The Dangerous World Of Cheerleading Essay

The Dangerous World of Cheerleading

Over the past 25 years cheerleading related injuries have increased drastically. In the 1960s cheerleaders were only required to shake pom-poms, and the only stunt they were taught and would perform was jumping off the ground shortly. Their main purpose was to get the crowd to cheer along for their team: therefore, they were called cheerleaders. The coaches were not required to have a background in coaching or certified because safety was not a problem. In 2009, cheerleading became a gymnastic activity. Now it is considered a competitive contact sport that involves all types of gymnastic stunts, pyramids, and partner stunts: such as throwing flyers high in the air and catching them. Coaching has not changed

Among the 29 catastrophic injuries, 17 were severe head injuries, resulting in 13 skull fractures and 2 deaths, and 8 were cervical fractures. Boden later suggested that spotters were given better training, complex stunts be performed and practiced on floor mats, complex stunts should not be done on a wet surface, and coaches should be encouraged to get certified in order to decrease injuries in cheerleading. As well as suggesting the participation of pyramids and basket tosses be limited to cheerleaders with more experience and have mastered all other skills. (Mueller, 2009). Cheerleading injuries have not received the same amount of concern as compared to other sports with regards to tracking and reportability. Female cheerleaders have been presents as the significant source of injury since the drastic increase. According to a recent study, the number of children 5 to 18 years of age have sustained injuries related to cheerleading and treated in US hospital emergency departments has more than doubled in the past 20 years, with an estimated 10,900 injuries in 1990 to an estimated 22,900 injuries in 2002 and still increasing yearly. (Shields & Smith,