Is animation a sport? Of course!
Is cheerleading a sport? This is a question that many people ask, and when they ask this question, the most common answer is no. I 100% disagree with that. Cheerleading is one of the most difficult, time consuming, and most dangerous sports one can participate in. I have been cheering since I was 14 years old and have never regretted the decision to make sacrifices for this sport and my team.
There are many components to competitive cheerleading. Stunting, throwing, flipping, jumping, and dancing sections are some of the most important parts that make up a routine. All these sections are scored for technique, quantity, difficulty and creativity. Most people will ask, “How do we maximize our score in a routine?” Quite simply, there are usually charts online that tell you how many people you need to participate in each section to maximize your team’s score.
Stunting is when a person (usually known as a flying girl or above) is held in the air by 3 or fewer other people (known as bases), when stunting the bases must find a creative way to make the girl go into the air and then just catch her feet. Usually, this means that the flyer will have to spin or flip from the ground to get to the top of the trick with the help of her bases that launch them up. This can be the most dangerous part of cheerleading if the point guards and shuttlecock are not properly trained. The flyer must know how to control her body and her bases must be able to catch the flyer as she goes around and around going up or down from a stunt.
As we come to the flipping section, many people need to understand the mental and physical strength that goes into this specific part of cheerleading. Tumbling is what you see at the Olympics when the gymnasts are spinning all over the place in their floor routines. While cheerleading and gymnastics make this look easy, it takes a long time to acquire all of these important skills for the team you’re on. A good example of a team that maximizes their high level flipping abilities is Top Gun: TGLC.
Throws are almost like stunting, except the goal of a throw is to launch the flyer as high into the air as you can and then catch it on the way down. While the girl is between 10 and 15 feet in the air, she must kick, spin, or flip, depending on the level she competes on and the team she is on. The bases must focus on the girl who is in the air all the time as she does her flips, kicks and flips while there are bright lights shining on the stage shining in her eyes. Everybody needs to make sure they do their job because if the flyer makes a mistake she kicks a base and doesn’t get caught, if the bases look the other way or get distracted, the flyer hits the ground and can get seriously injured.
For the 2017-2018 cheerleading season, at least 75% of the athletes on the team must perform 2 connected jumps with an additional jump or 3 connected jumps to maximize their score. Jumps require the cheerleader to jump off the ground and hit a position with her legs. Jumps are my biggest problem because they require a lot of time and strength in the hip flexors to get to the right height. Depending on the level of the team, some of these athletes even have to add a tumbling pass connected to a jump.
The dance is where most teams will get super creative. This is usually at the end of a routine and only lasts about 15 seconds. The trainers will go step by step and section by section to make sure that every move and every movement is done at the exact moment it is supposed to. Most teams will incorporate hip-hop or other dance styles to give the end of your routine some flair and sass.
Most people don’t realize how much work is put into a cheerleading routine. For the entire 2 minutes and 30 seconds, these athletes are focused and committed to this routine. Just like soccer or baseball, they spend hours and hours in the gym working on honing those skills to be successful. Cheerleading is a sport and children are the most challenging athletes.