Working+draft

“You wanna know what a real champion looks like? Gimme two minutes and thirty seconds and I’ll show you” (buzzle.com). Criticize their athleticism and this is the answer you will hear from any cheerleader. Say that cheerleading is not a sport and you will receive an earful, wishing that you had never said anything to begin with. Many people believe that cheerleaders are just girls wearing short skirts who yell for a “real sport.” However, there are just as many people who believe that cheerleaders work equally hard as any other athlete with equivalent amount of dedication and, therefore, deserve just as much credit, if not more for their sport. Cheerleading follows all of the guidelines to qualify it as a sport due to the physical demand, ability, and skill level required; therefore, cheerleading is just as much of a sport as all the others. In order to prove that cheerleading is a sport, the definition of a sport must first be determined. The Women’s Sports Foundation, a nonprofit organization aiming to advance the lives of females through sports, determines the four main qualifications of a sport. First and foremost, a sport must be a physical activity that involves thrusting a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of a mass. Cheerleading follows this rule through stunting. Stunting, the process of throwing a girl into the air and holding them there for a period of time before tossing them into a cradle with a safe and proper catch, proves that cheerleading passes the first qualification. Secondly, a sport is an activity often including a contest or competition against an opponent. Because the Women’s Sports Foundation defines a sport as “often” including a competition, all forms of cheerleading meet this criteria, qualifying it as a sport under this regulation. “Often” means that a competition frequently occurs but is not mandatory. Many cheerleading squads compete in varied levels of competition. High schools, colleges, and all-star leagues all compete. However, not all schools compete all the time or at all. Because of the term “often,” squads who do not participate in competitions can still be considered a sport due to the fact that many other squads do compete. Third, a sports competition must be controlled by a set of rules which clearly states the amount of time, space, and purpose under which the winner is announced. Cheerleading, especially in a competitive form, follows all three of the guidelines for this rule. There is a set amount of time allotted for a routine and how much mat space can be used. A competition routine must consist of a stunt sequence, dance, jumps, tumbling, and original cheer, totaling up to two minutes and thirty seconds. There are many components of a score sheet that determine the winner including presentation, stiffness, difficulty, and safety. Points are easily deducted if one component is not properly followed or the rules of time and space are disregarded. Finally, the Women’s Sports Foundation qualifies an athletic activity as a sport only if it is acknowledged that the primary purpose of a competition is to compare the skill level of those participating. Just like any other sport, cheerleading competitions compare skills at varied levels on the score sheet held by each judge. A judge’s sheet grades the amount of skill and difficulty of a routine; each second counts. Points can easily be deducted for even the smallest of mistakes. After all the routines have been performed, the judge’s sheets for each squad are compared and the winner is announced as the squad with the greatest total of points. First, second, and third place are allotted in each division. Divisions consist of small, medium, large, and extra-large varsity, as well as junior varsity and co-ed. So what exactly is cheerleading? Cheerleading is an organized physical activity involving a group which leads cheers to rally up a crowd at sporting events, particularly football and basketball. Cheerleading is also the art of gaining the attention of a crowd and pumping them up, rising the spirit and energy levels. Cheerleading is a sport within itself. Participants perform dances, cheers, and physically demanding and complex stunts. Organized cheerleading squads are known to exist at any given level, ranging from elementary school up through college and leagues outside of the education system. Although many people may look at cheerleading and do not see the physical demand of the sport, they are wrong. Cheerleaders are among the top athletes with the seriousness of the sport and strenuousness allotted. Cheerleading consists of a series of motions that must be memorized and repeatedly used in cheers, chants, and dances. Throughout a single season, hundreds of motion sequences must be memorized and put with words to formulate a cheer or chant. Dances require rhythm and physical stamina in addition to the hours of practice. A typical cheerleading season requires hundreds of hours of practice in which dances, cheers, chants, and stunts will be learned, practiced, and perfected. The difference between cheerleading and any other sport is that many other sports practice a play or drill until they have it right. Cheerleaders, on the other hand, practice time after time, until the stunt, cheer, or dance cannot be done wrong. Every motion is drilled into the mind of a cheerleader until muscle memory is formed. With every practice and competition, each cheerleader is at risk for serious injury. Although the bumps, bruises, cuts, and burns are typical minor injuries that occur almost daily, sprains are not rare at all. Broken bones and concussions are also regular injuries among cheerleading squads. When discussing the athleticism of cheerleading and its qualification as a contact sport, Justice Annette Ziegler says, “a significant amount of physical contact between the cheerleaders” (Ziegler, ESPN) is involved. The Supreme Court voted, making a uniform decision that cheerleading, at