Cheer Music!

Ahhh I just love cheer music! Definitely the music that the gym I went to mad! It’s very important that the music is upbeat and it can pump you up to keep going. Some of you guys who work out usually bring iPods and depending on the person its fast rap, screaming music, upbeat girly music and just like how everyone at the gym works out to upbeat music, so do the cheerleaders while they perform. Rarely do you go to cheer competition and see a good team paired with slow music. I actually think you never hear a team with slow music if they stink or if they are good. Some teams like to speed up songs, most teams do, and you can check out the samples of music that I have posted. The music will make you want to jump because it’s so energetic and that’s exactly how every team should be. If you go to an opera show, the crowd is quiet, but if you go to Ultra, everyone is screaming! It’s a huge difference what music can do. Music can mix with your emotions and that’s why fast music is important to any workout! If you never watched, one of the videos I’ve posted the music for cheerleading is a mix of different songs twisted with other songs and they add different sound effects its great!
TOP GUN 2010
EAST CELEBRITY ELITE 2010

Smiling

Like I said in my last post, smiling is the best facial expression to do while performing. Facials aren't an option they just look cheesy and awful. Smiling is something you CANNOT forget! To make sure the crowd and the judges are into your team you have to make it look fun. It kind of sounds a bit easy to just keep smiling but it's not. With all the running around, lifting and dancing the routine involves you lose your breath. Most cheerleaders forget to smile because they are exaughsted and it’s something they don’t think about. As cliché as it sounds, smiling will just make getting through the routine easier. If you can try keeping your mind off the difficult things and just go through the routine like you always practice, you are in good shape!

POM POMS!

Oh, pom poms...what a funny name for such a silly thing it fits perfect! Pom poms are the most used prop in cheerleading. Cheerleaders who cheer for a sport are always using them but competitive cheerleading teams never use them. To be honest I have no clue why we use them! They look cute which is a nice and they can grab attention in some cases. It can depend on what your pom pom looks like. Pom poms come in many different forms. They can be a solid color, a double color or even multicolored. The colors usually and definitely should match your uniforms. Some are metallic, big, small, wide, and thin, they are all different. You can get pom poms in magazines like the cheerleading catalog. Like I said I have no idea why we use them, they aren’t needed to cheer they are just a decoration that makes cheering a little more exciting.
Spiriting, the screaming we do after a cheer, can be extremely awkward without pompoms. Once you start cheering with pom poms, you don’t want to put them down. When you spirit we usually shake or poms so they can make a light noise or shine, so without poms we have to use spirit fingers (like bring it on -___-). I think pom poms aren’t needed but they definitely make us look cute and are a great prop to avoid spirit fingers!

Facials

Facials are probably the most annoying thing a cheerleader can do to be honest. You know when a team is bad when you see the cheerleaders so weird facials or corny moves. A facial isn’t the facial at the spa, it’s an over exaggerated emotion on a cheerleaders countenance. Good coaches tell their teams not to do facials and to just make it clean with a smile. If there were a team doing facials, it would have to be a young team. Performing with facials is a way to train the young girls to smile on stage and they actually look cute doing it. The whole idea of "Cheerleaders can’t perform with frowns they have to do facials!" is all a joke. DO NOT DO FACIALS unless you are five of course. Judges don’t want to see 17-year-old girls winking and cheering with their mouth open it’s just weird to them. A smile that it’s forced is the best face to put on and you will look good and not stupid. :)
She looks good with just a smile!
This girl on the other hand, just looks so awkward!

Uniforms

I have to say, my favorite thing about cheerleading would be the uniforms we wear to compete. Some teams have ugly ones, but I have seen some really nice creative ones! Over the years, if I take a look at all my uniforms you can definitely see a huge change. The uniforms now are a lot more of the creative side with the cutouts and straps, and now the uniforms have extra cute add ons like studs or rhinestones. Back when I was younger in 2003 the uniforms for each team were similar in one way or another, now teams have the option of being unique and getting more fancy with their uniforms. I have seen some cheer teams actually have a theme with their uniforms; the uniforms were identical to nurse outfits!
Uniforms that have something to grab your eye are the uniforms that look the best while performing in my eyes. If there are strips down the arm or down the skirt it looks nice when the team does motions. Uniforms can make your team look good or bad and you always try to stay fit for your uniform!



