Coaching Cheerleading Successfully-2nd Edition

216 pages. Published 2005

About the Book

Lead your squad to be the most prepared, organized, enthusiastic, and cohesive group possible. Coaching Cheerleading Successfully covers all the key elements to building and maintaining a top supportive and competitive cheerleading program.

This guide presents all the essentials you need to teach techniques, choreograph specific cheer components, plan and conduct practice sessions, and evaluate performances. You’ll also find helpful suggestions and examples for fund-raising, building school spirit, and making your cheerleaders more likely to receive special awards and college tryouts.

Author Linda Rae Chappell shares the wisdom she’s gained from more than 30 years of experience in coaching cheerleaders at the youth, high school, college, and professional levels. Tap into her expertise and make your next practice and next season the best yet.

About the Author

Linda Rae Chappell has been coaching amateur and professional cheerleaders for more than 30 years. She currently serves as the spirit coordinator at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where she directs a campus program of approximately 75 athletes who cheer and dance. She is also a full-time faculty member teaching health, science, coaching, and physical education methods classes. Chappell’s national teams have consistently placed in the top six in both cheer and dance divisions.

After cheering in high school and college, Chappell started her own business, the Dynamic Cheerleaders Association, Inc. (DCA), at the age of 23. With DCA she established cheerleading camps at college and university campuses in 30 states, trained her staff of some 350 college cheerleaders to conduct the camps, and conducted six national cheerleading championships. Through DCA she also established a national mail-order business for cheerleaders’ clothing, accessories, and educational materials.

Chappell has presented numerous seminars, clinics, and workshops for cheerleading coaches and advisors, and she has delivered motivational seminars at national coaches conventions.

A prolific author, she has written on spirit raising and leadership, sportsmanship, fund-raising, and coach training. Many coaches have referred to her first book, The Spirit Book, as the "cheerleading Bible." She also has supervised production of books and videos on safety rules for the National Federation of State High School Associations, and she has produced and directed instructional videos in cheer and dance.

In 1986 Chappell established a coed cheerleading squad for the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football team, coaching the squad until 1990.

A member of the Missouri Cheerleading Coaches Association, Chappell is a former cheerleading director for the Midwest Missouri Youth Sports Association. In 1987 she earned a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Missouri.