Motor Development | cheerleadingscience

Movement Intelligence

I have gained movement intelligence for cheerleading from many things. As I was a kid I used to take parent and toddler gymnastics classes. This got me into the field of gymnastics at a very young age. During the earlier years of elementary school I was not in gymnastics anymore but I would do gymnastics around my house and schoolyard. My parents figured it would be safest for me to be signed back up for gymnastics. As I remained in gymnastics I continued to excel and eventually switched gyms to get into competitive gymnastics. I stayed in competitive gymnastics for three years and then switched into cheerleading. Therefore for all my skills in cheerleading I am able to say that my movement intelligence was from gymnastics. Many of the skills in cheerleading and gymnastics are transferable therefore, once I made the switch between sports it was very easy for me to catch onto the "new skills".

Skill Breakdown (Backtuck)

Backswing/Preparation: Swing arms down and bend knees
Force Producing: Swinging arms back up
Critical Instant: lifting feet and hips up off of the ground. Grabbing onto shins or behind knees.
Recovery: Letting go of knees, looking for landing, bringing chest up and absorbing the force with toes, ankles, knees, etc.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is when you are rewarded for doing good things and given a penalty for doing something bad. An example in cheerleading would be when we do skills properly they will put them into our routine, therefore giving us a higher probability of succeeding. If we cannot perform the harder skills well they will not put them into our routine, therefore lowering the value of the routine but still keeping us successful. A second example would be when we are warming up skills. If we do not do them properly we will repeat them until we get them right. If we succeed we will move onto the next skills.

Classic Conditioning

Classic conditioning is when you associate two things together. Examples of this in cheerleading would be once you hear music you will start your routine. Certain parts of the routine are linked with music. Therefore when we hear a certain part of the music we know that we are supposed to do a certain skill. On every count of “one” within the eight counts there is a louder noise or beat so we can keep track of counts. A final example of classic conditioning would be if you are at a competition and the music stops during the routine you must stop as well. The music stopping usually indicated that someone has gotten hurt or the music just skipped. This way once the music stops you will stop, walk off the floor, and prepare to go again shortly after.