                              
 DONT WANT TO LOOK LIKE THIS!

The Growth

Cheerleading originally started in the United States and The United States is where the sport is mostly popular in but it had been spread across the globe. Cheerleading is advertised in many places like the internet, TV shows, ESPN hosts a few competitions on their channel, and movies. With the of the amount of exposure cheerleading has, cheerleading has stretched to countries including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

During the summer of 2007 at the gym I was a part of there was a team practicing that I have never seen before. Their skills were pretty good but nothing like the TopGun Large Coed. The team’s mascot was a duck...that should say a lot! They had quaking noises in their music it was actually really funny, but if they had a better choreographer they could have been good. It’s interesting to see cheer teams from across the world. Worlds is a competition obviously that is participated by other countries beside the U.S. I would really love to go and watch worlds one day!

Conditoning!

Cheerleading involves a lot of physical activity. You need flexibility and strength. For stunts, you have to use mostly your legs and then it involves your back and arms. Tumbling also requires strength and you have to make sure you keep your stamina up. When I was a part of my cheer team, our workouts changed after a few months but it always involves cardio. No matter if it’s running laps or sprints we always do cardio.
My favorite workouts that I have done are the workout videos. P90X and Insanity are the two I used. Both videos are by the same people. There are different disks for different sections of your body. You can pick your arms and back on day and then your legs and abs another day. It’s great! You can pick which parts of your body you want to work out and the sessions can be up to a full hour or there are shorter 30 or 15-minute sessions. Either way short session or long you will get a great workout!

Cheerleading Motions

I was looking for pictures of cheer motions to show you guys what the common used motions are and I found these cute pictures! The motions that are used for sideline cheerleading would be bow and arrow, go or punch, right and left K and L. The others are used in both sidelines cheerleading as well as competitive. Competitive will definitely use those motions but now a day’s many choreographers make up their own motions. The think about these motions is there not actually in motion. Coaches say, "Hit a high V" and the only motion there is, is to bring your arms to the motions but otherwise you hold it in position.

*The pictures wont show so I will give you the website to view the really cute pictures! Try the quiz after you look at the motions!*

Cute Pictures of the Motions

Motion Quiz!

How To Do A Toe Touch

A Toe Touch is the most common used jump cheerleaders do. The jump doesn’t look the way it sounds, believe it or not you don't actually touch your toes. Important tips are:
1. Always, keep your chest up! A lot of cheerleaders like to lean forward it makes them look funny and obviously incorrect.
2. Don't reach for your toes. If you reach for your toes, it makes your jump look lower and we all want pretty and high jumps!
3. Stay flexible by doing splits.
4. Keep your legs straight at all times while you bring them up as well as down.
5. ROTATE YOUR HIPS! This is my trick to getting high jumps. When you lift, your legs curve your hips up and your jumps will look even better! :)

The Three Common Confused Jumps

The Side Hurdler, the Front Hurdler and the Herkie are often confused even I confuse them. Where I cheer we never do Herkies but if I go to a cheer camp they ask us to practice that jump. All three of these jumps involve flexibility, especially in the hamstrings. These jumps are great for opposites in routines, meaning because these are jump that could be whichever leg you pick. So If I were on the right side I would use my right or left while my opposite uses the opposite of my jump. I prefer the Front Hurdler out of all the jumps in cheerleading. Here are the differences between them.

Side Hurdler - One straight leg in Toe Touch position; the other leg is bent level with your hip with the knee pointing forward.

 

 

 Herkie - One straight leg in Toe Touch position; the other leg is bent pointing down to the ground just like the Front Herdler.

Front Hurdler - One straight leg lifted up next to the front of your face (knee to nose); the other leg is bent pointing down to the ground.

Cheerleading As An Olympic Sport?

