"Some athletes throw balls, but cheerleaders throw athletes!"
August 16, 2007 by Beth Kay
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I just couldn’t resist blogging about this article in the Daily Mail (mainly because it kinda made my blood boil)
Tanya Gold tells the story of her visit to the ‘international cheerleading championships’. The article was in fact quite entertaining, particularly because about 90% of it was completely wrong and actually focuses on the dance section of the competition rather than the actually cheerleading competition (even the picture was of a dance team).
I thought I would give you guys a couple of facts about how things really are, and how this article reinforces the negative stereotype that real, athletic cheerleaders are fighting so hard to break.
1. I had to post these videos as they speak for themselves. If anyone can say that cheerleading is not a sport, athletic or extremely hard this should shut them up.
NCA Highlights - Highlights of the ‘All-star’ teams (they don’t cheer for sports teams either) from 2006 National Cheerleading Association in Texas.
A skills tape from collegiate team, North Carolina State. (Count the guys!!!)
2. Cheerleading compromises gymnastics, dance and stunting. All these three disciplines are extremely hard in themselves. Cheerleaders have to be good at all three. Trust me it’s tough. I want to cheerlead because I love all three of these sports, not because I secretly want to be American.
3. I bet Tanya doesn’t realise that we train around four/five times a week for three hours each time to be even slightly good at the sport.
4. The competition she saw was the cheerleading equivalent of a local pub football team when compared to the world’s best.
5. British, male cheerleading is growing. One of my squads has 11 guys on it, most of which are the strongest, most athletic guys I know. 50% of collegiate cheerleaders in the US are male. How many guys do you know that can single handedly hold two 21 year old girls above their heads?
6. My mum doesn’t come to any cheerleading competitions. She would actually prefer if I didn’t cheerlead as she regularly thinks that I may kill myself in the process.
7. Competitive cheer routines rarely, if ever, use pompoms.
Okak, so why call it cheerleading?
You’re leading the cheers? It does suggest that someone, or some team, is doing something infinitely more prestigous and you are, well, like I said, reduced to… leading the cheers.
It kind of puts it already in its, rather lowly, place.
“Cheerleading compromises gymnastics, dance and stunting. All these three disciplines are extremely hard in themselves. Cheerleaders have to be good at all three. Trust me it’s tough. I want to cheerlead because I love all three of these sports, not because I secretly want to be American.”
Gymanistics a sport? Okay I’ll go for that. Dance a sport? Aww come on. Just because you can mark it out of ten doesn’t make it a sport. Are night clubs really some kind of sub gym or stadia? Is stunting a sport?
Good on you doing it. Even better you stand up for it. But working in the organisation that you do - don’t you think it’s time for a rebrand? Time it completely severed its ties in leading the cheers - or at least the suggestion that it does?
I am sure you are correct in the girls/guys ratio but isn’t the commonly held view of cheerleading that it is pompoms, girls etc belting out: “give me a…” (insert requisite letter of the alphabet.
Time for a rebrand if it is every going to be widely taken seriously.
Oh and stop reading the Daily Mail - in my experience it only ever leads to anger. But so long as that anger is directed at its inaccuracies, journalists, editors and owners then you’re alright in my book.
Even if you don’t class cheerleading as a sport, try persuading over 14,000 participants in Britain that what they do is subservient to and not athletic enough to be considered a ‘real sport’. The UK cheerleading community is constantly growing; there are currently four organisations that host several competitions throughout the year and schools are increasingly offering cheerleading as a sports option.
Dame Kelly Holmes, (Double Olympic Champion) was recently introduced to the sport, “In my role as the National School Sport Champion I have been surprised but excited to see pupils given the chance to have a go at cheerleading. The surprise was not only that schools are giving such a wide range of activities but also how physical it was. I have given it a go and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good luck to everyone involved.
Best wishes”
Despite the journalist from the Daily Mail mocking the whole ‘cheer competition’ process, it has created positive view on cheerleading, showing that young people are participating in something they love. She commented on several occasions how cheerleading keeps young people off the streets (and listed various major cities of which we know there are many more). It opens up avenues currently thought by these young people to be out of their grasp.
There are always going to be people who don’t like or understand cheerleading, but anyone who has ever cheered before knows how challenging and pysically demanding it is. We pride ourselves on that.
With respect to the view that “It is time for a rebrand if it is every going to be widely taken seriously” Does that same notion apply to Rugby? …Unless it is played in Rugby then it should be called something else? Everything has its origins.
Cheerleading is complicated. It is not something that one could pick up in their spare time. Cheerleading is a sport that requires concentration. A sport is defined as an activity requiring physical prowess and skill. Competitive cheerleaders need to be fit, both physically and mentally. Therefore cheerleading meets the definition’s prerequisites as a ‘sport’. It requires skill to learn how to tumble, and to safely support someone in the air. It requires physical prowess also to do these, and endurance. And lastly, it is engaged in competitively, as stated in the title “competitive cheerleading.
No one can deny that cheerleading is athletic and will always provoke a reaction, whether this is positive or not depends how open minded the obsever is, Just because someone tells me it is not a real sport, it does not change how I, or other cheerleaders feel about it!
Check out the facebook group “Cheerleading is a sport” http://leedsac.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204497086 for more information.
If Gymnastics is a sport, competitive cheerleading most certainly is.
Speaking as a cheerleader, i find it rather offensive when people dont accept cheerleading as a sport. While you are entitled to your own opinion, i would appreaciate it if people made informed decisions about said opinions. Have you ever tried it? Do you know any cheerleaders? What is the basis of your arguement other than what you have seen on television and in movies? Are you aware of what is involved in competitive cheerleading?
Until you have respectable and honest answers to the above questions, i think people should first educate themselves on a subject and THEN voice their opinion. As a cheerleader im sick of being called a s**g, stupid and even a s**t simply because of those stereotypes and ignorant views. First research what we do, then talk.
Comment edited by Wolfstar to remove offensive language.