Movie For The Masses - Avatar

This is the first movie I've watched in 3D and I'm so glad that my 3D virginity goes to Avatar! The movie blew my mind away. I even refused to pee and held it throughout the film.

Spoiler Alert!

Cheer Paparazzi: Beauty and the Beast of CHEER 2009

Introducing the new segment of my blog, the Cheer Paparazzi! Let me enlighten you about Cheer Paparazzi. For this segment, I'll be taking pictures of teams that are worthy to be published. I may cover about how are the other teams are doing, fashion, candid shots and anything paparazzi-ish.

To kick off this segment, I'll start with the best and worst dressed of Cheer 2009 for some dresses are more memorable than the award winners. You'll know why in a bit.

THE BEST DRESSED

The Stunning Stunner

This attire is right on! I love everything about it. The long sleeves provide emphasis on the arm motions and the red stripes give an almost glow-in-the-dark look to the attire. I feel like chucking my Charm attire in the bin right now.

The Shimmering Stomper

Stompers in a royal number. The velvet blue and gold are a perfect match. The gold ribbon is the icing on the cake.

Sweet Pink

Calyx in this glamorous pink number. The shiny pink patches of the attire are the bomb.



THE WORST DRESSED


Yuck!

Inspired by the tar road and a swimwear and you get Sellors' attire. Shingz!

The Buang

When standing next to them, I can't differentiate between the real sampah bag and the fake sampah bag. I'm very scared. The tailor must've mistaken them for being obese. Buang!

Cheers,

EV xoxo

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

The Zipzapdingdongfupaks of Stunners All-Boys 2009 - The Review

They were the 2nd runner-ups for CHEER 2008 and this is one the teams that I highly anticipate during CHEER 2009. There has been a change of coaches last year which led to a different style of routine. However, the routine did not meet the standard which led the boys plunging to 12th place on CHEER 2009.

Initially, I find the routine entertaining but after scrutinizing their performance on YouTube, I realize that the routine was not tight and the stunts were poorly executed.

Execution of the routine aside, I personally love the dance. It's repetitive but it works and it's pleasantly memorable. Good selection of songs and I love the sound effects that accentuate the motions.

A few things to straighten out:

• No multiple tosses.
• Single basing stunts should be replaced with partner stunting instead of 2 supporters for the main base for the single base stunts. It does not look impressive. The number of people in the single stunt sets are 4 which is equivalent to a standard partner stunt.
• Centre front twist cradle at 1:00 is poorly executed. The position of that stunt is directly in front of the judges. It screams "look at my ugly twist cradle!". Shingz.
• There were no significant chants in the routine. Lame usage of placards.
• The toe pitches at the end of the routine is hidden behind the shoulder stands. No judges could see that and it is illegal because there were no back spots when it is extended.
• The pyramids in the routine did not give me a good impression. The top flyers were holding on to the bracing flyers for balance before being extended.

Stunts

• Basket toss X-Out
• 3 sets of show 360s + regrab to single base extensions + pop off
• 3 sets of round off to cradle + reload + single leg flatback to elevator + twist cradle
• Basket toss toe touch
• 2 sets of show 360s to single leg flatbacks + elevator + press up to liberty extension hitch + twist cradle

Pyramids

• Inside hitch elevator
• Wolf's Wall

Cheer Guru - Double Down

We've seen a number of double twist cradles from a few teams for the past few years since Cheer 2007. The trend was started by Shirtliff in Cheer 2007 and this is one the skills that separates the shingz and the boomz.

A double down is different than a single down. In double downs, flyers do not ride the pop but instead twist on the way up and another twist on the way down. It is impossible to double down if the flyers ride the bases' pop.

I highly recommend the bases and spotters to assist the flyer by twisting her on the direction she's twisting. The secret to a double down is not height, but the twisting of the feet by the bases on the peak of the pop. The back assists by rotating the flyer through her ankles in sync with the bases.

Flyers ride up with their shoulders shrugged upwards and twisting to the direction she's twisting. Body stays tight throughout the duration of the stunt. One of the most common problem is the flyer stops her own twist by stopping at the first twist. A double down should not be considered as two skills but instead as one continuous flow.

