Jumps: Cheerleading Style



Toe
Touch

Herkie

Hurdle

     

In this blog I will be focusing on the terminology of cheerleading. First off there are four main components of cheer. There’s stunting, tumbling, jumps, and a dance. In this blog I will be talking about the different kinds of jumps used in cheerleading. The simplest jump is the toe touch. To do any kind of jump you start off clapping at chest level, then doing a high “V”. To do a high “V” you have your arms straight and about level with your ears, in a V type motion. Doing this for all jumps will give you momentum and power to get good height. However remember that every cheerleader had to start at the bottom and work on their jumps constantly to get flexibility in their jumps. Now for the actual toe touch. After you have done the high V, you jump off the ground while kicking your legs out to each side. At first this jump will look a little like a star, with your arms and legs in different directions. Always remember when doing this jump your arms and legs need to be straight and locked.

            The next type of jump is a Herkie, this jump was one of the first jumps invented for cheerleading, but is rarely used in competitive cheer anymore, and it is mostly only used by high school cheerleaders. This jump is the same with the beginning hand movements but changes a little for the actual jump. Jump so that your more dominant leg is out in front of you, like in the toe touch, but your less dominant leg is beg behind you. Imagine that you are trying to kick your behind. Remember that when doing this jump, your bent leg is about a 45 degree angle. At the end of every jump make sure that you snap your legs back together, and stand up to make your jump look as pretty as possible.

            Another jump I will tell you about is the Hurdler. The Hurdler is just like the Herkie but this time you are facing the side, and not towards your crowd. You kick up you dominant leg in front of you like in the Herkie and your less dominant leg being bent behind you again, looking like a check mark. This time your goal is to extend your straight leg up as much as it can and just having your bent leg underneath you.

            The last jump I will tell you about is the pike jump. A pike is where you jump with both legs straight out in front of you, and snap back down. This jump might sound pretty easy, but this jump is relatively one of the hardest jumps for cheerleaders to master. In my next blog I will be talking about tumbling, and all the amazing this you can do when you get better at it!