England

Select category:

England

A Big Well Done!

Well, what can we say? This weekend’s Spring National Championships were really something special!

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.40.51

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.51.37

Our team were blown away by all of the impressive performances…

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.53.00

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.54.38

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.54.55

And of course, by everybody’s fantastic cheer spirit!

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.58.18

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 10.59.45

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 11.00.13

With a special mention to the Buckley and MCA teams, who showed so much spirit throughout the competition that they took home the Milano Sport and Insure4Sport Spirit Awards!

buckley

mca

As usual, DJ Caino was on top form and everyone thoroughly enjoyed a dance with him!

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 12.06.52

We are very proud to announce that we have managed to raise a whopping £2365 for our chosen charity, the amazing Teenage Cancer Trust since March! A massive thankyou from us to everybody who has donated or been involved in raising these funds.

Screen shot 2014-05-20 at 13.35.42

The whole competition was a huge success and we have received lots of fantastic feedback. Bring on the School Championships! Have you got your tickets yet?

Don’t forget to check out and follow our Instagram feed for full pictures from the comp and full coverage of our upcoming events.

You can also Tweet us @UKCheerleading or get in touch via our Facebook Page

Our Top 10 Favourite Things About a UKCA Comp – Part 1

The new season is here! With it comes the busiest time on our competition calendar. Are you competing? Will your friends and family be coming along?

may_tix

First up, it’s our National Spring Championships on May 17th and May 18th at the Manchester Velodrome. Have you bought your tickets yet?

Whether you are competing or coming along to offer your support and enjoy the day, there are lots and lots of things to LOVE about our competitions! Today, we share part 1 of our top ten favourite things about a UKCA competition…

1. Arriving at The Event

The atmosphere is always electric at our competitions, and as you step nervously through the doors, the noise of chants and laughter fills the air. That tingly feeling in your stomach hits and you just know that it’s going to be a very exciting day!

1908267_702133786499090_196552815_n

2.Heading Down to The Dancefloor

Making your way to the warm up area and knowing your team is coming on soon is when the butterflies really hit! Staying focused and supporting your team members keeps you in control.

1458671_702133796499089_1762380132_n

ukca backstage 1 sml

3. Enjoying the Show!

Watching the other teams perform and cheering them on is really fun and exciting!

ukca crowd 1 sml

4. The Mascots

Spotting the mascots and the silly costumes always makes us giggle. We love to see supporters making a big effort, dancing, clapping and showing their cheer spirit!

ukca mascots 1 sml

5. Fun & Friendship

UKCA Cheerleading is truly The Sport of Smiles, we love to see friendships bloom and develop at our competitions. Supporting each other and meeting new people with the same passion is what it’s all about. You just can’t help but have fun at a UKCA comp!

ukca friendship 1 sml

UKCA Cheerleaders

Don’t forget to check back for part 2 of our top ten favourite things about a UKCA competition!

We want to hear about your experience too! What are you doing to prepare for the competitions? Whether you are making banners, practicing hard, designing a mascot costume or working on your chants – let us know and send us your pictures! We love to see them. Tweet us @UKCheerleading or get in touch via our Facebook Page

Kobika Starlites host a Secondary School’s Competition

The Kobika Starlites hosted a secondary school’s competition on Wednesday 2nd April at Sir William Ramsay School, Hazlemere. There were 150 participants competing over two categories, with UKCA representative Mel Owen judging the evening.

IMG_1715

Five schools produced ten squads, including:
– Wycombe High School
– Great Marlow School
– St Michael’s Catholic School
– Sir William Ramsay School
– Sir William Borlase Grammar School

This resulted in an amazing evening, made even more incredible by the incredible spirit and sportsmanship shown by all the participants and their parents!

10149951_10152349801802905_1732709436_n

Here’s some of the feedback from the event:

Love the way every school supports and cheers all the others. Great atmosphere.
Spectator

We all really enjoyed the competition. Well done to everyone – lots of fun and energy! Thank you for all the effort that you and your team put in!
Parent – Wycombe High School

Great work tonight. Not just cause we won but the effort that the girls put in is down to you and your team! You have persisted and inspired the girls! Tonight I was so proud yet had nothing to do with it all so massive big ups to you and your ladies! Top night.
Head of PE- Great Marlow School

Check out some of the shots taken from the school’s performances:

10149959_10152351508067905_2084342203_n

10156858_10152351508072905_1420582807_n

10151597_10152351508092905_1397626882_n

10156932_10152351508077905_537148354_n

10151677_10152351508062905_1047404168_n

10152719_10152351508087905_1747253474_n

The Kobika Starlites will be holding another school’s competition in May for primary school and are expecting over 260 participants to compete.

We always enjoy hearing and sharing UKCA team stories, so if you have something you want to share don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can contact us via our Facebook page or Twitter.

A Thank You From Team Spirit

We love receiving messages of thanks from our teams. Check out this one we received from Team Spirit Coach Lindsey High:

“I put forward four young leaders to attend the UKCA Cheerleading Leadership course held on Saturday 8th February 2014.

Team Spirit
Sienna Naden, Olivia Walllace, Elisa Lee, and Anna Ward were selected over many other young people to step onto the coaching ladder.

The timing of the course, coupled with bursary funding from Greater Sport could not have come at a better point in the year, as we are deep in preparation for up and coming competitions. The girls gained so much from the course and really got stuck in every way possible, now demonstrating great leadership qualities.

