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Handstand: How long will it take to learn?

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:16-12-2020

How long it would actually take to learn how to do a handstand? Let’s hear it from the expert! Our local circus artists Beverly is here to share her experience and knowledge on learning handstand with all of us.

Back in 2017, Beverly started exploring handstand after being inspired by an Australian acrobat when she was at Australia where she was sponsored to attend circus training courses taught by professionals and got the opportunity to train with acrobats all over the world.

How will a typical training session be like?

Beverly clocks in freestanding handstands, straddle presses and contortion handstands in the first hour before she start venturing into higher level skills that she’s working towards. Her level of dedication to handstand training is intense as she shared that in the beginning of her handstand journey, she was doing handstands every day, every minute in between classes, during lunch, dinner breaks and even after school!

How many hours do you practice every week/day and what are some of the challenges face while learning hand balancing?

Beverly handstand training is usually about 2 hours and 3 – 4 days a week. “But everyday I still do a couple of handstands just for fun!” remarked Beverly. Beverly shared that she had injured her wrist once in a freak accident, and since then her wrists became more susceptible to overuse injury. “I have to be very careful and gentle with my training, but this has also taught me to train more responsibly…like warm up first.” says Beverly.

What is the one most important factor when it comes to hand balancing?

“Patience, resilience and discipline are very very very important. Rushed and frantic handstands seldom ever work unless you’re incredibly strong. You can expect to have some days where you have zero success and want to give up, and you’ll need to do handstands every single day even if that means you’ll be staring at the floor for 2 hours.” says Beverly.

What advice would Beverly give to beginners who are starting on their hand balancing journey?

If you are just starting on your handstand journey, here are some advice that Beverly would like to share to help you with your initial phase of your journey.

OVERCOMING FEAR – You can kick up to a handstand against the wall but can’t do it freestanding is because of fear. After learning how to twist out of your handstand, you’ll realise it’s no longer dangerous to go upside down, training will feel much less terrifying, and you’ll dare to kick up to your handstand.

STAYING FOCUS – Handstands won’t feel like you kick up to centre and then float there. Once you find your centre, that centre will keep shifting around so it’s a constant focus on balance, constant pushing and pulling and constant gripping and releasing. 

GETTING UNLOCKED – you’ll have no idea what it feels like to be in balance upside down. In other words, you don’t know which point/feeling it is that you’re looking for so it’ll feel like a pointless search. But once you unlocked it and you know what it’s supposed to feel like, the journey towards finding that spot will be a lot easier.

Are you interested to learn more about handstand and other movements like the front walkover from Beverly? Check out our classes page to see what are the upcoming classes that she will be conducting at CheerForce Singapore’s cheerleading studio!

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Improve Flexibility: Mastering Of Splits And Pancakes

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:25-11-2020

Today we bring to you an interview with the flexible sister duo Margarita and Christina and they will be sharing with you their journey on flexibility and some challenges and tips they picked up along the way. They will also be sharing how their flexibility training is like as well as advice for you if you are starting or has already started on the flexibility training journey of your own.

WHO ARE THEY?

Marga is an advanced level pole dancer and has participated in amateur level competition and holds the title of “The Brass Barree’s Freestyle Battle Queen” whereas Christina has a versatile dance background from hip hop, tap, contemporary dance and pole dancing. She have been consistent in building her strength and flexibility to compete internationally.

WHEN AND WHY DID THEY STARTED LEARNING SPLITS/PANCAKES?

It all started as a sibling thing where Marga started training splits when she saw Christina training for it and wanted to see if she could do it as well. She managed to achieve her front splits in secondary school but lost it for a period of time as she did not continue training until in 2018 where she started working on her overall flexibility.

It was Marga’s aim to get her flexibility back after losing it, and over time she found more reasons to train her flexibility to have beautiful lines when she dances. Marga explained that the ability to do more tricks requires some degree of flexibility, and the sense of satisfaction from achieving each minor milestone motivates her to work more on her flexibility. “It has become a journey where I learned to enjoy and develop interested in this craft.” said Marga.

