The fun things!

               
            Cheering is definitely a hard working sport, but it's not all work and no fun. The fun things about cheering would be the stunting and the tumbling, but they are the scariest at the same time. The stunting is so fun, because there is so many different stunts that you can do, and they can be really complex, or fairly simple. The most common type of advanced stunting is the pyramid. When people think of these, they think of when the girls get on their knees and stack on top of each other, and that used to be the case but now it's girls being chucked up. My other favorite part of cheering is the tumbling. I love the power and force that you have to put into tumbling, and the accomplishment you feel when you come out of it. There are so many different tumbling passes, but the most "basic" passes you'll see are a back handspring, tuck, layout, layout full (full). A back handspring is where you jump backwards to your hands into a handstand then spring yourself up. The rest of the passes come after a round off back handspring, and a tuck is where you jump up and drive your knees into your chest and go backwards, and a layout is the same thing except you are laying out flat. Then the hardest is the layout full, which is just a layout but while doing that you do a full turn also. These are fun, but in order to learn them you have to have a trainer, so it takes a lot of work and dedication. 

“Should cheering be considered a sport or not?”

“Should cheering be considered a sport or not?” is a very hot topic in the cheering world. So many people think that cheering should not be a sport, but it has grown into a competitive sport. Before cheering was not considered a sport because all girls did was cheer on the boys during games with pom poms in skirts, and that is where cheering got it rep from. Now cheering has complex stunts, gymnastic floor routines and still a cheer. Cheering is one of the most dangerous sports in the industry today, and if you think about it girls are being launched 10-15 feet in the air hoping that when they come down someone is going to catch you and not only is stunting crazy and risky, but tumbling also. Girls are throwing themselves backwards twisting, double twisting, hoping they land it and one wrong move and you can land on your neck and be paralyzed for life. There have been hundreds of thousands of injuries from cheering and even a few deaths. With all the new additions and advances in the routines and should now be considered a sport in my opinion. 

Big News

Cheerleaders from Gilbert, Arizona were banned from wearing their breast cancer awareness shirts to school and football games. The Varsity and Junior Varsity team made 56 pink shirts that said "Feel for lumps, save your bumps" on the back and "Gilbert Cheer" on the front. In attempt to raise money for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation they were going to selling the shirts to the fans. All the girls wanted to do was raise money, but the principle said that if they wear them to football games then they would be suspended. The girls fought, but the principle kept fight back saying that they weren't school appropriate, and offered them a deal, he would give them pink shirts that were plain and they could wear those, but if they wore the original ones they’d be suspended. So the girls did as they were told, and they sold the shirts to the fans hoping to raise money that way. I think that this whole thing is crazy, and blown out of proportion.  

Important People; Johnny Campbell

Cheering has been around for a long time, but it didn't just appear out of nowhere. Kids at the University of Minnesota actually unintentionally started the sport we now know today as cheerleading. John Adams and Win Sargent would be in the crowd getting the people to yell the "team yell" SKI-YOU-MAH, in efforts to get the crowd pumped for the team to win. But it was actually in 1989 when Jack "Johnny" Campbell who was the first person to take a megaphone and run out on the field and start yelling their "team yell" and others. "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-U-Mah! Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Minn-e-so-tah!” People would call Johnny the "Yell Leader", which is how cheerleader came from.  

That was the start of the sport cheerleading, but it took a lot of altering to the sport for it to be the way it is today. Johnny from there out kept on leading the crowd on with their cheers and making up new ones for them. People followed his lead and more boys came down and cheered with him on the field. Now a day it's very uncommon to have a lot of men or a team full of men, but up until 1923 it was a "male only" activity. The first woman to cheer was from University of Minnesota, but it wasn't a "girl" type sport. When the woman came in they brought the tumbling and flips and gymnastics and such.  Not until 1940 when it became a woman majority sport. This is all thanks to one man who had a lot of school spirit, and wanted everyone else to.

Cheering today is such a complex sport and in 1974 "UCA" (Universal Cheerleading Association) came in, which is still now a big part thing. They helped make the rules and added more things like motions and stunts, but just the basics. In 1975 the UCA added music to the routines, which lead to the first competition in 1982. Cheering slowly started to become a sport, but not everyone was into it. 1997 there were 15 states that declared cheerleading as a sport and slowly but surely it became more popular and in 1999 EPSN declared cheerleading a sport. Even though today people say that cheerleading should not be considered a sport, it officially is and those who say that don't know how much work goes into it. 

Getting Started

If you are interested in starting cheering, but have never cheered before, I can help you. To start off you're going to need a pair of sneakers, not too thick or heavy, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. There are many different parts to cheering, but most start with the motions. You can look it up online, or ask a veteran cheerleader, either way you need to learn them all, and once you have you can move on. Working on jumps and stunting and dance are the last things to do after, and for these you are going to need to a group or at least a partner. It's not an easy sport and take a lot of time and dedication, and mostly you have to be willing to work 120% the whole time. It's a team sport so you need to know and trust everyone on the team for you to be good.

Cheering

       Cheering has always interested me since I started. There is so much going on that you don't have to work on just one thing the whole time; you can work on jumps, stunting, dances, cheers or tumbling. I'd have to say my favorite part of cheering would be the stunting and tumbling, these two things take a lot of trust. In stunting the person in the air has to trust that the people under them are going to catch them and in tumbling you have to trust your self so you're not going through the air upside down and landing on your head. I started cheering when I was in 5th grade and this is my 6th year cheering. Mainly on a cheering team everyone is friends, and outside of cheering you don't have time to do much, so most of my friends are interested in this. Those others that don't cheer aren't interested in it and don't find it much of a sport, because they have never tried it.  

A little about me

       Hi, my name is Katie and I am 15 and a sophomore in high school in Maine. I'm a cheerleader and have been for 6 years. I have done youth cheering, high school cheering and a couple of different All Star teams. Cheering interests me because it's so varied and you don't have just one thing. It is a mix of gymnastics, dance and it has strength and cardio part to it also.   People often times say cheering isn't a sport, but that's because those people haven't tried it!
       Here you'll be able to learn about different types of stunts, jump sequences, cheers and tumbling. I will be covering many different topics about cheering. This is a website about everything cheering and anything about cheering, from high school to all star teams.