Coaching Course
They have worked in pairs to deliver sections of the class not only rotating who they coach with but, also which element of the class they teach. This was an idea we discussed so we can all get the same standard and expectation as a leadership team. Additionally, we feedback to individuals to positively enhance each others coaching styles and understanding.

They have been on hand throughout classes to assist with and deliver:
– Warm ups
– Stretch
– Final Choreography for routines
– Correction of technique
– Registration
– Distribute and log uniform

They look forward to each class bringing in their Leadership booklets, logging the volunteer hours and continually developing their coaching skills with a renewed excitement.

Coach Course Members
Thank you for your support so far in Team Spirits’ Coach Development Pathway.”

Here at the UKCA we pride ourselves on providing the best courses and Cheerleading tuition and receiving messages like this lets us know that we are doing our jobs correctly.

We’re always thrilled to hear stories about a team’s achievements and progression! If your team has a story to tell then please get in touch through our Facebook or Twitter pages.

Cheerleading Hits The Headlines: Part Two

It’s been a truly positive day for the world of Cheerleading and the press coverage continues. Macclesfield’s Maximum Cheer featured on Sky News today around 5.20pm, talking about how excellent of a sport Cheerleading is whilst showing off some of their skills.

If you missed the report on Sky News, we managed to get hold of these screenshots of the team along with coach Rachael Burrows:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

We will keep you up-to-date with all the coverage as it comes through. It’s days like these that leave us with a massive smile on our face here at the UKCA. We are proud of you, say we are proud of you!

What do you think about the news? What’s your opinion? Get in touch and let us know – we’d love to hear from.

Cheerleading Hits The Headlines

Cheerleading is in the press today in a big way. Tory MP Helen Grant has suggested that more women should take up sport. She say’s that Cheerleading is a fantastic way to encourage women to get involved in more activity.

Screen shot 2014-02-21 at 15.38.46

Here at UKCA, we wholeheartedly agree! Not just women either, people of all ages are involved with Cheerleading up and down the country.

We feel that this is a very positive announcement and that the government are finally beginning to acknowledge what we have known all along – Cheerleading is a sport! And a fantastic one at that. We have over 7000 people attending with over 4000 competing in our Cheerleading comp happening in just 3 weeks time!

Cheerleading at Manchester Velodrome

The announcement has also led to some debate, with certain people saying that encouraging women to take up a ‘feminine’ sport is sexist. Here at the UKCA, we think that anything that encourages the people of the UK to take up this awesome sport can only be a good thing.

Anyone who has tried Cheerleading or actively partakes in the sport will know that it is not for the faint hearted! The hours and hours of rehearsals, the highs and the heartbreaks – we know just how dedicated you have to be!

Read some of the articles here & here.

We are very pleased to see Cheerleading getting recognition in the press, this is a big step forward. What do you think about the news? What’s your opinion? Get in touch and let us know – we’d love to hear from.

Matalan Community Club – Jet Black

Jet black dance group has done a performance at the street race festival on Hulme high street and we also did a performance at Aquinas’s at their festival and we did a performance at the Barbados independence ball.

image

Safiya Duncan:
I am part of jet black dance group and my job is to help do the registers and while doing that I have learnt some dance routines which I like because dancing is quite fun to join in with plus it’s a way for me to exercise. I am studying performing arts which dance is a part of sometimes so it helps me doing this with jet black.

Being part of something like this is good. It gives you a break from the everyday things because when I come here I have fun. Hopefully I will one day be able to be as good as Yosha .

Makisa Gilkes:
I am part of jet black dance group where we are a group which helps people learn different styles of dancing. I have quite a lot of experience in teaching dance as I have a qualification which is street cheer dance. In the class I help teach routines. One of my hobbies is netball and I have played for Manchester thunder, northwest regional and Tameside. Which I am very proud of because I’m very passionate about netball being able to be part of these teams gave me something else to be proud of. Another thing I do is athletics. Doing dance is very fun to me this is why I love being part of the Jet black dance group.

Chinaiyah Lauder-Bell:
I am apart of jet black dance group I enjoy doing dance routines with the group. I also have a qualification in street cheer dance. My main skills are gymnastics which I put into the routines and help others with in our group. I do rugby and we compete against other schools for matches.

Exciting News!

The European Cheerleading Association Annual meeting was hosted by UKCA in Manchester last weekend.

Revised Rules for 2014
Revised rules for 2014 were accepted and we are pleased to announce the inclusion of new categories to the European Cheerleading Championships 2014.
The following categories, in addition to the existing categories of Cheerleading, Group Stunt, Partner Stunt and Cheer Dance are:
Pom Dance
Transitional Street Cheer
Masters Age Division

Doubles Dance
We are also very excited to be hosting the first ECC to include Doubles Dance in:

  • Pom Dance
  • Street Cheer
  • Cheer Dance

As UKCA do not have Doubles Dance Categories in our National Cheerleading Championships, the selection of these entries will be offered to teams competing in the relevant categories at the discretion of the judging panel.

In view of this exciting development, we have now extended the entry deadline for the UKCA National Cheerleading Championships (15/16th March) to Monday 17th February. Allowing time for additional Pom Dance, Street Cheer and Masters entries.