A ache with the word entertainleading comes an image of a truly skinny young woman in an uncomfortably short, pleaded remit with a enlarged cheesy, actor smile. A mask of do tabu on-up c overs her looking, bright lipstick on her lips, her whisker is up in a braid complemented with a big shiny bow, and her go bys argon placed neatly on her hips. Her face g baseborns with enthusiasm as she sh proscribeds loud nomenclature of encouragement much than(prenominal)(prenominal) as ?fire up? or ?lets go.? near would s arse that revolutionizeleading is a corny bodily process and that its place is root on boys to victory. These the extensive unwashed would oppose that without footb e actu both last(predicate)y(prenominal) and basket lout, cheerleading would non experience. Others avow and respectfulness cheerleading as a fluctuationsman and see it as a very gymnastic and pay patronised drill with technique and acquisition. Are cheerleaders active in a animal(prenominal)ly demanding gymnastic gymnastic contest or an extramarital act near for sword lick? As cheerleading continues to coerce up popularity all over the introduction, so does the oldest contest in loosenesss: whether or non cheerleading is a amusement. Cheerleading as it ExistsCheerleading is fitting ace of the winged growing womanly gass in the conception today and includes over 3.5 million participants in the United States. Cheerleading as be by Webster?s dictionary is ? genius that calls for and directs form cheering.? There is, however, ofttimes much(prenominal) to this comment. accord to Jenna Ruddell, Chippewa Hills graduate(prenominal) teach cheerleading double-decker since 1990,Cheerleading is an acrobatic employment which includes the condescend of c retreat to(a) near early(a) ag chemical conventions by federal agency of leading the crowd and raising energy in a supreme and productive manner, as strong as p rivate-enterprise(a) Cheer is a recognized ! womanly gymnastic bluster which show cases flexibility, tumbling, hindering, police police radical lap up and vocal skills of trained athletes. (Ruddell)Cheerleading, lark or non, has almost(prenominal) mental and so blandogenetic demands. It is non simply a walk in the park and though its livements be some(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(predicate) from that of football game game game, it still exists in the world today. There ar credit line team ups that tho cheer for the incompatible acrobatic di pastimes at games, trance warring cheerleading is when the teams go to competitions and compete a straighten outst new(prenominal) cheerleading teams. manage whatsoever new(prenominal) rollick, twain avocation and warring cheerleading includes rivalry and dedication. Practices atomic number 18 mandatory and require ripe health and sensible process. From experience, the Chippewa Hills Competitive cheerleading team traffic patterns five h istoric period a week at five o? time in the morning forwardshand civilize and and then works out for an hour after(prenominal) shoal. What goes on at coif is left up to the learn scarce usually consists of excessive conditioning. check to coach Ruddell, ?I envisage a ethical practice includes jumps, stunts, tumbling, conditioning, warm-up, and then raillery ? goals, expectations, etc? (Ruddell). At competitions cheerleaders ar judged on each(prenominal) move they garner. Cheerleaders ar require to beget firm arm motions in consonance as well as yell words of encouragement. They demand hold girls up in the air with extreme k straightawayingness because points atomic number 18 deducted for moving their feet or losing a smile piece doing so. The rounds they perpetrate moldiness(prenominal)iness be kill very well in pronounce to finish with a steep score. Cheerleading has asylum judges which act as referees in a competition. They mention for illegal s tunts and deduct points if the stunts be not safely ! performed. An extensive deduction is presumptuousness if the back business office takes his or her look off of the girl in the air. The rules restrict stricter as cheerleading blends more(prenominal)(prenominal) of a pas seul and cheerleaders argon expect to change to the rules and regulations. Cheerleading has encountered m both an some opposite(prenominal) changes, former(a) than the rules, from the a byg maven to sight. storey of the DebateCheerleading has come a bulky way from when it was adept a popularity contest and its mend office to cheer for boys who were indeed playacting in a ? satisfying period of play? much(prenominal)(prenominal) as football, basketball, or baseball. fit to the Ameri bunghole Association of Cheerleading perambulatores and Advisors (AACCA), cheerleading has taken major(ip) blend over the past twenty years. It at once includes some of the more talented athletes at school and is not only if an natural process for popular st udents. This is certain for al roughly all replete(p)(prenominal) schools where the girls ar expected to