Cheerleading Stunts

The best part of cheerleading for me, besides competitions would be stunting. Though this may be the best part, it may not be the easiest. Stunts range from many different levels. The basic stunts would be called intermediate stunts. These stunts teach you the basics and will lead up to the more difficult stunts that would be called the advanced stunts. Do you think you have what it takes to throw someone in the air? Even though cheerleaders make stunting seem so easy, it’s actually not as easy as it looks. There are a few basics of stunting that every cheerleader must learn and know in order to do every stunt correctly and safely. There are four basic people in every stunt group, with an optional fifth person.

The first person and the most important person would be called the flyer. This person would be the one that the other three people, called bases, would throw in the air. I was the flyer in high school and it was one of the best experiences of cheerleading. The most important part of the flyer is to hold their own weight, keep their chest and butt up, stay tight and lock their legs. The flyer should be so tight that if the bases are having complications, they would be able to adjust and keep the stunt up and going without the flyer falling into a cradle position. The cradle position is when bases throw the flyer and catch them in their arms. In this position the flyer will be doing a pike, also known as a cradle.

The second and third person of the stunt would be considered the main base and the secondary base. The main base is the person who the flyer gives their foot to first and usually the base that does the least adjustments and hand positions. The secondary base is the base that usually does the more complicated hand positioning depending on if their performing a one legged or two legged stunt. If it’s a two legged they’ll have their hands in the same position as the main base. They’ll be holding the toe and heal of the foot connecting both of their hands so there is no whole on the middle of the foot. If they’re performing a one legged stunt, they will grip the middle foot that the main base is holding in a sandwich technique, with their left hand on top and right hand on bottom (for right foot) squeezing their hands together, keeping the foot stable.

The fourth person in the stun would be the back spotter. This person is known as the eye of the stunt. Their main job is to control the whole stunt and guide the stunt if it’s moving. Their other job is to basically keep the flyer in the air and hold the butt/leg depending on the stunt. For majority of the stunts the back spotter would hold the ankle this also helps bases control the flyer. The fifth and optional person of the stunt would be the front spotter, this person usually comes in handy for more difficult stunts to help control the flyer and stunt or to help the bases hold the positioning of the foot when they can’t position their hands fast enough.

High School Cheerleading vs. College

Where I’m from, cheerleaders are known to be a squad full of girls. There are barely any squads that you’ll see that has boys, unless they’re a competitive cheerleading squad. The squads where I’m from perform many different stunts but nothing like what cheerleaders do in college. College cheerleading and high school cheerleading are totally different in many ways. They are different when it comes to competing and even when it comes to cheerleading at football games. There are many different things you have to do as a cheerleading adjusting from high school to cheerleading for a college squad.

It all starts with practices and tryouts for cheerleading. In high school you usually try out for different season during different times of the school year. Football tryouts were around May and basketball tryouts were around November. The high school I went to our football squad was also our competitive cheerleading squad. This usually contained about 12 girls, which in competitions would be considered a small varsity squad. Usually there were more girls who tried out for basketball then football but the squad would be about 10 girls. For the football squad we usually practiced a couple weeks out the summer just to get ready for competition season. On the courts and on the mats, we were only limited to do certain stunts depending on the level of difficulty. Our pyramids could only be one level high and we had to have connection with all flyers at all times. This gave us a limit on what we could do for difficulty in our stunts. Coming to competitions you would normally see the same stunts and pyramids but just in different combinations. There was never a squad that did stunts you never seen before. If there was, it’s because it might have been a big competition like states or nationals.

College cheerleading differs from high school cheerleading in many ways. When you see college cheerleaders, you normally see boys and girls, its unusual that you’ll see college cheerleaders with a squad of girls only, unless it’s not a big school or D1 school, then it’s more likely. Also college squads are usually huge, so huge that they all can’t cheer in the same spot. You will normally see them split one half will hit one side of the crowd, and the other half will hit the other side of the crowd. Also, a college cheerleading squad is all year round and usually cheers for every sport. Another thing that is different between the two is that college cheerleaders are allowed to do almost any stunt in the book. At games or competition, you will see them doing pyramids two levels high or sometimes three level high. Not all the time does the flyer have to be connected with the bases and not all the time will the flyer have four bases under her. Sometimes it could be only, or two. When you go to a college competition you will always see a variety of stunts you never seen before. Little things like the difficulty of stunts and the genders on the squads is what differs high school cheerleading from college cheerleading.

 

Cheerleading Shoes

Although cheerleading shoes doesn’t seem very important, they play one of the most important roles in the life of a cheerleader. Without the proper cheerleading shoes, you will not be able to jump, tumble or stunt. Typically the more expensive the shoe is the better. There are all type of cheerleading shoes and brand. You can get shoes from anywhere, even places like Dick’s Sporting Goods. The different cheerleading brands include Nike, Asics and the most common cheerleading shoe brand is of course Varsity.

