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Why Cheerleading Should Be Considered A Sport

Thesis: Cheerleading should be thought of as a sport because of its demand of physicality, time,

and coordination skills.

I. Cheerleading requires a lot of physicality to be able to perform.

A. Begins with preoccupation with one’s body

1. Having upper body strength is essential for all cheerleaders in order to

perform stunts and jumps.

2. Having leg muscles

3. Having upper body strength

B. Begins with Core Strength

1. Builds core to perfect during jumps

2. Helps flyer perfect their motions to help flyers perform better

II. Cheerleading requires to always be available.

A. Begins with Time Management

1. Plan ahead of time so the coach knows when if the cheerleader will be attending

practice or not

2. Be able to rearrange time at the last minute

B. A Combination to life

1. Teaches about the importance of teamwork

2. Also teaches that having trust is key

III. Cheerleading also requires coordination skills.

A. Have to have good muscle memory

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1. Knowing the counts are important for cheer so that cheerleader knows when to

cheer/dance on

2. Having practice with enough repetition

B. Have to know about the Challenges and Fears that are faced.

1. Stunts can require flyers to be thrown in any direction

2. Having trust in the team

IV. Counter Argument

A. Time

1. Cheerleading should not be considered a sport because of the lack of time they dont

use and it doesn't require physicality and effort

2.Cheerleading also takes away from kids and families and their social life.

B. Double Teaming

1. the potential of burnout from too much practice.

2. Double teamers could possibly have competition times that overlap causing potentially

stressful situations.

C. Response

1. Cheerleading should be considered a sport because of time put behind it.

2. Time management becomes second nature to kids on two teams because they are

accustomed to a busy schedule. They know how to use their time wisely.

Cassidy Fontaine

Mr. Cullen
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English III Honors

12/19/17

Why Cheerleading Should Be Considered A Sport

In the year 1898, Johnny Campbell, a student of Minnesota University, lead the crowd in

a cheer he made up for the football team. Soon after, the University organized a “yell leader” of

six male leaders and used Campbell's cheer. Cheerleading began around 1907, and became more

dominant during World War II. In 1948 Lawrence Herkimer a former cheerleader from Dallas,

Texas, organized the NCA ( National Cheerleading Association ) which provided a way for

cheerleaders to have competitions and clinics. The NCA was the first company to supply cheer

uniforms, Herkimer also came up with the jump called the ‘Herkie’ (his name) and the spirit

stick. In 1978 competitive cheer was introduced. In the 1980s the more modern cheerleading was

introduced also with more difficult dance and stunt routines. In today's society cheerleading has

consisted of more physicality, time, and coordination skills, so now it should be looked at more

as a sport than an activity. Cheerleading has reached some of the requirements as other sports,

and it has become more high-risk for injuries. The NCA (National Cheer Association), describes

how cheerleading teaches an important life values such as preparation, dedication, and working

together as a team.

A sport is defined as a physical activity, which is what cheer requires a lot of.

Cheerleading requires a lot of physicality to perform, which begins with preoccupation of one's

body. Many believe that cheerleading is not a physical sport, because all they do is shake their

butts, and show their bodies, although that might have been true in the past a lot has changed

over the year for cheerleading. The only requirement cheerleading teams do not meet while
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performing in other sporting events is engaging in competitions, but many teams participate in

competitions along with cheering at games. Cheerleading is a lot more difficult these days then

in the 90’s and it has a whole lot of different requirements than before. It requires the need of

being in the top physical condition in order to safely perform stunts. Cheerleading deals with a

lot of injuries just like it can be in any other sport. In today's life cheerleaders perform outlandish

stunts, and tough tumbling skills, that they have to perfect which could take days or maybe

weeks. The most common injuries include, ankle sprains, stress fractures, hip strains, and

inflammation around the hips. All of these injuries are the results from cheerleading and

sometimes jumping and tumbling. Cheerleading injuries can also have a long term effect on

cheerleaders, which comes from repetitive stress and trauma from jumps and stunting, which

puts pressure onto the spine causing it to have issues and even spine fracture. The number one

most serious injury in cheerleading is concussions. “A local Atlanta news station reported that at

the University of Georgia in 2012, the number of concussions was higher in cheerleaders than in

football players” (Gunselman), Cheerleading Dangerous Effects on the Body. Although

cheerleading poses to have a high risk factor, it should not cease to exist. So, adding

cheerleading to the NCAAs list of recognized sports could improve the safety of

cheerleading.Cheerleaders need to have a strong upper body for tumbling and basing stunts.

