CheerBandz Product Review Part 1

Heart of Cheer has the exciting opportunity to review a product on the market which is used to help cheerleaders build strength, stamina, and proper form to execute the necessary tumbling and jump skills for cheerleading. What is incredibly unique about this product is that it can be used safely AT HOME as well as in the gym to compliment a practice or private lesson.

As with any athletic activity, cheerleading takes adequate strength and proper progression to move through the developmental levels and achieve mastery of skills sets at each of these levels. Most cheerleaders are in the gym a minimum of 2 days each week, but this isn’t enough to build the strength required to be successful.  Cheerleading, as with any sport, requires some supplemental work to be done outside of regular practice. CheerBandz is a safe tool that can be effectively used for this exact purpose.

Heart of Cheer cheerleaders Cheyenne (age 11) and Jordyn (age 9) have started a progressive review of the Level 1 & 2 Tumbling Kits and Jump Kit. Their experiences so far have been very satisfying.  Jordyn has been using the Level 1 Tumbling and Jump Kits, and she has been moved in her routine due to her jump form and technique improving!  Cheyenne has been working with the Level 2 Tumbling and Jump Kits and has also experienced some great progression already!

The product arrived in a convenient drawstring bag, along with the high quality latex free resistance bands and instructional DVDs. First clear instructions are given on how to set up your bands for the workouts and then the workout begins. There is a challenging dynamic warm up, conditioning drills, and light stretching to conclude the workout. Each exercise is explained in great detail with an emphasis on breaking each skill down, proper form and technique. We highly recommend (and this is mentioned in the DVDs as well) spending your first couple weeks just mastering the exercises without the bands, and then adding the bands in once you have mastered each exercise. You will see improvement quickly. Both of our Heart of Cheer cheerleaders have taken ‘before’ videos as a guide to show their progression, and mid-way through our review they have achieved new tumbling skills and shown significant growth and improvement on their jumps.

What is great about the drills is that they show you what skill the athlete is working on, and they show the drills that will help with specific aspects of the skill as well as explain what the drill will do to benefit the athlete.  They discuss the proper technique for each drill and demonstrate it well.  It is still recommended that younger athletes using the kits work with either an older athlete, a coach or an adult that has seen and understands the DVD drills and proper technique.  There are a few drills that our athletes found to be a bit challenging, but with slight adaptions were able to do modified until the strength was built up to do them as directed in the video.  Even for very beginners these kits are wonderful and fun!

Parents often ask coaches what their cheerleaders can practice at home and sometimes as a coach it can be frustrating to give an answer. Coaches can’t be there to demonstrate an exercise at home or monitor if the cheerleader is doing it with proper form, and if they aren’t doing it properly it can lead to bad habits and do more harm than good. On the flip side, coaches do want to encourage and foster their athlete’s desire to be better and practice outside the gym so having CheerBandz as a visual option gives them piece of mind that their athlete is training specifically for their level and doing the exercises properly.

In watching the videos that come along with each kit, athletes and parents can watch and learn drills, how they benefit the athlete with a particular skill, and how progression is so very important.  At the beginning of each level DVD the skills that are needed for tumbling at that particular level are listed, and then they tell you how many drills that you will see that work the skills for this skill as well as how that benefits the athlete in perfecting the skill.  This will help in demonstrating that everything is necessary for proper progression in skills, and an athlete needs the proper technique on a level 1 skill or else they will not be able to perform the level 3 skill later on.  Though coaching instruction is optimal, these DVD’s break it down and prove to be a very good option for out-of-gym use.

About CheerBandz
The following information is from the CheerBandz website –

“CheerBandz product line uses resistance training to break down movements within each cheer skill.  This process sets us apart from any competition. It develops the cheerlete in a progression that allows for safe muscle development and muscle memory, while creating an amazing foundation for injury prevention.”

“While we do offer a high quality band made of latex free synthetic rubber, our focus doesn’t stop at the band. It is critical to us that each customer fully understand how to use CheerBandz to get optimal development.  Our video products will take you through each of the All-Star recognized skill levels.  Our CheerBandz Development Kits will not only introduce all skills within each level, but will teach you proper body positioning and technique.”

“We, at CheerBandz, also believe that skill progression and the way you develop your body is critical.  By progressing through movement and stacking those movements to complete a skill, you will put yourself in the best position for injury prevention.  The Mayo Clinic says, “The best brace you can give yourself is your own “muscle brace”.  Safety and injury prevention are critical to our sport.  CheerBandz will give you the foundation you need to reduce/prevent injury.”

“One of our goals is to make sure that all cheerletes get all they can out of each level. Too many times we get focused on the minimum skill set that will allow level progression.  For example, most athletes want to get their back handspring to move from Level 1 to Level 2.  Next, they want to work on a tuck to move from Level 2 to Level 3.  You guessed it…Then the focus moves to a standing tuck and layout for Level 4 and finally landing a full will get you to the prized Level 5.  We at CheerBandz want you to get so much more out of your cheer experience.  That’s why we focus on every skill in every level.”

“We want to help educate athletes around the world, that it is imperative they learn PERFECTION before PROGRESSION. It is our goal that cheer coaches and especially cheer parents will become more knowledgeable about the progression requirements in each level which will in turn, alleviate the pressure to progress too quickly REDUCING MENTAL/MUSCLE BLOCKS and INCREASE CONFIDENCE/SELF-ESTEEM!”

For more information and on how to order CheerBandz, please see the follow links:

CheerBandz Website

CheerBandz Facebook

CheerBandz YouTube

Follow on Twitter- @cheerbandz

Instagram- cheerbandz

Co-founder Heart of Cheer

Co-founder Heart of Cheer