Cheerleading is recreational activity and sometimes competitive sport involving organised routines including elements of dance and gymnastics to encourage crowds to cheer on sports teams. It is most popular in the United States. A cheerleading performer is a cheerleader.

In the United Kingdom cheerleading is becoming more and more popular. There is a British cheerleading association which holds national competitions every year. The majority of squads tend to focus on competing but there are several sports teams that have a cheerleading squad to support them. These are usually rugby league teams such as Leeds Rhinos. Cheerleaders in Britain can range from the age of six or seven, up to university students and they all mix together and compete in competitions consisting of cheer, dance and stunt categories. Mascots are often used in cheerleading troops.

Pom-Poms are usually used to accentuate movements

Cheerleaders in formation.

History

Evolving in (all-male) colleges in the late 19th and early 20th centuries purely as attempts to encourage crowds at their sporting competitions to cheer, the practice spread and became largely a female activity as time progressed. A significant factor was limited availability of female collegiate sports. Organised cheerleading contests were formed; most high schools around the U.S.A. had formed cheerleading squads by the 1950s. Today cheerleading competitions are a ubiquitous feature of American public schools and universities as well as American professional football. State and national championships for school and college teams are common, and top squads take their routines extremely seriously.

While cheerleaders regard their sport as a serious endeavour, this is not a universal opinion. Cheerleaders are stereotyped in numerous television shows and movies in a sexist way as vacuous, sexually attractive and vain. In this view, cheerleading performances are purely showing off of the cheerleaders' bodies rather than a "real" sporting competition. Cheerleaders point to the athletic and aesthetic qualities of their routines, and the extensive physical training and rehearsal required to win competitions - or, more often, simply ignore this reputation.

Performance elements

A cheerleader is flipped upside-down during a pep rally routine before a football game.

Motions/Jumps

• Common cheerleading motions are high V, low V, half-high and half-low Vs, diagonals, K's, L's, T's, broken T's, touchdowns, low touchdowns, tabletops, and punches.

• Toe-touch is a jump with legs split sideways while touching both toes simultaneously.

• Hurdler The free leg is either forward (a front hurdler), or sideways (a side hurdler.)

• Pike is among the most difficult jumps. Both legs are straight out, knees locked. Arms are stretched forward to create a folded position in the air. This is often performed at a ninety-degree angle to the audience in order to show off the air position.

• The most common approach to a jump is the "prep" jump. On counts 1-2 arms are clasped, knees are together and bent. On 3-4, stand up on toes and raise arms in high V. Swing arms around in front and jump on 5-6, stand stationary and stand up on 7-8. Other approaches include power, banana, and double whip (actually two or more jumps.)

• Quite a few moves are borrowed from dances (Breakdancing/Hip Hop) and acrobatics (e.g., Cartwheel). Others are made up by the cheerleading coach or the cheerleaders themselves.

Stunts/Tumbling

• a Mount is a cheerleading stunt that involves 4 or more persons to form a type of "stunt" holding the girl in the air on either one or two feet.

• Flyers are cheerleaders held or thrown by others into the air. Bases or mounts hold and throw them. Spots are cheerleaders who stand behind the flyer and the bases that have two duties: 1. To make sure that the stunt does not fall and to help catch the flyer if it does fall and 2. To help the bases by lifting some of the flyer's wieght, making the stunt more stable and less heavier for the bases.

• Stunts that groups perform include bow-and-arrows, liberties, scorpions, the Matrix, basket tosses, elevators, and cupies* (the ultimate in cheerleading athleticism.)

• In competition and most college level cheerleading tumbling is a requirement. The basic tumbling is a cartwheel or a round off. The more difficult skills come when you a back hand springs and round off back hand springs. There are also back tucks, layouts, and layout twists.

Cheers/Chants

Every team has their "signature" cheers and chants. They tend to differ by sport cheered for. (e.g., basketball or football.) Most of the time the cheerleaders and coaches come up with these cheers/chants.

Cheerleading movies

There have been several movies made with cheerleading as the central theme. These include:

• Sugar & Spice (2001)
• Bring It On (2000)
• Cheerleader Camp (1987)
• Cheerleaders Wild Weekend (1979)
• Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1977)
• The Swinging Cheerleaders (1974)
• The Cheerleaders (1973)

External links

• RoseCheer's Cheerleading  (http://www.angelfire.com/fl/cheer69leader/MainFrame.html)
• Denvers Cheerleading  (http://sg.geocities.com/Denverscheerleading)

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