Cheerleading is a very controversial topic. People often debate whether it is considered a sport or not. But the first question is what even makes a sport a sport? The definition of a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Cheerleading meets most of those requirements so I don’t know why people don’t consider it as a sport.

5…6…7…8… cheerleading isn’t just about yelling cheers there is a lot more to cheering than that. There is stunting, tumbling, flexibility, and conditioning. All of those things are big factors in cheerleading. One thing that you have to be good at is being able to memorize things very quickly. You need to be able to learn something very quickly and efficiently. Sometimes you feel very frustrated because you spent a lot of time on memorizing chants and dances and then your coach goes and changes and you have to learn something else all over again.

The second reason is cheerleading is very dangerous. It is probably as dangerous as football. You have to take the risk of trusting your team and trying new things. Once my stunt group was practicing and they threw me in the air and didn’t really catch me. I landed on the floor and had a minor concussion. That didn’t stop me I wasn’t scared to go back a couple days later.it was just a little bump in the road, I just had to forget about and do what I wanted to do. There are many risks in cheerleading you just have to be careful and know what you are doing.
Another reason why cheerleading should be considered a sport is you have to condition. Just like any other sport you have to stay fit so you can keep up with all of the things you have to do. The types of conditioning we do it run a mile or two, push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, planks. All of those things consist of the workout we do each week in order to put yourself to the limit you have to push yourself to the limit. Sometimes we work out so hard there are girls that throw up, but they no that they are only going to get better. Cheer has done wonderful things for me when I started i didn’t really know anything but now I have a six-pack and cheering for my third year.

Many people do not consider cheerleading a sport but they don’t know because they haven’t tried it. It is just like saying bowling or curling isn’t a sport yet one is it the Olympics and the other are in the category of sports teams. What people don’t know is recently the Olympics have added cheerleading to there summer Olympics. I think it gives cheerleading a lot more respect and people will be able to see what cheering is all about.

In conclusion I believe cheerleading has a bad reputation and that it is only yelling on the sidelines, but it is clearly more than that. There is tumbling, flexibility, memorization, stunting, and agility. So before you think cheerleading isn’t a sport just wait until you watch it on the Olympics and if you still don’t think it’s a sport you will have to get on the mat and try it out yourself.