Whether seeing a person dunk a basketball or spike a volleyball, sports have a way to capture the crowd’s attention. A sport is an activity that uses physical effort and skill in order for an individual or team to compete against another or others. Cheerleading is a very popular activity in today’s society. Cheer is a sport which focuses on performances that involve chants and routines to entertain others during a game or competition. With its history, development, and athleticism, cheerleading is a very interesting sport. The history of cheer is very important. Johnny Campbell, a medical student at the University of Minnesota, saw his school’s football team on a losing streak. He realized something had needed to be done to better the team. Campbell is considered the first official cheerleader (“Cheerleading 101”). He has held this position because he riled up the crowd with a megaphone and cheers. Even though Campbell took credit as the first cheerleader, the idea of cheers was thought of at Princeton. In 1869 there was an all-male “pep club” with these so-called “cheers” (“Cheer Union”). A grad student from Princeton, Thomas …show more content…
Cheer was almost a 100 year old sport before women joined. Women enhanced the sport by adding tumbling and acrobatics (“Varsity”). Tumbling is a form of gymnastics where the gymnast will flip and twist with the risk of getting an injury. As the years passed, cheer became even more difficult. During the 1980’s, cheer had consisted of more difficult cheers and stunts within routines (“Cheerleading 101”). Stunting is a building performance that uses strength and agility to lift a person or to “fly” on those people using balance. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, All Star cheer was founded. All Star cheer focuses on athletic training and performances (“Varsity”). Endurance is a key characteristic to obtain when performing these intense routines. All in all, cheer is a very athletic
The physical activity must have five elements, some include overcoming the resistance of a mass, competition against an opponent, and the rules must define time, space, the purpose of the activity, and the conditions under which a winner is declared. In addition to, acknowledgement that the competition is an evaluation of the skills of the participants and the key purpose of the activity is for competition. Competitive cheerleading fits into all five of these categories through stunts, tumbling, competitions, score sheets, time limits, and mat size. Cheerleading also fits into these categories through the Entertainment and Sports Programming Networks (ESPN) comparing cheerleading routines and a competitive cheerleader’s sole purpose is to compete. Most people in the world do not think cheerleading is a sport for several reasons. Some they think cheerleading does not have a strategy, while others think cheerleaders do not have enough physical ability. However, cheerleading fits into all of the categories of what must take place in order to deem it as a sport (Cheer
The Time magazine is a credible source for this article that aims right at people who are outside of the cheerleading community. This article is all about the athleticism in the sport and the technique of cheerleading. The article gives a lot of statistics about the growth of injuries in cheerleading. One of the famous cheerleading teams was mentioned in this article and they were the World Cup Shooting Stars, which is an organization in New Jersey. The article talks about high school cheerleading today and how many colleges accept cheer as a sport and how you can get a scholarship. In the article the author talks about hoe schools canceled their
Tumbling skills, endurance, and flexibility are important in order to become a competitive cheerleader. The world of cheerleading is often underestimated by the school jocks, nerds, and fellow classmates. However, what they don’t know is that cheer takes lots of time and training to refine. These skills will help improve your physical health and give you strength. Cheerleading can be a very competitive sport that everyone can appreciate, even if it means you have to put a bow in your
Many have seen her. Many know her. But who is the American cheerleader? Is she a blond haired, blue eyed sex symbol? Is she a drug-addicted girl with no brains and even fewer moral values? Maybe she is just your average, pretty, girl-next-door with a loud voice and lots of spirit. What is clearly true is that cheerleading and cheerleaders have evolved greatly over a century-long history. What started as one bold college student has turned into an activity with over 3 million participants (Brady 1); one that is backed by a $150 million industry (Williams 2). Modern cheerleading has come a long way from its historic roots, but large differences still exist between the iconic cheerleader, the stereotypical cheerleader, and the truth.
Cheer isn’t just a sport it’s like a second family. You learn many hardworking and problem-solving skills. You also learn how to fail and get back up from it. It’s not just mentally, it’s physically you condition and become stronger.
