Research Project
by: Bailey Harris
Should cheerleading be considered a sport?
Thesis
Cheer leading should be considered a sport because they do the same, or even more than other athletes in different sports, and competitive cheerleaders compete, just like any other competitive sports, sometimes even more competitively, considering that at some bigger competitions you win money or help charities.
school cheerleading
cheerleading squad
competitive cheerleading
5-7 sentence paragragh
Cheerleading is a range from girls cheering at a football game and girls on a competitive cheerleading team. Girls who do cheer at school arent as athetic as the competitive ones. At school, you dont go to competitions except for maybe one a year. Competitve cheerleaders go to many throughout the season. They also have harder skills and tumbling ability. School cheerleaders are mainly meant for spirit leaders at games and school orginations, and competitive cheerleaders are meant to compete against other teams in competitions.
How does competitive cheerleading compare to school cheerleading?
A research page i researched conducted by Amanda Marazzo says, "In some competitive gyms, where winning competitions is everything and risky stunts are getting trickier and more daring to impress judges, a different set of guidelines are followed. They are set by the United States All Star Foundation. But theres no requirement that the gyms follow the guidelines." In competitive cheer leading, all the stunts and tumbling have to hit a requirement depending on the level you are on. There are 5 levels in cheer and depending the level it has different skills you can and cannot have. You can have different variety of skill level of stunts and tumbling on school teams but in competitive, everything meets a requirement and skills that can not be aloud, like a rubric except this rubric is very strict.
How is cheer leading connected to the other sports of the world?
A research study conducted by Amanda Marazzo found, "Cheerleading itself has evolved like any other sport, like football and basketball. The difference, she said, is that those sports have been around a lot longer. Cheerleading, especially competitive all-star cheerleading is always evolving in coaching, skills, stunts and safety." Cheerleading just hasn't been around as long as the bigger sports. They are just now really evolving just like all the other sports of the world. They all had to evolve and start from somewhere.
What does it take to train your body to do the skills performed by competitive cheerleaders?
A research study conducted by Emi Gutgold says "Another important aspect of cheerleading that all sports enthusiasts should be aware of is the hard work and training that goes into becoming a cheerleader. Cheerleaders often train year-round to achieve skills and perfect the ones they already have. Cheerleaders will dedicate much time to training at their schools' weight rooms, at their own gyms, and at gymnastic and cheerleading training facilities to keep in tiptop shape." Cheerleaders take a lot of their time out of their life to practice and train their bodies for the pressure it gives your body when doing the routine.
What would it take to have cheer become a sport?
A research i found by Pete Warner states, "They practice 12-14 hours per week, even though they receive no athletic scholarship money and only minimal program funding.They are the UMaine school cheerleading squad, young women who support UMaine athletics while participating in an extracurricular activity they love.School Cheerleading is not recognized as an official, competitive sport either at UMaine or by the NCAA, the governing body for most of collegiate athletics. It is often referred to as a sport activity." School Cheer teams aren't considered a sport because they don't go to competitions. They usually go to one at the end of the season, and people dont think that is competitive enough. Cheering from the sidelines isn't competing they say.
What does school cheerleading do that makes people think its not a sport?
A research page i was reading by Torie Bembry says, "When most people think of a college cheerleading team, they may picture the people on the sidelines cheering for the real athletes, but the sport of cheerleading involves so much more. Next time, take a good look at the cheerleading team. Those college cheerleaders are more than a group of people who cheer at games. They are dedicated athletes who work hard to support other teams at their university." People think of school cheer as support for the "real athletes" but they put a lot more work into being a cheerleader. In college they have different requirements to be on the teams so they aren't just supporters.
Counterargument
People think cheerleaders are just stuck up girls and guys and dont work out or do "sport like" activity with their body because they dont see what happens in practice or behind the 2.5 minute routine they see, however, an article by Jennifer Renée Smith says "Cheerleading demands the same amount of strength, if not more, than any other sport," says 20-year-old South Elite cheerleader CJ Ryan from Seattle, WA. "There are very few sports where you need to be strong in the plethora of ways that are needed to be a successful cheerleader. We regularly lift people over our heads and throw and twist our bodies all over the place in ways people couldn't imagine. Honestly, I don't care what people call it - a sport or an activity - it doesn't change what we do," says Kori Johnson, coach at Costa Mesa HS in California. "However, my team members are athletes. They condition harder than most athletes at the school and have no 'off season."