A competitive cheer team performs a two and a half minute routine with music that includes stunts, jumps, and tumbling. It is judged by a panel of experts on difficulty and execution. Many believe cheerleading is just cheerleading, little do they know what competitive cheer actually consists of. As you dive into looking at the sport, you realize that it is not all just jumping around in short skirts with pom-poms and trying to look pretty. A competitive cheer team has one main goal: to win. It meets many requirements set to be considered an actual sport. Also, as you notice what these cheerleaders go through to pull off a successful routine, the more respect you gain for them.
To be considered a sport, one must compete against an opponent,
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On top of being a school cheer team and showing up at all required practices and games, a competitive team that is affiliated with a school puts in the extra practice and effort to make it to the top. While the normal school cheerleader slides by without having a certain skill, the competitive cheerleader is required to reach a skill level and continue to better themselves. If a skill needs extra work, time is expected to be found to work through it, tackling whatever obstacles that may come in the way of it. Many competitive cheerleaders are held to certain workouts and diets, just as many sports are, to maintain their strength, stamina, and balance. Many nights of hard work and tears go into perfecting the routine. According to an ESPN article, Eileen Bangaoil, cheerleader at UCLA, tore her ACL, which is no small injury, at the begging of the season and continued to tough it out to help assure her team’s spot at her national competition. She gritted her teeth through countless games, public appearances, and practices before she decided to get her ACL fixed, just for the benefit of the team. While Bangaoil is one of the many reasons why cheerleading has the highest ranking of catastrophic injuries behind football, this also shows the strength and determination a competitive cheerleader has to participate in such a dangerous sport, and