Embedded Files
Why do people consider cheer a sport?
Written by Victoria Calderon
Competitive Cheerleading
In order to be a sport it must have: physical exertion, competition, skills or strategy, etc. If something meets all these criteria, then it is a sport. Cheerleading meets these criteria and more. Cheerleading has a risk of injury and also has a training regimen.
What is physical exertion, and how does cheerleading experience it? Physical exertion is the activity of exerting your muscles in various ways to keep fit. Cheerleading consists of tumbling, jumps, and stunts. These all require a cheerleader to make sure they are using their strength and energy. It requires them to make sure they stay fit so they can execute these well so they don't end up hurting themselves or even others. Cheerleading also requires great lower-body strength for bases, great upper and lower-body strength for backspots, and great core strength for flyers.
Now, let's talk about the competitive aspect of cheerleading. Cheerleading teams will go up against each other to see who has the most skill. There are three team divisions for high school competitive cheer: Cheer dance, Gameday, and Timeout. There are judges closely making sure there are no mistakes. They judge based on: motion technique, tumbling, overall impression, crowd leading, stunt execution, jumps, crowd-leading tools, and in gameday the situational sideline cheer. The judges will be at the top of the bleachers, but there will also be some at the bottom to look for deductions, such as: stepping on/ over a prop like pom poms; flags; signs; dropping a flyer, going over time, etc. Cheerleaders will compete against others such as our very own Minot North Cheerleaders who will be competing at Minot North High School on February 15th, 2025.
There are stunting skills and tumbling skills. These are the harder skills to learn because of how much work is needed to be put into these skills. There are also easier skills to learn, like motions and jumps. Don't get me wrong; these are still hard to perfect and need a lot of time and work to get. Another skill is yelling, and I know it doesn't seem that hard, but there is a proper way to yell for cheer so you don't damage your voice/ vocal cords. The strategy, as said by coach Carly Johnson of the Minot North Cheer team, comes from the coaches, who decide what will go where to make sure everything runs smoothly and safely. She also says that this builds skill.
Another thing required for something to be called a sport is skills and strategy, which cheer takes a lot of.
I surveyed 12 people with the question, “Do you think cheer is a sport?” and only 1 person of those 12 said no but did not provide logical reasoning. That's 8.3% that said no and 91.7% that said yes. The only thing they said was, “If it was considered a sport, attending as a fan should be considered a sport.” The things I have talked about should change your mind because being a cheerleader is so much more than just cheering and hyping everyone up on the sidelines, it's a sport. It meets all the criteria required.
Page updated
Report abuse