"Cheering: A Sport Or An Activity?"

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate August 2001

download word file, 3 pages 3.0

Cheerleading: A Sport or An Activity? Should cheerleading be considered a sport? In order to answer this question, one needs to know the definition of a sport. A sport is defined as a physical activity or an athletic game. So does this include cheerleading? Based upon the definition, cheerleading is a sport.

There are various types of sports. Some sports such as football and basketball involve head-to-head competition. While other sports such as gymnastics and swimming are more independently based. Each competitor competes on their own, and are compared to the other participants to determine a winner. Since these other competitive sports are part of our TCIS conference and cheerleading is included in this conference, it has to be a sport.

A cheerleading competition is when a squad shows what they have been practicing for many weeks. A competition is a cheerleader's game. Each squad performs a short routine comprised of dancing, cheering, stunting, and tumbling.

A panel of judges determines the winner based upon perfection, creativity, sharpness, and crowd participation. As in other sports, good sportsmanship is also very important.

Sports like football and soccer have many different levels of ability. There are leagues for Peewee, High School, and College divisions. Cheerleading is no different.

There are Pop Warner, High School, and College levels of cheerleading. Today, competition cheering squads are becoming more popular. These squads also participate in the AAU Junior Olympics, along with a variety of sports.

All sports require some physical abilities, and cheerleading is no different.

Cheerleading requires more than just spirit. A good cheerleader needs to be flexible and have strength. At the beginning of each practice, The Varsity cheerleaders of NSA warm up, stretch, and work on increasing their stomach muscles. Then the cheerleaders work on their jumps, improving proper technique...