Competition cheerleading, like every sport, involves a lot of preparation, hard work, and team work in order to compete against, and hopefully beat, teams of your same level. As I stated before there are many parts to a competition routine, and if you are missing even one of them then you get a deduction on your score in competitions. The flyers' jobs are to be tight and hit their tricks, but also give the look of ease and that they are having fun. It is a requirement for flyers to be flexible in order to do most one-legged stunts like heal stretches, scorpions, and arabasques. The bases do exactly what it sounds like they do, they are the 'ground' the flyer stands on. It is important for bases to use their legs and not just their arms to muscle up the stunts, and their arms must also be locked out so the flyers are sturdy.
The pyramids require extreme team work because it almost always involves the entire team. This is where all the flyers connect and do stunts together. The cheer involves a lot of motions, that must also be hit hard in order to get the visual and for the cheer to look clean. The tumbling section is where the crowd can be amazed by running tumbling, like round off handspring tuck or full, as well as standing tumbling, like handsprings or tucks. The dance is the crowd pleaser where the team gets to have fun and give it all they got for the judges. Each section of the routine is scored separately. And like most sports, it is very likely that some teams are better in one areas then another.
The University of Louisville is probably one of the best examples of cheerleading as a sport! Watch the video, located on the side bar, and see for yourself.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Controversy
The battle of whether Cheerleading is or is not a sport has been going on for years. Some may argue that because it does not involve a ball it is not a sport. Although the true definition of a sport is "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical ability and often of a competitive nature". No where in the definition does it state that a sport requires the use of a ball. What about boxing and karate for example?
Any cheerleader will tell you that this sport requires focus, dedication, and athleticism. Many high school and college cheerleaders practice just as much, if not more than some other sports. During practice they create routines for time outs when cheering at football and/or basketball games as crowd pleasers. Timeouts may include a cheer with motions, jumps, a pyramid or two, a bunch of one legged stunts, or a dance, not all in one of course. As for competitions the practice is much harder with more difficult stunts and tumbling passes to please the judges. In a competition routine there are one legged stunts, pyramids, jumps, a dance, tumbling, and basket tosses, which has to be done in just two and a half minutes! In order to do a routine you must have stamina to jump, tumble, and cheer throughout the whole thing, as well as strength to hold and throw people up in the air. While the three or four people (called bases) are holding the one (flyer) in the air, the flyer is required to do tricks while the bases can not move.
In some highschools there is something called powderpuff which is where the boys become the cheerleaders and the girls become the football players. Well every year after powderpuff was over, the boys who took part in it had a new respect for the cheerleaders and came to realize just how hard cheerleading really is. Many more people around the world are recognizing cheerleading as a sport as more and more young girls, and some boys, join cheerleading. There have been many articles written about this controversy throughout the years, but I found one in particluar that I really liked on msnbc's website.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26293199/
In highschool we had a saying, "Real athletes lift people, Not weights!" And although everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I think it is pretty clear that cheerleading is in fact a sport.
Any cheerleader will tell you that this sport requires focus, dedication, and athleticism. Many high school and college cheerleaders practice just as much, if not more than some other sports. During practice they create routines for time outs when cheering at football and/or basketball games as crowd pleasers. Timeouts may include a cheer with motions, jumps, a pyramid or two, a bunch of one legged stunts, or a dance, not all in one of course. As for competitions the practice is much harder with more difficult stunts and tumbling passes to please the judges. In a competition routine there are one legged stunts, pyramids, jumps, a dance, tumbling, and basket tosses, which has to be done in just two and a half minutes! In order to do a routine you must have stamina to jump, tumble, and cheer throughout the whole thing, as well as strength to hold and throw people up in the air. While the three or four people (called bases) are holding the one (flyer) in the air, the flyer is required to do tricks while the bases can not move.
In some highschools there is something called powderpuff which is where the boys become the cheerleaders and the girls become the football players. Well every year after powderpuff was over, the boys who took part in it had a new respect for the cheerleaders and came to realize just how hard cheerleading really is. Many more people around the world are recognizing cheerleading as a sport as more and more young girls, and some boys, join cheerleading. There have been many articles written about this controversy throughout the years, but I found one in particluar that I really liked on msnbc's website.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26293199/
In highschool we had a saying, "Real athletes lift people, Not weights!" And although everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I think it is pretty clear that cheerleading is in fact a sport.
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