Is Cheerleading a Sport?
Thursday July 16, 2009
Do you consider cheerleading a sport and do you think it really meets the criteria to be one? Why do you think so many people say it's not a sport? Read this article, take our poll and be sure to leave a comment below.
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Should Cheerleading Be in the Olympics?
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Is cheerleading a sport? You bet it is. Cheerleading-especially at the high school and college level-is as physically demanding as any sport. In addition to dance, cheerleaders must perfom acrobatic-and dangerous-stunts which can lead to severe injury and possible death. A sport? You bet your bippy!
i have been cheering for about 10 years now. i am entering high school and all of my team mates and i were talking about the fact that in delaware cheerleading is not considered a sport and for many years now different girls have beeen trying to make ceerleading a sport in DE but no body wants to listen to stuck up preppy little girls that “dont know what their talking about..” everybody tells us that we need to understand that being a stuck up preppy girl is not a sport. we need some help in showing the people of Delaware that cheerleading is a sport and is just as serious and and dangerious as footballl and any other full contack sport there is out there.
I’m not sure how you two can honestly consider cheerleading to be a sport. Seriously, if you two weren’t cheerleaders to begin with, would you even consider it one? I admit, there is much physical demand in cheerleading, and the risk of injury is somewhat high. However, there is no competition involved whatsoever. The purpose of a cheerleader is to unite the crowd and to cheer on the team it is supporting. It is not like there are two cheerleading teams competing for points. Not a sport.
ok travis.i kinda agree that high school cheerleading may not be a sport but theres a whole other world of competitive/allstar cheerleading.its all about competeing and proving that you have more skill than 10 other teams and can hit that 2 and a half minute routine as perfect as possible.which means according to your definition of a sport it is a sport:)and if you get hurt you cant just have everybody stop the routine you have to suck it up and keep going like nothings wrong unlike football or basketball.if you get hurt you get to go sit on a bench and have someone go in for you.in cheer there is no one to go in for you.your whole team is counting on you.and high school cheerleaders have to deal with people ridiculing them and yelling at them during the games.and if its not a sport, why is high school cheer and allstar cheer on espn?
I personaly do not think cheerleading is a sport. I also dont think dance is one either. i think for something to be a sport it has to include a ball and physical acivity. I do give cheerleaders there props though because it definatly looks hard. I could probably never do it. I wouldnt want to though. i play soccer and softball and my favorite sport is hockey. I really do not think cheerleading is a sport though.
cheerleading is a sport. i have been cheering for 8 years and i totally agree that it is. even if i wasn’t a cheerleader i would still consider it a sport. it is way harder then it looks. i ended up in the er a couple years ago from cheering and my doctor said he gets more injuries from cheer then in any other sport. he also said it is dangerous. it has competitions and it has games. it is a physical contact sport. and i just read an article on this same website that said any sport with physicla contact is a sport. and it has rules as well. cheerleading is a total sport.
as a matter of fact we do compete. ive been in countless competitions in cheerleading. a sport does not require a ball. if so then hockey, track, gymnastics, and swimming cant be considered sports. mckenzee you say a sport requires a ball but hockey is your favorite sport? news flash theres no ball in hockey. think before you say please.
Cheerleading is definitely NOT a sport and neither is Dance. I’ve danced my whole life religiously but I would never call it a sport. There is no fair means to judge either activitey, the judging is solely a panel of people who are falible to their own biased opinions. Winning a dance competition means nothing and more likely than not it means your coach was friends with the judges. I’ve definitely seen how corrupt judging can be in these activities. A mom of a dancer judging – how objective is that? I’ve both had objectiveness of a judge favor and disfavor me and regardless of the situation I don’t think dance and cheer are sports. Physical and amazing – yes. Sports – No. I love to dance but think competing is stupid and shouldn’t be taken so seriously. It’s fun but winning means nothing (and I have won a lot).
Cheerleading is not a sport. No question thst it is a physical activity. But in a sport there needs to be a clear winner. If two judges say team A was better then team b, whos to say team b lost, at least one judge said they were better. The winner can always be argued. Also,there is no competion. There might be other teams at the meet, but a team cheers without any interferance from the other teams.NO DEFENSE
CHEERLEADING IS NOT A SPORT! Yes you have to be atheltic and flexible to do it. Nobody ever said it was easy. There is no physical contact with the other team to hurt their score. Judging is just based on opinion! there is no real winner! just wich team is better. The performance is based on what YOU an individual can do not the TEAM together. ITS A HOBBY! sure its hard and you can get hurt but you could get hurt from a trampoline!!! Cheerleading is NOT a sport…thankyou!