Throughout my high school cheerleading career, we never wore any type of Nike brand cheerleading shoes. The Nike brand is typically used only for sideline cheerleading, like the cheerleaders at football games, but they can be worn on basically any kind of surface. They are light, and clean off easily. The only problem I really have with them is that you can just buy a pair with lines to match your school colors. They have a pouch and different colored pieces that you have to slide inside the clear pouch. These are like the old fashioned cheerleading shoes and the pouches can be very annoying because they colored pieces tend to slide out a lot, making it very hard to maintain.

When I first started cheerleading in sixth grade till my second year of cheerleading varsity, in ninth grade, we wore these big shoes with thick bottoms and colored navy blue lines on the side that matched our school colors. The name brands of the shoes were Asics. These shoes were comfortable at the time and the most popular, but when you started to break them in, they started to become a tad bit annoying. They would stretch out almost a whole size, so your shoe would be super big and flopping around. This would make you have to continue to tighten your shoes strings all the time, which made the width of the shoe stretch out even more. This also made it hard to jump and for flyers, hard to stunt because your bases wouldn’t really have a good grip on shoe. At the time, we just had to deal with it because it was the newest shoes out and we had no other choice.

My third year cheerleading varsity, my 10th grade year, we switched shoes and got our first pair of varsity shoes. These shoes were so comfortable and they started to trend that year. The difference between these and they Asics were that the varsity shoes had a better grip, were tiny and skinnier, they didn’t stretch out as much and they were all white with no color. You could wear these shoes only on the football field; however we used them for competitions, which wore the bottom of our shoes out making it hard to grip the floor. My 11th grade year we got the most expensive and popular brand of varsity shoes, the infinities. We had the football shoe and the shoes made strictly for competition mats. These shoes are the best, have the best grip and they still are the most popular and my high school squad still currently uses them.

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Cheerleading Camp

Every cheerleading squad needs a little bit of improvement somewhere. The perfect place to get that improvement is by going to cheerleading camp. Any cheerleader you know has been to a cheerleading camp at least once. The most popular cheerleading camps are UCA and NCA. UCA stands for universal cheerleading association and NCA stands for national cheerleading association. These two associations are like cheerleading rivals. They both have different styles of cheering. UCA cheers more like game day cheerleaders would. NCA cheers like competition cheerleader, even though there both competitive associations, NCA focuses more on stunts and dances as for UCA, they focus more on attacking the crowd.

On my high school cheerleading squad, we never went away to a camp. We always held the camps at our school and others school around the county would bring their competitive squads to our camp. The cheerleading association that held our camp was NCA. Our camp was three days long. On the first day, we would just do little icebreakers to get to know each squad. We would also learn a cheer and chant and part of the dance. On the second day, we would finish learning the dance, and work on stunts and jumps. Stunting and jumping was my favorite part, because I was a flyer and also because our squad was excelled a lot at stunting and jumping. Towards the end of day two, we had an opportunity to perform the cheer we learned, three jumps and tumbling to the other squads and judges. This was only if you were nominated to try out for the NCA all-american squad. On day three, we would review the material and perform the best cheer and chant in front of the other squads and our parents. Awards would also be given out, including the all-american team awards. Other awards included most spirited (spirit stick), best jumps and best captain award. I received every award possible during all five of my years cheerleading varsity.

NCA was founded by Lawrence “Herkie” Herkimer in 1961. Its purpose was to bring people together with the same talent and desire. It was founded before UCA was founded, so it was the original cheerleading association. Besides holding just camps, NCA also holds competitions. Cheerleaders from all over the world come to NCA Nationals. For all stars, it’s one of their last competitions before they go to worlds. For the high school teams, this is the last competition after states. NCA also is a competitive squad itself. They are huge and they go against different teams including the UCA squad.

NCA is my favorite association out of the two. They not only are clean and sharp but they give me something to look forward to every year. Watching them, I get so amazed each time. They are the true definition of cheerleaders. They also had a big part of me. They had a part in my cheerleading career and are the reason why I cheer the way I do. They are the reason why I only reach for perfection. NCA is perfection.

Cheerleading Apparels

Cheerleaders all around the world wear the same apparel. These includes the shell top and skirt, the bow, briefs, body liner and the shoes. Most of these things are made by the same company. The most famous brand of cheerleading apparel come from a company called Varsity.

Varsity Spirit Fashion is the world’s largest uniform designer and manufacturer. They design cheerleading uniforms and dance uniforms. Varsity was founded in 1979 by Jeff Webb. Varsity Spirit Fashion’s cheerleader uniforms and dance uniforms were custom built. They were made to fit the new generation of cheerleaders and dancers. Every year there is a new design of apparel for cheerleading and dancing. Every year just like shopping for homecoming or prom there is a new trend of uniforms that every squad wants to wear.