all levels, but especially high school, will from that point on be considered a contact sport. Although the issue arises that many people believe that an athletic activity should only be considered a contact sport if there is physical contact between opposing teams, the true understanding and court ruling of a contact sport includes the simple explanation of “physical contact between persons” (Ziegler, ESPN). With the increasing difficulty and complexity of stunting, cheerleading is a contact sport now more then ever. The escalating number of injuries provides solid proof that the physical contact is no joking matter. During a study conducted at the University of North Carolina, researchers found that two-thirds of catastrophic sports injuries in high schools, since 1982, were through the involvement of cheerleading. With stunting, the main source of these catastrophic injuries, there is no room for messing around. One wrong move could result in a broken bone, concussion, or worse. Half a second of loosing focus could result in everyone in the stunt group getting hurt. There have even been reported cases of cheerleaders dying from injuries so serious that, mostly effecting the brain and nervous system. The number one rule of stunting is that a flyer, or the girl going into the air, never gets her feet off the ground until ever person within that stunt group is serious. Being thrown, multiple feet into the air, with nothing to hold onto, trusting the one, two, or three people underneath you to not let you hit the ground, trusting them with your life for a few seconds or a few minutes, is not joking matter. The job is the flyer is to stay tight, squeezing every muscle of their body as tight as they can, while pulling up their body to eliminate excess weight baring down on the other members of the stunt. While doing all of this, the flyer must twist themselves into varied positions while maintaining balance and looking comfortable and happy to be there. Because these are the girls being raised into the air, they are the entertainers of the crowd. All of the crowd’s attention is directed on these girls so everything must be done perfectly, holding themselves properly and sticking each stunt. The bases are the two girls or guys directly under the flyer. They hold the feet of the flyer and a majority of the weight. It is the job of the bases to maintain physical strength in order to lift the flyer in the air for a given time period. It is also the duty of the bases to make sure the flyer never hits the ground. Because these are the girls or guys who are holding onto the flyer’s feet, they are the ones who do a majority of the lifting and throwing when it is time to put up a new stunt sequence or time for a cradle. When cradling, the bases take a small dip, either with their legs or by shrugging through their shoulders and drive upwards with a flick. Most of the power must come from the legs as to not damage the back muscles through the usage of pressure on the arms. When catching from a cradle, it is the sole responsibility of the base or bases to catch the back, buttocks, and upper legs. It is the responsibility of the flyer to maintain from the knee down and placement of their arms. The final mandatory position in a stunt group is the back. It is the position of the back spot that makes a stunt legalized. If there is not at least one person with their hands on the flyer at all times, aside from a cradle, the stunt is illegal. At high school level, there must be at least one base and a back. The back holds onto ankles and drives upwards the entire time of the stunt. While the back pulls up some weight, they do not hold a large amount of it. Keeping their eyes on the hips of the flyer is essential; the hips tell where the flyer will be going. If the hips of the flyer begin to slide to the left, the flyer will be falling in the opposite direction unless they are able to stick the stunt and steady themselves to the center. Overcompensation in the stabilization of their balance will force the flyer in the opposite direction and the position of the hips will prove this. It is the main responsibility of the back to protect the flyer’s head and neck. When cradling, the back spot will have their arms out to get under the armpits of the flyer and catch them, while the chest of the back will support the flyer’s head and neck. If one position of the stunt group is the most essential, it is the back because they make it legal and protect the most important part of the flyer: the neck and head. The back is also the one who calls and counts out a stunt and therefore is the only one permitted to speak during a stunt when it comes to calling commands. One other position in the stunt can be available but is not required and is not frequently used. This position is called a front. They stand in front of the stunt group and pull up on wrists of the bases to relieve some of the weight and steady the stunt. In this purpose, fronts are generally only used if the bases are not strong enough and stability is needed. However, fronts are necessary in other stunts where a large amount of power is needed quickly in transitional or crowd pleasing stunts. The physical demand of each member in a stunt group is highly regarded. Holding a mass above your head, time after time, for a period of time, is just as, if not more strenuous as playing a different physical contact sport such as football, baseball, or lacrosse. Adrenaline is pumping and the energy is high but injury is at high risk. Stunting first began when the elevated, stadium seating format of football stadiums began. When the seating of football fans was raised, cheerleaders were low and could not be seen by the crowd to get a decent crowd response in their cheers. Therefore, cheerleaders decided that since the seats were not being lowered again to attract the attention of the crowd, they have to raise themselves to get up to the level of the crowd. Doing this, cheerleaders