One of the most commonly asked questions we receive at the gym is what to wear to cheer practice.
This is a question that is asked by newer athletes as well as those that have been cheering for quite some time.
With newer athletes, the question could be from someone who is attending tumble class for the very first time and has no idea where to even begin to guess as to what to wear.
With more experienced athletes, the question could be stemming from them joining our program from another cheer gym and the athlete merely not knowing what we would prefer vs. what they may have been used to in the past.
The answer to either scenario, and those examples that you may think of spanning the experience in between these two different situations, varies.
If this is your first time coming in for a tumble class, our recommendation is to wear shorts and a top in-line with what you may wear to gym class, it is important not to wear clothes that are too loose which may get in the way when you are trying to tumble or move about the gym during class.
From a sneaker standpoint, our recommendation is to wear a pair of sneakers that are dedicated towards wearing while in class at the gym.
This would mean changing out of the pair of sneakers/shoes you wear coming into the gym and into the gym-dedicated pair when you arrive, and when leaving, changing back into the footwear you entered with.
The sneakers do not have to be ‘cheer shoes’ per se, if you do not happen to have a pair, that is perfectly fine, tennis shoes or something similar are certainly ok.
The more important thing is to make sure the sneakers being worn during class are clean and not likely to carry dirt on to the mats.
In tumble class, athletes can actually workout in their bare feet as well.
Tumbling = sneakers or bare feet, just not plain socks (as this creates a slip hazard).
For regular cheer practices, the attire will – eventually – vary slightly.
At first, when coming to our program for the first time from another program, a different part of the cheer world altogether (town/school cheer), or perhaps this being your first practice with any type of cheer (period!), the guidance would be in-line with what we relay to those attending tumble class.
As the beginning portion of the season is delved into, practice uniforms are ordered and then when they come in, each athlete will be responsible for wearing their practice uniform on the dedicated day that they should be wearing it.
As an example, if your team practices on Mondays & Wednesdays, you will be issued a ‘Monday’ practice uniform & a ‘Wednesday’ practice uniform.
Practice uniforms often take a while to arrive after they are ordered, so at the beginning part of the season, wearing what you might normally wear to tumble class would be fine.
Obviously, wearing another gym’s logoed apparel is taboo, but other than that whatever is logical from a proper fit standpoint and will allow you to practice comfortably in is allowed.
During regular practice, proper footwear should be worn at all times.
You should have a pair of cheer-dedicated sneakers on (later in the season when the season’s cheer shoes are issued, you will wear these instead), wearing only socks or bare feet for regular practice is NOT allowed.
The preference certainly is to have program-logoed clothing on whenever possible (this goes for ‘returning athletes’ as well) until the official practice uniforms come in, from then on out it should be strictly the official practice uniforms that are worn.
Program athletes attending Open Tumble sessions or Privates are ok to wear what they would normally wear to tumble class as described in the guidance above (again, program-logoed gear is preferred!) and they do not ‘have to’ wear their regular program practice gear that they wear during normal team practices.
Though one may think this is simple to figure out once it is laid out, it is not as easy as automatically knowing what to wear if you are heading to the gym for the first time or joining the program from outside of it and simply wanting to do the correct thing!