I believe 100% that cheerleading is a sport. I have been cheering for over 5 years and its a sport. a sport requires physical activity, CHECK! Competetivity, CHECK! We condition just as much, if not more than the average softball, soccer, basketball, even FOOTBALL player. We have to be strong to lift a HUMAN not a ball that weighs about 1 pound. people look at cheerleaders as sutuck up girls just jumping and screaming, yes those are two things we do but there is training behind it. If it wasnt a sport, why would ESPN, A SPORTS CHANNEL, air competitions!!! For all you people that dont think cheerleading is a sport i would LOVE to see you come out and do what we do. it takes hard work, strength, and dedication. Most athletes would last a week in our shoes! And if your gonna talk down on something at least learn how to spell, maybe people might actually take you seriously “)
Cheerleading IS a sport! And the only sport I ADORE! Let’s do similarites with cheerleading vs. other sports, shall we?
They both have captains and co captains. Well, some sports do, anyway.
They both work extremely hard and have many practices.
They both wear uniforms
They both have tryouts
They have to be flexible and in shape
They both compete. (yes, they do! Many cheerleaders compete with other cheer teams and people judge which team is the best. It’s true.)
Now, I’m finished. But I just want to say that if some of these similarites are not the same the way I put them, depend on all the others.
It’s almost exactly like gymnastics (which IS a sport), except u do more hand motions and you chant. it’s a sport, live with it.
i think that cheerleading is absolutely a sport.cheerleaders work as hard as soccor players and softball players. everone says that cheerleading is not a sport but i will always think it is a sport.all of my friends say that cheerleading is not a sport but they just say that cause they don’t like it.but i love cheerleading and i always will so if u love cheerleading. don’t get offended if someone says that it not a sport cause it is and if your friends say that it is not sport then say yes it is and i like it.
CHEERLEADING IS A SPORT!! try doing flips on the ground!!! ppl lift weights we lift people. people throw a ball in the air and catch it, we throw people in the air (30 ft high) and catch them. we have to bring our foot behind our head we have to go to practice for 4 hours. we have to do 5o pushups,crunches ect. come to my cheerleading practice and come back and tell me then is it a sport? it will change ur mind if u think it is not a sport.
Cheerleading is not a sport and I think it’s naive for it to actually be considered. In a real sport, athletes win by the most points scored. Cheerleaders win the who did the best. How the he’ll would that be a sport? It sure does not make them athletes. I don’t give a damn about how much they sweat and how much energy it takes. So much things take energy, like gardening or cooking. What if we could have a cooking competition? That would be a sport too. Lmao. I wouldn’t be suprised because dumb things are tryig to be considered as a sport now
How do judges score olympic athletes during gymnastic routines? There are so many things to judge – movements – height of jumps – precision – etc. So your saying a panel of judges watching olympic athletes are not really able to judge them because they are not getting a ball thru a hoop or a ball across a certain line? This is for all you cheerleaders who get all worked up over these comments: Forget about it – You know what you are!
By definition Sport is “an active diversion requiring physical exertion or competition” and Cheerleading by definition is “a sport that uses organized routines that range from 1 minute to 3 minutes made from elements of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers”
So not really by opinion but in fact cheerleading is a sport. It’s easy to look at it as a “preppy” thinfg I am by NO means a prep, I’m kinda hood if u wana call it tht haha
but Cheerleading takes so much out of you and to say it’s NOT a sport is offensive. If you haven’t tried it don’t talk about it.
Cheerleading IS a sport.I’m the JV cheer captain for my school and we work just as hard as the football players,honestly.We dont do competition but we still work hard..we worked every monday of the summer 9am-12pm,and now we work mon-wed 3:20-5:30.
Everyone needs to realize there is two types of cheerleading. Football and competition. Football cheerleading is not a sport, because the objective of football cheerleading is to get the crowd pumped up and cheer on our boys. Competition cheerleading IS A SPORT. You can not argue differently. In competition cheerleading we compete against other teams and go to great lengths to win. So how is competition cheerleading NOT a sport?
And the person that said for something to be a sport it has to includ a ball and physical activity… That is honestly the dumbest thing i have ever heard. In a way our ball is the people we are HOLDING IN THE AIR. We left girls in the air and you have to hit a little dinky puck in hockey. ha.
Cheerleading has scores in it. Ponits in fact. We get a point for every skill we do, which leads up to our ending score.
