Staff Training

Training sessions for the Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA) staff have officially started! Instructors from across the country are gathering at their region’s work week to learn the fundamentals of being a UCA instructor. The training sessions are held in six different locations across the country: Alabama, Texas, Wisconsin, South Carolina, California and Pennsylvania.

More than 1500 instructors will make up the UCA staff this summer. The staff is selected based on skills, personality and their ability to teach.

Some of the things they’ll be learning at work week include the 2009 summer material, the most efficient way to private coach, and stunt technique and progressions.

At work weeks, one of UCA’s goals is to make sure the staff members have perfected the material, which means that they need to be in sync with each other, making sure their arms are in the same position and that their motions are nice and sharp.

“It’s important for us to get the cheers down perfectly, so when we go out and teach the campers, we can concentrate on their motions. We also want to teach the camps the primary goal of the cheer is to draw attention to the cadence of the cheer or chant, and give the crowd a decisive ‘beat’ on which to yell in unison,” says 6th year instructor, Katie Prechter.

Stunts are also a big part of cheerleading. The staff not only needs to perfect their stunt technique and their stunt progressions, but also learn how to pass on this knowledge to the campers, to ensure they will take what they learned at camp and cheer safely throughout the year.

But the one thing the Core staff spends the most time on during the work week is private coaching. Private coaching represents the building blocks of UCA. Throughout week the staffers devote plenty of time working on their private coaching skills. Towards the end of the week, UCA brings in local teams in each area for the staff to practice their material.

Jeff Webb, the CEO and founder of UCA, attends all of the work weeks to teach the instructors the history behind UCA and the impact they can have on campers’ lives.

Midsouth Assistant Regional Manager Kristin Funston says that “Jeff’s presence always has a huge impact on our staff. Having Jeff at our Midsouth work week is great because he interacts with and helps train the staff. They really learn what the company is all about and what it stands for.”

To get more information about the camps these instructors will be teaching this summer, click here.