Things I Wish I’d Known Before Flying
Nothing beats the feeling of flying. Well, not flying in the ‘defying gravity’ sense, but flying as a cheerleader. In other words, being the one who gets thrown up in the air. The feeling is pretty much the same, I’m sure; however, it’s a much more difficult role than you may think. You may assume that a flyer simply keeps still whilst the other cheerleaders pick them up and fling them round. But there’s actually a lot more to it. Over the past couple of years I have learnt the good and bad of being a flyer. I was naïve when I first took up the sport (and yes it is a sport); I didn’t know what to expect. So here are the things I wish I had known beforehand which I hope will give any of you aspiring flyers some sort of mental preparation:
1. It will get frustrating. The time it takes to perfect a stunt is variable. Occasionally, you will get so frustrated with yourself because you have been trying to do that extension lib for the past two weeks and you still can’t balance, yet it only took you one session to master that prep lib!
For one, an extension lib is much harder anyway so what do you expect? Secondly, you are just going to have to accept it. It will be annoying, but you must push through. You can’t expect to be able to do everything straight away. As long as you keep pushing for it, it will be so worth all the aggravation once you finally hit the stunt.
2. You’re the one they see. You’re the one that the judges will be looking at, that the audience will be admiring; you’re the one in the air! It puts a big responsibility on your shoulders. So prepare those cheer faces.
Yes, it’s a lot of pressure, but then you get to be thrown in the air and feel like you have wings, who wouldn’t want that?
3. Injuries happen. You will, at some point, fall in a sort of weird way that puts your back-spot and bases in an awkward position and they will have to catch you with some unusual parts of their bodies. They will probably gain frequent bruises, scratches and strains from you. Don’t feel too bad, though; after all, it’s better them getting hurt whilst catching you, than you breaking your ankle because they didn’t catch you. What I mean is, don’t be so afraid of hurting your bases that it prohibits you from giving it your all.
4. There will be a lot of knee-locking and bum-squeezing. If there’s anything you need to do as a flyer, it’s to keep your body as tight as possible. Squeeze everywhere and most importantly, lock your knees! This will keep you stable in the air, and it will make things a lot easier for your stunt group. You do not simply rely on your stunt group to do all the work; you have to work too. Being a flyer is not all about pulling off those sassy facials!
5. You will learn to fight like never before. Fighting for your stunts is so important. Even if you feel like you are falling down, whatever you do, don’t wave your arms about as if you expect this to help re-gain your balance, but keep as tight as possible, and fight! This is a valuable life lesson, fighting to keep things going, even though it feels like you are about to lose balance and crash to the floor.
6. Get back up again. There will be times when you fall. I mean, hopefully you will be caught, but once you learn to get back up again, even after falling, you can conquer anything.
7. Trust. You must trust your stunt group. They will fight to make sure you don’t hit the floor, and most of the time they will be successful. Trust these people. They are reliable people. Their job is to catch you. Once you give them that trust they deserve, you will be hitting those stunts in no time.
In summary, flying actually teaches you a lot of valuable life skills: trust, getting back up again, and fighting for what you want. Even more so, it gives you the opportunity to feel like you have been graced with wings when you’re flung through the air in the Basket throw.
It’s fun, trust me!
With thanks to Lauren Wylie
