Standing at the entrance, music blasting, waiting for that music to fade and for the DJ to announce your team. You run out, waving to a gym full of your competition, supporters, and what feels like the whole world. You put on a smile, but deep down, your stomach feels 10 pounds heavier. You get to your opening spot, and as you listen for your music to start, you hear silence. All of the clapping and hollering from supporters fades into the background. You have to put all of your trust in your team to do their jobs, and you are locked into this moment. You have two and a half minutes to prove who you are.
Around the world, cheerleaders, including myself, know this feeling. Waiting, knowing anything could go wrong in the blink of an eye, hoping you make it through the whole routine flawlessly. But no one else understands what this feeling is like when they see the athletes as an extension of a Friday night football game. Cheerleaders are supposed to be the preppy girls who bring up the energy of the crowd. The girls throw each other in the air for entertainment. But to the cheer world, their sport becomes their everything and more.
Countless “sports” are recognized and applauded for their hard work and effort even if they don’t physically exhaust the player, but when it comes to cheerleading, athletes are dismissed and told anyone could do what they do. And for those who have said that, how would you ever know? Without actually trying, who gave you the right to determine if someone else’s hobby is good enough?
Cheerleaders are trained to be exemplary. Hours of practice time go into perfecting a routine and ensuring that skills, facials, and spirit are at their best. They stand on hands, hold each other over their heads, tumble and flip, jump, and along with all of that, beam at the crowd and act like they are having the best time of their lives. It might look easy, but that is only because our job is to make it look that way.
One part of cheerleading that is judged at a competition is tumbling, also found in gymnastics. We flip our bodies over until they give out and push through injuries we convince ourselves are not that serious. These skills are not easy to learn. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in a cheer gym just to get one skill, and after that is completed, you move on to the next with no end in sight. Tumbling takes years to master. It is one of the hardest things cheerleaders do and requires a lot of practice and physical strength. Teaching yourself to jump higher, trusting your body to flip itself, and working through mental blocks. Mental blocks are some of the most difficult things to overcome.
Being afraid of something you know you can do, simply because anything could go wrong. Many cheerleaders have gotten injured and lost their lives due to losing control of their bodies. And when you’re 5 feet in the air with none of your limbs touching the ground, gravity works against you, and your job is to fight it.
Stunting is also an important and dangerous part of cheering. Over and over I have been told, “Well, 3 people is holding the flyer up, there’s not that much weight to hold,” but this couldn’t be more false. Stunting relies on teamwork. If even one person doesn’t know what they’re doing, their flyer could fall and break their neck. Someone’s life is in your hands.
A common argument is cheering on the sidelines. Standing, waving, and chanting cheers might not be a sport itself, but unknown to many, most high school cheer teams also go to competitions, and no, they do not cheer like they would on the sidelines. Practices consist of practicing cheers, but also learning, memorizing, and perfecting a two and a half minute long routine. Working to make sure everyone looks the same, has facial expressions that shock the crowd, and most importantly, hitting the most ideal routine possible.
The sense of a team is so important in the cheer world. We lean on each other when having a hard time, have to learn patience when things aren’t going the way you want it to, and spend hours, if not days, together, watching each other cry, excel, and grow. Without a team, cheer is nothing. A team is something that you can go to with an issue, and although cheerleaders are known for their dramatics, most teams do not fight. Occasionally, there are bad days when everyone is tired, but we all know that at the end of the day, this is our family. The people who have been with us through thick and thin.
Cheer is more than a sport. It is a combination of teamwork, passion, and dedication. Pushing yourself to your absolute limit, throwing up after practice, and people still have the nerve to call cheerleading easy. Proving yourself in such a short amount of time not only drains you physically, but mentally as well. Two and a half minutes.
