Toss Heel stretch

[LCSD1 coach]

I have a girl on my squad who wants to try out for the University of Utah in 2010.  We looked up what was required and she can do most all of it except for the toss heel stretch.  I do have a guy who cheered in college come and help with partner stunting and this year we do have boys and he has been working on partner stunting.  Thing is the guy thats helping only did a toss lib or cupie in college.  I am new to having boys on my squad so I am not sure how to teach some of the stuff.  Any advise on what my flier and base need to do to get a toss heel stretch?

So far we have a toss chair and toss hands pressed up to extended
shoulder stand also

Thanks for any help you can give.

[ucaCHEERalum]

Unfortunately your guy has a ways to go if you follow the normal progression of things - not insurrmountable by any means but a ways to go nonetheless.

He'll need to be able to hold a lib grip stunt (which gave almost every guy trying to learn to stunt trouble - whether they admit it or not).  I often refer to the lib as a gateway stunt, because once you learn how to feel through your hands, the next few stunts come very easily...its just getting through the gate that can give people fits.  Don't let him get discouraged if it doesn't happen right away - some people work for weeks on getting their lib (especially if you aren't practicing everyday/every other day).

Depending on what route through progressions you have them take to get to the toss stretch this could take a highschool guy a long time to learn. There are a lot of stunts in between a press extension and a toss stretch - walkin stunts, stunts from hands, toss extension & toss lib. 

My advice to you is to work on the basics...a good foundation will be better than being shaky at everything.  Have him work on his press lib, then stretch.  If she can do a "hands-stretch" and a toss extension by the time she goes to Utah to tryout she'll be able to do the toss stretch with whomever she gets paired with.

[LCSD1 coach]

We have a year to get a toss heel stretch so I'm not too worried yet.  Is there a chart for stunt progression for coed partner stunting?  Would you mind telling me what a progression would be?  This is my first year having guys so I'm learning as I go.

Thanks

[ucaCHEERalum]

 I did a really quick search of the boards and of the internet to see if I could find any published coed stunting progressions and found bubkiss (that doesn't mean they aren't out there).  The truth is that each coach will have varying takes on coed progressions - but most are generally the same.

Here is a pretty basic coed progression list:

toss chair
toss hands
hands-extension
hands-liberty
hands-stretch
hands-torch/arabesque
hands-arabesque/torch
hands-cupie

The question becomes when to introduce certain things (walk-ins, cradles, full downs, toss stunts, etc.).  For example, if your guys aren't strong enough for the toss hands you might have him learn walk-in to hands so he can continue to work on extended stunts while honing his tossing technique.  You might also want to introduce a toss extension earlier if your guy has good technique and a nice high toss. 

My preference is to make sure that they can hit a stunt a minimum of 5 out of every 6 trys before they can move on to the next skill.  The key is to take it slow - not push too hard and let things "progress".

[Miss April]

I don't have too much to add here, other then I find it very odd that there is not an "official" progression list for coed style stunts.  And it is interesting to me that if there were a list, it would "brach off" as UCAalum stated.

Learning something new every day

[Kong]

Once you get beyond basic skills and get to skills that are "gateway stunts" as ucaCHEERalum put it (good term, by the way), the order of progressions is really up to the individual.

Basically, toss drills should be learned prior to doing a toss stunt and walk in drills should be learned before doing any walk in stunt.  When progressing through both of these type of stunts, the athletes would want to master lower skills before going to higher skills (height-wise).  So:

Toss drill
Toss chair
Toss hands
Press extension

Don't forget teaching various techniques for getting down out of a stunt.  The two most common are a cradle and a "pop down" (pop off the front).  Like with stunting, both of those skills should be mastered at a lower level before they are attempted from an extension.

After teaching these stunts and dismounts, the athletes can go in several directions.  To continue working on toss skills, they would want to work on a toss extension (toss top).  If they want to work on hand-eye coordination, they can go to press liberty (gateway stunt) and then begin working on other liberty grip stunts once the liberty is mastered (e.g. stretch, arabesque).  Once those hand-eye coordination stunts are mastered, and once they master the toss extension, they can then begin working on those skills as toss skills.

From there, other grips can be learned.  A grip that is often difficult is the "high torch" grip.  This is a grip that is not used as often anymore, but it's a grip where the top would be facing the side while the base is still facing forward.  The other alternate grip (and one that is more popular) is a cupie grip.  This skill should be learned after the athletes master overhead stunts on two hands.  Whether you learn a cupie before or after going to one arm/one foot stunts (e.g. one arm lib), and whether you learn the high torch grip before or after, is somewhat up to personal preference.

Walk in stunts can be learned in conjunction with, before, or after toss stunts.  Typically, the basic progression is learned before toss stunts because the skills typically take a little strength and coordination (it's typically easier for younger athletes to generate strength for a walk in skill than it is for them to generate the strength and speed necessary for a toss stunt).  Here is a basic progression for walk in skills:

Walk In Drill
Walk In Chair
Walk In Hands
Walk In Hands Press Extension
Walk In Extension

Even though the walk in chair requires a different technique, I teach it first because it's lower to the ground and will give the stunters some comfort with holding the stunt up (or being held up).  Once you get to hands, the progressions don't differ very much from toss stunts (since a press to a stunt is the same whether from a toss or a walk in).

After those skills are mastered and you have reached a toss cupie and MASTERED that skill, the couple can work on full ups and rewind stunts (depending on the level of the team...a rewind would be illegal at the high school level since it's an inverted stunt).

Hope this helps.

Kong

[ucaCHEERalum]

From there, other grips can be learned.  A grip that is often difficult is the "high torch" grip.  This is a grip that is not used as often anymore, but it's a grip where the top would be facing the side while the base is still facing forward. 

Off topic...but...IMO this is the only way to do an arabesque...truly becoming a lost/forgotten art. 

[Kong]

Off topic...butt...IMO this is the only way to do an arabesque...truly becoming a lost/forgotten art. 

To stay off topic...I agree completely.

Kong

[wrn1979]

I'll put my two cents in here as well. Once he can do toss hands with a solid controlled press to extension, every time he tosses hands from then on he should be shooting for that extended toss. Being quick with his hands and legs and pushing himself physically every time will make the extended toss come much quicker.