CHEERLEADING IS A SPORT. ive been involved in cheer for the last 11 years. Gotten teased sense i was in second grade about being a cheerleader. Have you ever tried to do a 2.5 minute routine, of constant movement.. lifting people, tossing them, jumping your highest, tumbling and flipping acrossed the floor ( trying to be aware of your body, and how it will look, giving it the most height possible) , dancing your heart out, making your motions the tighest and sharpest they have ever been, while trying to have a smile on your face the entire time. its harder then it looks. My team practices just as hard or harder then any football team does. ill admit, school cheerleading isnt a sport. thats why i dont do it. but it pisses me off when what i put all my time into people tell me its not real. Cheerleading is hard, and time consuming. but i wouldnt trade it for anything.
There are very strict guidelines to determine the points earned and those areas can be measure i.e. dance ability can be measure by moves per 8 count and synchronization. All stunts, jumps, and tumble skills are assigned a difficulty and points are awarded accordingly. If you are saying that sports without contact with the other team aren’t in fact sports then gymnastics, track, skiing, diving, weight-lifting, and golf aren’t either.
I’m sorry cheerleaders, but what you do is a physical activity. While there are competitions held a cheerleader does not compete on a regular basis at sporting events It is only when one enters a type of competition with other cheerleaders. Cheerleaders, your job is to entertain and unite the crowd. You don’t compete on the sidelines. You are talented and what you do takes great physical skill, but so do other activities like dancing. When the Olympics recognizes cheerleading as a sport then so will I.
cheerleaders do more conditioning than football players… HAHAHA yeah right. don’t get me wrong cheerleaders work hard but I’ve been conditioning for 3 months and everyday from 2-5:30
Cheerleading is not a sport. Im not saying you dont need to be athletic to do it, but nobody every goes to a cheerleading game. They go to a football game and the cheerleaders are there to support their team. There is no competion involved when they are doing what they are trained to do. And whoever says it invovles more conditioning than football, soccer, or basketball your crazy.
Marching bands practice for hours a day, have to be somewhat athletic to move around for a seven minute routine while playing their instrument, and also go to competions across their state, yet no one considers it a sport. These are the same arguments that all the cheerleaders are making and I’m sure they would all agree that marching band is not a sport.
okay, for all you people who say cheerleading is NOT a sport, umm you ARE WRONG.
i have been cheering for 11 years and honestly, if you dont know anything about cheerleading, then you need to keep your mouth closed about us. and dont just say that we are stuck up preps and all we do is yell. cause we work our asses off for what we have. and actually for the people who say we dont condition and all that, you are WRONG there also! i condition for 3 hourse twice a day EVERYDAY! and on the weekends. and it doesnt stop until cheer season is over, unlike other sports you condition before you try out and a little while you are playing the sport to stay in shape. until you do the SPORT dont talk about it. you have no idea how much time, dedication and hard work it takes until you try it.
and for people telling other people to get over and not get mad for what other people say about this SPORT, umm thats not something to just let go… some people take it very offensive and we have opinions just like everyone else so piss us off enough and you are going to hear our opinion:)
Cheerleading isn’t a sport, and in no way do they do more that soccer or football players.
I doubt a cheerleader could play a full game of soccer, running over 5 miles a game.
While me and my friends could pick someone up and throw them in the air.
They are competition teams, not athletes.
yes it is you need musle to do stunts
cheerleading is a sport especially in high school and college. It takes alot of time, sweat, and musle. there is so much more about cheerleaders then pom poms and big bows. You lift weights and i lift athletes. Im really tired of people saying cheerleading isn’t a sport that makes me so mad cause they have NO idea how hard we work.I’ve been a cheerleader for 5 years now and it’s not just glitter and smiles, its technique and tons of practice, there is no way soccer, volleyball, football or etc.. could do half the things we do im tired of my teammates getting talked about and not getting credit for all the hard work and effort. cheerleading is a sport!
travis
“However, there is no competition involved whatsoever. The purpose of a cheerleader is to unite the crowd and to cheer on the team it is supporting. It is not like there are two cheerleading teams competing for points. Not a sport.”
ARE YOU STUPID? CLEARLY YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH THING AS A CHEERLEADING COMPETITION. and in fact, teams DO compete for points. you have obviously never been a cheerleader and therefore have never even MET the physical demands cheerleading requires. so shut your freakin mouth cause you have NO CLUE what you are talking about. freakin retard. you should get hit in the face. stupid.
i do not believe that cheerleading is a sport. i totally agree with travis. at a regular highschool there are no cheerleading games. only volleyball games, football games, basketball games… anyone can get a group of people together and wave pom-poms around together.