Varsity’s logo is very unique. It has strong, fluid lines that form a v. Anywhere you go that revolves cheerleading, I guarantee you, you’ll see the varsity logo. This includes competitions or even websites.  The varsity logo symbolizes the high performance style of today’s cheerleaders and dancers. All varsity material has the logo imprinted on it. The only thing that separates every squad from the other with your cheerleading uniform is the range of colors that coordinates with your team’s identity. The Varsity logo is the mark of cheer and dance excellence and the single most recognized symbol in modern cheerleading and dance. Today, Varsity Spirit Fashion combines excellence and tradition in both cheer uniforms and dance uniforms. It’s amazing how one symbol can bring cheer and dance all together.

Along with varsity, there is another brand that also makes cheerleading and dance apparel. This brand is called JAMS. Unlike Varsity however, JAM is not just one brand, its many. Although JAMS is popular, you’re not as likely to see a squad with apparel from JAM as you would Varsity. Also, the big difference between JAMS and Varsity is that Varsity makes almost anything.  JAMS make only a variety of fun and fashionable clothing. This includes t-shirts, sports bras, hoodies, pants, shorts and shoes.

JAM is one of the leading providers of products and services for the cheerleading and dance industry. It is comprised of approximately 12 different brands. Each brand sells merchandise all over the world. You will see JAM products at major competitions across the country. The JAM Brands not only makes merchandise, but they produces cheerleading and dance competitions all over the US, Canada, and Europe. Each competition is comprised with more than 700,000 athletes. The JAM Brands hold these events each cheerleading and dance season. The original brand of The JAM Brands was called JAM Fest. JAM Fest was founded in 1996 by Aaron Flaker and Emmitt Tyler. They both remain active in the daily operations of the company and have since added Dan Kessler to the ownership team.

Cheerleading apparel is nearly the same all around the world. No matter who you cheer for, there is always someone out there with the same apparel as you. Despite the different teams, were all one!

Cheerleading TV Shows

There are many different cheerleading shows that I watch to occupy my free time. Two of my favorite cheerleading shows are Cheerleaders and Hit the floor. Cheerleaders is about a competitive cheerleading squad called the California All Stars journey up until Worlds and Hit the Floor is about a cheer/dance squad and all the drama on and off the court.

The California All Stars started in 2001 in North County San Diego. They started with an aspiration of one day winning NCA Nationals. This inspiration later changed to winning Worlds.  They originally started as a very small gym, with no spring floors. Now, the California All Stars is in its 14th season and has grown from 110 athletes to over 1000 athletes between 6 locations – San Marcos, Bay Area, Las Vegas, Ventura, Ontario and Scottsdale, AZ. With their affordable prices and the best instruction and experience for their customers, the California All Stars are considered the best program in the region and one of the best in the world. They’ve won over 400 National Titles, Grand Champions, Program Champions, Innovative Choreography Awards, Judges Choice Awards, Paid Bids to the USASF WORLDS, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 WORLD CHAMPIONS, IALC Champions, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 NCA National Champions. Not only that, they were the 3x cheerleading World champions in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The California All Stars offer teams for all levels 1-5 and everyone is placed on a team, regardless of experience.

The TV show Cheerleaders take place for the most part in the gym of the California All Stars. It shows everything they go through at practice to get to where they are now. The TV show includes so much that it makes you feel like your apart of the cheerleading squad or that you know each cheerleader and coach personally. If you enjoy cheerleading you’ll love this show, especially if you love competitive cheerleading. It takes you behind the scenes at competitions and even Worlds! This show really does a great job at connecting with the viewers and entertaining them.

The TV show Hit The Floor however is a little bit different form Cheerleaders. The TV series follows a girl named Asha Hayes. She’s the talented yet naive daughter of single mom Sloane Hayes. Asha joins the NBA cheerleading/dance team called the Los Angeles Devil Girls. Her mother was a formal devil girl. Following in her mother’s footsteps Asha breaks the number one rule and starts dating basketball player Derek Roman, leaving her insecure high school sweetheart German Vega in the dust. Meanwhile, the Devil girls captain Jelena Howard is intimidated by Asha and out to get her. Later on, Asha finds out that the new head coach Pete Davenport is her biological father. As more truths begin to reveal, things take a turn when the coach of the devil girls Olivia Vincent is murdered. As the whole Devils arena is being investigated Asha mom becomes the new Devils girl coach and her ex-boyfriend German becomes the assistant basketball coach. The Devils Arena can’t get any more messed up then this, until they find out who was involved in Olivia’s death and why.

