Persuasive Essay: Is Cheerleading A Sport?

The physical activity must have five elements, some include overcoming the resistance of a mass, competition against an opponent, and the rules must define time, space, the purpose of the activity, and the conditions under which a winner is declared. In addition to, acknowledgement that the competition is an evaluation of the skills of the participants and the key purpose of the activity is for competition. Competitive cheerleading fits into all five of these categories through stunts, tumbling, competitions, score sheets, time limits, and mat size. Cheerleading also fits into these categories through the Entertainment and Sports Programming Networks (ESPN) comparing cheerleading routines and a competitive cheerleader’s sole purpose is to compete. Most people in the world do not think cheerleading is a sport for several reasons. Some they think cheerleading does not have a strategy, while others think cheerleaders do not have enough physical ability. However, cheerleading fits into all of the categories of what must take place in order to deem it as a sport (Cheer

To begin, competitive cheer athletes compete just like any other sports and prepare for the competition for months in advance. The article “10 Reasons Why Cheerleading Is A Sport “ states that, “Many people believe a sport isn't a sport unless you compete. Well, cheerleaders attend crazy-competitive competitions.” This piece of evidence shows that in competitive cheer you compete like other sports have competitions. And “Varsity” says, “Competitive cheerleading is when cheer squads compete against each other at a competition. At a typical cheerleading competition, teams perform a 2 and a half minute routine with music that includes stunts, jumps, tumbling.”

It has time limit, mat size, and score sheets that meets the last guideline. So far it looks like cheerleading is a sport, but let’s look at more evidence shall we?

However, cheerleaders do get scored but the points are just more complicated than regular sports. Also we do not want to sabotage the other teams because cheerleaders want to show sportsmanship and be nice to the other teams. Cheer is a sport due to the way cheerleaders work and their talent that they have to achieve the skill level that they need. Cheerleaders can be in they gym from anywhere to four hours a week to twenty hours a week and all this time, they are bonding with their teammates and getting new accomplishments. This proves that cheerleaders do get ready to compete and they do get scored on their skill level.

The competitive sport of cheerleading is not all about jumping up and down and yelling “Go team, go!”. It’s about using your strength to perform a variety of skills that form together to make a routine. These routines are performed by many teams to be judged during competitions. Practice is required to do well at competitions. In order to become a cheerleader, you need to have tumbling skills, endurance, and flexibility.

They’re all scored and won differently. Cheerleading has competitions and they score and win just like any other sport. However, the NCAA does not recognize cheer as an official sport mainly because it has been seen more as a supportive activity than an actual sport. To be considered a sport in the NCAA it has to reach certain criteria, including, having a governing organization, standardized rule of play, and a competitive structure. The history and growth of

Cheer isn’t just a sport it’s like a second family. You learn many hardworking and problem-solving skills. You also learn how to fail and get back up from it. It’s not just mentally, it’s physically you condition and become stronger.

One component cheerleaders also must have is flexibility. “Flexibility is the range of motion in a joint or group of joints or the ability to move joints effectively through a complete range of motion. Flexibility training includes stretching exercises to lengthen the muscles” (VeryWell). Flexibility must be present in order for flyers (the girls that are lifted into the air) to pull positions in midair, for the whole team to perform various jumps, and also helps in tumbling, which is a very important skill to have when participating in competitive cheerleading. “Tumbling is a form of gymnastics that requires athletes to use their bodies to flip, twist, roll and jump” (OmniCheer). Tumbling can take years to develop and isn’t an easy skill at all. Some girls work their whole life to just master simpler areas of tumbling and only the best of the best can do some of the hardest tumbling, which incorporates twists while flipping in midair. The last skill that cheerleaders must have is coordination. There is a lot of dancing whenever it comes to cheerleading. Dancing can be considered easy but not when it must be sharp and synchronized with all of the other teammates, along with adding in facial expressions, which appeal to the judges. These aspects take loads of time to perfect and some of these skills take years to even begin learning how to do.

Also like any other team sport, a cheer squad is only as strong as their weakest link. This means that every cheerleader has to pull their own weight or they could lose points for their performance on their entire team’s score. If one stunt doesn’t hit perfectly or “bobbles”, the team can assume their chances of winning that competition are unlikely. Similar to a gymnastics judging panel, cheerleaders are scored on difficulty, showmanship, sharpness, creativity, and technique. The biggest difference between the two sports is that gymnastics is typically a solo performance, while cheerleaders completely rely on their teammates for their routine. If gymnastics is classified by the NCAA as a sport, and gymnastics requires many similar skills as cheerleading then both should be considered sports by

Many people are also not aware of the fact that there are two different types of cheerleading. One type is called sideline cheerleading. “According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, a primary purpose of sideline spirit groups (dance, pom, drill or cheer) is to serve as support groups for the interscholastic athletic programs within the school” (National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research). Another form of cheerleading is competitive cheer. This is when a mixture of school and All-Star squads compete against each other with a 2 and a half minute routine. In these routines, the cheerleaders do different tricks and stunting including tumbling, mounting, and tossing others for higher scores. The routines also include dancing and movements that helps the team stand out to a panel of judges that will score the routine. The team in each division that has the highest average score wins the competition. In competitive cheerleading, cheerleaders are not standing on the sideline cheering for others, but they are actually cheering for themselves. These athletic competitions are often viewed on ESPN and FOX sports. This also proves that the standards of cheerleading have changed from long ago.

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.

Similar to all other “real sports,” you have to have a sense of coordination. Cheer isn’t all about standing there to look pretty. It involves strength, stamina, balance, and timing (reasons). To make sure they have all of these things, cheerleaders condition. Conditioning usually consist of some type of squats, running, v-ups, planks, and more. According to one of the elements brought up by the Women’s Sports Foundation, a sport is a physical activity that involves throwing something overcoming the resistance of mass (being). Some stunts include throwing a person up in the air. This is an example of throwing something, or someone, to overcome the resistance of mass.

To begin, cheerleading meets all of the athletic specifications in order to be called a sport. The denotation of a sport it, “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment,” according to the dictionary. Cheerleading does have competitions within the sport itself and does include a lot of physical exertion as well. Also, have you seen cheerleaders perform? It uses so much energy and the cheerers need to be in shape just to cheer.

“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”. During Competition there are judges with score sheets, we have a time limit and our mats must be a certain size. “Acknowledgement that the primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants.” The competitions you see on ESPN, those are national championships. Cheer meets almost all requirement except one.

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.