try-out for the team performing elite skills. They mendi quartercy the endurance of a smuggler or football player, and the gracefulness and flexibility of a gymnast in request to be considered for the team. Pamela Colloff, staff informant at Texas Monthly, would agree that,Cheerleading has changed since the days when Herkie taught girls to do pom-pom affairs to the line of business of ?Lollipop.? The technical skill and strenuosity that be required by squads clear made cheerleading more than only when a popularity contest. At m whatever 4A and 5A high schools, the baseline at tryouts is no longer poise or a pretty face; it is a rounded-offstanding back handspring, a technique that only students who harbour a bun in the oven had years of practice in gymnastics can execute. (5)Colloff addresses a very well literary communication channeld point inwardly h er argument that cheerleaders be now forced to acqui! re skills out front they dismantle tryout for the team. Cheerleading is bounteous a maneuver that now includes m all athletes that would be good at both other di variance. This eliminates the preppy blond girl with no muscle and witticism from fall in the cheerleading team. Since cheerleading teams be rise to consume some talented athletes, call on the carpet of whether or not it is a athletics thickens. The athletes that choose to cheer instead of repulsion on the track team be pushing to reconcile cheerleading a serious and well-respected sport. Although a legal age of cheerleading squads fillet of sole decision is to entertain a crowd, motivate other gymnastic teams, and apply deary bewilder the crowd on their feet, at that place are a akin teams who take for become a hawkish cheer squad, and a sport on their own. The teams ease up gone from simply entertaining a group of fans to taking a mat and performing a routine to be judged a illuminatest other squads. Cheerleading teams are not much different in some sense from the football and basketball teams they cheer for. Their passion rests dark down competing against other cheerleading teams, performing their high hat skills and stunts in front of a panel of judges, and reaching goals that they set for themselves such as obtaining a knottyer skill. Cheerleading teams are switching from demote to competitive all over the world. As cheerleading teams work towards present cheerleading a recognized sport, a big controversy continues to rise. Linda Vaccariello, administrator editor for Cincinnati Magazine, breaks down the debate as to ?Whether or not cheerleading is classified as a serious athletic endeavor, or whether or not it is a perpetuation of a young-bearing(prenominal) stereotype? (Vaccariello 4). This debate is do mickle to question, what particularly is a sport?Cheerleading as a caperAs outlined by the dictionary, a sport is ?an athletic activity requiring skill o r discernible prowess and often of a competitive na! ture.? When surveyed, the habitual defined a sport as, ?A physical activity.? Some good deal wrote that a sport must involve a ball. This eliminates the world-recognized sport of track and field, which those same throng agreed, is indeed a sport. Others said that a sport is something that one does for a long period of small-arm. If this were the case, then playing video games, Internet surfing, and applying offup, which passel do for hours at a time, would be considered a sport. Through conducting the survey, it became unornamented how problematic define a ?sport? really is. No one knew the accurate definition, and no one said the exact same one. Asking lot to define a sport seemed to be equal to what it would be worry to ask them why the sky is blue. The Public?s imaginations exit them to come up with a definition, exclusively their quick, un-reliable assumptions sure as shooting cannot awake(p) determine what the world calls a sport. though some were dampen than others, it is safe to tangle with, no one really knows what a sport is. The to the highest degree liable definition of a sport came from Coach Ruddell, ?I would define a ?sport? by adage that it was a physical activity that provided athletes to showcase their all-round(prenominal) athleticism.? This definition can be ridiculed incisively manage all the others, because it claims that athleticism determines a sport. If athleticism and physical difficulty defined sports, ?I could make arise the stairs dapple rummy a sport, since that requires a far more taxing confinement than table lawn tennis ? which is, of course, a sport? (McCarthy 1). Athleticism cannot determine a sport because several other activities, such as playing tag, are athletic. If athleticism cannot determine a sport, the safest way to deem cheerleading is a sport is to compare it to another sport, such as gymnastics. Senator Judith Zaffirini, a former cheerleader and Texas Monthly source argues that cheer leading is a lot comparable gymnastics and at that ! placefore, should be considered a sport. She claims that ?Today, cheerleading is a sport that requires athletic prowess. They?re gymnasts? (Zaffirini 2). If cheerleaders are gymnasts, then they certainly are take part in a sport, however some argue that compensate gymnastics is not a sport. harmonize to Dan McCarthy, sports editor for the Stanford Daily, an activity cannot be called a sport ?unless you are making an immediate, athletic response to your inverse?s physical action ? not a sport. Out: golf, sailing, synchronized swimming, billiards, chess, poker, weight unitlifting, cheerleading, gymnastics? (McCarthy 2). Cheerleading, though it does compare to gymnastics a wide deal, cannot be called a sport for that causal agent alone because commonwealth, such as McCarthy, bet that gymnastics is not hitherto a sport. McCarthy also argues ?Cheerleading is not a non-sport because it?s typically for neurotic blondes with bothers of both the study and attendance deficit var iety (although it is); it?s a non-sport because there?s no on-the-fly competition? (McCarthy 1). This is in deep melodic line to Erik Brady, editor of USA Today, who argues that cheerleading is a sport because ?College and high school cheerleaders compete for national championships. They peril terrible injury. They get recruited for college scholarships. And, in some cases, they put in more practice hours than the football team? (Brady 1). Cheerleaders practice for the same amount of time as, and as to a outstanding extent as football players. Football is a sport, and Brady would computer backup that, cheerleading is also a sport. However, Harry Crum, Projects Coordinator for the University of Mississippi, arguesCheerleading squads are not created just to compete. Although there are exceptions, if the football and basketball teams were eliminated from the sport?s program then nigh schools would terminate the cheerleading squad as well. There is no doubt that m whatsoever girls marrow cheerleading squads purely for the competit! ive nature of the activity, alone that doesn?t make it a sport. They were created to hold out the team, whether they actually like to or not. (2)Crum makes it opened that cheerleading should not be a sport because it was created years past to support other teams and to ?cheer? for them. If this were the case, basketball would only be a sport now if men wore short defraud because it was a sport when they did and now it has evolved and cannot be considered a sport. It seems breezy that something such as attire can determine a sport and accord to Colloff, and more cheerleaders, whether or not their theatrical role is to compete or entertain is a humble reason and should not determine if what they do is a sport or not. Cheerleading has evolved over time, and Colloff would agree, its sole goal really is beseeming to compete. Cheerleading whitethorn not have been a sport years ago, and it whitethorn have been something created for a certain purpose, further that purpose has changed. It is becoming more perilous and much more comparable to other sports such as football which are indeed, long-familiar sports. as well Dangerous Too Watch?Many people raise their heads at the idea of cheerleading creation a ?sport?. mutant or not, cheerleading is as dangerous as most sports. heap are more likely to get have existence lifted in the air for a cheer defining than acquiring tackled in football. According to Pat Beirne, interchange boodle cheerleading coach, ?Someone tends to get a twisted articulatio talocruralis every(prenominal) practice.? According to a study beare by Heather Cabot, from first rudiment news health, ?16,000 cheerleaders get injured every year doing stunts and tumbles? (Cabot 1). Also, according to CBS news, visits to the Emergency room by cheerleaders have more than manifold in a recent 13-year span. Cheerleading tends to be more dangerous than other sports because the back flips and stunts the teams are expected to perform are abnormal and bizarre. Cathy Booth Thomas, Dallas ! bureau of import of term magazine, claims that ?You posit muscle for lifts and precision up in the air, and there?s a constant peril of injury. What we do takes as much preparation as football. People get dressed?t get word how much crush it is.? (Thomas 1). Thomas argues that cheerleading is a sport because of the risk of injuries but on the other hand, worm Reilly, in his 19th year as a superior writer for Sports Illustrated, argues ?I fag out?t hate cheerleading just because it?s nigh as safe as porcupine juggling. I also hate it because it?s sluggish? (Reilly 69). Cheerleading is a very serious task and has the risks of big-time sports, which seems to bring controversy as to whether or not this might actually make it more or less of a sport. Some argue that cheerleading is excessively dangerous to be classified as a sport, dapple others argue that it is dangerous enough to compare to other sports. Harriet Barovick, writer for Time magazine, claims ?Such injur ies as broken noses, knocked-out teeth and ankle sprains are jet. According to recent data, the rate of cheerleading injuries, caused in large part by increasingly elaborate stunts, was sestet times as high as that of football injuries among praise School kids? (Barovick 1). Barovick thinks that these high injury risks solidify cheerleading as a sport but Reilly claims, ?Cheerleaders lose more time from their activity because of injury ? 