The univention of anything in today’s world, whether it be something that affects the whole world or a small village would cause an impact that would be felt by the population. A widespread concept around the world is that cheerleaders are simply there to lead the crowd and cheer for a football or basketball team. However, what most people don’t know is sideline cheerleading is not the only type of cheerleading. There is also competitive cheerleading. Competitive cheerleading is a high energy routine that includes stunting, tumbling, jumps, a pyramid, and a dance crammed into two minutes and 30 seconds. I have first-hand experience of both sideline and competitive cheerleading due to the fact I was a cheerleader for five years.
In the early 1990’s, All-Star teams emerged. These are cheerleading teams not associated with schools or sports leagues, whose main objective is to
Cheerleading is simply entertainment for viewers and is a social club for its participants. “Sports Beat - The Sport of Cheerleading: It’s a lot More than Just Pompoms and Smiles,” points out that a main benefit of cheerleading is the ability to “easily transition into the entertainment industry” (Hatton C-04). This statement supports our belief that cheerleading should not be considered a sport. Cheer-leading, the leading of cheers at sporting events is not a sport. Entertainment, versus athleticism, is more of what cheerleading is. Team supporters are present at games/events to raise school spirit and encourage cheering. Cheerleading generally requires a competition to be in progress, so the cheerleading itself can occur. This is not an activity which can take place alone.
“Modern cheerleading has evolved into a sport that is more akin to mixed martial arts, where legs and arms are constantly flailing and at any moment a participant is risking a violent shot to the head” (Cheerleading- the Forgotten Sport).
Competitions consist of solely teamwork and perfection. On the cheer team, there could be one person better than the rest, but they, themselves cannot carry the whole team. They must work together in sync. Coupled with the fact that teams that compete at cheerleading competitions are judged based on their ability to stunt and tumble as a team. High marks in these categories, along with a “dance” will result in a higher placement than the other teams.
Cheerleading is a sport that many people don’t support in a way that they support the popular sports in most schools, like football and basketball. Cheering can open many doors and create an ample amount of job opportunities. By cheering you can also receive full ride athletic scholarships from many schools. A cute skirt and pompoms is not the only thing you have to work for when it comes to cheering. Just as any other sport you have to have a certain grade point average to try out for your cheerleading team and also you are held accountable for maintaining your grade point average with also being held accountable for remembering cheers, games day dates and events that you will have to attend with your team. Cheer teaches you many things other than being able to tumble and shout! As a cheerleader, you learn to encourage anyone that needs that boost of encouragement, we learn how to work together with other people. Your cheer team members will become your family!
Even when cheer teams do not compete, the time put into cheering is a large amount. “These girls are high school or college students going to school, making grades, and cheering after school at football, basketball, and even soccer games” (Thomas). The amount of hours put in is more than anyone could count. Adding together football and basketball season together is the cheer season if all a team does is supporting on the sideline. More and more squads are adding competitions on top of that. This concludes to a very long cheer
Cheerleading is usually considered a sport to most people but, there are some out there who think that it is not a sport. The reason this issue is brought up is it is physically demanding. Also, it requires collaborative teamwork, because if the team is not collaborating then they
The sport of cheerleading has been around for a long time; since 1884 in fact! In the beginning, cheer was a sport dominated by college men. Since, women have taken over, and in 1967 the first ranked college cheer competition was held. Both school and competitive cheerleading offer many rewarding opportunities. Though they are a part of the same sport, the two types of squads are actually quite diverse. School cheer is undeniably a worthwhile and respectable sport, but competitive teams often provide a more challenging approach, and are more suited to experienced cheerleaders.
From an outsiders perspective one may see brainless and beautiful robots, which scream and perform neat tricks. This is not the case from the inside; cheerleading is so much more than that. Many people are under the impression that cheerleading is not a sport. I am the voice of reasoning that will let you in, and I will show you that cheerleading, in fact, is a sport. Cheerleading requires much physical demand from the body just as any other sport would. Cheerleading, in general, is a team effort. There are many sides to cheerleading, which make it a versatile sport. When it comes to cheerleading there’s more to it than what meets the eye.