cheerleadingblog

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My Level 2 Team

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My favorite Routine

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Lack of Recognition

Cheer not being labeled as a sport is the start to the problem. Cheerleaders aren’t recognized for our talents and it’s really unfair. We deserve respect like every other sport. Cheerleaders put a lot of pride and spirit into their job. We are doing this for fun but it would be even more fun if we get some props. I know it sucks when a cheerleader is proud to be who they are and someone looks at them kind of funny because they believe it’s not a sport. The work it takes to be strong enough to pick up your flyers and to also have the knee and arm strength to tumble is amazing. We aren’t cheering for your “omg that’s such a cool flip”. We cheer because we are passionate in our skills just like other sports. If football and basketball players who smoke their whole life away can be recognized as a sport for the work they put in then cheerleaders, especially competitive cheerleaders deserve the recognition as a sport too. Cheer is recognized only two times a year. At the competition NCA in February and Summit/Worlds in May. To me cheerleaders are very humble due to the fact that everything we do we do for ourselves. We work hard for us because no one in the world pays attention to cheerleaders. It gives cheerleaders vs the world instead of cheerleaders with the world. We deserve to be with the world and get our recognition but until then we will keep grinding and working harder than we ever did before. Who’s going to stop us from becoming a sport. Exactly haha. Nobody. Us as cheerleaders we will stop at nothing for our recognition. If it means getting on the news then we get on the news. If it means more competitions and more spirit than that’s what is. I know we are more than ever ready for recognition now who’s going to give it to us.

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Hitting vs. Winning

It’s an issue that even after you “hit” which just means executing everything in your routine you aren’t guaranteed a win. Yes, hitting is important but even if you hit that doesn’t mean that you hit with your best ability. Many parents get upset when their kids hit and don't win against a team that didn’t hit but if they beat you in the other sections it’s too late. I believe the worst part with the hitting vs winning argument is the secretive judges. The scores are very secret so you never really know what you could have done better. That from the get sets you up for failure before failure even comes your way. Winning at something is really the best feeling that any athlete can get but cheer is one of the hardest things to win at. It’s like going into a room blindfolded not knowing what to expect next but going through with it anyways. Hitting can really feel like an equivalent to winning when you have a family bond with your teammates and know that everyone puts their best foot forward. Winning means nothing as much as the feeling of hitting. Many cheerleaders could debate that hitting is more important than winning but in truth life isn’t about winning. Life is about putting your best effort out there and being proud of that in the end even if it wasn’t exactly the result that you hoped it to be. Depending on the judges hitting could equal winning if and only if the teams you are going with don’t have a well executed routine. Cheer competitions are still difficult to win anyways so the whole hitting vs winning should really go away and go back to fun over winning. That’s when cheerleading was really the best. Let’s make cheer fun again.

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    Cheer has lots of ankle injuries which classifies it as the most dangerous female sport. All the running, jumping, and flipping takes a huge toll on our ankles. All the practices etc. stress our ankles out leading to multiple ankle injuries. Many young children do this sport so the risk on their growing body is really big plus they’re very fragile. A sprain can take about 6 weeks to heal which can cause people not to be on the team for months. Cheerleaders have a lot more injuries but sadly this is the most common one. On an everyday basis you could walk in the gym and see multiple boots, crutches, and ankle braces. Cheer coaches are perfectly fine with this and just force kids to keep pushing. It truthfully ruins these cheerleaders future life. As a result of this more than 30,000 cheerleaders go to the hospital for cheer related injuries every year. With that we might as well not have any athletes. All the injuries are very concerning and it’s least talked about because it’s so common. Technically cheer isn’t even considered a sport so it has no safety regulations to follow. Due to that coaches make poor decisions that can make cheerleaders paralyzed. Cheer 100% needs safety regulations to ensure that we are truthfully safe. Cheer is now worldwide which equals the need for worldwide safety. In debt cheer deserves more recognition and attention to keep us safe. If anyone doesn’t agree with what I have said you are a part of the reason that cheers allows people to just get injured. I love cheer with everything but ankle injuries are no joke. I’m sure soon the world will recognize our talent and treat us like the sport we truly are. Until then we work as hard as we always have even with the injuries. Cheerleaders are truly one of the strongest athletes I know. They’re truly like Dj UNK now walk it out. 

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Stereotypes of Cheer

 The worst part by far are the stereotypes. Not all cheerleaders are skinny or need to be skinny. That stereotype alone causes lots of eating disorders and self hatred through this sport. Eating disorders are nothing to play with. Eating disorders cause damage to the heart and brain. All that over how you’re supposed to “look” causes people problems in their daily life. The stereotype that boys shouldn’t cheer. They're gay for it is truthfully awful. Not all boys that do cheer are gay. They are brought down the most mentally just for the sport that they do. Cheerleaders are not just pretty girls in skirts that don’t care about education. Cheerleaders, especially competitive cheerleaders, work really hard multi-tasking four practices a week and still having all A’s and B’s. We are not the cheerleaders that walk around school acting like we are better than everyone. The stereotype is real but very uncommon. We tend to be very nice girls that focus on our grade and also our sport like every other sport. The cheerleaders on social media and press aren’t what nor how we are in reality. Every time someone thinks of a cheerleader they instantly think of a girl in a short skirt who’s stuck up and cheering for football players. Cheer has branched now further than ever in the last 30 years. All those stereotypes then don’t even compare to how cheer is done now. Stereotypes are what make or break cheer. It’s the feeling like you’re bad, the love-hate relationship with the sport, and overall the wanting to quit due to how you feel. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. They’re not meant to be real or become real but the side effects after it are more than real. Cheer can be for everyone but don’t let these stereotypes break you.