Behind the Stunts: ANABELLE’S JOURNEY TO WORLDS
Getting ready for Team Australia!
For those that might not be familiar, Cheerleading is an up-and-coming sport in Australia, combining aspects of gymnastics, acrobatics, and dance, into a high intensity, high impact performance sport that involves literally throwing people into the air and expecting them to spin and twist before we catch them. Teams are made up of units of 4 people called “stunt groups”, each stunt group comprises of a flyer, two bases, and a backspot. Multiple stunt groups work together to perform tumbling sequences, build human pyramids and lead the crowd to cheer on their country. Every year the International Cheer Union (ICU) hosts the World Championships, where Countries send their best of the best to compete against other Nations from around the globe, at Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida.
In all honesty, I actually hadn’t been planning on trying out in the first place. I’ve had a couple friends go through the process over the past few years and it was a very involved process that required a huge amount of commitment in regard to time and costs. There is no funding for cheerleading in Australia, so heading over to the USA for the World Championships is a costly adventure. However, my coach approached me as the team had a stunt group (a flyer and two sets of bases) but no backspot (my role on the team) who had auditioned, and they couldn’t participate otherwise. So of course, being the person I am, I said “why not?”, and here we are!
Cheerleading is the most “team” heavy sport I’ve ever been involved in. If even one person is not able to train at full capacity, then the entire team is impacted. The commitment from every person has to be 110% or success just cannot happen. The mindset of the team members can make or break your performance, and since everyone is out there chasing absolute perfection, even the smallest hesitation can have a huge impact. This year, Team Australia All Girl (or TAAG, for short) is competing in the Senior Premier Division, which is the highest difficulty ranking, after placing 1st in the Elite division in 2023. This puts our team up against big names like Teams USA, Canada, Finland, and Japan, to name a few. These are the real power houses of all-girl cheerleading with many years of experience and gold medals to back it up. Just check out Team Finland All Girls’ Instagram page and you get the idea!
Running a National team has a very specific set of limitations - primarily the fact that our team is scatted across the country. Groups are currently training in all major cities, from Perth to Brisbane and Melbourne, which means we only get together as a whole three times before we are expected to perform on the largest stage available for cheerleading in the world. In Victoria we are lucky to have multiple groups training; however, finding times to get even the four of us needed for a stunt group together multiple times a week to train is challenging. For my immediate group, we all work full time hours and have a physio (myself), a midwife, a warehouse team lead, and a tradeswoman – so we work very different hours. What this boils down to is - my current schedule has me training for the World Championships for at least a couple hours, 5 days a week, plus my own strength and cardio training, on top of full-time work and all the usual household tasks. Who needs free time?
With such an intense training schedule, muscle fatigue, pain, and injury, come hand in hand and are unavoidable. Managing these complications whilst still being productive and making progress is still something I’m always working on balancing, but here are some of my personal recommendations:
1. Sleep. We all have a tendency to not prioritise sleep, but I do my best to ensure that I get at least 7 hours every night, as sleep is vital for recovery. I would be a walking zombie if I didn’t put effort into maintaining a regular sleep schedule.
2. Nutrition. Good food, for the body and soul, is what fuels our bodies, so making sure that I have meals prepped and ready for the week is vital when I’m starting work at 8 o’clock, and finishing up at the gym at 10:00 at night.
3. Time Management. I’m a bullet journal-er from way back, so having a way to track all of my commitments, as well as my meals, water intake, sleep and other hobbies helps with making sure everything gets done without feeling overwhelmed.
4. Social Connections. I’m pretty lucky in this respect, my primary social group are my cheer teammates, so heading off to the gym to train is something I look forward to. I get to catch up with my girlfriends as well as work on our stunt sequences. We do see each other outside of the cheer gym of course, be this at Derrimut for our strength programs, or for sip and paint nights once every couple of months!
5. Setting Limits. This is particularly important for myself, as injury at cheer could carry over to my ability to work; If I break a wrist, then my ability to work would be impacted, so we make sure to have frequent rests and set ourselves time limits for each training session, and one day a week with no cheerleading. This might sound alarmist, but I did end up with two nasal bone fractures late 2023, with the matching black eyes. This forced me out of training for 4 weeks after the fractures were reset for fear of requiring further time off for corrective surgery if not healed properly.
Currently, we have our second training “camp”, where our team flies in to train together for a weekend, in two weeks. This weekend means cheer 9-5, Saturday and Sunday – and I can’t wait, a weekend in Sydney is always a tiring but worthwhile endeavor.
We leave for Florida in late April, so the countdown is on!