Some say that cheering is not a sport, but competitive cheer is 100 percent a sport. Anything that involves working out or any physical activity is a sport. I used to be on a competitive cheer team, called CC Champs, and the amount of time and effort that goes into that sport is absolutely insane. The amount of conditioning the cheerleaders do before and after practice makes other sports look easy. I have never in my entire life witnessed and participated in such a hard core workout.
On top of all of the conditioning that is done, we also tumble, do jumps and lift people for stunts. Competitive cheerleading doesn’t have run-throughs like other sports. If we have a run through it is the entire routine full out, jumps, stunts, and tumbling. Before your team has to perform, you have to do the entire routine at least two times before going onto the mat. If we drop our flyer (the person on the top of our stunt) we have to do 50 pushups.
The heap of muscle that these people get from this sport is unbelievable. These cheerleaders have muscles on their muscles. They can do all of the workouts and stuff that all other sports do, with ease. If you think that cheer is not a sport, then go to one of these competitive cheer team’s practices and tell me how you feel after it. I will be completely honest; the first practice I went to for my team, I was not expecting it to be so intense. Words cannot describe the pain I felt the next day. My muscles were sore for weeks.
My former teammate Arianna Rojas, who still cheers for CC Champs, can tell you firsthand what cheerleaders must endure. I asked her a couple of questions about what it’s like to be on a competition team. Arianna’s response was, “Being on a competition team is way different than high school cheer for sure. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work. You always have to put it as your number one priority and make sure nothing comes before it.” Also, I asked her how she and the team prepare for competition. She answered me by saying, “We try to eat as healthy as possible a month before competition season begins. The night before the competition we turn off all devices around 9:30- 10:00, to get the proper rest we need. Then after we get rest and we’re all together we talk to each other and start giving the best advice.” Arianna also informed me about their practices and how brutal they are. She said, “They are exhausting! Our warm up alone takes about 45 minutes. It consists of running, running tumbling, standing tumbling, and jumps; we have to keep repeating that until everyone lands every skill. After, we practice our elite stunting until we get it right. Then we put it all together and see how it looks. Most of the time we stay an extra 10-15 minutes for conditioning which are sit-ups, push-ups, squats, etc.”
Cheerleading is not just pompoms and spirit. It’s more than that. This sport, just like any other sport, is a commitment. And now that you know how much goes into this sport, you may need to reconsider your opinion.
