Tis' The Season: Competition Season

Head down. Random voices of encouragement yell here and there. Swallow. Breathe in. Another yell. Breathe out. The music begins. Let the show begin.

It's competition season ladies and gentleman. Maybe you have already begun. Maybe you don't start until January. Either way, IT has started. Teams videos are going up. Music is being released. It's the best time of year and wow it came fast didn't it? You remember sitting at practice 50 days ago when you thought you had all the time in the world don't you? From here on out you go to every practice like it's your last because soon it will be. April is going to come by so much faster than you think and the team you have, will no longer be a team. They will be the past: "last years" team. What legacy does your team want to leave? Do you want to be the team your competitors look at and think "I remember when they were good" or do you want them to watch you and think "uh oh, it's on"?

It's the day before your competition. You have packed and unpacked and repacked at least three times for the next day because coach would kill you if you didn't have one of your belongings. You are ready but maybe you should visualize the routine hitting a few more times before you head to sleep. Headphones in, routine music on. Finally, you feel okay to go to sleep. You look at the clock and realize how rested you will be for tomorrow and the adrenaline starts pumping but you lie down anyways. You want the team to hit with zero deductions so bad! The ceiling is the blue mat. You watch the routine in your head but on the ceiling. You hit. 5,6,7,8 go to sleep. The day has finally come. The moment your eyes open you are in comp mode. Get ready to leave in the time you set for yourself, maybe even slightly early and listen to your music just once more now that you are dressed for the competition. You hurry the family into the car and rush them to your competition. The minute the car pulls up to the curb you jump out and begin walking to meet your team hearing the distant "good luck!" from your dad and the "hit your s#!t" from your mom. You find your best friends on the team and feel confident walking in with them by your side.

The team is sitting in the stands not really watching the fellow competitors nail their routines but clapping just the same. The team is so in the zone listening to their own music getting themselves ready for the moment coach comes over and gives the signal.

"It's party time."

Off to warm ups we go. There is a line...there's always a line...but we are prepared. We circle up and start stretching and doing any pre-warm up rituals that HAVE to occur every competition. We are finally next up for the first floor.

First floor we warm up stunts. Everything hits and the entire warm up room is watching. We warm up sections of pyramid still feeling the eyes on us. Baskets, check. IMEs, check. Feeling confident we leave the floor and prepare to tumble.

"Rotate!" comes over the warm-up speakers. The people that tumble warm up their running tumbling, the rest of us yell. The same occurs for the standing tumbling, everyone knowing exactly who to yell for and how much encouragement everyone else needs. People warm up their jumps and jump to tucks. We still have a minute left. Anybody can do more if they need to but "don't push it."

There it is. The last warm up mat. The full floor. When we go out there we are going to do elites if we want to but baskets and pyramids for sure. The buzzer goes off: our turn.

The music starts. We yell for those who chose to tumble and stunt, we hit the pyramid, we rocked the baskets. The music ends. Coach has us do the series all together, we hit. We do anything else we need to do with the last minute and a half we have left on the floor. The buzzer goes off.

Warm up is over.

Here we are moving from 'in the hole' to 'on deck'. Visualizing our routine as a team countless times while we wait. Doing all the superstitious things that we know don't truly affect the outcome yet continue to do anyways.

"Annnnnnnd, coming onto the floor....." Here we go. Walk up those steps. Wave to the crowd. Do any on floor handshakes. Get to my spot. Look at coach, see the thumbs up and fake "i'm not nervous" smile that happens every competition.

"5,6,7,8..." heads down

There is nothing like the feeling of standing on the mat in the few seconds between the thumbs up from your coach and the first beat of that music. The adrenaline pumping through your veins. The realization that everything you have done since May has led you to this moment. Could I have done more? Should we have done the series one more time in warmup? Maybe I should have thrown that pass just once more. Oh no, what is the dance? Where do I go...

ding ding

We got this.

The music is over. The crowd goes crazy. Everything hit! The team rushes off the floor so we can tackle each other without a deduction. We hit. Zero deductions. We hit.

Coach comes around the corner crying tears of joy. We all clap because that is our goal every time we compete.

We hit.

Leave no doubt. Hit your s#!t. Act as if every competition is your last.

And above all,

Leave your heart on the floor.

Good luck this season my fellow cheerleaders.

You're ready.