The Benefits Of Cheerleading

There are about 3 million cheerleaders in America. These 3 million people are as dedicated to cheerleading as a regular person is to going to their job each day. Cheerleaders, on average, spend about 10-12 hours a week in the gym. That is just to make one game look good. People think traditional cheerleading is not a sport because they do not compete like other sports. Just because cheerleaders do not compete against another team, does not mean they aren’t fighting for the audience 's attention, and trying their best to get the team pumped and ready for the game. Cheerleading is defined as “a sport involving the performance of organized cheering, chanting, and dancing in support of sports teams at games.” Cheerleading sounds like a sport to

Many people believe cheerleading is not a sport; however, cheerleaders need drive and good character, cheerleaders have intense, arduous training, and cheerleading is more than people standing on the

Many people believe cheerleading is not a sport; they claim that cheerleading does not follow all the requirements to be a sport. People most often say that cheerleading does not require strategy like other sports. (Darnell) Many of those people don’t understand that cheer requires coaches, and players, to have the ability to set up a routine from scratch. Making a routine from nothing and getting 20-30 girls to do it-correctly, in sync-requires way more strategy and planning than just throwing a football down a field. Another thing people argue is that cheerleaders do not compete against another team or opponent. (Darnell) Although this may be true in some cases, but there are various forms of cheerleading like competitive, STUNT, and traditional cheerleading. STUNT and competitive both involve other cheer teams against each other, however, traditional cheer is, in a way, playing against the crowd. The cheerleaders have to get a crowd that has no energy to have so much energy the bleachers will shake. Many people assume cheerleading does not require physical skills or abilities. Like said in paragraph three, cheerleading requires much more than a pretty face. Cheerleaders need to be able to tumble. Most teams require the cheerleader to already have a standing back-handspring, back walkover, front walkover, front-handspring, cartwheel, round off, and running back-handspring. That is just for tumbling purposes. Cheerleaders also need to be able to do jumps and have