Cheerleading Movies

The most famous cheerleading movie everyone knows, is Bring it On. This movie has many different sequels. The original movie was made in 2000. The movie is basically about the Toro competitive cheerleading squad from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego. This squad is known for their spirit, spunk, and sass. They always use that to their advantage when it comes to competiting against other squads. They got a routine made for them that they thought would give them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But because of the new cheerleading team captain, the Toros road to success in cheer takes a turn when she realizes that their choreographed routine was stolen. They go to Nationals to face their rival competitors and they get a cheer beat down.

The second sequel to the movie is called Bring it On Again. This movie was made in 2004. This movie is a little bit different from the original version. It was about two college friends who try out for the seven time national champion cheerleading team. However, the captain of the team, Tina is a bit intimidated by the two girls and does everything in her might to get them to quit. They eventually do quit and form their own cheerleading squad. After being approved to compete, they face Tina’s squad head on at Nationals where they beat them, taking the title.

The third sequel to the movie is called Bring it On: All or Nothing. This movie was made in 2006. This movie is about a cheerleading captain at Pacific Vista High School named Brittany Allen who had to give up her spot as captain to another teammate who envied her, because her dad’s job moved to Crenshaw Heights. At the new school Brittany decides to cheer and takes her new squad to the top. They eventually went head to head with her former squad, taking their National title.

The fourth sequel to the movie is called Bring it On: In It To Win It. This movie was made in 2007. This movie is about a cheerleading captain named Carson who takes her team the West High Sharks to a cheer camp to better themselves and win Nationals, which they’ve never done before. Also there are her rivals the East High Jets who also is going for the title once again. When tragedy hits and the two squads believe they have a cheer curse, they come together forming the East West Shets who at the end takes it all.

The last sequel so far, is called Bring it On: Fight to the Finish. This movie was made in 2009. This movie is about a Captain at East L.A. who transfers to West Los Angeles high school after her mother remarries a wealthy man. There Lina has a new sister and joins her cheerleading squad becoming captain. She made an enemy, the old captain of the squad and the sister so her crush who is not captain of an all-star team. Lina turns her new squad completely around making them an all-star squad. They go to Nationals and beat the champions who happen to be her enemy.

My favorite movie out of them all would be the first one. It’s the only bring it on that unique in a way. The sequels started to go off topic of the original movie.yg0O6eGgrumDZ1bht3pqMjNaWon

Cheerleading is a Sport

Cheerleading isn’t all about shaking pomp poms and cheering for a crowd. Its way more to it then what you may see as an outsider. People fail to realize the difference between sideline cheerleaders and competitive cheerleaders. Sideline cheerleaders main purpose is to tend to the crowd and entertain them, which is not a sport. Competitive cheerleading however is. It involves gymnastics, flexibility, leadership and most of all trust. Being a cheerleader you have many different opportunities to express who you are. The most common way people express who they are is through competitive cheerleading. This is where you get a choreographed routine that is no longer than two minutes and 30 seconds. This routine must include tumbling, stunting, jumps, a cheer and a dance. Tumbling in other words is when people do backflips across the floor. Stunts are when four or five people also known as bases build a mount of different levels of difficulty, throwing the flyer into the air. Jumps are a skill where you jump in the air hitting a t motion with your arms bringing your legs into a position (different positions depending on the jump).The dance and cheer however, is the most important part of the routine, this is when you can express yourself the most. The common way of expression is using facials. In competitive cheer, your scored is based on all of these elements. You’re competing against other squads for the highest score.
Competitive cheer is known all over the world. You can participate in competitive cheer at the high school, college, rec or all-star level. Just like basketball, football or any other sport, competitive cheerleading has different levels of competitions in which you compete at. They all go in order from local competitions to counties, districts, states and all the way up to worlds. Worlds is the very last competition at Universal Studios in Florida. This is the only place you will see the best of the best in high school, college, rec and all-star cheerleading programs perform. “A sport, according to the Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors, is a “physical activity [competition] against/with an opponent, governed by rules and conditions under which a winner is declared, and primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants.”” Since cheerleading follows these guidelines, it is indeed a sport! Cheerleading is just like any other sport, it’s dangerous. Females are more likely to be injured in cheerleading than in any other sport. Every time you step out onto the mat you’re taking a chance. Anything can happen in those two minutes and 30 seconds. Despite the high risks of injuring yourself, people do it because just like any other sport, they love it! Just like any other sport cheerleaders compete against other teams. Just like any other sport, competitive cheerleaders have a limited time to perform and a limited area in which they have to use to compete. Just like any other sport cheerleaders have to be mentally and physically tough. Just like any other sport, competitive cheerleaders work hard, to win. Cheerleading is a sport!