As much as I love to cheer, I don't feel that this sport should be a part of the Olympics. The Olympics is judged in a way that I don’t think cheerleading meet the requirements of. The Olympics is usually judged on one event with one person, for example swimming or gymnastics. Judging a whole team of 30 cheerleaders would be very difficult. Judging a cheer performance takes time where you have to replay a tape repeatedly, deduct, and add as many points as you can find. To watch each cheer team and there videos a few times is time consuming.
If cheerleading were to be an Olympic sport than you would need a small team and judge harder on form like gymnastics does. Even better, I would do individual cheerleaders if they want to have cheerleading in the Olympics. Individual routines do everything the same as normal cheer teams accept there are no stunts. Instead of stunts just show flexibility. Individual cheer routines would be a better, easier, and fair way to compete!

Is Cheerleading A Sport?

There are many opinions on this question. Cheerleading on the sidelines, I would say that’s not a sport but competitive cheerleading is a sport. That’s my opinion on the question. My mom told me about a month ago that they decided that it was a sport, but I can’t find a recent article on that so I don’t want to say it definitely is. Many people think just because we don’t throw a ball it’s not a sport, but we do more than just throw balls. We throw girls! Even other activities are known as sports that don’t use balls like wrestling or ice-skating. This sport is also number one for causing injuries for women. Cheerleaders have to have a main combination of three things grace, strength, and gymnastics.
I understand people might say they dont think football cheer is a sport but that’s only to an extent. Just chanting isn’t too hard, but the partner tosses are pretty difficult. In a toss like that, you need strength, balance, and flexibility and most importantly trust. It’s not that easy to be a cheerleader and I wish people would realize that. For those people who like to argue why it’s not a sport, I have open ears. I just would like reasons and examples because I know I have my reasons to why cheerleading IS a sport.

College Cheerleading

I have decided that I want to cheer in college now. Before in freshamn year I wasnt too sure, but now I definetly want to be on a cheer team. Its a great oppurtunity to meet guys and girls that have the same intrest as me before I step foot on a campus not knowing anyone. I went to a FAU cheer practice once to see how they were and the coach and the team got along great and everyone seemed so close! I'm hoping I get the oppurtunity to be on the cheer team. I want to go to a college in Florida, but the best cheer teams in college are in Kentucky and Hawaii. I have been doing research on where I just want to apply and I'm trying to figure out where there is also a decent cheer team. The best cheer team in Florida, that I know of, is UCF. Picking colleges and getting into them is hard, we all know that, and trying to thing of a good team to cheer on and a good footaball tea to cheer on is also another thing on my mind in choices of colleges.

The Game Against Our Rivals!

Totally forget about the post about the homecoming game and listen to this. Last Friday was the most emotional game I have cheered at! We went against our rivals, Western, and we were just so close to losing! Because the game was so intense, we cheerleaders had to step up our game! The crowd needed to be boosted, so our boys could play better. Not only did just the plays that our team play gets the crowd involved we did too! You could see the excitement in our faces and it was passed onto the crowd. We started the chant "Let’s go lightning let go" and most or the entire crowd picked it up and cheered with us. It was great! We had only six minutes left to the game and we meaning the cheerleaders the crowd and the payers were so anxious. We were down only by three, 20 to 23. We were getting closer and closer to the end zone and they just need a boost of confidence to get those 6 points! Only a few seconds left, the crowed was out of their seats chanting with us, the boys on the sidelines were yelling and the cheerleaders were jumping up and down. The quarter back throws a ball, our stomachs all drop and a player ran over threw our rivals and caught the ball! I have never been so excited! Even though it was just a high school game, the excitement, and the involvement that we had gotten our school to participate in was a great feeling! I can't wait to cheer in college!

My Mental Block Story

 
I tried puting my finger and my mouse at where I am as best as I could and I zoomed in when I fall
-_- The fall dosent even look bad but it really killed!
 