WHAT IS THEIR TYPICAL FLEXIBILITY TRAINING REGIME LIKE?

“Twice a week, one hour each session” was their answer.

“If I can’t follow through with this on some weeks, I will find ways to incorporate some deeper stretches in her warm-ups before my self practice pole dance sessions and throw in some tricks that supplement this as well.” said Marga. Some of her deeper stretches includes oversplit stretches and tricks that require the same level of flexibility. “On rare days I will work on my middle split which is my least favorite part to train” said Marga jokingly.

As for Christina, her typical training session would be an hour long focusing on certain muscles groups and always trying to incorporate active flexibility work.

WHAT CHALLENGES DID THEY FACE WHILE LEARNING SPLITS/PANCAKES?

Marga big challenge is getting the right form to make sure she is stretching safely while maximizing the stretch because sometimes getting into the right form itself can be a challenge. Marga makes a conscious effort to focus on each stretch and try to progressively improve her form. It’s definitely not something that came easy to her because she really needs to be aware of her body. “It would help when you have someone stretching with you because they will be able to help you check and correct your form”, suggested Marga.

As for Christina, she faced days where she have difficulty in finding motivation to stretch. “Let’s face it, stretching can hurt and may seem really mundane, but I usually set a certain goal in mind (usually a trick I want to do) to help me push through”, shared Christina. It was the saying “Embrace the suck” by Tom Merrick that kept her motivated and pushing through her flexibility trainings.

They also shared that overcoming the pain should hurt and will hurt but there’s good pain and bad pain. Good pain should feel like there’s some mild tension or some degree of discomfort but nothing sharp and highly discomforting as this might mean you have strained, overstretched, or pulled something, which is bad pain.

WHAT IS THE ONE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR WHEN IT COMES TO SPLITS/PANCAKES?

Consistency is the key factor when it comes to flexibility trainings. “Unless you’re naturally flexible, it’s quite unlikely that you will get your splits/pancakes in a short period of time. You have to be consistent in dedicating time to stretch to see results” said Marga. “I personally think that training with intention and consistency is the most important” said Christina.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD THEY GIVE TO BEGINNERS WHO ARE STARTING ON THEIR SPLITS/PANCAKES JOURNEY?

“Have patience, some people can achieve their flexibility goals in weeks, and others take years so be patient with your body and celebrate every little milestone along the way. Being patient can make your flexibility journey a lot more rewarding, a lot less painful and a lot more enjoyable’, advised Marga, “You’ll also want to experiment with dynamic and static stretches to find out what type of stretches works for you and incorporate more of such stretches into your own training.”

Christina advised, “Be patient with yourself, everybody’s body is different. Your stretch journey is YOUR OWN journey, enjoy it!” Christina also suggested to take inspiration from other people online but never compare their progress to yours. Use others as your motivation and not as a way to put yourself down.

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Collaborations For CheerFit x imPAct Fitness Platform

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:31-08-2020

The CheerFit x imPAct Fitness Platform was created in July 2020 post Circuit Breaker to promote cheerleading and fitness among the Singapore community. The sessions usually includes a HIIT cardio workout, a body weight strength workout and a calisthenics handstand workout. However, this coming September and October we are making some changes to make way for a series of collaborations with our special guests.

Starting from September, you will get the opportunity to learn from our guests from different disciplines and get some tips and tricks from them on how to get better at your craft. For the first round of our collaborations, we have invited local acrobat Beverly Wan from Circus of Altrades, advanced level competitive pole dancer Margarita and professional sports massage therapist Pavithra on to share with you their knowledge that they have in their own area of expertise.

First up, we have Beverly Wan, one of the leading artists of the Circus of Altrades. She has been sponsored to attend circus training courses in Australia, where she was taught by professionals and trained with acrobats all over the world. Her handstand classes will be on 7 September and 19 October 8:30pm-9:30pm on CheerFit x imPAct online zoom platform.

