Is Cheerleading a Sport?

The Big Question…Is Cheerleading A Sport?

THE CASE FOR:

• Most cheerleaders compete,
  on all levels, in competition.
• Cheerleading is primarily
  based on tumbling (gymnastics) and stunts (usually involving one girl to be
  held, tossed, and caught, by other cheerleaders.)
• Cheerleading is reported
  to be one of the top three most dangerous high school sports.
• Competitive cheerleading
  teams attend annual training camps in the summer.
• Competitive cheerleading
  teams go through extensive physical training throughout their entire two
  seasons to maintain the adequate body strength for what they do.

AGAINST:

• Cheerleaders wear little
  skirts and tight tops instead of jerseys or other common uniforms.
• Cheerleading does not
  require a strategy like most sports do.
• Cheerleaders simply jump
  around and try to persuade the crowd to join their cheers.
• Cheerleaders do not work
  as hard as other teams do physically.
• Cheerleaders are annoying,
  get in the way of spectators watching games, and the stereotypes often prove
  true.

CONCLUSION:

The question of whether or
not cheerleading is a sport is a controversial question. The answer lies in the
team you are watching. If you go to a school whose cheerleaders have little
talent or skill it would be easy to write cheerleading off as not a sport.
However, it is rare to see a school write football or soccer off as not a sport
if their team is terrible.

As someone who has been a
part of great cheerleading teams, with an amazing cheerleading coach; someone
who has seen the best cheerleading teams in the country compete, I do believe
cheerleading, when done right, is a sport. If you still have questions, if the
team you are watching doesn’t inspire much confidence in cheerleading as a
sport, I suggest you take a look at better teams, like the UCA team, and then
you can decide.