Having upper body strength is also essential for all cheerleaders to perform. Cheerleaders need

upper body strength in there arms, chest, and shoulder to be able to lift flyers and stabilize them

once they are in the air and also catch flyers when they are coming down or just incase an

accident happens. Working on strengthening the leg muscles helps with building, adding more

upper body strength, and increasing the endurance. Strong core muscles will help with tumbling,

stunting, and jumps. Core strength is very essential for cheer, because paired with strong leg
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muscles it help with good balance and good landing with jumps. Flyers are one of the main

people that need to have core strength the most, and being muscular, and having a very strong

core strength can prevent a lot of injuries with themselves and the bases. If the the core muscles

are not strong, it provides up to free core stabilizers to free up surrounding muscles from having

to stabilize the core. Correct breathing is another thing that cheerleaders must work on, so that

after they run through a whole routine full out they will not be so tired and about to pass out, just

like cheerleaders run through the routine others athletes (basketball or Football for example) run

through plays and do them continuously in order to perfect them to win, just like cheerleader run

through routines to perfect them and win competitions. Having leg muscles is another key factor

for cheer, just like football needs leg muscle to run, and basketball needs to leg muscle to shoot

and run, cheerleaders need leg muscle to stunt, and tumble.

Cheerleading requires to always be available. Even though cheerleading must have a lot

of time management it can be very hard for some cheerleaders. After long cheer practices

cheerleaders just want to come home, take a shower, and sleep, but no cheerleaders can not just

do that they have to get their school work done first and then go to sleep. Just like in any other

sport, time management plays a big role. It is a lot to manage for new comers or even

experienced cheerleaders. Cheerleaders have to balance good grades, sharp routines, work, and

social life. That all seems like a lot but after a while it becomes easy. An easy way to help

cheerleading with this task is prioritizing there schedule and setting structured times for

everything they have to do. Cheerleaders social life is very hard to live with at times, because

they might not have as much time to spend with their friends and family as needed. It is

important to manage time effectively in order to have time for their loved ones, it is good to be

able to relax and chill, it could lifted up the team, and make all the hard work that was put into a
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routine worth it. Cheerleaders also must be able to rearrange time for cheer, for example if a

cheerleader does not have practice on a certain day but the coach just sent out a message saying

they will, cheerleaders have to be able to make time to be there. What people fail to realize is

that cheer teaches cheerleaders different aspects about life and different coordinations skills. One

of the most important aspects cheer teaches is confidence. Cheerleaders need confidence to be

able to perform and to have faith in the team to know that they are going to do great when

performing. That is also because it shows that it is possible to overcome difficult things with

good friends. Cheerleading also teaches teamwork, it shows the ability to work with others to

achieve a certain goal and that is very important in cheer, that carries over into non-cheer life, it

also sets cheerleader up for success. A few ways cheer teaches cheerleaders teamwork is stunts,

support, decisions, responsibility, and instructions. In stunting it requires multiple people, to do a

stunt, it is impossible to do it alone alone, so teammates are needed. One of the most important

ways that requires teamwork would be support. Cheerleaders need that team support from their

teammates to get through a practice, There are days when cheerleaders feel like giving up and

think about quitting because maybe it is too much for them, or maybe if their stunt or pyramid is

not hitting it gets hard. The whole squad is relaying on stunts to hit when it is not, and that is

where the team support comes in that helps the cheerleader get through it, uplift them, and push

them through it. A team that does that will go a long way and can be very important in their

teammates life. Decision making helps cheerleader with brainstorming, hearing each other out,

and making the best decision for the team. Now making decisions is not as important as support

but it does also play a role in cheerleading. In decision making teammates do have to work as a

team to come up with what everyone wants, to do and they have to make sure everyone likes the

decision. Cheerleaders must also be able to listen to others when they have another decision than
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everyone else. Responsibility is important in cheer, cheerleaders have to learn how to take

responsibility for the things they do wrong. For instance if a cheerleader falls out of a stunt, and

it was the bases fault the bases need to take responsibility for what they did and not just blame it

on the flyer. Cheerleaders must understand that their actions affect the whole team. If a

cheerleader decides that they want to skip practice it affects the whole team, because now the

team can not practice certain stunts without the other cheerleader. Also if a cheerleader decides

that they want to stay up or go to a party the night before there big cheer day the next day, that

could also affect the whole team, because now the cheerleader that stayed out all night are not at

their best for a game or competition. Instructions are important for cheerleader to take in when

told to. “Contesting” or competing against/with an opponent is required. Competition

It must be governed by rules that explicitly define the time, space, and purpose of the

contest and the conditions under which a winner is declared. Time limit, mat size, score

sheets.”(Being a cheerleader. Is cheerleading a Sport?)”