The first time I got the block I didn’t care that I lost my full because a double is a better anyways. I eventually got my full back and lost the double. The next year I got my double again I had both a full and double, but I got the block. I had a pulled hamstring at the time and we had competition in a week so I tried resting it and not practicing as much as I can. I wanted to be able to do my double at competition because I worked so hard on it! Our competition was in Atlanta, I think, and we were practicing in another team’s gym the night before competition. I had to practice and because my hamstring got worse, I was falling at the practice. Surprisingly and embarrassingly, I was crying because I was in a lot of pain. My coaches told me to throw a full at competition instead. Remember I lost my full so I was freaking out. After a few times of tiring my full I actually did it, but I was very upset still. So, I did the full that one time and that was it I was done for the night, I was scared, tired, and hurt. The next day at competition, I got amped up with excitement. While performing I had too much energy and because of my block that I still had, I threw a double without knowing and tried stopping myself. I fell right on my knee.

I continued the routine and my teammates helped me off the stage. My coaches didn’t care too much but I went to first aid and got ice anyways. I wasn’t supposed to perform the next day because I could barely walk on it, it was swollen and bruised. My coaches were real jerks and thought I went for a double on purpose so once I told them I shouldn’t compete that’s when they actually got worried. However, I competed the next day for them I didn’t my main tumbling passes and I watered my skills down a level so there was no twisting. I was very lucky I was able to even flip.

Mental Blocks

In cheerleading, many people go through this thing called meant blocks. I've had about three and they are probably the most frustrating thing to go through. Mental blocks are easy to understand, it's when your mind plays tricks on you and causes you to not be able to do something. In my case, it affected me by not letting me do a skill I already had. Some people have blocks on skills they have never done, but the people I know and my own personal experience was a block on a skill I've had. I had a block in 7th grade, 8th grade and 9th grade and they were all a block on the same thing, a full.  My 8th grade block caused me an injury at competition. I had a double those three years (There is a video in one of my last posts of a double) and I also had a full. My block was that I couldn’t do a full I had to spin the full two turns every time. I will write another post on how I injured myself from a block my 8th grade year. In 9th grade, I figured out the solution to my blocks.
I was a very powerful tumbler before my back injury and that was a reason why I was losing the count of spins I was doing. I ran into my tumbling with so much force and I had the same force for a full and a double. You dont need as much energy to do a full then a double, but even when slowing down I still eventually edify more power and I tumbled and I would still spin two times. I figured out that my full didn’t need a run, I could either walk into my tumbling or I would take only two steps instead of four. I had both a double and full after I figured that out.

Male Cheerleaders

For all of you stereotypical people out there, not all male cheerleaders are gay. And even if they are it shouldn't matter because male cheerleaders are a huge help! Most coed teams are a lot more exciting to watch, but I do have more respect for an all girl team. Coed teams usually have better stunts because the males bring more strength on to the team. If you are born to cheer which most level five or Open, male cheerleaders are they even have better tumbling than girls. Most male cheerleaders learn skills a lot quicker than we girls do. I don’t know what it is, but they definitely learn so much easier. I think they don't have as much fear as most girls. I know I have fear which holds me back personally, but it's the same for other cheerleaders I have cheered with. In my other post, I said I am too afraid of doing a double again even though I know I could do it. I want to say all, but to be correct; many male cheerleaders are fearless, strong, and dedicated.

A Past Skill

Someone asked for a video of when I was younger and this is as young as I can find right now. I was in 7th grade, I know it's not that young but its great talent for a seventh grader. The skill I am attempting in this video is a double. A double is a 720-degree spin. I eventually got this trick but with time off, mental blocks and injuries caused me to lose it. The summer going into 10th grade, I was relearning this skill and I actually almost had it back! Since there is so much work to lifting yourself and twisting, this was part of the build up to my back fracture. I don’t see myself relearning this skill again, I am way too scared. I know and I have been told I can do it again if I practice but I'm going to pass.

HOMECOMING GAME!