It is possible to execute a double twist without the assistance of the base and the back spot. The flyer must be a able to do single down before attempting a double.

Striking Balance In Cheer Practices

It's the beginning of the year and many teams have already started recruiting talents into the team and have begun their training. Although things are starting out fresh and full of enthusiasm, it may all soon fizzle out without a proper training programme.

In this blog entry, I am going to help you achieve an effective training programme while keeping it fun for everybody.

An effective training programme is comparable to a bar of soap. Hold it too tight and it will slip through your hands but holding it too loosely, the bar of soap will slip away as well. The same could be applied to your members. Does that makes sense?

To achieve that, a balance must be met. If your practices are militaristic, as if preparing for a world war, it's not going to work. You'll have members leaving the team because being a cheer Nazi will murder out the fun.

Now we know that fun is good for your well-being. Same could not be applied to excessive fun. Imagine having to play a computer game for 48 hours straight. Doesn't sound so fun anymore ain't it?

A list of must-dos:

1. First and foremost, I would like to address the importance of using the right tone and words in practice. Nothing could be more discouraging when members in the squad says something negative when something does not work out. If you see a stunt set failing, do give your friends the much needed encouragement. I'm sure they are all stressed out and telling them that they suck might lead to suicidal thoughts. By giving encouragement, you are practising in what psychology calls "positive reinforcement". Praising something that is positive will lead to the constant occurence of that act which is praised.
2. The right use of "negative reinforcements" is equally important as positive reinforcements. Negative reinforcements reduces and obsoletes the behaviour/act that is being criticized. However, the way you deliver the message and the right tone, sets the outcome. For instance, you see this shingz girl doing a really bad toe touch that makes you wonder if it's a toe touch at all, don't shout to the team to tell her how shitty she is. Instead, opt for a kinder approach: Hey, good try! Just point those toes and it'll be much better!". I've learnt this from the Americans coaches who are really good at encouraging people to be the best they can. We have to remove this pessimistic Asian mindset for the betterment of the team. Note for team captains: if you have problems with a certain member of the team, voice out your opinions in private. The reason being is because, gossip and personal attacks may arise when the problem is made public.
3. Practice progression. I know it's easy to be caught up with other team's standard but before you push to a higher level of stunting, work on your basics. Unless you have an intelligent of an amoeba, go ahead and do a basket toss without mastering your elevators first. Basic movements of the stunts have to be mastered first before proceeding to a more difficult one. It's all in the muscle memory, the ability to do a thigh stand liberty will help you progress to a liberty prep because the same movement is applied on a thigh stand liberty and a liberty prep.
4. Have practices planned out beforehand. The recommended time of practices should be 2 hours. It's all that's needed if practices are effective. Allocate time to each element in cheerleading that needs to be worked on. For instance, the team might lack in stunting capabilities hence the allocation of time for stunts should be more. It is important for the coach and captain to analyze the team's strengths and weaknesses to set an ideal practice schedule. I also highly recommend the team to do specific strength work to condition the body for cheerleading.

I've only covered on what I feel is fundamental to make an ideal practice and I've not gone into the specifics. I will cover that soon so keep logging in to check out.

Thank you for reading,

Eric x

CHEER 2010 Stunting Expectations

Cheer 2009 was a leap forward in the cheer scene with teams brushing up their routines to slick perfection and the standard of stunts moved up by a notch. Do expect the same for CHEER 2010. In this blog entry, I have exclusively compiled for you a stunts expectation list for a top 10 placing in CHEER 2010.

1. Single leg twisting dismounts.
2. Double twist cradles.
3. Double structured pyramids.
4. Basket toss kick twists.

Do take note that the rules for CHEER 2010 may change slightly to keep cheerleading a safe sport. The changes are:

1. All extended stunts are only allowed a maximum of single twist.
2. Double twists are only allowed on a prep level.
3. The highest basket toss allowed is a kick single twist.

The application of the new rules and regulations are yet to be out so stay tuned for the update here.