Considered one of the toughest and most dangerous sports in the country, cheerleading is more than the image of pretty girls wearing short skirts and waving pom-poms around. In fact, today's modern cheerleader needs precision, and stamina and flexibility if she will succeed at it. While some still do not recognize it as a real sport, cheerleaders will often practice more than the boys of basketball or football.
As it has grown in popularity, cheerleading has developed into a world of itself. We have seen increased pressure for more challenging stunts and more impressive tumbling passes. The problem? This has become dangerous to the men and women who attempt these stunts when they are not ready. In fact, the results can prove devastating.
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Let's look at your typical cheerleading stunt. For example, you have the flyer, which is where you have a person held up in the stunt while two bases support the flyer. It is not easy to lift a person this way, and one wrong move can lead to disaster. If not caught correctly, the flyer can be injured.
Competition cheerleaders will normally perform within the time frame of two-and-a-half minutes. That will include tumbling, stunts, dance and a cheer section. This may sound like a short duration, but the intensity of these two minutes can become physically exhausting. Oftentimes, this is where the accidents will occur because as the teammate tire out, they will pay less attention, and their movements slow down.
Practice becomes essential to the sport of cheerleading because it leads to proper training. In various studies, we have seen that cheerleaders have a higher chances of experiencing a concussion when they practice, which is 14 per 100,000. This is because these athletes are learning a new skill. That compared to during competition, which is set at 12 per 100,000. This is after they have learned and perfected their skills. In more than 36 percent of injuries associated with cheerleading, they are a head injury. Athletes who have had a concussion have a higher chance of developing Parkinson's and could suffer attention deficits