Flyers get the spotlight, but good flying is mostly about helping your bases. A flyer who holds their own weight, stays tight and stands in the right place is easier to lift and hold, no matter their size. This guide is for flyers who want to improve their own technique. If you’re a coach building flyers across a team, see our coach’s guide to training flyers.

Learn new stunts only with a qualified coach, on proper mats, with spotters. Don’t try stunts at home.

What a Flyer Does

In the rule books, the flyer is the “top person.” USA Cheer’s college rules define a top as someone supported by others while off the performing surface, or someone tossed into the air. The US All Star Federation (USASF) glossary simply lists “Flyer: see Top Person.” Your job is to get into the stunt with good timing, hold your body in the right shape, and come down safely in a cradle or other dismount.

Help Your Bases Lift You

Varsity’s stunting basics put it plainly: a heavier top person with great technique is often easier to stunt with than a lighter one with poor technique. Technique matters more than size. The key habits are:

• Hold your own weight on the load. When loading into an elevator, Varsity says the flyer should take a good hop, put their weight into locked-out arms on the bases’ shoulders, and follow the momentum up. Varsity’s top girl tips add: “it’s your job to hold yourself up.”
• Climb lightly. Following the stunt’s momentum, instead of waiting to be pushed, makes the stunt lighter and smoother.
• Get your hips over your knee. In a ground-up liberty, Varsity explains, the bases wait a split second so the flyer can get their hips above their knee before the lift. That’s on you to do quickly.
• Stack your body. In two-footed stunts, Varsity says to keep legs about shoulder-width apart. In single-leg stunts, your body should form a column, with ankles, hips and shoulders lined up.

Stay Tight

A tight flyer is easier to hold. Varsity’s top girl tips say a strong core helps keep good body lines and control, and that “the tighter you can be in a stunt, the easier it will be.” In practice, staying tight looks like this:

• Lock your standing knee.
• Squeeze your glutes and core from the load to the dismount.
• Keep your chest up and your chin up.
• Keep your arms sharp and controlled; loose arms throw off your balance.

Know Where You’re Standing

Varsity’s top girl training tips stress understanding which part of your foot you’re standing on, so you’re ready for any grip your bases use. Pay attention to where you feel pressure in your foot, especially in turning or spinning stunts. Your backspot is watching your hips to judge whether you’re centered, so small shifts in your feet and hips matter.

Body Positions

Once a basic liberty is solid, flyers add body positions. The USASF glossary describes the liberty as a single-leg stunt position, and Varsity calls the ground-up liberty the base for “more elite variations such as heel stretches, arabesques, scorpions and more.”

• Liberty: standing on one locked leg, with the other foot at your knee.
• Heel stretch: holding your free leg up by the heel, leg as straight as you can keep it.
• Arabesque: free leg extended behind you.
• Scorpion: free foot pulled up behind you toward your head.
• Bow and arrow, scale and other positions: more advanced shapes that need more flexibility. Your coach will introduce them when you’re ready.

Practice each position on the ground first until you can hit it quickly and hold it with control. In stunts, these positions need spotters. USA Cheer’s college rules, for example, require a spotter for one-arm stunts like the heel stretch, arabesque, scorpion and bow and arrow.

Flexibility and Strength

Body positions depend on flexibility, but control depends on strength. Varsity’s flyer tips recommend:

• Stretching consistently, on both sides of the body evenly.
• Holding positions without your hands, such as kicking a heel stretch up and holding the leg as high as you can, to build the strength to control it.
• Core work such as planks and V-ups.
• Hang drills, done with your coach, to build the core and upper-body strength to hold yourself up.

Our guides on split stretches, scorpion stretches and balance training can help. Warm up before you stretch; see our warm-up routine.

Nerves and Communication

Varsity’s top girl tips acknowledge that nerves are common for flyers. Flyers have to focus on technique while also performing to the crowd. A few habits help:

• Know the counts. Many groups have the flyer call the count. Practice it until it’s automatic.
• Speak up. If a stunt doesn’t feel right, say so. Nemours KidsHealth advises cheerleaders to tell their coach if they’re uncomfortable with a stunt, and to tell a parent or administrator if the coach isn’t supportive.
• Only perform what you’ve drilled. KidsHealth also advises never trying a stunt at a game or competition that hasn’t been practiced many times.
• Watch your video. Varsity suggests watching videos of your routines to spot small details to clean up.

Safety for Flyers

KidsHealth notes that flyers are particularly at risk of injury. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends trained, certified coaches, safe surfaces and spotters during flying moves and dismounts. It also says athletes with concussions shouldn’t return to cheer until a medical professional clears them. If you hit your head or feel dizzy, confused or off-balance after a fall, stop and tell your coach.

USA Cheer’s rules also cover what you wear: short fingernails, no jewelry and soft-soled athletic shoes.

Flyer Checklist

• Hold your own weight on the load and climb lightly.
• Hips over your knee, body stacked in a column.
• Locked legs, tight glutes and core, chin up.
• Know where you stand on your foot.
• Body positions solid on the ground before they go in the air, with spotters.
• Stretch evenly on both sides and build strength to control your flexibility.
• Speak up when something doesn’t feel right.

See also: how to base and how to hit your stunt every time.

Sources: USA Cheer, 2026-27 College Cheer Rules; USASF, Cheer Rules and Glossary; Varsity, Stunting Basics, Elite Stunts, Top Girl Training Tips and 3 Top Girl Tips; Nemours KidsHealth, Safety Tips: Cheerleading; American Academy of Pediatrics, Cheerleading Safety (HealthyChildren.org). Last checked October 1, 2026.