Cheerleading is a Sport: Argument Paper

Everyone argues that cheerleading isn't a sport, but to many individuals it is. It's a team sport the requires endurance, stamina and perseverance. There are many different types of cheerleading: High School Sidelines and Competitive Cheer. The definition of a high school sideline cheerleading is a cheerleader who stands on the sideline to cheer on their team. The definition of a competitive cheerleader is an athlete who performs a routine for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, doing stunts, tumbling, and jumps. In competitive cheer you go to competitions and perform and get judged, however, in sideline cheerleading there is really no judging besides the crowd watching the game. Cheerleading is a sport for so many different reasons, it teaches you commitment, pushes you past your limits, and allow you to achieve a goal.

Commitment is a lifelong skill that is good to have. Cheerleading teaches many individuals on how to commit to something because it is a team sport. If you don't show up to practice, you stunt can't go up. If you don't show up to the competition your team is screwed. In football and basketball, if one player doesn't show up, it can be an issue, but not as big as it can be in cheerleading. On sideline cheer, we don't stunts as well and it looks funny if one stunt doesn't show up. My coaches have always told me that there is no I in Team and that is true. Cheerleading has been said to be the most dangerous sport because you're throwing people in the air and you have to catch them. For people who join cheerleading from other sports this contract' can seem strict and possibly unfair, but when you think about practicing a cheer routine you need commitment from each member to make the stunt safe and succeed each time it is performed, (Gemma Miles). If an athlete is not 100% committed to doing the stunt it can make everything extremely unsafe. Sideline cheerleaders do stunts as well, they are not as intense as competitive cheerleading stunts are. However, they still need to commit to doing the stunts. This goes for tumbling as well, committing to doing your tumbling is important because if you change your mind at the last second something can go wrong and you can get extremely injured. Commitment is a lifelong skill that is so important to have and cheerleading truly defines that whether it's sideline or competitive.

Nobody really knows how exhausting it can be to perform a routine for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Cheerleading pushes athletes past their limits and this is why cheerleading is a sport. Cheerleading gives athletes stamina and endurance to complete a routine that they knew thought that they could do. Cheerleading involves commitment and when you commit to doing something in the routine you have to do it. So cheerleading will push athletes past their limits because they have to commit to something. Even when they are tired, they know that they just have to push through. ??‹While the physical skills cheerleaders need to perform can be uniquely challenging, there are also more mental demands in cheer than many sports, (Jessica Baker). Even though cheerleading can be physically demanding, it is a very mental sport. Athletes must believe in themselves to commit to something, so they can push themselves past their limits. The coaches in this sport want you to succeed more than anything, so they will push an athlete to their limits as well. It is extremely rewarding when you get a new skill and it is so much more rewarding when an athlete knows how hard they pushed themselves to get that new skill. In sideline cheerleading getting a new skill on the track is rewarding as well because it's much more difficult to do it on the track then on a spring floor. Cheerleading also teaches athletes to never give up, and being pushed past your limits never lets you give up. You may not get a skill the first time you do it. You become determined and driven to get those skills that you have been focusing so hard on, (Haley Booker). If you are dtermterminded to get a skill and you never give up and you push yourself, you will end up getting the skill. These are life long skills that make cheerleading a sport.

To be successful in life you have to set goals for yourself and push yourself to achieve those goals. In cheerleading your team has goals that they want to achieve as a team, but everything cheerleading has an individual goal. For sideline cheerleading it could be to stand in the front line while cheering the cheers or it could be to get captain. In competitive cheer it could be getting a back tuck or a full up. In cheerleading you have to consistently set goals for yourself or else you'll never get better. Achieving a goal in cheerleading is so rewarding because you did something that you didn't think that you could do. That is what motivates athletes to continue setting goals for themselves. Cheerleading is a team sport, so it allows individuals to come together and achieve the one common goal which is to win. This is such an important life lesson because it teaches individuals to never give up. Both on the sideline and competitive. In conclusion, cheerleading is a sport, physically and mentally. Whether its high school cheer or competitive cheer, cheerleading teaches you commitment, pushes you past your limits and allows you to achieve a goal.

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