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Is Cheerleading A Sport?

Is Cheerleading A Sport

  • Total voters
    26
kuzronk

kuzronk

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    • Some People think it's a sport some people think it's just girls dancing in short skirts

    This is what i think
    Cheerleading is a sport because of all the stunts and Gymnastics they do
     
    Shining Raichu

    Shining Raichu

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    • I don't think it's a sport. Sports are generally games you play and they more often than not involve a ball. I see cheerleading as more of an artform than a sport. A performance art.

    I do agree though that they don't get the respect they deserve because of the pom poms and short skirts, and a lot of people de-value the amount of work that competitive cheerleaders have to put into their routines.
     

    Alistair

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    • Shining Raichu said:
    I don't think it's a sport. Sports are generally games you play and they more often than not involve a ball.
    Click to expand...

    But take into consideration that by this definition, BMX, skateboarding, cross country, track and field, etc. would also not be considered sports.

    I do think that cheer leading is a sport. It does require dedication and plenty of training. There are professional competitions, and it just has the overall structure of a sport (in my opinion).
     
    Sydian

    Sydian

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    • I had a lot to say about this, but my internet gave me the middle finger and killed my post. Anyway, yes, it's a sport. You don't need a ball to play sports, and it requires enough physical strength for it to be considered that way. But "sport" is tossed around too loosely these days. You ever turn on ESPN? You know what's on there? Poker. Yeah. Poker. That's more of a mind game if anything, but a sport that you put on ESPN? Definitely not. Give me some drum corps, please.
     

    Oryx

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    Alistair said:
    But take into consideration that by this definition, BMX, skateboarding, cross country, track and field, etc. would also not be considered sports.

    I do think that cheer leading is a sport. It does require dedication and plenty of training. There are professional competitions, and it just has the overall structure of a sport (in my opinion).
    Click to expand...

    Thank you for those examples. I thought Andy had a really good point and I couldn't think of sports that weren't ball/point based but you brought up some great ones that cemented my opinion on it.

    I think it depends on what you call 'cheerleading'. For example, what my school cheerleaders do at football games? I wouldn't call that a sport at all. The girls stand on the guys' shoulders and hold up a sign to tell us when to yell "IRISH!". But what (I'm assuming) they do at competitions, I would consider that a sport. To me, what cheerleaders do at sports games is the equivalent of like...football players playing catch with the football in uniform. Yes, in a way it does make them better prepared for the game, but it's not actual football practice and it's not a sport.
     
    Last edited:
    donavannj

    donavannj

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    • I do think cheerleading can be considered a sport, but only because it has been adapted into a competitive format within the last 60 years. I consider sport to be any sort of athletic competition done for recreation.
     
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    Yoshikko

    Yoshikko

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    I think so. It might also be performance art but it involves dancing and exercise and practice. Yeah I definitely think it is.
     
    alisaie

    alisaie

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    Sport
    Noun: An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.

    Maybe not so much the cheerleading that you see at Football games like Toujours said, but there is then competitive cheerleading, which is much more physical, and requires more skill in order to compete against the other cheerleading squads.

    Then again, you guys might not want to listen to be because I also consider Marching Band/Drum Corps a Sport.
     
    Sydian

    Sydian

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    • Then again, you guys might not want to listen to be because I also consider Marching Band/Drum Corps a Sport.
    Click to expand...

    Makes what you say more valid imo! I think the same. I'm not in drum corps, but I know some people in Spirit, and I've been in marching band since 8th grade. It's more of a sport than golf and freakin' poker are, lol.

    I do agree with that the typical football cheerleading isn't very sporty. They don't seem very enthusiastic either. Guess you'd just have to go to a cheering competition to see the real deal. Or watch any variation of Bring It On.
     
    Legobricks

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    Nothing is a sport without a competitive context and some manner of scoring system
    While it can, cheerleading generally has neither, so it is generally not a sport.
     
    Sydian

    Sydian

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    • Nothing is a sport without a competitive context and some manner of scoring system
    While it can, cheerleading generally has neither, so it is generally not a sport.
    Click to expand...

    There is a scoring system, though. What the scoring categories are, I'm not sure of cause I'm not a cheerleader, but for competitions, there has to be a scoring system.
     
    Mr Cat Dog

    Mr Cat Dog

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    • Allow me to play a bit of devil's advocate for both sides:

    There are definitely cheerleading competitions that have judging criteria, a scoring system as well as a competitive element of cheering against other teams. Surely something with a competitive environment with the Cassino criteria qualifies as a sport?