Wahoo! I just came back from the Cypress Homecoming game and oh man that was a great game! I decided to write about this because I cheered at the game. The crowd was great which made our job, the cheerleaders, and a whole lot easier to stay spirited and keep the boys playing as hard as they can. Our role as cheerleaders is to get the crowd going and that’s what we did! We did a great job and the crowd kept their own spirits up, I love it! They do their own cheers and yelling and the team performs so much better when they have people encouraging them. I just got a compliment from one of our Varsity football payers saying, "I felt so pumped! You guys did great. We played Dillard and that team is good! I am so proud of our boys! I hope you guys go to the next few home games!

Level Three

This level is when more of the fun and excitement kicks in. More advanced tumbling a more tricks are in level three routines. In this level, you’re allowed to flip. The only way you can be allowed to flip is in a tuck position. No twisting while tumbling, but flyers are allowed to spin in the air. A 450-degree twist is the most a level three is allowed from a two-legged stunt. Along with twisting in a dismount, adding a trick to make the stunt more difficult is legal and nice to see. In tosses, also known as baskets a twist is allowed, if a team choreographs a twist in their toss then that’s the only thing the flyer can do. The flyer cannot combine a kick or a toe touch with their twist.
This is the level that starts the twisting, but only in stunts not in tumbling. Divisions can start from peewee to seniors so it makes it an average level. I personally started my first year of all-star cheerleading on this level when I was in 4thgrade.GRAND CHAMPION LEVEL 3

Level Two

Level two is the second lowest level. Tumblers are allowed to flip but only do back handsprings nothing without hands. They cannot combine a jump or a flip into a back handspring, this means there are no jumps to back handsprings, and there is no standing back handspring into another back handspring. If you do a round off before a series of back handsprings, it’s allowed. I know it could be a little confusing but that's the rules. Single legged stunts are allowed but are prohibited if the bases hands are extended. Stunt groups are allowed to cradle their flyers. Basket tosses can be used in this level, the bases have to start from the ground, and the stunt cannot twist or move.
While searching for a good level two team to show you, I found the absolute funniest team! The routine has a lot of different and unusual moves. They use the Soulja Boy as part of their dance and they are extremely energetic the whole time. The quality of the video is bad, I'm sorry, but you have to watch this video. Tell me what you think of the team compared to the other videos I posted of Top Gun in my other posts.

WATCH THIS VIDEO!

The Lowest Level

Level one is the lowest level you could cheer on. This level is offered mainly for the young peewee age. There are no flips allowed. Level one requires the tumbler to have full contact with the performing floor so that means no dive rolls or handsprings. What you can do are forward and backward rolls and walkovers, handstands cartwheels and round offs. The stunts for level one cannot go above shoulder height. If the team performs a stunt above shoulders then it is considered illegal. There are no release moves in a level one stunt only dismounts.
Honestly, level one is not an entertaining level if you want to be wowed obviously. I wouldn’t let my parents pay to be on this level. As you can probably tell, you aren’t allowed to do much at all! They have a lot of limits and the only reasons these teams are entertaining is if the little girls or boys forget what they are doing or they do something cute. Their choreography is cute like shaking their hips. Usually they have funny music too and they look like a hot mess. I found a video of a level one team with probably the weirdest music so enjoy!

Injuries

Competitive cheerleading has ranked a spot in the top ten most dangerous sports. From being ranked number one to number eight. There are over 20,000 injuries from cheerleading each year. Some cheerleaders don’t even go to the doctor. My sister has broken almost all her fingers and has broken both her arms from cheerleading. I have been fortunate and only been seriously hurt twice out of my six years of cheering.  I fractured my nose in 7^th grade when I was the flyer in a stunt, and going into tenth grade, I fractured my back, and had a bulging disk. Everyone who has broken something could agree with me that the healing process isn’t easy. Healing a nose was on its own time there is obviously no physical therapy or casts I just had to wait.  For my back, I had physical therapy two to three times a week for about four months and I had to wear a back brace. I was told my pain would never go away and that when I’m older it may cause me trouble. I was out of cheer for six long months. Since cheerleading involves your back for lifting, jumping, tumbling and stretching (everything!) my doctor warned me to not rush when I started to get back into the swing of things. I was so excited when I was allowed to try tumbling again and I was disappointed right away. My tumbling had changed and everything was so much harder than before. Even though it only took me a month to get my running tumbling requirement to be back on the team, I was frustrated. Everything was forced nothing was the same. The simplest thing, a back handspring, was the most difficult for me because of the repetitive arching. It has been a year on and off with practice and I am almost back to where I left off but everything is more of a challenge. I cannot take five-minute breaks or my back will stiffen and even though my body is warm, I will have to warm-up again. Lying down at night isn’t comfortable and neither is standing for a long period of time. I lost my flexibility, I look flexibly when I jump but it’s all forced. I don’t get as high up as I use to and I can’t lift too much weight. I have learned to adapt with all the changes.

