- practice/workouts
- hard work and dedication
- competitions
- competing for one title or trophy
- ridiculous amounts of endurance and stamina
- talent
- goals and aspirations
- tumbling skills
- enough strength to hold a girl over 100+ pounds over your head
- perform a jam packed, non-stop routine OVER AND OVER again until it's molded into your coach's idea of "perfection"
Reading that list, I really don't understand what separates all of those things from any other sports team? Even though this sport is considered "extremely girly", football is thought of as a "man's sport"....so what's the difference? FUN FACT: Cheerleading was named the most dangerous sport over football. Concussions being the number one injury from cheer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some huge feminist but it always seemed to be men complaining about this issue...Is this just another way for people to disregard things women do as "easy"? That's the feeling I always got, anyways.
Girls are way more than accepting to men interesting in cheerleading or being on their team. In fact, it's something to be excited about! Even though it is a dominantly woman-based sport, men cheerleaders are always the ones with huge muscles and constantly surrounded by girls....
Ultimately my question is: What makes people think competitive cheerleading is easy and should not be considered a sport? Can you do a series of back handsprings into a back tuck, layout, or FULL or a combination of those? Do NOT even get me started on stunting.
During the first semester I was involved with the Lewis University Cheerleading team. They are a great group of talented young women! Unfortunately, because of my work schedule and the excessive amount of injuries I've endured from this sport, I had to end my time on the team.
Here's a picture of one of the pyramid's the LU Cheer team was working on before I left the team. (I'm on the very top in the purple!)
Good cheerleading is the definition of blood, sweat and tears.
As soon as I come up with a better rant I promise I'll post my views on my blog. But for now, this will have to do!
Hey Erin!
ReplyDeleteI honestly must admit that I think this is a super interesting rant! It's something that you can find a lot of research and opinions on and I can tell you're very passionate about it! I've never been involved with cheerleading but I've seen many shows and movies and performances on competitive cheerleading and for anyone to think that it's not a sport is just beyond me! Like you said these girls use so much muscles and skills in order to perform and it definitely doesn't look easy to do whatsoever! The way the flyers get thrown up in the air and what not I wouldn't doubt that there's a lot of injuries involved with making that happen. Especially having to support 100+ pounds above your head! It sounds and especially looks very challenging and I think those involved in competitive cheerleading deserve a lot more credit than what they're given. And it's nice to see males involved in the sport as well! It's a good way to help eliminate that "female cheerleader" stereotype. I think you have some really good arguments in your post and I like I said before I think this is a really interesting rant! :)
Hey Erin,
ReplyDeleteI now that I gave you feedback Tuesday but I just want to say that competitive cheerleading is a sport and a strenuous one at that.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that competitive cheerleading is a sport. It does take hard work, dedication, and skill to compete. I could never imagine doing some of the tricks that cheerleaders do. It is very dangerous too, and it is unfair why people do not consider it a sport.
Cheerleading is definitely a sport. They have to practice for long periods of time to get everything to work perfectly, just like any other sport. I agree, the amount of endurance and stamina required, plus the hard work, is needed.
ReplyDeleteI understand how frustrating this probably is. I remember this pissing my sister off a lot when she was in high school. Her team won the state finals for two years in a row. This got the players from the other sports jealous so they started saying how it shouldn't even be a sport. As you mentioned, a lot of people don't realize how talented you need to be to compete in this sport. It takes a lot of time and effort, and is also dangerous as you noted.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I used to cheer and dance up until 8th grade and I loved it but I was constantly hearing from my brothers, dad and friends that I needed to pick up a real sport in high school. It was always discouraging that what I was doing wasn't considered a real sport..? Who is the one to decide what is and isn't a real sport? I agree that cheerleaders work extremely hard, you guys put in so much practice and have to really be strong for stunting and flips. People that aren't involved in it don't understand. I think one way to research this could be to survey different people and see how they feel on the subject and ask why they answered a certain way. I have definitely ranted about this problem also, but over the years I was less and less involved and more involved in other sports that it slipped my mind. But I do agree with your rant and comments on this.
ReplyDelete