    However, outside of competition, the main purpose of cheerleading isn't to compete, but rather to entertain. Cheerleaders don't compete with each other when they're cheering at sports games: their focus is on entertaining the audience. Does this not negate the competitive element put forth and reduce cheerleading to an act of entertainment (equivalent to, say, acting)?

    I personally don't really have much of an opinion on the subject... just thought it would be interesting to poke the bear on this one. Most of my knowledge of the subject comes from Bring It On/Friday Night Lights/US High School TV, so I'll happily admit my non-expert status in this discussion.
     
    Sydian

    Sydian

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    • However, outside of competition, the main purpose of cheerleading isn't to compete, but rather to entertain. Cheerleaders don't compete with each other when they're cheering at sports games: their focus is on entertaining the audience. Does this not negate the competitive element put forth and reduce cheerleading to an act of entertainment (equivalent to, say, acting)?
    Click to expand...

    There's already enough stuff going on at football games though. Like, you know, the game itself. Then you have the band, or bands if both teams' bands are present at the game. Cheerleaders are supposed to cheer on the team and such, but I think that concept is dead. Maybe it's just my school, but no one is ever really paying attention to the cheerleaders, except maybe their parents that come there to see them.

    I would never put cheering at a game on par with acting though...especially when if you're seeing a play, your focus is with the actors. At a football game, your main focus is the game itself. And then at halftime you have the band. Cheerleaders don't really have any time to shine at games.

    Basketball is a different story though, from what I understand.
     

    Oryx

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    Sydian said:


    There's already enough stuff going on at football games though. Like, you know, the game itself. Then you have the band, or bands if both teams' bands are present at the game. Cheerleaders are supposed to cheer on the team and such, but I think that concept is dead. Maybe it's just my school, but no one is ever really paying attention to the cheerleaders, except maybe their parents that come there to see them.

    I would never put cheering at a game on par with acting though...especially when if you're seeing a play, your focus is with the actors. At a football game, your main focus is the game itself. And then at halftime you have the band. Cheerleaders don't really have any time to shine at games.

    Basketball is a different story though, from what I understand.
    Click to expand...

    At my school during the games, the cheerleaders literally...lead cheers. It's really helpful because the cheers we do are kind of complex and the freshmen sometimes have no clue what to do, so they follow cheerleaders instead of the other freshmen, lol.
     
    Legobricks

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    Sydian said:
    There is a scoring system, though. What the scoring categories are, I'm not sure of cause I'm not a cheerleader, but for competitions, there has to be a scoring system.
    Click to expand...
    Cheerleaders generally cheer for whatever team they support, nothing else really comes of the matter.
    If they compete directly against other cheerleaders and are graded on that, it can be called a sport in that context, but otherwise I don't think so. Calling it a sport in all cases seems much the same as saying that simply riding a bicycle is a sport on the basis that people have races on them.

    Just want to clarify my position.
     
    Last edited:
    donavannj

    donavannj

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    • Sydian said:
    Basketball is a different story though, from what I understand.
    Click to expand...

    Basketball is quite a different story for cheerleaders, since they only ever perform at halftime and during timeouts.

    I'm noticing a difference in opinion based on country of origin. There seems to be a majority consensus among those from the United States in this thread that it is a sport, while not so much for those from outside the US. Maybe it's because competitive cheerleading isn't common outside of the US, and therefore no one outside the US is really aware how common such competitions are here? There aren't really any professional level ones, but there are thousands of high school level competitions and I think there are quite a few university level ones, too.
     

    Oryx

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    Cassino said:
    Cheerleaders generally cheer for whatever team they support, nothing else really comes of the matter.
    If they compete directly against other cheerleaders and are graded on that, it can be called a sport in that context, but otherwise I don't think so.

    Just want to clarify my position.
    Click to expand...

    The main brunt of 'real' cheerleading is in competitions. They happen all the time everywhere. Against other teams. Think "Bring it On" style. I thought everyone knew that?

    http://cheerleading.lovetoknow.com/History_of_Competitive_Cheerleading
     
    Sheep

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    • It depends... there's "real" and "not real" cheerleading in my eyes. High School cheerleading usually is just a dumbed down version where girls don't really move around much so I don't consider it a sport at all. Real cheerleading has you moving much more and requires you to be decently flexible, so that I'd consider a sport.
     
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