decided that they would lift each other in a way high enough to be right in the faces of the fans. Their idea worked; the fans saw the elevation of cheerleaders and became excited. The goal of pumping up the crowd was reached. However, stunting has greatly evolved, forming more difficult and risky stunts, making the job of the flyer and all other positions in the stunt group complicated. There are obvious physical demands of a cheerleader with the intense stunting, dancing, cheering, and tumbling. Regardless of the aspect, the athleticism requires time, effort, patience, and willpower. In a recent study testing general athleticism and physical ability, cheerleaders ranked in “superior athletic fitness,” according to Hermann Engles of Wayne State University, lead researcher in the study. Engles says, “Cheerleading is a strenuous athletic activity and Cheerleaders are athletes” (Ninemire). Although many people recognize cheerleaders as athletes, over half of the population still believes that cheerleading is not a sport. Cheerleaders, especially those at the highest level of the organizations, are most definitely athletes. These spirited athletes work just as hard as any other sports team and risk serious injury. Cheerleading challenges the body in ways never though possible, pressing above and beyond what one believed to be the limit. It involves the strength of football, refinement of dance, agility of gymnastics, endurance of track and field, and the spirit and desire that only a cheerleader could maintain. Cheerleaders work just as hard, if not harder then any other sports team. With the conditioning, training, skills, and physical fitness required, cheerleaders are one of the sports with the most in shape athletes. According to a report released in August 2008 by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, cheerleading was named the more dangerous than any other sport. High school cheerleading accounted for 65.1% of extreme sports injuries while intercollegiate cheerleading accounted for 66.7% of catastrophic sports injuries. In addition to risking terrible injuries, cheerleaders get recruited for college athletic scholarships, making it a clear sport, just as any other sport. Abiding to the rules and regulations, just as all sports, cheerleading has many restrictions that must be followed. With all the injuries that occur, cheerleading is very close to being a grounded sport, meaning stunting will be made illegal. To avoid being grounded, cheerleaders must put in many of hours to perfect stunt sequences and avoid injuries. In many cases, cheerleaders put in more practices hours than other sports and require more from their athletes. On Tuesday, November 17, 2009, a practice conducted at Springfield Township High School was designed to prove the athleticism of cheerleaders and how they work harder than many other athletes. The Springfield Township Varsity Football team volunteered their time to work with the Varsity Cheerleading squad in a practice that would involve the intense workouts of the cheerleaders in an effort to prove that the boys could not do as much as the girls on the squad. The effort was successful, proving that the cheerleaders had more physical stamina and were more physically in shape. Within the practice approximately eighty pushups, sixty sit ups, two-hundred squats were done in addition to running a quarter mile, completing one set of stadium stairs and a series of drills consisting of lunges, barrel rolls, and leg stretches with pushups. Motions were done with emphasis placed on stiffness and repetition. The practice was concluded with basic stunting done with the football players as bases and backs while the cheerleaders were the flyers. In the beginning of the practice, a survey was issued to the football players and the first section was to be completed. The boys were to give their opinion on what they believe to be athletic and if they believed that cheerleading was a sport. About eighty percent of the guys denied the fact that cheerleading was a sport before they did the workout. Only a few minutes into the workout session, there were endless complaints and pleas to end the practice. Cheerleading was much harder and strenuous than they expected and that cheerleading was a sport. Continuing the workout until the end, the cheerleaders were able to complete the entire workout without a problem and thought it was fairly easy due to their already high physical stamina and strength. The football team, on the other hand, was unable to complete even half of what the girls were capable of. They were sore and tired, counting down the minutes until the practice was over. After the conclusion of the workout, a second part of the survey was issued to the football players. This section questioned if they now held a different perception of cheerleading, now considering it a sport. All of the guys answered, “Yes, it was harder than I expected and I respect you for what you do. Cheerleading is a sport.” Proving that many people think that cheerleaders are just girls jumping around in short skirts and what they do is not athletic or a sport, that those not involved in cheerleading are unable to do what cheerleaders do. They are talented athletes who do not get the credit they deserve. Many high schools consider cheerleading to be an athletic activity and cheerleaders to be “student athletes.” Therefore, although cheerleading is a sport, the problem is the way schools and organizations treat it. School districts do not allow cheerleading to function as a sport because of the restrictions and lack of credit the cheerleaders and their organizations are given. If the athleticism of cheerleaders is not recognized, the supervision will continue to fall further then it already has. Schools that do not recognize cheerleading as a sport do not have the support system of the school and the faculty and legal rulings to provide it with the equipment and funding that cheerleaders need. Just