Cheerleading is not a sport according to NCAA, NFHS or Title IX requirements. Just because it is not considered an official sport, does not mean it is easy. Cheerleading a physically exhausting activity and it can take a toll mentally too. No matter what level of cheerleading, it takes time and lots of effort to do. Most cheerleading teams partake in five different areas of expertise: cheers, jumps, dance, stunts, and tumbling.
Cheers can be undoubtedly the easiest of the five components, but remembering anywhere from fifteen to forty of these can get confusing. It is important to follow the game you are cheering for, even if it isn't interesting so that you can call cheers accordingly. Calling a defense cheer while the team is on offense might be confusing for fans and the team can lose its credibility. Standing on the sidelines can even cause injuries. From personal experience getting nailed in the face by a spiraling, football is not all that great and having a 250-pound football player coming right at you isn't any less scary.
Next, comes the jumps. Can anyone say cardio? Propelling the bottom half of your body in the air is not easy and proper form can take months to perfect. While doing that you also have to keep your torso straight and toes pointed. In order to have perfect jumps, cheerleaders often do hip flexor strengthening as well as flexibility stretches. These are commonly left out of most workouts but prove to help cheerleaders perfect their skills.
Another component is dance. Since most high schools and colleges have dance teams, this element is mostly reserved for competition routines. Unlike dancers, cheerleaders do not use traditional dance elements like leaps and turns, instead, they focus on sharp, tight movements. The dance element shows the observers or judges that your team has sharp motions and that the team is in sync with these motions. The dance also accounts for the originality of the routine.
Stunting varies per team. While each stunt is typically composed of a group of four cheerleaders, some variations use only two or three. The main cheerleader, the one that is in the air, is called the flyer. This cheerleader's job is to stay tight and balanced in the air. Next are the two bases, which are the cheerleaders that hold the flyer. Their job is to hoist the flyer into the air and give her steady hands to stand on. Lastly, is the back spot. This cheerleader loads the flyer into the stunt, stabilizes their ankles, and never lets the flyer fall. While stunting can look very easy, if not done correctly injuries can occur which is why tons of practice is important.
Lastly is tumbling. This element varies depending on the skill level of the team overall and the individual cheerleader. Some teams do not require tumbling skills to be part of the team, but these are mostly high school or college level teams. Most all-star (or competitive teams) do require tumbling skills and will help in the learning process as well. Tumbling is difficult and dangerous to some degree. This element takes lots of practice to perfect and can easily turn dangerous.
While cheerleading has proven to be a rather exhaustive sport in a physical sense it really does take a mental toll as well. When a particularly hard stunt comes along to team's morale might be at a low point. When there's something you've been working on, a tumbling pass or a stronger jump, that you just can't perfect, that hurts a lot. And with any predominantly girl sports exclusion, isolation, and drama ensue. There's no way around it.
So while cheerleading isn't considered a "real" sport, it is a sport to cheerleaders. Cheerleading is a lot more than yelling loud and getting the crowd peppy, it is everyday practices, frequent injuries, and conditioning. To us cheerleaders, we just want recognition for all our dedication and hard work.
