CHEER COACHING INFO

 

Cheer coaching is one of the most wonderful jobs in the world. One that comes with many responsibilities with the happiness, welfare, development and safety of your athletes. Being a coach requires a myriad of different qualities. To name a few, you need to be: inspirational, creative, respectful, qualified, passionate, diplomatic, persevering, flexible, approachable, knowledgeable, organized, encouraging, confident and self-assured.

Coaching is a responsibility that brings many joys, and is incredibly rewarding. Nothing beats a smile on your cheerleaders' face when they successfully perform a new skill for the very first time, or achieve a long-waited award.

Coaching also comes with its own hurdles, which are difficult for others to understand. It is always hard to keep everyone happy, each with their own agenda. Especially when it comes to parents, and coaching peers. Not everyone always understands the decisions made, financial implications, logistics, pressures, obligations, and at times it feels like a constant battle to get everyone to agree and accept the decision. If you're firm, you're stubborn, if you listen to everyone, you're indecisive! But no matter what, through the good times and the bad, we all troop forwards with smiles on our faces, and poms in our hands!

 

 

Coaching Course Qualifications

 

Before you start coaching, it is essential that you get go through training and certification - not only to ensure the safety and welfare of your athletes, but also to gain some valuable lessons and tips to bring your squad to success. Whether it's in cheer, stunt, pom, dance or sideline, appropriate certification if a MUST. Because there are currently no regulations or standards in most countries, every company that offers certification and training is different. But with so many options to choose, how do you know which one suits you best?

If you are aware of another qualification you think it would be helpful to compare on this grid, please contact cheercoach@cheerobics.net We would also love to create comparison grids for other countries, so please get in touch if you would like to refer information about certification processes in your country.

 

Hiring a Cheer Coach

 

Finding the right coach is the most important thing you could do for your cheerleading programme. A highly - skilled, award winning coach might be perfect for your a team that's looking to dominate the podium at competitions, but could also be overwhelming for a team that is just looking to start out and enjoy learning about cheerleading. Whoever you choose, you must firstly ensure that they are fully qualified and that they have the right amount for experience.

First you need to consider what you want a coach for.  Technique improvement, routine choreography, head coach of your whole team, competition routine clean up etc. Once you know what you need from a coach you can find the best fit person.


Some things to think about:

 

•     Do they have experience at the level you are working at/entering and are they qualified and insured to coach it?

•     Does their coaching style/ethos fit with your team?

•     Do they understand the rules/frameworks of the company you are planning to compete within?

•     If your team has children in it, do they have a CRB check?

•     Are they qualified in first aid?

•     If you are looking for choreography, do you like what they have done in the past?

•     Can they provide you with references and examples of previous teams they have worked with?

Qualified VS Experience

Unfortunately, in the world of cheerleading coaching qualification currently lacks consistency and guidelines. It is important to know that a number of qualifications do not fully assess nor take into consideration the number of training hours a coach has had to go through before gaining their certificate. Therefore at times even though your coach may be qualified on paper, it is stil possible for them to lack experience. It's important for you to be aware of this, so that you can choose your coach not only based on paperwork, but also looking at their past work and recommendations.


How much to pay a coach

An experienced, qualified and insured coach would likely be asking for upwards of £30.00 ($40.00) or a £4.00 ($6.00) per athlete per hour rate for standard technique coaching if they are fairly local to your team.  Further afield coaches may require travel expenses too and/or a minimum number of hours booked per session.   Remember that professional or full time coaches have a great number of annual costs including memberships, training, continued professional development, qualifications, licensing, insurance etc.  This is why, like fitness professionals, their skills have a high value.  It would be worth questioning why a coach might be offering their services at a rate cheaper than this.

A regular coaching position will usually come with a set fee per session, which can either be calculated with an hourly rate or a fee per participant. Occasional workshops will require higher rates than a regular commitment. In some areas where cheerleading is more developed as an activity, cheer coaches can be paid a yearly salary if hired directly by an academic institution or sporting organisation. Salaries usually range between $17,000.00 - $25,000.00 per year)

If you are looking for a coach to choreograph all or part of your routine, expect to pay anything from £500.00 - £1,500.00 ($800.00 - $2,400.00) depending on how much time they spend with the team to give them the choreography.  This type of coaching costs more as it requires a lot of pre-planning from the coach and also involves them giving the team their intellectual property and creativity.  If they also provide you with an original music track this will cost from £150.00 ($240.00).

Assistant coaches from within a program can be paid either a lesser sum than team coaches or have their work off-set against their fees.  It is best when employing multiple coaches at different levels to have your own pay scale which they understand.  It could reflect qualification level, responsibilities etc, that way coaches know how they can be earning more per hour in the future.

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