“Cheerleading is not a sport!” This is a simple sentence that may mean nothing to some, however to a cheerleader it is the most dreadful comment in the world.
Being a cheerleader for twelve years out of my seventeen years of life has made me extremely familiar with this sport. Yes, I say sport because you would not understand what it really takes to be a cheerleader, if you are not one. I watch other “sports” and do not see how other people can say; “Cheerleading is not a sport,” when these other things I watch I can’t even understand what they are supposed to do.
For starters, I’m sure we have all seen a baseball game. We have our outfield and infield standing around until a ball comes that they catch and throw away to another player. Then there are the batters that just sit around until they get to swing a metal pole around and hope to possibly hit a ball. If they’re lucky enough to hit it they only have to run 90 feet, then they get to stop and take a breather. And they call baseball a sport?
Then we have football, where a big group of boys run and jump on top of each other. They also throw a weird shaped ball that looks like Hey Arnolds head. Bringing us to hockey, all they are, are boy figure skaters with a stick and a puck that they hit into a big net and fight each other.
What about soccer? We see people run up and down a field kicking a ball and hopefully aiming correctly into a huge net. Sounds pretty tough. And then there’s basketball. In this so called “sport”, boys and girls run up and down a big court bouncing a giant bouncy ball off the ground, and when the times right, they throw the big bouncy ball into a net! And you still say cheerleading is not the sport here when we have a sport called golf? They drive to different holes and hit a ball with a metal pole then they drive more.
The reason I am using these sports is because I have never played on a team for these sports, I would never understand what it takes to seriously play each one of those sports. Cheerleading is discriminated as a “hobby” due to the fact that our audience sees the ending factor of what we do. They see our stunts hit precisely, our motions perfect, and our dance exquisite; to our audience, we make it look easy. They would never see the blood, sweat, or tears that come from us. Eat. Sleep. Cheer. Repeat. That is a cheerleaders’ life. Cheerleading is a sport; however, if you are not one, you would never understand.
Great post Alex! I have a lot of respect for you, not a lot of people would express their views in the form you did. I like how you used examples of other sports, but I think it would have made your post a lot stronger if you showed some examples of why you think cheerleading is a sport, or explain what you as cheerleaders do that makes it a sport. Overall Alex I think this is a great post!
ReplyDeleteill post. i agree with you that cheerleading is definitely a sport. i like how you wrote like you were talking some good game instead of just listing examples why cheerleading is a sport.
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely interesting. I agree that cheerleading is a sport. But, I think that it is mostly competitive cheerleading that can be looked that way. Not just getting people pumped up. Would you say that anything that takes a lot of physical training to do a sport?
ReplyDeleteI get into this argument a lot with my sister and the only way you can decide whether cheerleading is or is not a sport is by defining the word sport. It all depends on what you do and don't consider traits of a sport, what makes something a sport vs. a hobby in your eyes?
ReplyDeleteAlex, yes i'm commenting on this. No i'm not going to rip it apart. We'll maybe a little. Okay, first off, i agree where you say that some sports are somewhat odd and confusing to understand, and that cheerleading, the idea itself, is simple yet not full understood either. Cheerleading, competively, is a sport. however, i believe that the sideline cheerleaders is more or less a "hobby" in the sense that if its a "hobby" then anyone can do it. Where the competitive edge of cheerleading is a sport itself. I will agree with you there. Fyi, you forgot track and field in your whole description part of every sport known to man. otherwise good job.
ReplyDeleteSports are usually classified as a team or group event, in which you compete and take action in order to fulfill a desired happiness. If one is truly happy with the job they do in cheerleading, then why not consider it a sport. Every sport is different, and this just means that cheerleading is far different from any other sport..if that makes sense
ReplyDeleteAlex i like the way you made your point in this post and defended it. Do you think there are any other reasons why people don't think that cheerleadings a sport besides the fact that they do not see the work put into a performance. The same thing goes for dance or any other team that performs and competes with it. Even marching band does the same, all performing groups work hard for the same polished end product and compete with it. Although dance is not considered a sport either so what makes it different?
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