The Work it Takes

Competitive cheerleading is a combined sport of dance, gymnastics, and cheerleading. The heavy schedule of a competition cheerleader is having practice 2 to 3 days of week and each practice is for two in a half hours. Practice involves stretching, warm-up, workout, stunt practice, tumbling warm-up, and more conditioning. These practices aren't easy. The gym that I was a part of had absolutely no air conditioning and it was humid. Working out in that exhausting kind of environment works off by putting your body in a well shape to compete!
Competing requires so much dedication and practice. Our routines are two minutes and thirty seconds. Some of you probably think that’s nothing. Yeah you know because throwing bodies, running, tumbling, dancing, jumping, more tumbling, more stunting in two minutes and thirty seconds sounds like nothing right? You’re wrong once again. You would definitely be out of breath! Think about the hard work to but a into, stunts, tumbling sequence, standing tumbling, basket tosses, a cheer and a dance all into that small amount of time. You better believe we work hard to win! Watch this 40-second video, Top Gun does the basket tosses and pyramid all in 40-seconds.This was the world winning team of 2010 and I know for a fact they are tired after this section. Who wouldn’t be tired after just this? Throwing bodies as fast as they are and as many times as they do, is so much work. If you say, you wouldn’t be tired we all know your lying. No one is really Macho Man. VIDEO-Baskets into Pyramid

A Little Taste

This is a little taste of competitive cheerleading. It's not the best we could do, but it's a little something I hope you would like. These are passes thrown by level 5 cheerleaders. Level 5 is the highest level you can work yourself up to. This video has a few clips of my friend and I at practice. I will try getting better videos of harder skills as soon as I can. I want you guys to realize that we cheerleaders work really hard to get these skills; it takes a lot of practice. When you watch the video, you see me fall. That's just there to show you we are willing to get better at what we do by trying things on our own, even if we fall. Falling is nothing to be embarrassed about. Coaches rather see you fall and try the skill than be spotted all the time and be a baby. I tried the three back handsprings to full by myself. (I fell) My friend is being spotted. Being spotted is a way of learning and getting that extra push or save that we need to excel once we are able to do it on our own is a good help. Being spotted is also something not to be embarrassed about as long as you use spotters at appropriate times. Cheerleading is the second most dangerous sport in the world so being spotted if you aren't ready is a good thing to prevent injuries. I hope you enjoy this!

My Goal

When you see the word cheerleading, what comes to your mind? Is it pretty girls, in teeny tiny uniforms, screaming rah rah at a football game? You're probably thinking duh thats exactly it, why are you asking me this? Well...you're wrong! The cheerleading that I will be talking about in this blog is going to be the competitive kind. I have a poll asking if you think cheerleading is a sport and most of you I already know will say no. Yes, it is a sport. My goal for this blog is to change my readers ideas of cheerleading. After reading some of my posts, I want my readers to appreciate what the world of cheerleading is really about. It takes hard work, sweat and tears just like any other sport, if not more. I want to know why everyone thinks cheerleading isn't a sport. I take offense to anyone saying it's not a sport. Personally, I think if you say it's not a sport it's because you have no knowledge. No knowledge of what the sport takes, and what it takes to be successful at it.
Check out this video! They are the WORLD winning team this year. You cannot say cheerleading is not a sport after seeing this video. It takes so much practice and skill to look this great. Give me your feedback.