Next up, we have Margarita, an advanced level competitive pole dancer who had the pleasure of performing at the Singapore Night Festival 2019 and she holds the title of The Brass Barree’s Freestyle Battle Queen (Halloween 2018). Her 4 flexibility stretching classes will be held back to back on 21 & 28 September and 5 & 12 October on CheerFit x imPAct online zoom platform.

Lastly, we have Pavithra, a certified professional sports massage therapist that has helped improve athlete’s recovery process alongside aiding training, improving performance and preparing the athlete prior to competition through her works with elite athletes. Her sports massage classes will be on 14 September and 26 October on CheerFit x imPAct online zoom platform.

With so many exciting classes for you to attend on our platform, mark the dates down in your calendar so that you will not forget. You can also follow CheerFit for more live updates. Registration for each week’s CheerFit x imPAct session will open on the Tuesday and close at 3pm on Saturday the week before. You can register for the next coming session through the link here.

If you would like to collaborate with us on our CheerFit x imPAct platform, do drop us an email and we will be in touch with you!

Cheers!

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Cheerleading In The New Normal

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:05-08-2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many industries and individuals, and cheerleading and cheerleaders are not exception. Although sports in Singapore has already resumed in Phase 2, the sport of cheerleading remains dormant as prolonged contact is still not allowed under the latest advisory by Sport Singapore and Cheerleading Federation (Singapore).

However, we are lucky that segments of cheerleading is allowed to resume in phase 2 such as tumbling, jumps and CheerDance. We can now practice in groups of 5 with a coach which allows us to build back the team spirit little by little. Masks are still recommended to be worn during our workouts and cleaning and sanitization procedures are carried out after each group has left the premises.

Although stunting is still not allowed by Sport Singapore and Cheerleading Federation (Singapore), we have started preparing our bodies and refreshing our stunting skills with conditioning and stunt drills through our online cheerleading fitness program CheerFit SG, in hopes that the restrictions imposed on contact sport by Sport Singapore will eased out in the near future.

SafeEntry check-ins, temperature check and hand sanitizers has become the norm at our cheerleading studio as we strive to resume cheerleading in the safest way possible for all of our athletes as their health is our top most priority. Athletes are also to leave the premises once their training session is over so as to prevent them from hanging around in the facility for a long period of time.

Team bonding has also been a challenge for us. Other than the weekly online workout session and tumblng sessions in our cheerleading studio that allowed us to meet each other, the EXCO initiated a mini bonding session over dinner last weekend for the team to bond over a simple dinner at Poulet Vivocity.

As we enter into the month of August, the first thing that is on every Singaporean’s mind would be National Day. It has been our annual practice to have an outdoor stunt photoshoot in red and white to celebrate the spirit of National Day together as a team. However, due to the no stuntiing restriction, we have decided to do a simple individual photoshoot in red and white to spread the National Day cheers this year.

It has been a really challenging period for Singapore as a nation and for us as a cheerleading community, and it will continue to be as challenging as before moving forward into the new normal. We urge our fellows cheerleaders to follow the regulations imposed by Sport Singapore so that we can all stay safe and do our part as a cheerleading community in Singapore. We believe that we will definitely be able to overcome this pandemic and emerge more united in the new normal future. Together a stronger Singapore!

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5 Activities Cheerleaders Can Do While Staying In At Home

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:16-04-2020

Having to stay at home for an extended period of time can be rather frustrating for athletes, especially for players in team sports like cheerleading. It is impossible to practise majority of our skills without any human interaction. So we have come up with 5 activities that cheerleaders can do while staying in at home to stay in shape and stay current with their cheerleading know-how.

Workout and Stay Active – There are various cheerleading workout online that helps to keep you in shape. You can choose from a wide variety of workout from cardio and endurance to strength and power workout to excite your body and keep it active. The last thing you would want is to loose all the speed, strength and endurance that you have built up through numerous cheerleading trainings.

If you are looking for a live workout program, do follow us on our Instagram (@cheerforcesg) as we bring you live workout program created by cheerleaders specifically for cheerleaders every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening.

