Essay on Cheerleading is a Sport

Did you catch that? Sport. Proven to be one of the top five most dangerous, and people still have the nerve to say cheerleading is not a sport and that cheerleaders are not athletes. Those statements make me so disappointed. And all the stereotypes people have made surrounding cheerleading don’t help. It has given my sport a bad wrap and caused my sport to go disrespected. I am not a popular, prissy, mean girl who has a quarterback as a boyfriend and goes to parties every weekend. I blend into the crowded school while making good grades and being dedicated to my cheer team. All those stereotypes. Yeah they’re wrong. I believe doing all this hard work that cheerleading requires is difficult especially when others don’t respect me enough to call what I am doing a sport. Cheerleading is more than what people think it is. It involves talent, skill, and fitness. It involves heart, dedication, and passion. We compete as a team. We either win or lose. But no matter what, I believe cheerleading is a

If you took a survey at your local high school, most would say that cheerleading isn’t a sport. As a cheerleader,i know, that many others will strongly disagree that cheerleading is a sport based on the difficulty in stunting we do on a daily basis. Everyday cheerleaders, as much as people think just stand in one place and say a catchy cheer for the football players, do a lot more than that. Cheerleaders need to hit a new stunt in their 2 ½ hour practice on a daily basis, whether it’s flipping in just three people's hands or flipping on the mats, it needs to be done. Unlike almost every other sport, you don’t have multiple quarters to do better and fight your way to victory. You only have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to do your absolute best.

Cheerleading is simply entertainment for viewers and is a social club for its participants. “Sports Beat - The Sport of Cheerleading: It’s a lot More than Just Pompoms and Smiles,” points out that a main benefit of cheerleading is the ability to “easily transition into the entertainment industry” (Hatton C-04). This statement supports our belief that cheerleading should not be considered a sport. Cheer-leading, the leading of cheers at sporting events is not a sport. Entertainment, versus athleticism, is more of what cheerleading is. Team supporters are present at games/events to raise school spirit and encourage cheering. Cheerleading generally requires a competition to be in progress, so the cheerleading itself can occur. This is not an activity which can take place alone.

The definition of a sport according to oxforddictionaries.com is “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Cheerleaders both compete and participate in athletic activity requiring skills. So many people see cheerleading as the sideline of girls doing simple chants and cheers; but, cheerleading has evolved into dangerous stunts, tumbling and more exciting performances. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches Administration (AACCA) in their Cheerleading As a Sport paper states “Today, cheerleading involves skills which require the strength of football, the grace of dance, and the agility of gymnastics.” This sport is not what it once was, they do much more today than they once

No matter if it’s a football player in a class, or a friend that is clueless as to why you do not do a “real sport” these athletes just want you to believe that their sport is a sport. Team work, dedication, and drive motivates these athletes to keep striving and fighting to do good things in their sport. The advances stunting and tumbling that these athletes perform is what draws in a crowd of thousands all to watch two minutes and thirty seconds. The amount of physicality and dedication is admirable to those who have a real passion for the sport. To the athletes that participate in cheerleading, it is considered a sport no matter what any judge or outsider may speculate. Cheerleading is a huge part of these athletes lives and is what many consider to be their

Even when cheer teams do not compete, the time put into cheering is a large amount. “These girls are high school or college students going to school, making grades, and cheering after school at football, basketball, and even soccer games” (Thomas). The amount of hours put in is more than anyone could count. Adding together football and basketball season together is the cheer season if all a team does is supporting on the sideline. More and more squads are adding competitions on top of that. This concludes to a very long cheer

The Women's sport foundation even wrote that, “any physical activity in which relative performance can be judged or quantified can be developed into a competitive sport as long as (1) the physical activity contains certain defined elements and (2) the primary purpose is competition versus other teams or individuals within a competition structure comparable to other athletics’ activities.” If that is truly what defines a sport, then cheerleading is not a sport because of the lack of competition. But isn’t the school working together and having school spirit more important than some contest? Contests can put the losing team or player down and make the winning people stuck up. The AACCA said, “The primary purpose (of cheerleading) is not competition but that of raising school unity through athletic functions.” School unity is one of the ways students can prepare for adult life. It raises the want to work together with other people. Being a competition should not be a requirement to be called a

