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.