Stretch Those Muscles – Flexibility is a key component of cheerleading, and it is not just the flexibilty of the flyers but our overall flexibility of our muscles so as to reduce the chance of injury when we return to training in the future. There are various stretching tutorials online that teaches you the proper stretching technique so that your body gets stretched in the right way.

Cook Up A Diet Plan – As the saying goes, six packs are made in the kitchen, and so is a healthy body. It will do your body injustice if you were to workout incredibly hard to only binge on junk food afterwards. While you are coming up with a diet plan, why not try your hands on preparing your own meal? There are simple healthy recipies which you can prepare under 30 minutes.

Drill Your Techniques – We know most of you might be wondering how do you continue working on your cheerleading techniques without the help of your bases or flyers. In our weekly Instagram live workout, we have segments like Stunts & Drills and Handstand 101 that teaches you exercises so that you can continue to work on your techniques for your stunts, tumbling and jumps. With a little creativity, we made it possible!

Netflix n Chill – For those who would just like to have a chill day, why not hope over to Netflix and catch the latest cheerleading series “CHEER” and be inspired by Monica Aldama and the cheerleaders of the the Navarro College Cheer Team as fight their way through various challenges while going for their 14th National Championships. It is a great cheerleading documentary series that everyone should watch and if you have not, you are missing out.

BONUS ACTIVITY – During difficult times like this, we started a little campaign of our own titled #SpreadHopeNotCOVID so bring a little ray of hope to everyone we love around us for them to stay strong and together we can defeat this virus. To participate in our cause, simply post a photo or video of something that you enjoy doing but is unable to do it now due to the global pandemic. Tag 3 other friends and add in #SpreadHopeNotCOVID in your caption will do. Tag us too on Instagram so that we can share your hopes with everyone.

Thank you and till our next blog entry, take care and stay safe! Stay home, save lives!

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CheerForce Recruitment Drive 2020

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:26-02-2020

We are truly thankful to those who came down to our CheerForce Recruitment Drive 2020 last Saturday to stunt and mingle with the rest of the Singapore cheerleading community. We are pleased to host around 25 new members on that day, with many of them coming from NTU hall teams.

The ice was broken between everyone during the games at the start of the session where everyone had a good time trying to fit body parts within a piece mats and also not forgetting the fun we had passing the hoops musical chair style.

We went through the theory of coaching tumbling skills such as how to progress from handstand to cartwheel and from chartwheel to round off, we demostrations from CheerForce cheerleaders. We hope that through these progressive techniques, hall seniors and seniors-to-be will be able to help teach their future juniors and new members tumbling techniques in safe and progressive manner.

After tumbling, we went through 180 full up and how it can be transitted into a 360 full up as well as pop full cradle techniques and what is required to achieve an easy double full from any given body positions. The participants were also given the time to try out the skills that was taught and they are really talented as many are able to achieve the twist to extended height within the short session.

We ended the session with synchronised stunt videos and free-an-easy session where members are allowed to go around to mingle and try out skills with other cheerleaders. We would like to thank everyone who came down for our recruitment drive to support us, and our support team and CheerForce cheerleaders who made this recruitment possible for everyone!

The photos from the session will be released on our Facebook page soon so do follow our Facebook page to be notified when it is published! If you’ve missed out on our recruitment, feel free to drop us an email or DM us on our social media as we are constantly recruiting and growing our CheerForce family!

For coaches and cheerleaders, do let us know if you would like to learn more about the progressive training from skills to skills and we would gladly share it with you. Till next time, stunt safe everyone! Cheers!

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Roar In Harmony At Chingay 2020

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:05-02-2020

We had a blast last weekend at the Chingay Singapore 2020, performing 2 days in a row and showcasing the sport of cheerleading at Asia’s biggest street parade. It was really sensational to hear the crowd cheering with every stunt that went up and the energy at the F1 Pit Building was electrifying.

