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Why Competitive Cheerleading should be recognized as a SPORT

Senior Research Paper
3/27/2014 Tatiana Collins

Teacher: Meacco Verdun

Tatiana Collins

Mrs. M. Verdun

AP Literature, 2A

26 February 2014

Lets Go Eagles, E-A-G-L-E-S, Lets Go Eagles, YEA! Big sparkly bows, short skirts, bold and loud voices, and a lot of energy is how most of the nation describes that of cheerleading. Truth be told, lots of people have this opinion because of the stereotypes made by movies, reality shows, and books. One thing that most people do not know is that school cheering and all-star cheerleading are two totally different things. Cheerleading has its own set of guidelines that are required for it, and just like any of the other sports, the guidelines that are set for it has to be followed at all times. Those girls, boys, men, and women work as hard as any of the other players, and they only have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to prove it, not four quarters. Dont cheerleaders just cheer on the other teams? I mean yes, they do throw a few stunts here or there. How hard could that be? To answer all of these questions, cheerleading is very hard; in fact, it should be deemed the most dangerous contact sport ever to participate in throughout the entire world. Cheerleaders are seen around high schools and in the outside world as wanna-be athletes. Competitive cheerleading should be deemed a sport because it is emotionally and physically demanding, involves strength training, and the teams involved compete as individuals and as a team against other teams from around the world and the nation.

I have been a cheerleader for almost 10 years, and I have been hearing a lot of people say that cheerleading is not a sport. One lady, who shall not be named, stated that cheerleading was never a sport, and it should not be considered a sport because all they ever do is jump around and say woohoo. The statement that she made caused me to think, Well if all of these people dont think that cheerleading is a sport, then how can I possibly prove them wrong? I thought and thought until I figured out a loop hole in the cheerleading world. At Warren Easton Charter High School, I am a part of the competitive cheerleading team and the sideline cheerleading team, and though we do similar things at games that we do at competitions, the work ethic and attitudes are much different.

I took it upon myself to look up the definition of sport in the dictionary, and this is what I discovered. According to (Webster, 2014), the word Sport NOUN is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Cheerleading is a group (mostly made up of young women) who yell out specific songs or chants to encourage the home team and to entertain the present crowd during the game in sports like American football, basketball, and volleyball (Webster, 2014).) This definition brings me to my first point which was that cheerleading is emotionally and physically demanding. It is emotionally draining because not only are you trying to maintain good grades, and your own personal problems, but you also have to be at practices, performances, and competitions with other girls and/or boys and their problems. Cheerleading is physically demanding because those human beings that are participating in this activity have to be at practice ready to do a number of push-ups, laps, squats, jumps, full-out performances (just to practice the routine), sit-ups and v-ups, stunt-ups, etc.

The summer of 2011, when I first joined the Warren Easton Cheerleading Team, the person who conditioned us was Coach Katie. 1-2 hours meant that we were doing lunges, moving push-ups, suicides, and laps around the gym, and if anybody stopped, we would have to start all over again. Our laps consisted of doing 45 times around the gym without stopping. Even though it made us upset when we had to start over again, conditioning really built up our upper body strength, endurance, and it taught us the meaning of team work. Cheerleaders, on an average, practice for 10 hours a week not including those extended practices that are draining to the soul. We as cheerleader train as hard as any other named sport in the country, so why is it so hard to consider cheer as a sport?

Today, cheerleading involves certain skills that require those participants to have the strength of a football player, swiftness of a dancer, and the nimbleness of a gymnast, (Popotski, 2008). While the other activities that are considered a sport are kicking around and throwing a ball that weighs 14 ounces (0.91 lbs.) according to (Cha-cha, 2006-2014), cheerleaders lift girls and boys in over 10 feet in the air who weigh between 50 lbs.- 125 lbs. Cheerleaders cannot just drop a flyer and brush it off, and I say this because when these girls fall, they are coming down from 10-20 feet in the air at almost 50 miles an hour(depending on the stunt). Cheerleaders are just as fit as the athletes that they support, (Sara Green, 2010). It may seem super easy to be a cheerleader, but in all actuality its just a lot of hard work and dedication. Jumping and stunting are not easy when you do not have any upper-body strength or leg strength to pick up your own body weight or a whole other person. Competitive Cheerleaders do a mixture of stunts and jumps in 2.5 minutes, when competing and while just at practice. This is where the strength training comes in because the goal is to not drop a stunt, and to hit all

jumping skills at least close to perfect throughout the entire routine. Of course this is hard, but this is where the practice, conditioning, and technicalities come in to play.

Team work makes the dream work (NCA, 1918) is what I am always hearing during the intense practices and competitions, but I never knew why until I participated in my last high school national cheerleading competition this year. Cheerleading is predominantly a team sport because half of the tricks and stunts that appear in a routine cannot be done with just one person. Just like any other sport, you need other people to make the team to help to play the sport. In the month of December, I had to conjure up a competition routine because of some coaching discrepancies, and as the captain, I really could not complain, but doing it on my own at first was very difficult. Luckily, the competitive squad this year had the same goal I had, and that was to bring home our first national title. So, they all brought their ideas to me, and together we won 2nd place in the NCA High School National Championship. All of what I said was to say that you can never do it on your own, especially in cheerleading because you will get out numbered in the end.

