which I had never seen before, so I would have no way of knowing. I told them that if there were any questions that they were uneasy about answering, to just ignore that question. The next practice I compiled all of their answers and distributed them to the girls, and we discussed them. This benefited not only myself, but the cheerleaders also!

PROGRESS CHART

Another idea that came from the surveys was to "chart" the progress that the girls had made from the goals that they set. I brought a video camera to practice one day and had each girl stand up and tell what their goals were, and how they were going to achieve them. Then I would have them do what they were working on. For example, if a goal was to better their toe touches, then I would have them do a toe touch in front of something that would measure their height. Then a month later you would repeat the process, but this time watch both tapes. I continued to do this until the season was over. One of the very last practices we watched all the tapes. it was amazing to see how much the girls had improved!

SPIRIT PRESENTS