Chingay 2020 brings to you “Colours In Harmony”, a dynamic showcase of Singapore’s multiculturalism and diversity in celebration of People’s Association 60 years of community building with the people. This year CheerForce Singapore is in the Chinese New Year segment dressed in black and gold modern tribal costume, representing the lion tribe.

This year we faced multiple challenges such as shorter preparation time and multiple revamping of our routine, to which we worked together as a team and helped each other out to ensure that we always present the best we can to our audiences. It was a tough ride for us to put up the show at Chingay Singapore this year as more than half of our members have less than 1 year of cheerleading experience but everyone understood what was requireed of us and put our best foot forward with every practice, rehearsal and show.

Through our relentless efforts, we put up what we planned and received great comments from members of the public. Thank you for all your positive feedback and encouragement and we look forward to bringing more amazing cheerleading performance to you in the future.

We would like to thank People’s Association and our production manager, Lily Chen, for their continuous support for us from the preparation stage through the end of parade 2. We would also like to thank Chingay’s Artistic Director, Mr Fan, for this guidance and feedback which pushes us to change our performance routine to put up the best performance we can and differentiate us from the rest of the performances.

Special thanks to the members from King Edward VII Titans Cheerleading Team who decided to join us for this Chingay performance to make our performance even more amazing together. We are also thankful to have our korean friend, Kiu, who flew all the way from Korea to perform with us at the parade. Last but not least, we would like to thank all our supporters, company’s management, alumnis, friends and families for their support for us throughout this journey which made Chingay 2020 possible for us all.

Chingay 2020 not only is a platform for us promote the sport of cheerleading, but it is also a channel for us to come together as a cheerleading community to build friendship and memories that last. If you are interested in being part of our cheerleading community, we look forward to having you with us at Chingay 2021!

Visit our official website to find out more about us and the cheerleading performances that we did. Contact us now and be part of our amazing cheerleading community or have us bring the hype of cheerleading to your event!

Cheers!

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Happy Lunar New Year!

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:24-01-2020

24 days has passed since the calendar new year and here we are celebrating yet another new year! Filled with vibrancy and the auspicious color red, the Lunar New Year is one of the major festival here in Singapore. At CheerForce, we jumped into the festive mood on Wednesday and had our Lunar New Year themed training.

Hosted by our marketing manager Jilane, all of us had a lot of fun and laughter as we tried to form the chinese character for the word rat and the word CNY with our bodies. Apart from that, we also took a CNY team photo and well-wishes video which will be released on our social media soon so stay tuned!

That’s not the end of our CNY celebration! We will be having a CNY steamboat and BBQ dinner after our Chingay Parade 2020 together with our post parade celebration, which will be shared through our social media story on the 2 February so do keep a lookout for it!

The CNY celebration is just the start of a chain of events lined up in our CheerForce calendar. Apart from our usual NDP photoshoot and Dinner & Cheer events, this year CheerForce will be rolling out a series of internal and external events for our team members and the cheerleading community.

Apart from events, we will also be embarking on projects throughout the year such as our team expansion initiative and CheerFit. Both are focused on building cheerleading up from the ground level and both initiatives are still in the preparation stage. Once we have more information ready, we will definitely let you know first hand on our social media.

It is going to be an eventful year for us and we want you to be part of it! Follow us on our Facebook and Instagram as we journey through 2020 together. Want to be part of our amazing cheerleading team but worry that you do not have the relevant cheerleading experience? Do not worry! We do have programs catered for you who has zero experience in cheerleading because we know that everyone starts from ground zero. So if you have always been wanting to be a cheerleader, just drop us a dm on our social media now!

In the meantime, enjoy your Lunar New Year and we wishes all of readers a prosperous and successful year of the rat! Cheers!

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In 2019…

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:25-12-2019

It’s the time of the year again to reflect back on the memories that we have in the year that is going to pass. 2019 was indeed the most amazing year that we have thus far, achieving many milestones together as a team.

In 2019, we performed for the first time at Chingay Parade, a parade that we have never thought that we will have the opportunity to participate in and we are blessed to be given the opportunity by People’s Association to do so. We are also thankful to People’s Association for recognising our efforts by awarding us with the Best in Contingent Display.

