Leading the Crowd and Abolishing the Lame Usage of Placards

One two three,

Peter, Steven, Paul and Mary,

Getting down with 3P,

Everybody loves single basing stunts

In response to Sri KDU Stunner's and Dynamitez's CHEER 2009 routines, your single basing stunts have to look like the video and only then it'll look like a SINGLE BASING stunt. Single basing stunts should only have 2 or 3 people in the stunt set and nothing more. Since the rules in Cheer states that extended stunts requires a back spot, the number of people in a single basing stunt set should be JUST THREE.

Just imagine having 4, 5, 6, or 7 people in a single basing stunt, doesn't make sense does it? It scores lower and doesn't look impressive. The crowd will perceive it as a partner stunt and doing a partner stunt instead would be more sensible. Add creativity to the partner stunt and you'll score as much or more than the single basing stunt.

Okay! Back to the topic. I've noticed that Malaysian cheer teams have very lame usage of placards. There's one year I recalled that Sellors used its placard to keep the crowd shut. "SILENCE" was written on the placard. *dies laughing*

The idea of a placard is to get the crowd involved in your cheers. Placards should be appropriately big and the words should be clear to lead the crowd effectively. Please for God's sake do not write on your placards for example:

• CHäRm A|l $tArS
• ð¥nåM̆eZ
• FücK ¥¤Ü

My eyes will bleed reading it, it looks stupid, it's childish, and the judges will deduct points for stupidity. English is read from left to right and I should see the sequence of your placards being:

The cheer should be simple and clear with no bombastic words like fascinating, adrenaline, amoeba, homosapiens etc. The cheer should be written especially for a bimbos with clear, simple words such as: go, fight, win, red, blue, white, alright! Words that are short and simple can be easily understood and thus, more effective when leading the crowd.


I must also mention about epic cheers that seems never ending. Nobody's going to understand and it is as interesting as having cereals for breakfast. Example of the epic cheer:

We're all the way from SMK Taman Nowhere,

Pink, Green, Brown is what we wear,

We're back and better than before,

So you better watch out cos we've got more,

We're number 50 last year,

But we'll do our best and give you fear,

We've got the power,

We don't shower,

We smell good,

Like your foot,

Who the hell are we?

We're the Agogos,

All the way from Nowhere,

And you know what,

We've the determination,

We work so hard,

For global domination

Blah Blah Blah Blah

Cheers should be a short statement about your team. Here's a cheer I wrote for Vulcanz CHEER 2005:

Vulcanz,

Attention,

We're on a mission,

Strike with precision,

That's our tradtion

Short, sweet and simple! Cheh :p

Another compulsory element for cheers are chants. Chants are sentences/words you repeat for more than 3 times. Chants are the best way to lead the crowd. The idea is to get them cheering the chant together with you. The use of pom-pons and placards are highly recommended. Incorporate them into the cheer choreography for visual impact and awesomeness. Examples of chants are:

• Go, Fight, Win
• Red, Blue White,
• Go, Team, Go
• Tough is not enough

Remember, that the idea of cheer is to lead the crowd. A cheer is comprising of two elements which are cheers and chants. Lacking in any one of them leads to a penalty. Incorporate props into cheer to lead the crowd more effectively and keep it simple yet original. Watch the video and understand the concept of cheer.

Cheer on,

Eric x