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Cheerleaders seem to have their very own vocabulary. When you hear them say words like "banana", "pretzel", "liberty" and "table top", chances are, they're not discussing fruit, food, freedom, or furniture.
As the sport of Cheerleading has evolved technically, it's become necessary to add new words to describe motions, jumps, and stunts that were never performed before. These new words or terms form what is called Cheerleading jargon.
Some terms may vary according the region of the country the Cheerleader is in, and quite frequently, Cheerleaders will use multiple terms to describe something similar.
These differences can be nothing more than a variation of the spelling, like in Herkie/Hurkie, Flyer/Flier, or Cupie/Kewpie. In other instances, totally different words will have the same meaning, such as; mounting/stunting, double hook/abstract, or flicking/sweeping.
Words like toe touch, hook, hurdler, and pike describe Cheerleading jumps. Liberty, scorpion, elevator, and extension are representative of stunts and T, V, touchdown, L and daggers all depict Cheerleading motions.
So, the next time you hear someone brush off Cheerleading as something frivolous, remind them that the sport has advanced enough to have it's own vocabulary.
Next page > Go to Cheerleading Glossary > Page 1, 2
Note: I'd like to add photos to some of the Cheerleading terms. If you have a photo of a jump, motion, or stunt we can use on the site, send me an email. Thanks!
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