A Discussion of Whether Cheerleading is a Sport

Why Cheerleading is a Sport (essay)

Cheerleading requires athleticism like any other sport, you must be in shape and be at a great fitness level to be involved in the activities. In a journal of 2016 from Postmedia Network Inc. titled “The power of cheer; Cheerleading promotes athleticism, responsibility”, a father of four girls who are involved in cheer had this to say, ‘As with any sport, it gives someone a sense of responsibility, respect for teammates and great time management skills, Alberta Cheerleading Association executive director Sarah Kennedy said Sunday. These girls and guys are fantastic athletes. They’re in incredible shape. Their flexibility is off the charts”. People who are not familiar with cheerleading are usually the ones who say cheer is not a sport, they don’t see the physical and mental strength these athletes need. Not only does it help them be physically fit but it comes with other benefits for example, the sense of responsibility and time management. I can personally agree with these two statements, once i joined cheer in high school it really helped me manage my time with homework, practice and work and with that it helped me become a responsible student and worker. This is very beneficial to the athletes involved, it gives them an idea of what real life is when they start to work. Sometimes it is the lack of knowledge people might have about the sport that doesn’t allow for it to be taken seriously.

In many instances these athletes put in many hours of work to reach a team goal, for example hitting a new stunt routine or getting first place in their next competition. Which is why they must have a strong mentality and endurance. In the article, “Their turn to be champs North Cheerleader to whoop it up at state contest” by Rachel Baruch, St. Charles cheer coach Audra Christenson mentioned, ‘Usually when they’re on varsity, they’re doing just this one activity,’ she said. ‘Typically we practice Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:45 to 5:30. Wednesdays are conditioning days, purely in the weight room. The girls also spend Mondays in the weight room for 45 minutes.’ Cheer practices are sometimes only two hours, but they can also reach up to long and hard five hours. This requires athletes to sacrifice an extraordinary amount of time, sometimes even weekends for them to reach a level of excellence they might want to achieve. In a recent interview conducted with a cheerleader from Campbell Collegiate she states, “ Tumbling and specialized jumps rely on skill and endurance, while the physical demands of stunting are often extremely strenuous and can take years of technique to perfect. The sheer strength and endurance that cheerleading takes, not mentioning the competitive element, is what I feel determines cheerleading as a sport”.What many might not notice is that endurance plays a major role in cheerleading just like it might in football or basketball when they are running down the field or court. However, these athletes are carrying people of 100 pounds or more up in the air and sometimes the stunt is longer than a few seconds, so each person involved must have endurance to keep it up. Even a 2 minute routine requires a lot of energy since it incorporates stunting, jumping, and dancing all in one.

In cheer you have to learn how to stay strong and take a hit. These athletes are trained to perform and execute their positions as safely and clean as possible, however there are certain times accidents happen and one can get seriously injured. One may think “oh it only a scratch or a kick on the face it’s not that bad”, in reality though it more than that. The Journal of Pediatrics published a study that “identified cheerleading as the sport with the highest rate of serious injuries, including concussions, knee injuries, and ankle injuries. In fact, cheerleading causes two-thirds of major injuries in female athletes”. Cheerleading isn’t just shaking pom poms like it might have been in the 80’s or 90’s now it’s more technical, and like mentioned before this sport does not receive much recognition which may be one of the reasons why sometimes it isn’t always safe as people may think it is. A good coaching staff that is properly trained is crucial. According to an article titled “Is Cheerleading a sport? The American Medical Association thinks so” by Matt Bonesteel “AMA members say cheerleading is a rigorous as many other activities that high schools and the NCAA consider sports. Adding it to the list would mean more safety measures for cheerleader and proper training for coaches”. The dangers of that come with cheer are many including ligament and muscle sprains, fractures, wrist and elbow injuries and the most common concussions, which are also likely to happen to athletes in sports like football. It would be unfair to not consider a cheerleader an athlete and just call them performers when it is clear that they go through just as much as any other individual in a team would.

Cheerleading is often considered not be a sport because people do not think cheerleaders compete. However, that is not the case, most cheer teams compete more than once each season. For example, according to an journal by Nate Proell titled, “Cheerleading competitions go beyond showing school spirit” a cheerleader from UWO stated, “When I joined, I didn’t really know anything about competitions. I just joined because I wanted to learn how to do flips and stuff, but after I started competing I thought, ‘okay this is actually pretty cool.’ A lot of people don’t really understand the competition part”. Cheerleading competition performances take a lot of planning and rehearsing in order to pull them off correctly. The performance is based on many different aspects, such as stunt difficulty and the creativity, jump difficulty and execution, motions and synchronization.“When people actually see a routine, there is so much that actually goes into it,” Ehrmann said. “We do tumbling, we do pyramids, we do basket tosses and we do a lot more athletic stuff. Putting together a whole routine is two and a half minutes of just pure non-stop moving and if we mess up once, there goes first place. If we don’t hit something that we are suppose to do, that’s it. You got one shot.” Since there is so much that the athletes are judged on it is easy to see why these competitions are so intense and important to them, and why they might get offended when someone tells them that way they do is not a sport.

For years now people have been saying that cheerleading is not a sport, but this is due to the lack of knowledge people have of cheer. Cheerleading meets every single qualification required in order to be considered a sport. There are many organizations that follow the same tight knit rules that regulate cheerleading however these athletes who put in so much time and effort don’t get the recognition they deserve. There is more to cheerleading than just standing on the sidelines cheering and chanting teams on. The sport requires intense level of physical and mental strength, a high level of skill, precision, athleticism and a lot of training in order to perform the skills as safely as possible.What this all means is that saying cheerleading as a whole does not meet the requirements needed to be considered a sport is fallacious.

Works Cited

1. Baruch, R. (2018, January 29). Their turn to be champs North Cheerleader to whoop it up at state contest. Daily Herald.
2. Bonesteel, M. (2014, June 10). Is Cheerleading a sport? The American Medical Association thinks so. The Washington Post.
3. Delaney, S., Lubeck, M., & Kerr, Z. (2019). Cheerleading injuries: Epidemiology and recommendations for prevention. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 12(1), 123-128.
4. Henricks, D., & Sessa, A. (2015). Cheerleading and Title IX: A legal analysis. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 86(9), 47-51.
5. LaBella, C. R., & Mjaanes, J. (2016). Cheerleading and the associated risks: A cause for concern. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 26(6), 443-448.
6. Linville, D., & Borland, J. (2016). The power of cheer; Cheerleading promotes athleticism, responsibility. The Province.
7. National Federation of State High School Associations. (2017). 2016-2017 High school athletics participation survey. https://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/
8. National Federation of State High School Associations. (2018). 2017-2018 High school athletics participation survey. https://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/
9. Parker, R. (2016). Cheerleading injuries: A narrative review of the literature. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 15(3), 173-181.
10. Temple, R. (2019, January 29). Cheerleading, Title IX and gender equity. The National Law Review.