4 LIFE LESSONS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF MEGA!

Dearest Mega families! 

We hope you’re having an AMAZING holiday break!! To get your Mega fix here’s a quick blog to tie you over… This time we’re looking at the lessons your athletes learn being a part of an Elite Cheerleading team at Mega! 

1.     RESILIENCE
Learning how to work through and handle tough situations with a good attitude is a fundamental life skill! Throughout a cheer season there will be plenty of times that athletes will experience something that leads to adversity. Whether it’s learning a new position quickly, an injury or just having an off day… it can happen to anyone. Learning how to respond to these situations however, helps to define our character!  

2.     GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP
We touched on this concept in an earlier blog where we discussed how to win and lose with grace because winning and losing in a respectable way is a true sign of good sportsmanship! Being a ‘good sport’ means that an athlete has also learned patience and self-control… two traits that are necessary in life as sometimes things don’t always go the way we intend them to. 

3.     TEAMWORK
Being able to work in a team and with others is a crucial skill for kids to learn as is for any adult that wants to work successfully with others! Whether it’s a job, a school group project or planning an event with friends, there will always be a need to be able to work well with other people!

4.     HARD WORK

When athletes play any sport, the only way to stay at the top is to work hard and to practice… and the same is true as athletes progress through life. Whether our athletes aspire to be lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers or engineers… you have to constantly put in the effort in order to be successful! 

Although there are many life lessons that our Mega athletes can learn while being a part of our MEGA family, these are just a few that will help them to be successful during competition season and throughout their lives and we LOVE being able to help prepare our athletes for their future both inside and outside of cheer! 

Remember: ‘Today is another chance to make yourself proud.’

By Ash Cannon

Positive Mindset Creating Can-Do Mega Athletes!

In cheer, similar to life, we come across moments of difficulty in a variety of ways; whether it be struggling to get grips on a new stunt, overcoming that mental block on a tumbling pass or wrapping our head around a new set of motions… but it’s how we choose to overcome these moments of difficulty that matter and there are two choices:

BELIEVE WE CAN

OR

BELIEVE WE CAN’T

Do we let this situation defeat us or can we overcome what’s in front of us? The fear of approaching the unknown is often a scary thought, but the most important thing we can do as athletes, in particularMegaathletes, is believein ourselves. Overcoming challenges is the only way we grow!  

Using positive self-talk and affirmations is a great tool in ensuring a healthy mindset moving forward. Positive self-talk is a tool we can use that should make us feel good about ourselves and what we are doing! When we are trying to nail that new stunt or tumble pass, we need to remember to use our positive voices to tell ourselves “I’ve worked so hard and I’ve improved so much!” to turn what could potentially be a negative mindset into a positive one! 

When we are kind to ourselves and keep ourselves accountable for a positive mindset, we are able to set the tone of our everyday lives, which in turn helps to boost our own self-esteem and confidence! 

So, what should you do if you find yourself thinking negatively? Well we need to confront our thoughts and ask these three questions:

1.    Is there any REAL truth of what I’m thinking? 

2.    What would I tell my best friend if she said the same thing to me?

3.    How can I change the way I think or feel about this specifically? 

Changing your mindset will change your life. The more ‘good’ you put into yourself, the more ‘good’ will shine its way out! Remember we are our best source of motivation and inspiration… help be the positive light that leads not only yourself but your team, your friends and your family away from negative thoughts! 

At the end of the day… 

If we think we can or we think we can’t we will start believing what we are thinking. Wave goodbye to those negative thoughts… kindly thank them for their time and imagine them flying out the window! Think nothing but good and good will come! 

- Ashley Cannon (Mega Coach)

How to ALWAYS WIN as a MEGA ATHLETE

Welcome to our brand-new blog! With competition season upon us, we’ve decided to put together a blog just for you! 

As you might be able to tell from the title, our first blog post is about how to win as a Mega athlete. Mega Cheer as a gym is a place of love, empowerment and encouragement and we always make sure that we take this to the competition floor. 

We feel so blessed to be involved in the best sport in the world! Not everyone has this opportunity so we continue to thank the universe for this! 

At competitions, Mega is known as one of the gyms who always supports and uplifts other teams and the awards hall is no different! 

Learning how to win and lose with grace is a necessary lesson for all Mega athletes! If you are losing with grace you are ALWAYS WINNING!!! If you’ve had the most amazing time on the comp floor you are ALWAYS WINNING!!! 

Winning with grace and class is a key part of sportsmanship. Winning a competition is a great feeling and an amazing reward for working so hard during training and in the lead up to competition… however we must remember there are many other kids that work just as hard who didn’t win, so we need to remember to be humble and to congratulate and cheer on the other competing teams. 

There’s no denying that we all love to win, however sometimes we won’t win and the way we handle our loss is extremely important. Even if we don’t walk away with a gold medal, it is okay to be disappointed, we know you are all passionate cheerleaders, however, there are a couple of things we ask our athletes to make sure they do when they don’t have the success they’d hoped for. To show grace and good sportsmanship, again you should always congratulate the other teams and of course we never put the blame of a loss onto our fellow teammates or ourselves! 

We are always looking to improve and better ourselves! Going back to the drawing board and always checking in to see how we can perfect our jumps, stunts, transitions and overall performance is key! 

A huge note to take away is consistency at training is key! Being present every training session and giving your absolute best! We are blessed with the most amazing athletes and coaches who are always there for their team mates!!! 

Continue being your amazing selves!!! You rock!!! 

Anyone can be a gracious winner; but being gracious after losing shows strength of character…

- Donald Frost –

Ashley Cannon (Mega Coach)