Formation design answers "where is everyone." The Action Library answers "what is everyone doing." Together they give you a complete picture of the routine — not just positions on the mat, but the specific skill each athlete executes from that position, at every moment in the choreography.

What the Action Library Contains

The Action Library is a categorized collection of cheerleading skills organized into four categories:

  • Jumps — toe touch, hurdler, pike, spread eagle, herkie, and variations
  • Stunts — base, flyer, and backspot roles across skill levels (prep, extension, lib, scorpion, etc.)
  • Tumbling — back handspring, round-off, tuck, layout, full, and combinations
  • Motions — clean motion sequences and transitions between formations

Every skill in the library includes an SVG visual reference — a clear diagram of the correct body position or execution shape. These references are viewable by athletes when they access their formation in the app, so they can verify what a skill should look like without waiting for a coach to demonstrate it.

Assigning Actions to Athletes

In the formation designer, tap any athlete on the mat to open their action panel for that formation. From there, browse or search the Action Library and select the skill they're performing at that point in the routine.

Actions are assigned per athlete per formation — not globally. This matters because the same athlete might be in the base of a stunt in Formation 3, completing a tumbling pass in Formation 5, and holding a motion in Formation 6. Each assignment is specific to that formation's context.

For stunt groups, assign the full group at once: select each athlete and assign their role (base, flyer, backspot, frontspot). The skill level and specific stunt shape are specified within the role assignment. This means the exported Excel file will show, for any given formation, every athlete's position and exact stunt role — the kind of documentation that's useful for reviewing who's in which group before a practice session.

How Athletes Use Their Action Assignments

When an athlete opens their team's routine in CheerCounts, they see each formation they're in and the action assigned to them for that formation. If a visual reference exists for the skill (and for most library skills, it does), they can tap to view it — a clean SVG diagram showing the correct execution shape.

For athletes who are new to a skill or reviewing after a coaching session, this is a reference point they can access any time, anywhere, without needing the coach present. Athletes who come to practice having already reviewed their action assignments spend less time on "what am I doing here" and more time on refining execution.

Using Actions for Routine Documentation

The most complete use of the Action Library is full routine documentation: every athlete, every formation, every action assigned. When paired with the Excel export, this creates a document that functions as a comprehensive written record of the choreography — useful for:

  • Substitute athlete planning — if an athlete is injured, you can open the export, find every formation they're in, and review their action assignments to plan how a substitute fits in
  • Year-over-year reference — exporting a fully documented routine at the end of the season creates a historical record of what the team competed, with every skill specified
  • Scoring rubric cross-check — compare your action assignments against the competition score sheet to confirm every scored skill category is represented and no required element is missing from the documented routine

Start with Stunt Groups, Then Fill In

For coaches building out action assignments for the first time, the most efficient approach is to start with stunt group assignments — they involve the most athletes in coordinated roles and benefit most immediately from being documented. Once stunt groups are assigned across all formations, fill in tumbling passes (typically affecting a subset of athletes per formation), then jumps, then motions.

A routine with complete action assignments, uploaded song, and beat-synced formations is the full CheerCounts workflow. At that point, athletes have everything they need to review their part of the routine independently — and coaches have a complete, exportable record of the season's choreography.