Have you ever gotten hurt? Kicked in the face? Well thats a part of cheerleading that you will always have to deal with. Cheerleading is named one of the two most dangerous contact sports in the nation as deemed in a Wisconsin civil court-case, (Ziegler, 2009). Justice Annette Ziegler said cheerleading involves "a significant amount of physical contact between the cheerleaders, (Ziegler, 2009). Cheerleading is the number one cause of the most serious sports related injuries (Soltis, 2013). Two teenage girls who I grew up with have been cheering for 15 years and the other for 10 years, and they are always going to the emergency room for some injury that happens either at practice or at a competition. They cheer for Louisiana Cheer Force

Gold and the SACS Racers All-Star teams. They have gotten hurt a numerous times including torn ACLS, concussions during performances, broken arms, broken wrists, broken legs, overlifting, head on collisions during tumbling, and the list goes on and on. Stunting, tumbling, and jumping three hundred-plus days of the year can really have its effects on people. People who play other sports get these injuries by getting tackled, or just running a ball up and down a field/court with padding on, while we as cheerleaders get those injuries by kicks to the face, butts on faces, punches(by accident), bad falls, and you want to know the ironic part? We do not wear padding because 1.) It restricts movement, and 2.) It is not required for the things that we do, but yet out injuries are far worse than any ball player. You still think cheerleading is not a sport?

Cheerleaders are constantly at war with the people who dont believe it is a sport, trying to get them to understand their argument. Since cheerleading is now co-ed, but still a predominantly girl sport, there is the stereotype of the typical boy cheerleader being homosexual, and of that any activity containing a girl could never be deemed a sport, so cheerleaders never receive the respect or acknowledgement that they want and deserve. As a resultant of these stereotypes being thrown in the air, cheerleaders have to work harder than any other sport just to prove a point. Sad but true. Women can do anything men can so why do they look down upon those women athletes who you know are stronger than you but your ego is telling you otherwise? Competitive cheerleaders are taught to fight for what they want, and in reality, they are fighting for their sport to be recognized every single day (Tatiana, 2014).

The NFL has cheerleaders, colleges have cheerleaders, those cheerleaders who were born with mental and physical disabilities even have their own cheerleaders. College, National, and World Cheerleading Associations recruit cheerleaders from all over, and they even get paid for their

services (NCA Instructor, 1976-2014). According to (Greg, 2010-2012), it is extremely hard to obtain a cheerleading scholarship because there are a million cheerleaders who want to go to a college or university, but there are only a few institutions that offer scholarships, and that actually help these students pay for their tuition. There are actually competitions that offer scholarship money, but you will have to place high in ranking to get such.

Guidelines, rules, any physical activity or sport has to have them, and cheerleading does have them, in fact, cheerleading has rules taken out and added in every month and year, (AACAA, 2003). According to the National Cheerleading Association (NCA, 1918), the judges have 6 categories to give each team points for ( technique, stability of stunts/strength, choreography/flow of routine, degree of difficulty, perfection of routine, and overall impression). From personal experience, I know that they judge really hard especially on their returning competing teams. If a stunt moves from one block on the mat to the other, or the flyer wobbles just a little bit, it is considered what they call a bobble and this results in them deducting .5 points in the stability of stunts/strength category from all six of the judges. If a sign or flag from a teams performance is left on the competition floor after the allotted time that the routine is supposed to be done in, thats another .5 points deducted from the overall score. What if the music end s before you do? Its a deduction. What if you are sloppy in your motions? That is just another deduction. If you look tired, dont yell loud enough in the cheer, your routine is even a second over the allowed 2 minutes and 30 seconds (WSA Cheer, 2010), or you have a malfunction with your props, deduction after deduction will follow each of these incidents). In 2013, the Holy Cross Small Co-ed team placed four places lower than they should have because of a cheerleaders shoe flying off of her foot during their routine. Even though she did not stop in

the middle of the routine to get her shoe, the judges still deducted points simply for a wardrobe malfunction and for safety reasons. Its more intense than you thought right?

Competitive cheerleading is really not for everybody because it requires strength, perseverance, ambition, dedication, and FIGHT! Steinburg (2012) stated that Cheerleading is an activity in which, risk taking is involved. With risk come challenges and with challenges come competition which brings me to my last point which is COMPETITION. There are competitions held all over the world for cheerleaders to compete against other squads nationally, locally, and internationally. Cheerleading within itself has a multiple number of competitions dedicated to it, and I can personally speak on two associations that host these competitions. The two associations that I am referring to are NCA (National Cheerleading Association) and UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association). These two associations host 3 of the four types of competitions listed above, the 4th being Worlds which is held in Orlando Florida with a totally different association that only allows all-star(professional) cheerleading teams to compete due to the level of difficulty (Cheer Union). I have competed in a number of UCA and NCA competitions, and just like other players have championships and the Super bowl to face off with one team, cheerleaders have competition to go up against over 50 team per division (a division is determined by the teams skill level), or 40,000 teams for the grand title who are not only there to showcase their work to prove why they should win, but they are all at WAR! In conclusion, competitive cheerleading should be considered a sport. Competitive cheerleading meets all the criteria of a Sport, all that the outsiders of the cheer world only has to look past the stereotypes of cheerleading. Cheerleaders work very hard, and despite what everyone says, many cheer teams have worked past the stereotype of cheerleading, but this movement is just beginning. Cheerleading instills confidence into the lives of those that

participates in it. Countless numbers of cheerleaders have argued this point to so many people just to be told that they were completely insane for thinking that it should be a sport. After reading my argumentative research paper, would you still say that all cheerleaders do is say woohoo?

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