Full squad standing back tucks

A week has passed since the Nationals. I think a lot of you have rested enough and some even felt restless already and began to train again, but of course there are also those who had decided to call it a day too for whatever reasons.

As I mentioned before, Singapore cheerleading standards are improving each year and cheerleaders getting stronger and better each year too. So what is next after aiming to be or winning the National Champion? I guess the answer is to move on to the next stage, which is to aim to be ASEAN, Asia or International Champion. Some may think you must be joking, that this is a far cry away, with so many countries such as Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and USA, etc still way ahead of us. But to dare to dream about it we must. Only those with dreams strive to move on, and without dreams, you will never succeed.

I think having a Singapore National Team is going to become a reality real soon, where the best of the best cheerleaders gather; it is now even closer than before as the pool of cheerleaders increases. You know, after watching from the sidelines for 2 years, my hands are really itching to be in a routine; I have waited 2 years to be in a truly magnificent routine, one that we can proudly showcase Singapore cheerleading. This is when I started doing some self reflection, looking deeper into it; thinking when the time comes whether I will be considered to try out for the National Team.

Hence I did some analysis in my head and also went to my Facebook friends to go through all the male cheerleaders I know. I was trying to assess each individual’s strength, to see where I fit in, and what I found out surprises and really excites me. To try to quantify how much we improved over the past 2 years, I listed and wrote down on a paper names of guy cheerleaders who can do at least 2 gymnastics passes (not including those cartwheel round off or backward roll forward roll), and at the same time can also do an unassisted cupie (I think doing a cupie is quite a fair and reasonable gauge for stunt proficiency now). My results truly put numbers and figures on the improvement of cheerleading and cheerleaders of Singapore.

Just 2 years ago, the case for male cheerleaders was that those who can tumble cannot stunt as well, and those who can stunt well cannot tumble; it was harder to find an all rounder then. But now, as of today, that fact has changed so much that it is no longer valid. I shall list out below the names of these people who can tumble and do an unassisted cupie. These names are cheerleaders who I have met personally and those that I have seen with my own eyes doing the tumbling and cupie before. And if I did miss out any, or I do not know you or that you can do it, I apologize and you can let me know. Here goes in random order:

Guy Cheerleaders who can Cupie and Tumble
1. Andra (Legacy)
2. Jen (Legacy)
3. Weihoe (Wildcards)
4. Isaac (Wildcards)
5. Zhiliang (Wildcards)
6. Chaang Ru (Wildcards)
7. Sky (Denvers)
8. Zhao Xuan (Denvers)
9. Kah Weng (Aces)
10. Graham ( Aces)
11. Minghui (Aces)
12. Wenliang (Aces)
13. Junting (Aces)
14. Yuenbo (Aces)
15. XP (Aces)
16. Kelvin (Aces)
17. Clement (Gusto)
18. Weihan (Gusto)
19. Dominic (Gusto)
20. Vincent (Magnum)

Ok, and out of these 20,
- 12 of them can do Toss Cupie
- 19 of them can do Standing Back Tuck.
- 7 of them can do ≥3 tumbling passes, and out of these 7, I have seen 4 of them did Toss Cupie.

When I saw the list I wrote down, the first thing that comes to my mind is WOW! I cannot slack off if I want to have a chance to be in the National Team when it is formed. A lot of people can do cupie or toss cupie, but tumbling is indeed a big part of cheerleading. So for those names not in the above list, it is time you know what you require to work on. Of course the criteria to form a National Team does not purely rely on these statistics above (Currently it does not means if you can tumble and do a toss cupie, you surely can get in, although it does help alot). Team dynamics, team spirit, commitment level, routine requirements and various other factors also plays a big part in selection of a team. But of course, the main factor is whether you want to become part of the National Team, if you do not want to be for whatever reasons, no one can force you.

I sincerely hope everyone can lend their support so that the formation of a strong National Team can become a reality. Imagine a team that does full squad standing back tucks, 7 toss cupies, 4 basket toss twist layouts, 3 full up gladiators and everyone queuing to do their passes in 3 to 4 counts of eights for gymnastics. All these are already possible for Singapore, if we all can pool our resources together, forget about any differences and work towards ONE common goal.


P.S: My apologies again if I missed out any names, but my point is simple - there are a lot of good cheerleaders out there now. So guys do you still think you can afford to not even know how to do a standing back tuck?