There are side-line cheerleaders and competitive cheerleaders. Side-line cheerleaders are there to entertain the crowd and lead them in chants. A competitive cheerleading team’s goal is to earn the most points while doing a complex routine with anywhere from twelve to twenty members that consists of precise formations, flips, tumbling passes, stunts, and tosses. I do not agree that side-line cheerleading is a sport; however, I do believe that competitive cheerleading is a sport. There is not one set definition of a sport, but a common understood definition of a sport is one from dictionary.com that defines a sport as “an athletic activity that requires physical prowess or skill and often a competitive nature.” I will take aspects of cheerleading and compare it to the definition given.
It must be a physical activity, which involves propelling a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of mass. Competing against/with an opponent is required. 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, and acknowledgement that the primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants. Competitive cheerleading has stunting, competitions, and regulations. Stunting is where one to three others, bases, hold up a top girl, a flyer, so she can perform tricks high in the air.
Sports include something that has any type of physical and mental activity (Varsity). Cheerleaders athletic abilities include several things such as stunting, tumbling, jumping, and routines. All of which include strength, strategy and endurance. While cheering at sporting events, each teams cheerleaders compete against each other by trying to out do the other in cheers and dances as well as who can motivate their team to win. This is the same as competitive cheerleading which intells choreographed dances and acrobatic acts against more than one team and is judged by a panel of judges.
This later led to the development of organized cheering which was lead by one or several individuals. These individuals were to start chants and to help the crowd cheer in unison. Cheerleading can be separated into two different types of organizations. The first type of cheerleading is school sponsored cheerleading. This type of cheerleading involves a group of individuals that help encourage crowd involvement and also help lead organized chants.
The Stephanie Hess The lights are dim, there is only a minute left in the game. The team is exhausted, the fans are on the edge of their seats, but there is still hope. The team’s motivation, the sideline cheerleaders, are chanting their hearts out for their team to win. They are a dedicated group of young women who give all to their sport of cheerleading, a sport that traditionally supports players of other sports. Cheerleading, however, which is now considered a mostly female activity, was actually begun by men.
Some of the names that were appearing on the top of the charts surprised me. Who knew that the president of the math club had such a strong throwing arm? Is that my lab partner from freshman year passing every other player in sprints? These girls were working harder than any sports team I had been apart of. Amazingly, girls who had little history with each other were gathering together during breaks, laughing and encouraging teammates.
Each year I set goals for myself, and work diligently toward making them become possible. I do my best to balance the various activities that I am involved in so that I can participate in multiple things successfully. I feel that I am the best candidate for Head Cheerleader. If I receive the honor of being head cheerleader I hope that my sensitivity, diligence, energy and sense of humor would make working with me a
The addressing of the media having a role in projection of a female athlete role interjects the media may not always send the best message concerning a female athlete, which is a message of femininity concerning the athlete. The interjection of the media cast typing how female athletes are always feminine no matter the sport you play; it will always have a feminine illusion of the female athlete. Society tells us that boys are the athletic ones and girls are beautiful. However, more and more women are making a living for athletic ability, most of the time because they are a beautiful athlete. Women athletes have made huge strides since Title IX but there is still room for improvement.
The National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association or NCATA and USA Cheer are both launching initiatives to present their new cheer derived sport to the NCAA and to eventually be considered an "emerging sport." "Our goal is to provide new opportunities for female athletes at the collegiate level. We want to establish a new sport where they truly feel that it's utilizing their athletic skill set and to where they are recognized for the amazing abilities that they have," says NCATA's Executive Director, John Blake. Their new model called Acrobatics and Tumbling is not cheerleading. According to Blake, they've created a new sport all together that combines a unique skill set that is used in both competitive cheer and gymnastics and puts it in a completely different format.
I had a conversation with Pat Delaney, one of my friends that is a cheerleader here at MSU, about my view and his view on cheerleading. He stated that “Yes, college cheerleading is a sport so is competitive cheerleading.” The reason I believe that cheerleading is a sport is mainly because of the amount of time and practice cheerleaders have to do to get to where they want to be is the same or maybe even more than what a softball player would. Cheerleaders have to go through vigorous, intense training just to perform a single routine. They