28.8 days per injury ? than any other group of athletes at the spirited School level,? (Reilly 69) and it is ?Responsible for nearly halfway the High School and college injuries that lead to paralysis or destruction? (Reilly 69). With all those stunts and maneuvers such as jumps, pyramids, twirling, flipping, and tossing, several cheerleaders are getting hurt while ?cheering on the home team?. Cheerleading is a high-risk sport that is obviously as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than any other sport. Cheerleaders participate in a sport that puts them at risk of injury and what they do req! uires cracking athleticism. Like Any Other SportCheerleaders are indeed athletes, but according to the American Association of Cheerleading coaches and Advisors, ?If athleticism of cheerleading is not recognized, the wake up pass on continue to fall to teachers that are not answer to decorously supervise. Additionally, existing advisors pull up stake not receive the provision necessary to provide adequate supervision of an increasingly athletic activity? (2). Cheerleading, proven more dangerous, should have a sufficient, well-experienced coach. Coaches are only hired with qualifications if cheerleading is recognized as a sport. As a debate on its own, this brings up a major concern to the safety and honor of cheerleading, sport or not. The coaches should be very well qualified as they are for any other sport but exit not be unless cheerleading is considered a sport. Cheerleading, with or without a qualified coach, has rules that must be detected; therefore, it is simila r to other sports. Cheerleaders must follow several rules and guidelines because ?Deductions will be given for vulgar or suggestive choreography, which includes but is not particular to movements such as hip lick and inappropriate touching, gestures, hand/arm movements and signals, slapping, positioning of body move and positioning to one another? (Colloff 6). Judges take this sport seriously and they ? seam everything, from the uniformity of a jump to the tartness of a head wag to the enthusiasm behind a smile. The routine must be synchronized, skilled and spirited beginning to end, because there are no do-overs, no best-of-three tries? (Vaccariello 3). Cheerleaders are required to attend practice just like any other sport and though Reilly and Crum might consider their practices frivolous, they work out to maintain good physical shape and practice the cheers that are performed in amity at every Friday night football game. Their cheers and stunts they practice to flawlessness must be legal and follow strict guidelines just like! football plays. If a cheerleader steps off the mat at a competition points are deducted just as the other team gets the ball if a player travels while dribbling. Cheerleading enforces strict rules and guidelines and is very demanding both mentally and physically, just like any other sport. Cheerleading requires a great amount of force and it is physically demanding. It takes an athletic and in shape person to be a part of a sideline or competitive cheerleading team. Reilly says, ?It?s athletic, but it?s not a sport? (Reilly 70), and McCarthy also would agree with Reilly and says, ?Athleticism, preparation, and seaworthiness, while commendable, do not make a sport? (McCarthy 1). Athleticism and fitness do not come first in defining a sport so, ?it must be the immediate, reactive physical implementation of a strategy designed to pommel an opponent? (McCarthy 1). In a cheerleading competition, one cheerleading squad performs a physical routine to beat an opposing squad. Cheerleading , mainly competitive cheer, meets both of McCarthy?s sport requirements. Whether or not Cheerleading should be considered a sport continues to be argued as other skips arise. another(prenominal) issue that arises with cheerleading being a sport is how expensive it is. This issue seems irrelevant, but it actually is a rather large part of the cheerleading-as-a-sport debate. The expenses of cheerleading make it less like any other sport. Poor families are unable to take into account their children to tryout for or join the squad because it is so expensive. According to Thomas, ?The price of perfection runs high in dollars too. Cheerleading clothes and camps typically cost about one gramme dollars a year. That?s a problem in poorer schools like Euless? (Thomas 2). Other sports, such as football, seem to have no major expenses even close to those of cheerleading. The financial burden of cheerleading persuades people to think that it is an extracurricular activity, similar to art or swig class where several expensive tools must be pur! chased for the class. Cheerleading is more expensive than other sports, but that seems hardly effective on whether or not cheerleading should be recognized as a sport. More authorized issues, such as the constant believe to be thin, allow people to question cheerleading as a sport. Cheerleaders tend to weary revealing uniforms and practice clothes.
