Updated: Feb 4, 2020
Hello Hellcats!!
We are so excited to be back in the gym for season 7 of Hellcats and we are even more excited about how much our Hellcats pride has grown this year!
We have expanded to 7 competitive teams and 5 stunt groups across 2 locations and we loving welcoming so many new faces to our family.
This season, our Weybridge squad is offering Cub (Youth Prep Level 1), Tigers (School Level 1), Panthers (Junior Level 1), Leopards (Senior Prep 2.1) and Jaguars (Senior Level 3). We also have Jungle Cats (School Junior 1 Stunt Group), Lions (Junior 1 Stunt Group), Lynx (School Junior 2 Stunt Group), Mountain Lions (Junior 2 Stunt Group) and Ocelots (Junior 3 Stunt Group). We also have our Recreational team which is open to those who don't want to compete but still want to cheer.
We have also expanded our coaching team and now have 3 team coaches, an assistant coach, a tumble coach and 6 junior coaches! How exciting?!
We have also introduced weekly tumble sessions for all of our All-Star athletes this season and so far these have been a great success! It has been great to be able to dedicate so much time to working on tumbling which has always been a weakness of ours as a club and we are loving watching all the progress our athletes are making.
You may have noticed your cheerleader bringing home their tumble books. Please ensure these are brought with them to every tumble session as this is how we can mark off new skills. There are some homework tasks inside the books that we ask the athletes to work on at home to help improve their overall fitness and tumble ability and we would appreciate your support in encouraging the girls to do the exercises.
If your Hellcat is a flyer, you may also have seen our Flyers Stretch Guide which has been introduced this year. Again, this includes a lot of stretching exercises that we require our flyers to do 3-4 times a week at home. Each session should take around 20-30 minutes. We have chosen to set flyer homework because a lot of other teams offer Flyer classes in addition to regular training and tumble training. As a club, we feel that your athletes are already spending a lot of time (and money!) in the gym and we want to keep this as low as possible for you. Therefore we feel setting homework is more beneficial at this stage. Again, we would appreciate your support in making sure they are doing their stretches as flyer flexibility is something we always receive comments on at competition. We have asked the girls to take pictures of their stretches at the beginning of each month and send them to us so we can see the progress they're making and there will be a prize for the most improved flyer at the end of the season!
Our tumble sessions are not compulsory for Tigers or Rec athletes this season, however we do have some open slots so if your Tiger or Rec cheerleader would like to take an additional tumbling session, please get in touch and we can get this booked for you. Likewise, if any of our all-star athletes want to take a second tumble session each week, this can also be arranged so get in touch.
We have been very busy over the summer sourcing new merchandise to add to our pro-shop and we have some very exciting products that will soon be available!
The thing we are most excited about though is our new HELLCATS STARTER PACKS! We are now offering bundles of merchandise perfect for new Hellcats or those wanting to stock up on their swag!
Our Bronze Starter Pack includes your competition bow and new Hellcats water bottle which can be ordered here.
Our Silver package includes everything from the Bronze package, plus your choice of Hoody or Sweatshirt and can be ordered here.
Our Gold Starter Pack includes everything in the Bronze and Silver packs as well as one of our brand new Elite customized training crops which can be found here.
These bundles are great for the start of the new season as well as making great gifts for Birthdays or Christmas! Keep your eyes peeled for more bundles coming to our online store soon!
For those of you that are new to Hellcats this season, you may have had your cheerleader come home saying they need cheerleading trainers. This unfortunately is true. All cheerleaders are required to wear plain white, smooth-soled, indoor trainers for training and competitions. This is particularly important if your child is a flyer. Thankfully, we do not require you to purchase proper cheerleading shoes (these do exist) as these can be very expensive. You can find links to suitable shoes across all price points further down this newsletter. The sooner these could be purchased, the better as they are essential for training.
Finally, we are going to be doing our annual photo week next week in training (week commencing 7th October) so please inform your cheerleaders that we will be taking their head shots and team photos for this season if they would like to come to training with their hair/makeup done (though this is not essential!)
We are so impressed with all the progress our teams have been making so far, getting to know new people and learning new skills and we can't wait to see where this season takes us!
See you at training!
Rachel, Laura, Kat, Sarah, Tiff and Charlie
Important Reminders...
The deadline for entry fees for our first competition will be after half term so we will be adding the cost of the entries to your next invoices. If you could please make sure these are paid as quickly as possible so we don't incur a late fee, it would be greatly appreciated.
Our first competition will be ICC Southern Championships at the Guildford Spectrum on the 8th & 9th February 2020.
Cubs, Panthers, Leopards, Jaguars, Mountain Lions and Ocelots will all be competing at this event.
We ARE training in half-term!
We are aware that Heathside School are having a two week half-term in October. All of our teams EXCEPT Tigers will be training as normal during the first week of half-term.
Rec will be training on Monday 21st, Ocelots, Jungle Cats, Cubs and Panthers will be training on Wednesday 23rd, Mountain Lions, Lions, Lynx, Jags and Leopards will be training on Thursday 24th.
At this time, times and locations will be remaining the same. We will let you know closer to the time if this changes. We will also let you know about tumble slots once we have confirmed timings and venues.
Flyers! It's the end of the month!
That means it's time to start sending us in your stretching photos.
All flyers should have been doing their stretching homework at home 3-4 times a week.
Each workout takes approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.
Once a month we require flyers to send us a split photo, a heel stretch photo, an arabesque photo and a scorpion photo to document your progress.
There will be a prize for the most improved flyer at the end of the season.
Please send your photos to laura@razzledazzle.co or tag @hellcats_cheerleaders on instagram.
CHEER SHOES!
Don't forget, all cheerleaders need plain white shoes for training and competition. These shoes must not be worn outside. Please see the links below for options.
Asda currently has some great cheap trainers that are perfect for cheerleading.
Adult sizes can be found here.