Uhm. Travis… You said that cheerleading squads dont compete head to head for points. HELLO have you ever heard of an ingame competition.? Its where 2 squads cheer a ballgame usually regionals or district. And big games like these involve the cheerleaders to go head to head to see who is better and to see who can gain the most points.
I have been cheering for as long as I remember!And for all you peolpe saying it is not physical…. Have you ever tried it!!!!!We do compete, we do get jujed, we do get points……… UMMMM??? I don’t see anything stoping it from being a sport. We don’t interact with the other teams… But really how are we supposed to??? It TOTALLY is a sport but just not exactly the same as other sports……..
My FAV quote….. In football if you miss the catch al you miss is the ball:) GO CHEERLEADERS YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!
ok this is the truth cheerleading is a sprot we tested boys and they say cheerleading is so hard i will never do it agin they did every thing a real cheerleader dose so if your a cheerleader and u say ur self cheerleading is not a spot ur stupit
its not a sport. just because its dangerous, does not make it a sport. crossing the street can be dangerous and there is more competition in that then queerleading. excuse me, cheerleading. i play baseball, basketball and football. those are competetive. cheerleading is, however, a great way to maintain little preppy girls frm putting their pep in a guys pants afterschool. thats why we have it in most schools.
We don’t need balls to throw around in the air or catch. We are athletes who lift and throw other athletes.. a LOT heavier than some ball. DEFINITELY a sport. If we threw balls in the air it’d be way too boring.
Anyone out there who says ALLSTAR CHEER is not a sport can come to my gym and do my practice. You’ll get to stretch until your foot can go behind your head, condition until your body is vibrating, then tumble over and over again. Lets see, can you do 3 to a tuck, standi ng back tuck, front tuck, and roundoff bh whip bh whip bh full? Plus al whole lot of other skills?!? After that, when you just want to fall down, you get to throw girls in the air and lift them above your head while they balance on one foot and pull their legs all over the place. Yaeh, you do that and get back to me. Too bad you’ll probably be dead by the time practice is over…
cheer is so a sport…that is ALLSTAR CHEER!!!People get mixed up with high school and allstar cheer. high school means you cheer on other sport teams. ALLSTAR means girls go to competitions and do a routine packed with movement{just like gymnastics…} while a group of judges score you{also like gymnastics}. That means WE COMPETE!!!! Also, anyone who doesn’t think cheer requires physical ability can come to my gym, do my routine, and then get back to me if your still alive to do it…
Cheerleading is soooo…not a sport all it is stuck up preps trying to get people to pay more attention to them they just like to act like there so cool and flip there hair in everyones faces get over girls your not that great anyone can move there arms and btw not all cheerleads are bad but they all act stuck up and who do they think they are soccer and football and basketball are wayy better who would want to be a cheerleader noone cares about you!you just get in the wayy of peoples vision of the game and its not like you work hard either go try a real sport ladies!!
Well for one, cheerleading in my school has more trophies than any other team. They take up three whole trophy cases. To be a cheerleader, you have to be flexible, be able to yell, be appealing to the crowd. As for actual physical part, you definitely have to be able to have enough strength to put a girl in the air over your head. While she does crazy things with her legs.
YES cheerleading is definetly a sport. I’m a cheerleader and a softball player. I’ve never played a sport harder then cheerleading. I cheer competitivetly and I cheer sideline for football games. Compettive cheerleading is a contact sport. We lift people, we have muscles. Just because there’s no ball to run around with doesn’t mean cheerleaders aren’t athletes. We wear makeup and have ribbons whatever, we still have to look good while playing a sport. If you get hurt you can’t go sit on the bench you can’t quit. Cheerleading is definetly a sport. Cheerleaders need respect as athletes.
Cheerleading is definately a Sport!!! The individuals who say it is not are rediculous. Infact they sound kind of bitter, maybe cheer tryouts didnt go so well for them.