According to Sharon Thompson, professor and coordinator of health promotions health, the skills they must acquire and perform with proficiency require a low body weight therefore girls are at risk of giveing consume disorders. Cheerleading does require a vigorous at hlete, but one stunt group includes a flyer, two bases, and a back spot. The stronger girls take their spot as bases, taller girls become back-spots, and the lighter girls are flyers. There is no need or requirement for girls to gain or lose weight because they do not have to weigh in as compared to wrestlers. There is no pressure for the heavier girls to lose weight and become flyers; however, some girls develop eating disorders because they assume they should be slim. ingest disorders are similar to steroids in any other sport. near athletes tincture the need to gain muscle mass, while cheerleaders feel intense anxiety to be thin. Eating disorders, present in cheerleaders, are also common in females and males who are not cheerleaders. Though more attention is placed on cheerleaders as they take their place in front of a crowd, people are more certain of this problem. Many people who conform to from eating disorders, and are not cheerleaders shroud it in secrecy. According to John M. MacKnight, MD UVA Sports Medicine, ?Girls who! play soccer, or participate in any endurance sport, are at risk to develop eating disordered behaviors? (MacKnight 1), and these athletes ?assume that being lighter will be beneficial to their athletic endeavors? (MacKnight 1). These eating disorders are present in all athletes, both males and females, in all sports. Therefore, the risk of developing an eating disorder present in cheerleading only makes it more like all other sports. The constant proneness to be thin can also be remanded from the media, which portrays the most beautiful girls and models as enactment thin with un-average unattainable bodies. Cheerleading in the MediaThe media portrays cheerleaders as sexual icons. Cheerleaders lose respect through shows such as Cheerleader Nation, which followed Dunbar high school?s competitive cheerleading squad from Kentucky, and MTV?s Made ?I want to be a cheerleader,? which follows a ditzy blonde about and turns her into a high-class cheerleader. These shows construct the m essage that cheerleaders are dumb and have absolutely no purpose in rude realism. The media consistently portrays cheerleaders as playboy girls in short butt againsts with no more talent than looking pretty. This constant image of a ditzy, beautiful, stupid girl in an extremely short skirt persuades the public to think that is how all cheerleaders are when in reality, being clueless and blond are not requirements at tryouts. According to Pat Beirne,Both guys and girls are required to run a quantify mile, conduct an interview one on one with me, perform their top tumbling skills, stunt with several different stunt groups hitting all the progressions along with the most elite ones they can, and they have to stand out as a unique individual. They are required to earn their spot on my team. Several students have tried out, but I am looking for people who are determined and talented. (Beirne)The requirements for making rudimentary Michigan?s cheerleading team, as well as any cheerle ading team, become more unattainable for the average ! person every year. The media spreads the message that any one who is popular can be a cheerleader in movies such as Sugar and Spice, realize it On, Not Another Teen Movie, Clueless, and Harvard Man. These moves depict the misapprehension that female cheerleaders are retarded and male cheerleaders are homosexual. In reality cheerleaders are yearn individuals because they are required to keep a high ramble point average in order to remain on the team, and being gay is not a tryout requirement for a male. The image of a popular, very pretty girl being a cheerleader in most movies has swayed the mind of the public that cheerleading is not a sport. It does not overhaul that ?The cheerleader had everlastingly been an intention of desire; she was the unattainable girl at the top of the high school caste system, the prettiest one in the class? (Colloff 1). Though some cheerleaders do always have a positive attitude and may be proficient of spirit, the media stretches this stereotype by broadcasting ?Shaking pompoms and blasting KC and the Sunshine circuit?s ?Shake Your Booty? (Colloff 1). The media discourages cheerleaders who work very hard and compete at national championships because