Cheerleading Research Paper

A sport is an activity that has specific rules and has a winner. The main goal of a sport is to win. The characteristics of a sport is that there must be competition against yourself or someone else. There has to be a possibility that

Although it is true that cheerleading does not fall under the category of a “sport” by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies or the NCCA, this does not mean cheerleaders are not athletes. An athlete is a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina. Cheerleaders definitely fall under the category of an athlete because cheerleading is not just smiling and shouting cheers as most people assume. Cheerleaders are trained in some of the most difficult skills such as tumbling and stunting. Cheerleading has become one of the most dangerous school activities, making doctors push schools and organizations to treat cheerleaders as athletes and that cheer is in fact a sport. Nelson feels very strongly about this topic and stresses that, “ It is disappointing how underestimated we are as cheerleaders because as a competitive cheerleader, we practice hard at least three hours a day, not only mastering the skills, but looking good while completing them…we work just as hard as any other sport but we did not get the appropriate

While the definition of a sport may vary with the person, the dictionary definition of a sport can be best described as, “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” (Oxford Dictionary). Cheerleading has been a topic of an ongoing controversial debate as to whether or not it should be recognized as a sport. Players that engage in sports, such as, football, basketball, and baseball all display a genuine liking for their sport, which generally emphasizes why they take part in the activity. Similarly, cheerleaders have the same mindset because they display a genuine passion of being apart of a team and working with others to achieve a common goal.

A sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team compere against another. Some of cheerleading use skill and compete against other teams. They even risk their lives to do a risky routine. According to US News "Over the past few decades, cheerleading has evolved from leading the crowd in cheers at sporting events to a competitive, year-round activity featuring complex acrobatic stunts performed by a growing number of athletes," said Dr. Cynthia LaBella,

Cheerleading is a very dangerous sport. If the body is not well-conditioned, the athlete can severely injure themselves. Cheerleaders represent the teams they cheer for, which in most cases are football and basketball. Cheerleaders are not just about being “beautiful” or “popular,” but are more often known for being role models. With concussions being extremely high risk in cheerleading, it’s important for cheerleaders to be dedicated, and have proper strength and knowledge to make them successful in cheerleading.

The absence of guidelines regarding the practice of cheerleading has led to a major increase in the amount of catastrophic injuries, which can be prevented by labeling cheerleading a sport. In fact, “of 104 catastrophic injuries sustained by female high school and college students from 1982 to 2005… more than half resulted from cheerleading” (Pennington

When most people hear the word cheerleading,they think of girlls in shorts skirts. But in fact, the sport was started by men, for men. In 1903, the University of Minnesota created a " Yell Squad" composed of six men, which in turn led to a male cheer fraternity call Gamma Sigma. Texas A&M joined the band wagon in 1905 when they created " The Cheerleading state," a group of males who led the crowd at football and basketball games. The sport remained dominated by men until the 1920's some famous figures like Dwight Eisenhower and Franklin Roosevelt were member of cheer squads in their

Competitive cheerleading requires an immense amount of physical activity in tumbling, lifting and dancing. Stunts include standing backflips, tumbling sequences and lifts, requiring the athletes to be physically fit, strong and balanced. In cheerleading, a “base” is responsible for being the bottom supporter for the person being lifted, or the “flyer.” The base is often seen assisting, lifting and catching the flyer which can be demanding on the cheerleader’s body, and lead to injury. Although the statistics are short history, cheerleading has become the most dangerous female sports (Mueller).

A sport, according to the Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors, is a ‘physical activity [competition] against/with an opponent, governed by rules and conditions under which a winner is declared, and primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of

Cheerleaders stand out for their exuberant confidence; It takes someone special to be able to stand in front of a school and a community. The most important attribute to being a leader is confidence. Personally, I have struggled with anxiety for years, which does not exactly scream “cheerleader material”. Cheerleading has taught me how to be in front of crowds, be comfortable and be a leader, which will be necessary for my future as I head into a career in Sports Broadcasting. Anxiety has stopped me from joining clubs, going out in public and even from hanging out with friends.

The sport cheerleading engages in cardiovascular strengthening and can help to increase the abilities of your heart and lungs. Correct conditioning to perform above excellence, training on the perfect way to throw stunts and tumbling passes, stretching for intense and flawless jumps, and safety prerequisites help avoid damages to the body. Exercise let alone during this activity has proved to help in weight loss, the building of strong muscles, flexibility, and being able to have the right mentality, hypothetically speaking engaged in using communication skills and being able to build a team support system. What this research fails to demonstrate is almost every option on how cheerleading can be an injuring sport. Although cheerleading is a great source of exercise, there are more injuries in cheerleading than any other contact sport, but can be a result in a trainer and/or authority while activity is being engaged

Fans do not often watch the cheerleaders when they attend a football game, and that's okay because they are there to see the football players anyways. There aren’t many fans of competition cheer either, unless you are a younger cheerleader of course. In general there isn’t much love for the sport that is cheerleading, I say sport because that is what it is. While it would be a stretch to call sideline cheer a sport, competition cheer most definitely is, and here is why.

According to the Association of Cheerleading Coaches (AAC) cheer is a very active sport in fact they say “Cheer is a physical activity/competition against/with an opponent that is governed by rules and conditions under which a winner is declared, and primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants”(Ruder, Rebecca.) Therefore because cheer follows a specific set of rules and guidelines that is one of the many things that makes it a sport. On that same article I found a fact stating that “of all the athletic pursuits a person could choose to involve themselves in, cheerleading requires some of the highest athletic ability of all”(Ruder, Rebecca) Like gymnastics [an olympic sport] Cheerleaders must learn to tumble. They perform dangerous stunts like: standing back flips, round flip flops, and full layout twists. Cheerleaders also perform lifts this is when the"fliers" are tossed up into the air and held up by the "bases" this requires a lot of

The article said it must be a sport if flyers get thrown up in the air, "overcoming the resistance of the mass." There has actually been girls that have died from the cheerleading according to Fox News. The news channel stated that a fourteen year old girl got tossed in the air and when she came down, she started to complain of abdominal pain and she later died at the hospital.I have my own personal experiences with cheer, I am actually a cheerleader at my school right now. I have cheered my whole life and never once thought it was easy or not a sport. I and a lot of other cheerleaders on my team are able to tumble. If I thought cheer was easy I would not do it because I am all about being competitive. Cheer is my favorite sport and I have cheered since I was three. I hope people start to realize that it really is a sport. Also when we are tumbling we are always putting ourselves in dangerous situations, because when we flip we could easily hit our head. Do to the dangerous stunts and tumblings they have now made it a

The article said it must be a sport if flyers get thrown up in the air, "overcoming the resistance of the mass." There has actually been girls that have died from the cheerleading according to Fox News. The news channel stated that a fourteen year old girl got tossed in the air and when she came down, she started to complain of abdominal pain and she later died at the hospital.I have my own personal experiences with cheer, I am actually a cheerleader at my school right now. I have cheered my whole life and never once thought it was easy or not a sport.  I and a lot of other cheerleaders on my team are able to tumble. If I thought cheer was easy I would not do it because I am all about being competitive. Cheer is my favorite sport and I have cheered since I was three. I hope people start to realize that it really is a sport. Also when we are tumbling we are always putting ourselves in dangerous situations, because when we flip we could easily hit our heads. Do to the dangerous stunts and tumblings they have now made it a