Battle of the Sexes: Cheerleading
Barely even noticeable
Juan Cisneros
Issue date: 10/14/09 Section: The Edge
Cheerleading is not a sport. Now before all you former and current cheerleaders look up my address to hunt me down, please take a second to hear me out.
I want to start off by saying that I know a lot of you out there are saying I have no idea what I'm talking about because I've never been a cheerleader myself, and that's where you're wrong.
Yes it is true; I myself have had some cheerleading experience. In high school, I was "lucky" enough to be one of the 12 male athletes selected to participate in senior night when we had to perform a routine with the cheerleaders during the final home game of the boys' basketball season. And believe me, it was no joke.
Well, kind of. You see, the head cheerleader at the time made sure we were well-prepared with almost a month's worth of practice. We may have been part-time cheerleaders, but we looked legit, if you ignore a couple of football linemen in the performance. We even did stunts, and we did them well.
That being said, I still don't consider cheerleading a sport, and here's why: there is no objective to it. In football you're supposed to score more points than the other team with touchdowns and field goals. Basketball has two and three point shots. Hockey and soccer have goals, and with racing, you have to be faster than your opponent in a race. There is no straight objective in cheerleading. In order to win in cheerleading competitions, you have to have a better rating from the judges, and I don't consider competitions that involve judges determining the winner to be a sport. Things like bias can factor into a win or not.
If you're one of those people saying that it's still a sport, then you would have to consider a lot of other competitions a sport too. Battle of the Bands is a competition, but nobody calls it a sport. So is a school science fair, but I doubt that people ever consider Bill Gates or Albert Einstein to be great athletes. American Idol is a competition as well, but I'm pretty sure Kelly Clarkson doesn't consider herself to be an athlete either.
With all that being said, I will definitely say that cheerleading is a lot harder than most people imagine. It does take a lot of physical fitness to be able to do some of the things that these young women do on a daily basis. It's not as easy to jump, stretch, flip, pick-up and even climb the way they do, but they make it look easy.
It is at this point that you are reading this agreeing with me, finding this article to be interesting or you're about to look up my address to come after me to make me say cheerleading is a sport. Hopefully it's not that last one. Regardless, I look forward to reading all the messages and (hate) mail that I am going to get.
I want to start off by saying that I know a lot of you out there are saying I have no idea what I'm talking about because I've never been a cheerleader myself, and that's where you're wrong.
Yes it is true; I myself have had some cheerleading experience. In high school, I was "lucky" enough to be one of the 12 male athletes selected to participate in senior night when we had to perform a routine with the cheerleaders during the final home game of the boys' basketball season. And believe me, it was no joke.
Well, kind of. You see, the head cheerleader at the time made sure we were well-prepared with almost a month's worth of practice. We may have been part-time cheerleaders, but we looked legit, if you ignore a couple of football linemen in the performance. We even did stunts, and we did them well.
That being said, I still don't consider cheerleading a sport, and here's why: there is no objective to it. In football you're supposed to score more points than the other team with touchdowns and field goals. Basketball has two and three point shots. Hockey and soccer have goals, and with racing, you have to be faster than your opponent in a race. There is no straight objective in cheerleading. In order to win in cheerleading competitions, you have to have a better rating from the judges, and I don't consider competitions that involve judges determining the winner to be a sport. Things like bias can factor into a win or not.
If you're one of those people saying that it's still a sport, then you would have to consider a lot of other competitions a sport too. Battle of the Bands is a competition, but nobody calls it a sport. So is a school science fair, but I doubt that people ever consider Bill Gates or Albert Einstein to be great athletes. American Idol is a competition as well, but I'm pretty sure Kelly Clarkson doesn't consider herself to be an athlete either.
With all that being said, I will definitely say that cheerleading is a lot harder than most people imagine. It does take a lot of physical fitness to be able to do some of the things that these young women do on a daily basis. It's not as easy to jump, stretch, flip, pick-up and even climb the way they do, but they make it look easy.
It is at this point that you are reading this agreeing with me, finding this article to be interesting or you're about to look up my address to come after me to make me say cheerleading is a sport. Hopefully it's not that last one. Regardless, I look forward to reading all the messages and (hate) mail that I am going to get.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
joe Lawless
posted 10/14/09 @ 2:39 PM CST
Dear sir,
I have to say i was not looking up cheerleading when i came across this.. i was definatley looking up kelly clarkson on google. But just too let you know i was a cheerleader in high school for 3 years i was one of only 6 guys that did it all year long not just for one performance. (Continued…)
Cristian larez
posted 10/14/09 @ 9:52 PM CST
the gimmnastic had judge and is a sport!! you have to look what you talking about, i'm a gym teacher, i do myself basketball, Voleyball, rugby and cheer, and when do you have to do a gimmnstic move and a dance move, and strong move, how do you call that? hum?
Terrence S. Kiolbassa
posted 10/15/09 @ 8:15 AM CST
Look folks it is time to get serious. The fuction of sports and related activity is to hand out scholarships.
It should never be loss on people can get an education doing their sport thing. (Continued…)
STLawson
Scott Lawson
posted 10/23/09 @ 4:23 PM CST
I'd have to disagree with the author's statement that because there's "no objective to it", then Cheerleading is not a sport. There are plenty of activities that people consider sports where the only "objective" is to get a good score from a judge. (Continued…)
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