Cheerleading: Not just a sideline sport
January 25, 2022
The common misconception about cheerleading is that cheerleading consists of all girls wearing skirts cheering on the sidelines for another sport. Though this is true, and a small portion of what cheerleading is, this is not cheer.
According to Oxford Language cheerleading is “A sport involving the performance of organized cheering, chanting, dancing in support of a sports team at games.” I would like to strongly disagree.
Now first, let’s get into the real definition of cheerleading. In the report of Ultimate Cheer “Cheerleading is a team-based sport that involves stunting, pyramids, baskets, tumbling, jumps, and dance.”
There are 3 main types of cheerleading. There is school cheer, college cheer, and all-star cheer. School cheer is when you sideline for other sports by encouraging them with chants and/or stunts. Typically for school cheer, there are very few competitions to compete in and you compete against other schools.
College cheer is usually the highest level of cheer and consists of adults. College cheer is very similar to school cheer, when it comes to cheering at games and supporting other sports teams, however the skill level range is very high and the most dangerous skills are performed in college cheer. Cheering for college you may also have very few competitions, but mostly because of the skill set.
Lastly, we have all-star cheer. All-star cheer is when you are cheering for a company and not a school and go against other companies. For all-star you only do competitions and have practice at least 3-4 times a week.
Personally, when someone tells me that cheerleading isnt a sport I get offended.
In basketball or football, you are building bonds with people, working your body, growing physically, and competing or going against another team. In cheer it is the same thing.
For cheer you have to build a bond with your teammates and build trust so that when you are stunting you are able to trust your stunt group, working out almost every day of the week to build muscle and strength, going over your skills repeatedly so that it sticks and is almost muscle memory, and competing against other teams who are on the same skill level as you and maybe even better until there is a winner.
I believe cheer can be considered a sport just like anything else. The mental and physical commitment cheer takes is heavy on the body and mind and shouldn’t be downsized because the true meaning of cheer is getting lost in translation. In a turn of events, the US Olympic committee has decided to add cheerleading as a sport for the olympics, starting 2024.
Cheer has changed my life in ways I cannot even comprehend, and I am so thankful that I got into it, and I am ready to watch myself continue to grow as an athlete. Hopefully this article changed your perception about cheer and gave you a new way to think.
Charmaine Mufua • Feb 11, 2022 at 1:15 PM
Cheerleading is so cool!
Makenzie Roy • Feb 8, 2022 at 10:12 AM
Yes! Cheerleading requires strength, uniqueness, and teamwork. So why wouldn´t it be considered a sport?
Angenoir Kitwara • Feb 1, 2022 at 11:53 AM
Cheerleading is a great sport and shouldn’t be looked down upon.
Grace Shongo • Feb 1, 2022 at 8:28 AM
I agree, cheerleading is a sport! And it’s probably one of the greatest.
Ariel Olfus • Feb 1, 2022 at 7:56 AM
This article is great to help people understand the differences between school cheer, all-star cheer, etc because many people do not understand all of the work that goes into being a cheerleader.
Ashley Chimi • Jan 31, 2022 at 1:24 PM
I agree with your argument, I definitely think cheer is underlooked and disrespected in athletics and as a sprt.
Sean Hall • Jan 31, 2022 at 1:22 PM
I appreciate you sharing your experience! It’s nice to hear someone talk abut something that they love doing.
Trinity Sanders • Jan 31, 2022 at 8:27 AM
Your article really gives a lot of information to help people or other athletes understand and recognize how much hard work goes into the sport.
bryanna dortch • Jan 31, 2022 at 12:50 PM
agreed
Mariah Mullins • Jan 27, 2022 at 1:39 PM
I feel like Cheerleading is a sport because it is something that takes skills and hard work you can’t just know how to do cheerleading in one day.
Raegan Travers • Jan 27, 2022 at 1:20 PM
Cheerleading is definitely nothing short of a sport and it’s a bit sad to see that not enough people recongnize the hard work that goes into it.
Deontae Roach • Jan 26, 2022 at 10:54 AM
I honestly enjoyed reading this article. It was very informational. It informed me of a lot of information that I never knew about cheerleading and it’s position in society. It is just important as any other sport and should be treated as so.
Skye Mitchell • Jan 26, 2022 at 8:52 AM
I’m glad this article highlighted cheer as an important sport and informed people who were probably unaware about cheer in general.
Michael Landu • Jan 25, 2022 at 9:52 AM
This article is nice and the topic of the article being cheerleading is a good topic.
Tyson Dodson • Jan 25, 2022 at 9:51 AM
I can definitely understand how statements like “cheerleading just consist of girls wearing skirts that cheer on in the sidelines” can be offensive, especially when people disregard the large amount of training and work behind it that’s needed to do these things in the first place.
Janiya Nwosu • Jan 25, 2022 at 9:43 AM
I really enjoyed reading this article. It’s really nice to see that people are finally realizing that cheerleading is a physically demanding sport.
sheonl • Jan 25, 2022 at 9:06 AM
This is a great article and I’m sure some minds have been changed after reading this.