European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 23, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Story and photos by Diana Valdez staff writer a Little jumping. A Little Yelling a couple hours of hopping up and Down waving Pom pops and bolting out cheers Tike Block thai punt and toe that line audit d to a l Over with. No sweat. That s what a not so Young reporter thought when she attended a recent cheer leading clinic in Kaiserslautern. Sure it had been a Long time since her High school Drill team Days. But she was in relatively Good shape. She was somewhat coordinated. She could handle it. The first Day kicked Oil with warm up aerobics Tot Lowed by cheer leading jumps. Simple stuff Lance wagers one of the Ina actors Horn he notional cheer leading association leaped Lour feet into the air and tucked his legs underneath him. Another exercise brought his legs straight out to the sides. Bui it was t just legs. With each jump wagers arms had a pattern to follow. When the legs went straight out the arms were supposed to Start in front swing to the sides rotate Over the head and swing Down and then Back Over the head All m cadence with the moving legs. With the tucked leg jump the arms swung from the shoulders rotated backwards and then came Down to slap the rising Knees. Then came Back up Lor additional gyrations. He went through the Arm patterns before he demonstrated the jumps. It did t look difficult. Sort of like the professional skater who leaps and spins around three times in the air. It does t look difficult. Then it was practice time. Aboul 300 cheerleaders from All Over Europe were packed into the Small Gyrn. At least 299 of them knew what they were doing. Their a synchronized jumping and Yelling luckily concealed the not so Young reporter in the Back who could t get the arms to go with the legs and vice versa. It was t Lack of coordination or the ability to learn. It was the ability to leap everybody else was lumping three or More feel into the air. The jumps of he visitor in the Back measured in at six inches. She imagined mighty leaps but they rated More like Bunny hops. Lance by ought the girls together for another series of lumps. More simple stuff he did splits and touched his toes while suspended four feet in the air. He did the double Hook an ugly jump where the legs Are lucked underneath the body but the feet Are turned out to the Side. It looked As if he was getting ready to jump Over a Fence. A fall Lence. He also did a move called the Hercules jump one leg flies Oul of the Side while the other is Bent under Neath the body. It looked deadly. W 23, 1985 Lance wagers instructs the Kaiserslautern cheer leading clinic. Practice time again. The not so Young reporter would have had trouble drawing these jumps with stick figures. Performing them was out of the question. She had been humbled her cheer leading Days were Over. People believe that s just Nice looking pretty Bod ies jumping around out there. These girls work hard at  said Rich Lesch. European manager for Balfour. The company that has sponsored the clinic each year since 1979 they have to be Iri shape or icy could get Hurt. We had some minor injuries last year because the girls involved weren t in  the Hahn i Hawk team practices an hour and a half every Day. Practice begins with 30 minutes of Aero bics or a one mile run i consider in a sport said Matt Apperson the Only boat the clinic this year. The practising keeps me in shape for my other  Epperson plays football and soccer it s adventurous to Como out and do . No other Man is doing in Europe my classmate used to ease me. Bul it does t Botner me anymore i laugh along with them  he said after the jumps the group minus one visitor moved outside to learn a few cheers. There s More to cheer leading than just teaching them  said Lesch. The psychology of cheer leading has changed. The Days of smash those Sharks and Bash those bears is out he said. We re Domoj a Vay with thy smash pm Bash pm Altitude. We want to promote Good sportsmanship we believe the cheerleaders should be Ablo to Chei r on their own team without belittling the other team " teaching appearance image and Hygiene was also part of the clinic our image is important said Hahn team Mem Ber Robin spinner. Tania Keller also will the i Hawks added we have to always smile even if we1 Don t Pel like smiling we re very visible so we have Lokoen this image " the two said that most cheerleaders Are asked incl to drink smoke or use drugs and ust like football Pla ers. They have to keep their grades up i Don t think you ave to to Good looking to be a Good  said m chello Miranda Iron the Torri Jon a. Spam High school but it does take a Good attitude we it recent the school and set the example so we can t be goo lint off in class " word of Mouth has doubled participation since the first european clinic in Frankfurt six year agn because we Are overseas to lose touch with what s going on in the Chile adm yield said Andna Dickson. A Lunior from shape High school in Belgium. That s Why this kind of clinic is important to us what we learn goes be Ond the new routines these professionals teach us it makes us into better cheerleaders and  the clinic has become very popular for this reason said Lesch it s growing so much that we outgrew Frankfurt now we re outgrowing  the stars and stripes Page 15