Do NOT believe everything you read in magazines. Miracle diets will leave you drained and keep you from performing your best.
Get your parents involved--even if it's just talking to them about practice or inviting them to performances. You never know if they'll have this opportunity again.
Be nice to your siblings. If they're older, they can give you rides to practice; if they're younger, you may be able to persuade them to sell your fund-raiser candy bars for you. And a brother or sister is one more person to believe in you and cheer for you at performances.
Understand that teammates come and go--they graduate and move away or move on to other activities. Many of these people will become your dearest friends, so hold onto those friendships. Work hard to keep in touch: exchange college and home addresses and e-mail addresses. Do this because when you get older, you will realize that you need friends who have been through similar experiences and who have similar interests.
Try a few cheerleading moves once, but stop before you get into the habit of not pointing your toes when you kick.
Try a few colorguard moves once, but stop before you hit yourself or someone else in the head with the flag.
Watch other drill teams.
"Accept certain inalienable truths," Schmich says in her column. I agree. Some of the truths in drill team:
Some moves will take a lot of work to master; people will make mistakes in performances; you, too, will graduate from your team. And when you do, you'll fantasize about how fun your dances were, that performances were flawless, and that line members respected their officers.
Respect your officers.
Don't expect anyone else to fix your mistakes. Maybe you have an attentive director, observant line moms, or alert officers who will tell you when you're "doing something funny with your arms." But you never know when these people will over look that "funny arm thing." Watch yourself and be aware of what those around you are doing.
Don't cut your hair too short, or when you put on a hat, you will look bald, and when you try to braid it you'll end up using more bobby pins than there are blades of grass on a football field, not to mention a TON of hairspray.
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