Cheerleading: A Competitive Analysis

More than half of all female athletic injuries are caused by competitive cheerleading. According to The Telegraph(2013), “At the college level, cheerleading, or "competitive cheer," caused more than 70 percent of the catastrophic injuries among females.” Over the last three decades, there were 110 serious head and spine injuries that resulted in permanent brain injury, paralysis and death(Allen, 2013). The major focus in the competitive cheer world is to get officials to recognize competitive cheerleading as a sport. While that is a good thing, cheerleaders and their coaches should make preventing injuries in the sport one of their top priorities. Competitive cheer injuries are dangers that cheerleaders and coaches could prevent with the

Following the rules and regulations of the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA), the percentage can go down. Stop Sports Injuries(2010) found that, “Base supporters must remain stationary and the suspended person is not allowed to be inverted or rotate on dismount”(para.4). Base supporters are the bottom people of the stunt so to ensure safety, base supporters cannot move too much or the suspended person will come down wrong in an inverted position or a rotated position. LaBella(2013) claimed that even with base supporters at every stunt that follow the rules, it doesn’t help decrease the rate of injuries. This may be because the base supporters don’t have enough training or a lack of upper body strength. Coaches could follow the rules made by the AACCA and train girls properly before stunting;coaches can require girls to do some upper body workout

Conditioning helps strengthen base supporters so that they are strong enough to hold up flyers. They need to be strong enough to toss them in the air and catch them without stumbling, tripping, and/or falling. Some teams workout conditions are very hectic. A cheerleading squad called the Rams at Huston-Tillotson University has a very complex conditioning schedule. The schedule includes jumping jack, box squats, bench dips, body weight squats, lunges, mountain climbers, planks, supermans, pushups, and many more different exercises(McCormick, 2015). Cheerleaders should stay active during the off season in order to maintain a healthy regiment for the sport. Following a conditioning schedule is the best way to achieve that goal, especially for base