Monday, 30 March 2009
88. Cheerleading is an exciting sport that often spurs many other sports on. Write an article about cheerleading and how it is accessed during cheerleading competitions.
There have been debates on whether or not cheerleading is truly a sport. Supporters consider cheerleading as a whole, a sport, citing the heavy use of athletic talents, while critics do not see it as deserving of that status since sport implies a competition among squads and not all squads compete along with subjectivity of competitions. Nevertheless, cheerleading is considered a sport in Singapore.
Cheerleading is a sport that uses organised routines that ranges from one to three minutes made from the elements of cheers, dance, jumps, stunting, and tumbling to direct spectators to cheer on sports teams at matches, and to compete at cheerleading competitions. Cheerleading takes years of practice and the practices can be very tedious. The athlete involved in cheerleading is called a cheerleader. They draw attention to the event they are cheering for to get the audience integrated into the event.
Cheerleading is considered a very dangerous activity. The main source of injuries comes from stunting, which is also known as pyramids. These stunts are performed at competitions and games. Sometimes competition routines are focused solely on the use of difficult and risky stunts. These stunts usually include a flyer (the girl on top), along with one, two, three, or four bases (the boys or girls at the bottom). Some common cheerleading related injuries are back injuries, broken arms, head injuries, elbow injuries, sprained ankles, and sprained wrists.
- Cheerleading Stunts
Stunts are defined as building performances displaying a person's dexterity or skill. Stunting in cheerleading has been previously referred to as building pyramids. Stunts range from basic two-legged stunts to one-legged extended stunts and high flying basket tosses. There are numerous variations of each basic stunt.
A stunt group usually involves up to four bases holding or tossing another cheerleader in the air. In general, all-girl cheerleading stunts usually involve up to four other bases, while co-ed (partner) stunts are comprised of only one base (usually a male) and his partner (the flyer, usually a female). Pyramids are multiple groups of stunts connected aerially by the flyers. This connection may vary from a simple linking of hands to having a multi-level pyramid, with the flyers already in the air acting as primary bases for another flyer or flyers on top of them.
- Cheerleading Competitions
Cheerleading competitions are assessed based on the routines done by a cheerleading team. At least half of the cheerleading team must perform for points to be awarded. The cheerleaders may only perform within the 15 x 20 meters performance area. The points will be awarded according to the criteria set by the judges and the team that accumulates the most points will be the winner.
The routines should be about five minutes in length and it must have a cheer during the performance, dance techniques, synchoronisation with cheers and music, toss, tumbling, and variety of formations. A minimum of three jumps, lifts, and pyramids must be performed as well.
Below is the point system for a cheerleading competition.
5 points each: Dance Technique, Jumps, Tosses, and Tumbling.
10 points each: Cheer Clarity, Choreography, Degree of Difficulty, Formations, Lifts, Overall Effectiveness, Pyramids, Stunts, and Synchronization.