About Cheerleading

Is Cheerleading A Sport?
Cheerleading among others has had debate on whether or not it truly is a sport. Supporters consider cheerleading as a whole as a sport, citing the heavy use of athletic talents, while critics do not see it as deserving of that status since sport implies a competition among squads and not all squads compete along with subjectivity of competitions. In the UK, there is less of a debate, as the sports councils recognise cheerleading as a sport, they have however yet to assign a national governing body, there are currently two groups applying for the position: British Cheerleading Association, and British Gymnastics.

Dangers of cheerleading
There have been many injuries associated with cheerleading. One of the most notable in recent years was that of Kristi Yamaoka, a cheerleader at Southern Illinois University. On March 5, 2006, she fell off of a human pyramid during a cheerleading performance at a basketball game between Southern Illinois University and Bradley University at the Scottrade Center (then known as the Savvis Center) in St. Louis. Yamaoka leaned backward and fell off the third tier of a pyramid. Her continued performance from the stretcher as she was carried off the court was nationwide news. She suffered a fractured thoracic vertebra, concussion, and bruised lung, and has since made a full recovery. As a result of that fall, the Missouri Valley Conference banned tossing or launching of cheerleaders, and no pyramid could be higher than two levels during that conference's women's basketball tournament. Additionally, the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators recommended banning basket tosses and high pyramids without mats. Though the group has no authority to prevent such routines, the NCAA requires cheerleading squads to conform to the group's requirements. The AACCA rules committee made the bans permanent on July 11, 2006.

World Champs 09

Currently all-star cheerleading as sanctioned by the USASF involves a squad of 6-36 females and/or males. The squad prepares year-round for many different competition appearances, but they only actually perform for up to 2½ minutes during their routines. The numbers of competitions a team participates in varies from team to team, but generally, most teams tend to participate in eight to twelve competitions a year. These competitions include locals, which are normally taken place in school gymnasiums, nationals, hosted in big venues all around the country, with national champions, and the Cheerleading Worlds, taking place at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During a competition routine, a squad performs carefully choreographed stunting, tumbling, jumping and dancing to their own custom music. Teams create their routines to an eight-count system and apply that to the music so the team members execute the elements with precise timing and synchronization.

Judges at the competition watch for illegal moves from the group or any individual member. Here, an illegal move is something that is not allowed in that division due to difficulty and safety restrictions. More generally, judges look at the difficulty and execution of jumps, stunts and tumbling, synchronization, creativity, the sharpness of the motions, showmanship, and overall routine execution.

All-star cheerleaders are placed into divisions, which are grouped based upon age, size of the team, gender of participants, and ability level. The age levels vary from under 4 year of age to 18 years and over. The divisions used by the USASF/IASF are currently:
Tiny, Mini, Youth, Junior, Junior International, Junior Coed,Senior, Senior coed, Open International and Open.