In 2019, we had our first, biggest and longest single performance in a theatre for Project Cognizance’s Concert Reveur. It involved 18 cheerleaders for the 7 minutes long performance. Thank you Project Cognizance for giving us the opportunity to give back to the community.

In 2019, our team participated in our first overseas team competition at CheerForce Cheerleading Championship in Bangkok. With almost two-thirds of new members in the team, we are glad that we put up a good performance at the competition. Fun fact, it was also the first time Tian Yi took up the role of head coach for a team competition! Kuddos!

In 2019, we were grateful to have the opportunity of sending 5 of our athletes to Takasaki, Japan to participate in the Cheerleading World Championships. Among the 31 participating nations, we are humbled to achieve 10th for the Small Group Mixed Category and 7th for the Cheerleading Doubles Category. Good job to our athletes!

In 2019, it was the first time that we had team sponsorships by various sponsors. Huge thank you to our main sponsor ArmourUp Asia, apparel sponsor BiaAthletics, bag sponsor BowForBold and socks sponsor TheSockersCo for supporting us and being part of our journey in 2019.

In 2019, we had the opportunity to meet XiaoMing for the first time on set during our second collaboration with SGAG for “Battle Of The Alphas” series. Thank you SGAG for giving us the platform yet again to promote awareness for cheerleading. It was always a great pleasure to work with the amazing crew from SGAG and we hope next year we will have the opportunity to collaborate again!

Moving forward to 2020, you can expect more awesomeness from us as we continue to work hard together as an unit to make cheerleading great again in Singapore, not only for ourselves but for future generations to come. Here’s to closer friendships, more amazing stunts, and more wonderful memories together as a team together with our partners, sponsors and supporters in our CheerForce family.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a blessed 2020! Cheers!

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IFC Class 1 Cheerleading Safety Coaching Qualification Course

Author : CheerForce Singapore

Date:17-12-2019

Over the weekend, we had the pleasure of having Zhao Ming, from Federation of Cheerleading (Singapore), Yuki Iwai and Brandan Chen to conduct the International Federation of Cheerleading (IFC) Class 1 Cheerleading Safety Coaching Qualification Course at our cheerleading studio for 9 aspiring cheerleading coaches from our team.

Apart from teaching the basic elements of cheerleading, safety of cheerleading activities are heavily emphasized in this course and how cheerleading coaches can minimize the risk of injuries and breach of safety through checks and supervision. It also teaches the proper progression chart for partner stunts, tumbling and jumps and some of the drills that can be taught to build up to the final stunt that we want to achieve.

Other than theory and sharing sessions, the course also includes practical segments where participants will be taught how to properly catch a falling top person. We were surprised to know that even for spotting and catching a falling top person, there is a proper progression to it to ensure safety while learning.

For example, when learning the bear hug catching, we started with learning the proper posture by hugging the top person on the ground level and lifting them up. Once we are cleared of having the correct catching posture, we then moved on to having the top person do a mini hop from the ground level and catching the top person while he or she is in the air. Once deemed proficient, we proceed onto having the top person stand on an elevated platform and stepping off to allow his or her partner to catch him or her using the bear hug catching method. Eventually, participants learnt to catch the top person falling from shoulder stand level using the proper technique to ensure safety.

On day 2 of the course, our 9 members were tested on their knowledge from the Class 1 Coaches Handbook as well as on their practical safety skills such as executing bear hug catching and cradle catching. After 2 days on intense effort, we are excited to announce that all 9 members are now qualified IFC Class 1 coaches!

Overall, we felt that this was a very informative and useful coaching course, especially for coaches of teams that just started out or have new members constantly, like NTU and NUS hall team coaches, as it provides the proper progression charts and innovative stunts that we do not see in Singapore but are useful building blocks for member’s skills advancement as well as skills confidence. Safety is the main priority for coaches and members so always start building from ground zero to minimize the risk of injury.

Thank you for reading and stay safe for all cheerleading activities everyone! Cheers!