Cheerleaders must get use to constructive criticism, from teammates and coaches, and when they

do give it, to not take it to heart but take it as if they are helping so that the team is all nsync.

There is a fine line between being bossy and demanding and being helpful. Cheerleaders must

know when and how to give constructive criticism. Trust is one of the main aspects of

cheerleading, especially for flyers. Flyers must be able to trust there bases and know for a fact

that they are not gonna drop them, even with the crowd cheering the flyers have to believe that

bases are focused on them and not the other distractions. If a cheerleader does not have trust they

do not have anything especially faith. Trust for bases is the same thing as for flyers, bases know

that their flyer is depending on them through every stunt routine, to not hit the ground. The bases

must also have trust in their flyer that they will hit the stunt and do it correctly. Just like any
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other sport, the player trust that the other players will do there part in the game or even practice,

to make sure they win. If the flyer does not trust their bases the stunt will not hit and the whole

squad will be disappointed. So trust plays a major role in cheerleading.

The main important thing that there is to mention is that cheerleaders must have

coordination skills. Having good muscle memory is a great way to start off cheer, this fits with

the saying practice makes perfect. Cheerleaders have to continue to practice their jumps

everyday to get better and better at them everyday. To know and remember the counts in cheer

are very important but also very hard. It's important to remember the counts because the team

need to be able to know when to cheer and what to cheer and dance on. If a cheerleader just so

happens to mess up one count it could through the whole team off. Cheerleaders want to be able

to remember the counts on actual competition days because if not the team could get point taken

off and no cheer squad wants to get points taken off over something they could have fixed.

Stunting counts are important mainly because if the bases do not watch each other and go up on

the wrong count the bases could potentially drop their flyer and no flyer wants to hit the ground

because of their bases not paying attention to each other. Also with tumbling counts are

important because if a tumbler flips on the count they could also throw the team of possibly get

hurt and injured which would be terrible because no team wants to have an injured teammate,

and that would cause the coaches to have to replace the injured cheerleader with a none injured

cheerleader which could be hard on the team because now they have to teach the new comer

everything which is a lot and can be very stressful. So the point of it is to be able to remember

counts and remember when to go and when not to. Having practice with enough repetition plays

a big role in cheer but also can be very tiring for the cheerleaders. Repeating the routine over and

over again helps makes it perfect, but it also it is very tiring because the constant picking up of
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the cheerleaders, tumbling, and jumping makes the cheerleaders tired which leads to laziness

which can cause the cheerleaders to do everything halfway which can be good and bad. Anybody

can want to be a cheerleader which is nice, but others must know the fears and challenges

cheerleaders go through and face. A challenge cheerleaders face is keeping up with good grades

while also doing the late night practices, and then going home to finish up there homework or

any school work. People also fail to realize the good effect cheerleading has on cheerleaders

outside of school, maybe not having tumbling skills and good jumps but it’s about the dedication

and time it took them to learn how to do the certain skills that will stick with them for a very

long time. Cheerleaders understand there commitment and determination, which will pay off and

will ultimately encourage them to apply that same amount of energy to their outside life.

Maintaining a good health and weight is a key factor. Being out of shape is the worst way to be

in any sport. Making time for family is a challenge that cheerleaders, face because like what was

mentioned before some cheerleaders can not spend time with their families because of cheer and

the commitment they signed up for. Cheerleaders might even miss special holidays and even

birthdays, because of cheer also, which could have a toll of them. Cheerleaders do have fears that

they face. They fear losing, messing up, forgetting, failing their team, or even getting injured,

even though cheerleaders are suppose to have faith in themselves they also have fear in

themselves. It is completely normal for cheerleaders to feel this way this is just something that

they will have to overcome one day, their fear will not last forever it will go away some point in

time. There is gonna be competitions we the tere the eam might not win, but that is okay,

because they can not win every competition, and will get it next competition time.

