Written by Michelle, Massachusetts
For years people have been arguing about whether or not Cheerleading is a sport. According to dictionary.com ‘sport’ is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often a competitive nature.”
Those words apply to Cheerleading.
Popularly known for being a sideline activity with pompons and megaphones, Cheerleading is an activity where athletes must perform extremely difficult stunts, challenging tumbling, stamina-requiring jumps, and an energetic dance in a two-minute and thirty-second routine.
These skills aren’t easy to acquire either. It usually takes considerable time, sometimes years, to gain new skills.
In competitive cheerleading athletes typically train from June to May for about 6 to 8 each week. At each practice, they practice routines and complete conditioning exercises. Exercises are needed to order performers physically capable.
Even though Cheerleading was created to support other teams, it has turned into a sport of its own. With hundreds of thousands of cheerleaders performing world-wide, the sport continues to grow and expand.
Hopefully. more people will recognize Cheerleading for what it is—a sport.