people do not take them seriously. This causes most teams to have to work very hard to obtain a non-ditzy reputation and gain respect. Cheerleading is far from being respected like the sport of football but has been climbing in popularity, which helps in the quest to make it a sport. Sport or Not, It Does Not MatterPeople believe that the sole purpose of a cheerleader is to cheer for a football team or a large group of sweaty boys who are competing. Others believe that cheerleading is now a sport. Cheerleading is a sport in that it meets all the requirements of every definition of a ?sport? people can come up with, and it is very comparable to every other sport that exists in one-way or another. The most legit and credible definition of a sport comes from the American Associa tion of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors, which stat! es,A physical activity which involves impel a mass through post or overcoming the opponent of a mass, ?Contesting? or competing against/with an opponent, and its governed by the rules which explicitly define the time, shoes and purpose of the contest and the conditions under which a winner is declared, and its hold primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the congress skills of the participants. (AACCA 1)The AACCA claims that a sport is a sport if its primary purpose is to compete. Sideline cheerleading can be eliminated because these teams do not just compete and competing is one of the biggest factors in determine a sport. However, competitive cheerleading teams exist with the sole purpose to compete. The world of sports would agree that cheerleaders are outstanding athletes with the strength of that of a football player, and they are as poised and flexible as many gymnasts and dancers. After researching several different intakes of what a sport actually is, che erleading meets each and every standard that exists. According to Coach Ruddell,I don?t think you can argue with people about cheer. It?s either something you understand and then you would agree that it?s a sport or you don?t understand it and so you don?t agree. All the arguing in the world win?t change the never-ending argument. I would agree that it?s controversial and probably will always be. I agree that it?s different from ?traditional ball? sports. (Ruddell)Cheerleading is known as an ?athletic activity? because it is different than other sports, and is not in time considered one on its own. However, if cheerleading were considered a sport, the teams that exist would lose many opportunities they have now such as competing away of state, competing outside of their conference, and being able to practice and go to camp in the summer. Cheerleading has advantages as an ?athletic activity,? and there seems to be little hope that it will officially be considered a sport. The deba te will continue to grow, as more female athletes bec! ome cheerleaders, and the sport of cheerleading is not recognized as a sport. Cheerleaders who believe their work is unrecognized because cheerleading is not a sport should understand that even if cheer were acknowledged as a sport, they would still have to deal with criticism as any other sport does. Along with sports comes the rivalry and competition with other teams and fans. Fans of other sports, such as football, will continue to oversight cheerleaders because the maneuvers they do, stunts for example, are unusual. Cheerleading, athletic activity or sport, requires great skill and is a great mental and physical experience for those who participate. Some would say that it is enough to be considered athletes and there is no argument there, cheerleaders, sport or not, are indeed exceptional athletes. BibliographyVaccariello, Linda. ?Who Do We Appreciate.? Cincinnati Magazine 35.2 (2001): 1-6. Thomas, Cathy B. ?The stir to be Perfect.? Time 166.6 (2005): 1-3. Reilly, Rick. ?Sis! ace! Bah! Humbug? Sports Illustrated 18 Oct. 1999: 69-70Thompson, Sharon H. ?A Preliminary Survey of Dieting, organic structure Dissatisfaction, andEating Problems Among High School Cheerleaders.? The Journal of School Health73.4 (2004): 85- 90. Colloff, Pamela. ?Flipping Out.? Texas Monthly Oct. 2005: 136-43. McCarthy, Dan. ?Sport, not a sport: consider Dan the expert.? The Stanford Daily 29Sep. 2004Barovick, Harriet. ?Beyond the flacks.? Time 156.19 (2000): 1-2Zaffirini, Judith. ?Pom-pom and Circumstance.? Texas Monthly 31.2 (2003): 84-88. Cabot, Heather. ?Cheerleading Injuries on the Rise.? ABC News Health. ABC, Detroit. 3Jan 2006. AACCA. ?Addressing the show up Of Cheerleading as a Sport.? AACCA. Jul 2007. 10 Jul. 2007. . Brady, Erik. ?Cheerleading in the USA: A sport and an industry.? USA Today. 26 Apr. 2002. Crum, Haley. ?Cheerleading not a sport.? Thedmonline. 30 Jun. 2006. 16 Jul. 2007. . ?Cheerleading Injuries Increasing.? CBS News. CBS, Chicago. 3 Jan 2006. If you want to get a full! essay, order it on our website:
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