like any other athlete, cheerleaders need qualified, trained, and experienced athletes to supervise and coach the squad in order to get the appropriate direction and drive that they need in practices and competing environments, as well as in case an injury were to occur. Many of the cheerleading coaches have not received training that is necessary to provide adequate supervision and training. Now that many organizations and institutions recognize cheerleading as a sport, especially with the regulations passed announcing cheerleading as a contact sport, less regulation has been provided. With cheerleading as a sport, there are more Title IX rules and requirements to abide by. Title IX is regulations for gender equality in both the educational classroom as well as on the field with sports. If cheerleading was nationally accepted to be a sport, there would be more state championship competitions and more opportunities for cheerleaders to become successful athletes. However, without increasing funding, many states are accepting cheerleading as a sport in order to enforce the regulations. This mean that organizations are enforcing rules, regulations, limited practice time, fundraising restrictions, and limitations on travel for competition and games, as well as participation in national competition. There have been extreme cases reported of cheerleading being treated beyond the restrictions of a sport and given requirements that they must follow. A few reported cases have required cheerleading squads to participate in at least the same amount of competitive events as they do at the school level for sport status. This means that these cheerleaders must drastically increase the amount of competitive events, or, lower the number of sporting events that they participate in. Although it is the primary job of high school and college cheerleaders to promoted school spirit and cheer for their school teams, some schools have to cut down on the amount of schools functions they can attend in order to keep the competition alive. As it can be witnessed, it is important to recognize cheerleading as a sport due to the dramatic increase in injuries that are possible. Because cheerleading is still not recognized as a sport in many states, the proper funding and equipment is not accessible to squads, particularly high schools. Without the proper funding, certified and experienced coaches and trainers cannot be hired to ensure safety within the instruction and performance of stunts. Without proper training, cheerleaders are more apt to hurting themselves and others. If all states and schools begin to recognize cheerleading as a sport and not just an “athletic extracurricular activity,” cheerleaders will be able to go further with their dreams with the dedication they all hold inside them. Not only is cheerleading growing as a sport and in its athleticism, but it is growing as an industry. Varsity Spirit Corporation, leading maker of football helmets and sports equipment has the facts to prove it. Jeffery Webb, President and CEO of Varsity Spirit says, “Football is not growing. Cheerleading is. You can argue whether cheerleading is a sport – but not whether it is a business” (Webb). With an estimated half-million cheerleaders attending cheerleading camps each summer and about three million cheerleaders in the world, there is no second guessing the increasing popularity of the sport. Cheerleading is growing faster than anyone had imagined. With the installation of Title IX, many organizations, high schools, colleges, and universities expected a decline in cheerleaders; instead more and more females and males are interested in becoming a part of the industry. Cheerleaders are unique individuals who seek success in themselves and others. Pumping up a crowd is no easy job but cheerleaders keep a positive attitude. With cheerleading growing as both a sport and an industry, corporate America is learning to benefit from the advance. “Cheerleaders know how to set goals and how to work hard to attain them. They are competitive, and they understand personality and body language” (Cheerleading in the USA). Trying to be the best they can, these spirit leaders know how to read their crowds and know exactly what the fans want and need to get the energy levels up. With the dedication and motivation, cheerleaders work hard to go before hundreds, if not thousands, of people and perform, making everything perfect. Corporate America often seeks former cheerleaders for positions, especially in retail. An ideal retail agent is someone who is energetic, personable, attractive, and knows how to work a crowd, or in other words, a cheerleader. It is ironic how many people think that cheerleaders are ditzy and unsuccessful. However, many cheerleaders go on to be successful men and women. For example, George W. Bush was a cheerleader at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He went on to become the President of the United States, twice. Halle Berry was a cheerleader at her high school in Bedford, Ohio. Berry went on to become a renowned actress and Oscar winner. Katie Couric, a CBS evening news anchor, cheered at her high school, Yorktown High in Arlington, Virginia. The fact cannot be denied- cheerleading is growing as a sport and an industry. With the athleticism and endurance held by each individual, cheerleaders risk immense injury all for the joy and adrenaline rush that any sports player feels. After a football player scores a touchdown, a baseball player hits a homerun, or a basketball player gets the three-pointer, there is an adrenaline rush and an “on top of the world” feeling. This is the same for cheerleaders when the stunt is stuck or the competition is won. If all schools and organizations began recognizing and accrediting cheerleading as the sport it is, the goals and dreams of many young women and men can be reached. So, give me two minutes and thirty seconds and I’ll show you what a true champion athlete looks like.