I have a good friend name Jenny. She wants to try competitive cheer but, she doesn’t know what to do to prepare for it. I am in competitive cheer and I would love to give advice to her. My advice to her is always stay tight, stretch, and have personality. Do you realize that being tight is one of the most perplexing factors in cheer? Whether your a flyer, base, or back spot, you always need to stay tight. Staying tight is key to becoming a cheerleader. If your a flyer, you have to stay tight so you won’t fall. When you tumble you need to squeeze with all you might, so you get higher tumble scores. Cheer is all about staying tight. Every element in cheer involves staying tight. It is true, being tight is troublesome. Have you ever hurt
Being able jump in the air, kick up your leg, or even having a strong voice is what most people assume is needed to make the cheer squad in today’s society. These beliefs and depictions of today’s cheerleaders are strongly influenced by today’s media. For example, the hit television show “Glee” depicts one of its main characters, a cheerleader named Brittney, as an airhead. This blond hair, blue-eyed girl is reflected as the “typical cheerleader”, with statements that include the following, ' 'I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist ' ' (Murphy). The show also depicts the other cheerleaders as stuck up, promiscuous, irresponsible and cliquey. From wearing the cheerleading outfits everyday to sleeping around with the football team,
There are qualifications to be a cheerleader; flexibility, tumbling, and where to be put in a stunt group (Varsity.com, 2018). You can’t just develop these qualities without working towards them because it takes a lot of time and practice. To become flexible you have to be stretching daily (www.stretching-exercises-guide.com). Which shows that cheerleaders put in a lot of time and commitment. Therefore there is no reason to argue that cheerleaders don’t work and train as hard as other
Thirty-four percent of all competitive cheer injuries are concussions as to of football only seventeen percent of the injuries in football are concussions. (Gale, Luke. “Football vs. Cheerleading: Who Gets Hurt More?”) Competitive cheer athletes compete just like any other sports and prepare for the competition months in advance. These athletes tryout for teams just like any other sports team as well and need a lot of physical strength for it. Competitive cheer consists of hard to do, tumbling, stunting, jumping, dancing, basket tosses, and pyramids with other aspects in it that are sports, along with a high rate of getting hurt. Competitive cheer is a sport.
I bet many of you thought cheerleading was just about looking pretty and standing on the sidelines while yelling chants and performing stunts, but there is actually many different types of cheerleading.
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!
Right before a game, football players huddle up as a team and they get “hyped-up” to win. The coach of the team gives them a game plan and they follow it. This same thing applies for the cheerleaders right before they take the mat. Their “game plan” is the routine that a choreographer made for them. Coaches change the routine to make them win. Cheerleaders have to act as a team. (you build a bond with your teammates practicing so much together.) At competitions, all the cheerleaders match from bow to toe. Cheerleaders always encourage their teammates when they are discouraged or feel failure in not being able to complete a stunt.(they
One component cheerleaders also must have is flexibility. “Flexibility is the range of motion in a joint or group of joints or the ability to move joints effectively through a complete range of motion. Flexibility training includes stretching exercises to lengthen the muscles” (VeryWell). Flexibility must be present in order for flyers (the girls that are lifted into the air) to pull positions in midair, for the whole team to perform various jumps, and also helps in tumbling, which is a very important skill to have when participating in competitive cheerleading. “Tumbling is a form of gymnastics that requires athletes to use their bodies to flip, twist, roll and jump” (OmniCheer). Tumbling can take years to develop and isn’t an easy skill at all. Some girls work their whole life to just master simpler areas of tumbling and only the best of the best can do some of the hardest tumbling, which incorporates twists while flipping in midair. The last skill that cheerleaders must have is coordination. There is a lot of dancing whenever it comes to cheerleading. Dancing can be considered easy but not when it must be sharp and synchronized with all of the other teammates, along with adding in facial expressions, which appeal to the judges. These aspects take loads of time to perfect and some of these skills take years to even begin learning how to do.
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.
Is Cheerleading a Sport? According to 21Alive 2010, 52% of people think that cheerleading is a sport. But, in fact, it is not. Cheerleading should not be considered a sport. The women’s sport foundation has qualifications that cheerleading does not meet, and it does not require physical ability.
Competitive cheerleaders from all over the world, train for years to make it to nationals or worlds. Individuals work their way up from level one all the way to level six. Level one is where they learn and develop the basic skill of cheerleading. Next, you move up and so on. In each level there is usually a junior and senior team as well, age and skill will also determine your placement. Competition cheer teams train all year round in hopes of gaining new skills
Competitive Cheerleading Is A Sport Thrusting an 100 pound girl up in the air and catching her isn’t easy. When you hold up a stunt for counts as your flyer pulls a stretch, or when you run for your tumbling pass, you put all your energy and force to do your best. Cheerleading is a difficult sport that some people don’t understand. Cheer can be a very helpful sport in life. Cheerleading at a gym or even at your school can help you gain education.
Similar to all other “real sports,” you have to have a sense of coordination. Cheer isn’t all about standing there to look pretty. It involves strength, stamina, balance, and timing (reasons). To make sure they have all of these things, cheerleaders condition. Conditioning usually consist of some type of squats, running, v-ups, planks, and more. According to one of the elements brought up by the Women’s Sports Foundation, a sport is a physical activity that involves throwing something overcoming the resistance of mass (being). Some stunts include throwing a person up in the air. This is an example of throwing something, or someone, to overcome the resistance of mass.
Do not be confused with the cheerleaders on the sidelines who merely clap and do sharp moves. These cheerleaders are very important in leading a crowd to help a team succeed at a game, but they are not competitive athletes. The skills needed by a competitive cheerleader include tumbling, stunting, and dance skills. The cheerleaders work out daily in order to have the strength to go full out for a routine which will include stunts such as lifting other cheerleaders, tumbling passes, and a choreographed dance with the rest of the team. All cheerleaders in the group must perform in unison in order for the group to succeed. If one person moves differently or takes one step outside the white line, the rest of the team is punished. These skills that are needed should be plenty of evidence to prove that cheerleading is a
(“Three Cheers For the Knights!” 2) Cheerleading not only takes training but takes talent and skill. Cheerleaders must not only be energetic and know how to inspire and keep a crowd entertained, but they must be able to perform stunts and tumble (Torie Bembry 1). Not everyone is fit or cut to be a cheerleader, just like not everyone is fit or cut to be a soccer player (Nily Rozic 2). Cheerleading is more than just a hobby.
As you see here cheer competitions are challenging and have different levels making it more complex. Secondly on Bleacher Report it states, “If you have ever seen a cheer competition, then you know how competitive these girls and sometimes guys can be. They get very into their routine and can get as into it as somebody could