My best friend really is encouraging me to try out for the cheerleading squad. The only problem is the last time I cheered I was in 5th grade when they didn't do any stunts, jumps or flexibility.

I am not a very flexable person. I don't have my splits, jumps or tuble excercises. Cheer tryouts are in 3 weeks and I need all the help I can get and advice to tell me what I need to do to be someone good by the time needed.

Any tips, suggestions, comments? I need them all.

How can I get my splits down fast?

I'm going to assume that this is for your high school cheerleading squad, so correct me if I'm wrong and I can rework these tips.

To get your splits, you will have to stretch EVERY night for at least 20 minutes. Stretch everything, but especially focus on leg stretches like lunges, reverse lunges (like a lunge but you pull your front leg back so it's straight and bend your back leg), jazz splits, straddles, splits, and oversplits. Oversplits helped me to get my splits so much faster, you can use pretty much anything (textbook, really low stool, etc.) to prop up your front leg and do the splits on each side like that for about 30 seconds on each side. Also doing it on the back leg helps too.

For jumps, do a lot of walking lunges, squats, and squat jumps to strengthen your legs. Also, make sure you keep working on your jumps (toe touch, herkie, hurdler, double stag, etc.) with the prep used by your squad. You can pm me for more info on preps and jumps. You should also read the "How to get a better toe touch" sticky.

I can't really help you with tumbling, but for many squads, if you just have a cartwheel and a round-off, you can take tumbling lessons and get better.

Hope I helped!

Confidence is key! Act like you are the best one out there! Your confidence can hide some of your weaknesses!