People who do not participate in cheer say it's not a sport. These people say all cheerleaders do is chant and move their arms. Which can be true if you’re talking about sideline cheer and not competition cheer (Elisabeth, 2017). The difference between sideline cheer and competition cheer is that sideline cheer is cheerleaders chanting on the sidelines for their team and competition is they are competing against other cheer teams. However, cheerleaders support high school and college athletic teams and train for competition. In other words, cheerleading is more than a sport.(Varsity.com, 2018). Therefore all aspects need to be taken into consideration while deciding if cheer is a sport or not.

Nearly three million girls and boys in the U.S participate in the sport of cheerleading. Three million people are straining their body and moving themselves in a bunch of different ways for their 2 ½ minute routine that they will compete, and some cheerleaders are more straining their voices rather than their body’s to shout different cheers at their school’s sporting events and are also moving their arms and legs in different positions for the cheers they perform. (Brady,2002) There are two different types of cheerleading in the industry. One part of cheerleading is the school level cheerleading, where girls and boys go their school football and or basketball games and do sideline cheers and sometimes a

“Today however the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as an offering varsity athletic participation opportunities for students.” (Alysia Roenigk from www.ESPN.com news) The debate weather cheer is or is not a sport is a long and heated subject. Many believe that sideline cheerleading (cheering for sports teams) is not a sport, because it lacks competition. However I do understand that competitive cheering does meet most of the sport requirements, but around 60% of high-schools have students participate in sideline cheering and do not offer competitive.

If you are doing competitive cheerleading that would be considered a sport. Cheerleaders have to practice every day, just like any other sport does. They practice for about the same amount of time as well. Most cheerleaders are are required to lift weights either every morning or every night after practice. If you are on a competitive cheerleading squad you must attend a camp (Bembry). Most other sports like basketball, football, soccer etc, all attend some kind of camp. There are different schools that considered cheerleading different. Cheerleading is also considered a sport because practices are conducted and supervised by a coach. Just like any sport, there is

Cheerleading is done within a group of women or men, and it can be done for the audience’s benefit, to root on another sports team, or it could be for a competition. But no matter what way you look at it cheering is done for the entertainment of

I have found plenty of evidence to claim as an argument of why cheerleading is a great source of exercise and how this sport can advance your body as well as to keep you healthy and in shape. The takeaway message from this research would be to take any type of activity sport to the maximum level of seriousness, because you can get hurt in anything you do, whether it be workouts, physical activity or even a slight jog. Great athletes frame the activity/sport of cheerleading seem simple, but performing the sport correctly demands physical power that constructs muscles not just in one part of the body, but the whole body. Definite locations on the cheerleading team including backspot and bases, must be adequate to raise and brace the lower part of the stunt or leveled stunts. Conducting these intense stunts requires unbelievable power, focus, and stability to undergo the mass of the other partners to guarantee their protection. Cheerleaders have to show leadership not just on the mat but off of the mat as well. Cheerleaders offer guidance to assist teammates to upgrade their abilities, bring a favorable attitude each and every time to their lifestyle, and be willing to try new obstacles and over all becoming better people for

From an outsiders perspective one may see brainless and beautiful robots, which scream and perform neat tricks. This is not the case from the inside; cheerleading is so much more than that. Many people are under the impression that cheerleading is not a sport. I am the voice of reasoning that will let you in, and I will show you that cheerleading, in fact, is a sport. Cheerleading requires much physical demand from the body just as any other sport would. Cheerleading, in general, is a team effort. There are many sides to cheerleading, which make it a versatile sport. When it comes to cheerleading there’s more to it than what meets the eye.

There is a lot of ability and strength that goes into cheerleading. Cheerleading shows the idea of good sportsmanship, shows how to work well with others and learn how to get along with people that are different than you. Our team once had a problem with