Strength and Conditioning Programs and Driving Motivations in Collegiate Cheerleading in the United States

Abstract

The present study investigated the types of strength and conditioning programs (SCP) offered to competitive, collegiate cheerleaders in the United States. Specifically, collegiate cheer coaches' motivations for requiring outside of practice workouts, athlete motivations for participating in workouts, and athlete motivations for participating in cheerleading in general. Further analysis assessed potential relationships between SCP and motivation. A total of 225 coaches and athletes participated in the Google Form survey. Participants represented multiple universities, regions, levels, and team types in the US. All participants answered questions about the workouts associated with their program and the top five reasons they chose to either require (coaches) them or to participate (athletes) in them. In addition, athletes completed the Sport Motivation Scale-6 (SMS-6) to determine their primary motivational drivers for participating in collegiate cheerleading. Data was analyzed with independent t-tests in Microsoft Excel and ANOVA in SPSS. Bonferroni correction was applied to the ANOVAs.