Cheerleading should not be considered a sport because it does not require physicality and

effort. The practices are too long and there would be nights that cheerleaders need to get home
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and do school work but they can not, because they are too tired to even pick up a pencil. That is

also a way cheerleaders might slack in school because of cheerleading and all the time put into it.

Cheerleading also takes away from kids and their social life. Nowadays kids that do cheerleading

rarely have time for their families or even friends. Cheerleading is not a sport simply because of

the inability to compete with other opponents. Cheerleaders can not really get a scholarship like

in any other sport, and who would want to do a sport their whole High School years and not get a

scholarship out of it, like it is a waste of time. Another reason cheerleading should not be

considered a sport because cheerleaders are more prone to getting injured and pulled muscles

that could affect long term. Cheerleading should not be considered a sport because of too much

drama that can occur on the team. Cheerleading cost too much money for a non-sport activity,

Cheerleading requirements are not sports worthy, people should not have to be coordinated to do

something they love. Cheerleading just is not a sport, it was created to get the crowd riled up for

athletes that actually play a sport. Athletes do not have to be coordinated to play football or

basketball so what makes cheerleading feel it that they have to be. Other Athlete actually get

scholarships out of there sport but cheerleading does not. Cheerleading just does not reach the

requirements as sports and it is not on the same level as any other sport, which is why it should

not be considered one.

Cheerleading is a sport because it requires a tremendous amount of athleticism.

Cheerleaders practice just as much as other athletes practice, sometimes cheerleaders practice to

much. Also since it is more prone to injury than football and basketball it requires a certain type

of athletes to do stunting and tumbling. As the sport is evolving more and more each year it is

getting a lot more support than in the past. People need to start supporting and considering that

cheerleading is a sport because in the future cheerleading will be the biggest female sport out
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there. There are ways cheerleaders can get scholarships, and there are also some colleges that do

offer cheerleading scholarships. Yes cheerleading is a high risk of injury that could last a

lifetime, but what sport do not have a high risk for that. When people say that cheerleading isn’t

a sport, they are being stubborn and ignorant to the true strength, flexibility, and talent that

cheerleaders must have to perform. This is why cheerleading should be considered a sport.

Work Cited

“Being a Cheerleader - Is Cheerleading a Sport?” The Official Site - Varsity.com - We Are

Cheerleading,

www.varsity.com/event/1262/being-a-cheerleader-sport.

Bonesteel, Matt. Is Cheerleading a Sport.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2014/06/10/is-cheerleading-a-

sport- the-american-medical-association-thinks-so/?utm_term=.ecae5acd4cf2.

Fernandez, Erick. “6 Things to Tell Anyone Who Thinks Cheerleading Isn't a Real

Sport.’

”Mic, Mic Network Inc., 25 Oct. 2015,

https://mic.com/articles/101238/6-reasons-why-cheerleading-is-a-real-sport

GRANT. 5 GREAT CHALLENGES FOR ANY LAKELAND CHEERLEADING TEAM.

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centralfloridaathletics.com/5-great-challenges-for-any-lakeland-cheerleading-

team/

Gunselman, Jordan. Cheerleading Dangerous Effects on the Body.

www.hercampus.com/school/temple/cheerleading-s-dangerous-effects-body.

Kolby, Abigail. Why Cheerleading Should Be Considered a Sport.

www.theodysseyonline.com/cheerleading-considered-sport-care.

Lewis, Brooke. “10 Reasons Why Cheerleading Is One of the Hardest Sports in the

U.S.”

10 Reasons Why Cheerleading Is One of the Hardest Sports in the U.S,

www.theodysseyonline.com/10-reasons-cheerleading-considered-hardest-sports.

Tanner, Lindsey. “AMA Officially Designates Cheerleading a Sport.” USA Today,

Gannett

Satellite Information Network, 10 June 2014,

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/10/ama-cheerleading-

sport/102729

41/.

Orlando, Christina. “The Debate over Whether or Not Cheerleading Is Sport or Not

.”Http://Crown.kings.edu/?p=3402, crown.kings.edu/?p=3402.

Popoloski, Dan. 10 Reasons Why Cheerleading Is a Sport.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/613494-10-reasons-why-cheerleading-is-a-

sport?comment_id=4610502.

Townsend, mindy. Why Cheerleading Needs to Be Considered a Sport,

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www.care2.com/causes/why-cheerleading-needs-to-be-considered-a-sport.html.