Cheer requires as much atleticism if not more than other sports, and I know because i’ve played a number of sports my whole life and i feel they cheer is probably the most difficult out of them. yea You run alot in soccer, i play soccer i know it involves running and requires you to be in top physical condition, but so does cheerleading. Infact come to one of our practices, you’ll prolly just get tired from watching, especially when we start getting ready for regionals. Yea regionals are COMPETIONS held by the state where we COMPETE against other cheer teams. Like other sports if you do good you get a trophy.To be a cheerleader you need strength, flexibility, stamina, full body coordination, timing and brains. No cheerleaders arent dumb, they are probably some of the smartest people you’ll meet.
cheerleading is sport. it takes practice, there is so many skils that you have to aquire! we compete all around the country. there is alot of injuries and broken bones. it is hard work. we dont throw little 5 pound balls. we throw people!!! we compete about 10 times a year. just like any other sport. & we compete to see who is the best. i have gotten hurt so many times from it and soooo many people do. if u dont think cheerleading is a sport then ur an idiot. thats all i have to say:)
i think cheerleading is a sport, not just because i cheer, but because it takes time, dedication, and skill. just like football, basketball, baseball, or anything else like that. think about it. could you do any of that stuff that cheerleaders do? check out this video on youtube called death defying cheerleading. it proves we are just as much of an athlete as any of you.
cheerleading is a sport. it takes time dedication and skill. you don’t have to have a ball to have a sport. look at swimming, track, gymnastics,hocky, biking, disc golf, skiing, snowboarding, skateboardingg, windsurfing, archery…ect. i play soccer and cheerleading, and i have four seven years now. i think that cheerleading is just has hard, competative, takes just as much dedicating, and skill as soccer. my boyfriend plays football starting Qb, baseball, and basketball, and i know that i could deff. beat him in anykind of physical activity there is.
umm yaa cheerleading is a sport ive been chheering for 10 years now im 15 and i can say i have at least 6 black eyes been thrown in there air and no one catch me cheer is a spor. studies show there are more cheerleaders get hurt than football players. i have compared my bruses and scratches to some of my football friends and i always have more. i have had to concusions. so ya cheer is a sport
cheerleading is definately a sport. i realize that football cheerleading aint a sport, because its just cheering on the sideline. and middle school aint either. ive been in both, and now im on my high school varsity squad. we compete aloott. we practice during the summer 4 days a week every week starting in june throughout the WHOLE summer, from 9 to 3 with a 30 minute lunch break. we condition&lift weights just like football & all them other sports. out of our6 hour practices, the first 2and a half would just be conditioning and weight lifting. then wed get our break, then for the last two hours we would do 100 jumps, includinng toe touches, double nines, pikes, herkies, front herdlers&alot more. i bet yall havent even HEARD of those, besides toe touches. thennn, after jumps. wed dance, and tumble. THEN after we were all wore out and tired and crap. wed lift. can you imagine lifting up other people while your arms were shaking, legs cramping, and heart punding? having someone else’s health in your hands? on mistake and theyd be on the ground, broken neck? or was it just a broken limb? or imagine being a flyer, like me. putting yourself in the hands of people who may not even like you. squeezing your body so tightly you start shaking, or your muscles start spazzing for being so locked in place. can you imagine being on ONE leg. with your other leg above your head? twisting down after being launched in the air. hurting your friends becuas eyou made a mistake. getting dropped because your enemy is your base. it all happens. yall are saying cheer aint a sport cuz we dont use a ball…wrestling aint a sport now? oh wait. they have contact…well im sorry dont got raging testosterone and dont wanna beat people up! and we aint all preppy either. im far from it. i aint a tomboy, but boy, i aint a prep. &ive been in soccer&saoftball&volleyball&basketball. cheer is the hardest sport ive done shut up about it not being a sport. and yall are also saying gymnastics aint a sport? it dont have contact, or a ball. it has just as many meets/competitions. my little sister is a gymnast & we work out all the time together. and you guys saying it aint a sport. let me take a guesssss. your school prlly puts all its time&money&effort in football, and basket ball. woww, cool. same here! but we still found a way to buy our matts so we dont break our faces. 15,000 dollar matts. yeah. mmhhmm, and wan to know something else. WE DEAL WITH YOUR SHIT! AND STTTIIILLLLLL SMILE& LOOK HAPPY! i bet if someone came up to you&starrtted slammming your favoite sport. youd get pissed off. same here. but what draws a line between us, is that cheerleaders are stronger than you. emotionally&the same physically. mhm, we let all that drama go in one ear and out the other. so idc what you guys have to THINK. but i KNOW that cheering is a SPOORTTTT!!!! so please just leave your opinions to yourself..i mean really, do you want to get mobbed by a cheerleading squad? or do you want us to keep on saying the same thing over and over and over again. because you KNOW we right. your just too caught up in yourself to realize it. to admit that you are WRONNNG!
-sigh-thank you for reading the truth(: