Behind the scenes of a Cheerleader 

At the beginning of 2021, my competitive cheer team was invited to nationals in May of 2022. Our coaches told us that the next few months would be extremely hard if we wanted the results to come out on top. I remember one practice where every athlete was working through blood, sweat, and tears. We usually started practice off by running outside and then we would come back and stretch. Everything was going well until we started to warm up our routine. The first part we worked on was our elite stunt. Every group was going one at a time to make sure they could get all the critiques from the coaches. My stunt was next up in the circle to go. Everyone athlete circled up around us and held hands. As we were stunting my hand slipped off my flyers foot and she hit the ground. My coach yelled at my group and gave us a whole speech saying, 

“If you ever drop your flyer to the group again you will all be getting kicked off the team. It is unacceptable that your flyer has their life in your hands and you let them hit the floor.” 

I immediately realized that an accident like this cannot happen the week before nationals. After warming up our stunts we moved on to our tumbling. Typically tumbling goes well we just have a few timing issues. But on this day we had tumbling collisions and people not paying attention. It is very important to stay focused in this sport because you do one wrong thing and someone can easily get hurt. We continued to get screamed at by our coach so she ended up walking away from our practice. Usually when that happens someone steps in to talk to the team. I went in and said 

“It is the week before we leave for Florida and the last week we are all a team, things need to be changed in order to get the results we want.” 

“Things like this are unacceptable and everyone's mindset needs to change now before we get pulled from competing. We are hurting our teammates and our coaches.” Former teammate Archie said. 

By this point, everyone is frustrated with each other and upset. The only thing that can change right now is everyone's mindset. I look around and see every athlete sweating and even some crying. Our bodies are sore and hurting and the looks on everyone's faces made it seem like they were exhausted. We all picked ourselves back up and changed the mood. Therefore we changed the practice and by the time we had to run the routine things were getting better. We got up and ran the routine for the first time and you could hear everyone mat talking and encouraging each other on the floor. Which all resulted in ending a good practice. 

There are many different sports and activities that can relate to cheer. It’s not an easy sport and people do not get credit for what they are doing. Normally most cheerleaders come from the gymnastics world first. Personally, I started off there and it helped me become a better tumbler and athlete for cheer. We have the same difficulty as the gymnast and also the same body type. We also have the danger of football. Cheerleading is one of the most dangerous sports and has left many people paralyzed and more. When I was younger I would argue will all the football players about which sport was dangerous and safari always proved them wrong. We would look up the rankings to see which sport was more dangerous than the other. Dance is also a part of the cheer and is usually at the end of our routine so many people say we have the grace of a dancer. We dance differently than how dancers perform but it has the same rules and follows the same line. Cheer is probably the closest to dance because we also follow the same counting rules such as going from one to eight. A lot of our competitions also are held at the same events. Our scoresheets are somewhat similar and we would be able to understand them. Lastly, I would say we have the strength of a wrestler. This is because we are able to lift up people and throw them around throughout a routine. Not many people have the strength and coordination to do that. 

The hardest part about being a cheerleader is seeing all the hate comments on social media. We, cheerleaders, have our own world with just each other while everyone else around us is bringing us down. We grew up getting told that what we did wasn't a sport and it was easy. It would be on the news saying “Cheerleading is not a Sport” as the title. I remember just going on social media and even to school hearing and seeing people say that about something I loved. It is not something that is easy on us and nobody credits us for how hard we work. We are in the gym working out and conditioning just as much as any other sport in the world. 

Now that cheerleading has gotten put on the news about going into the Olympics many people's viewpoints have changed. We recently had a college team from Texas make a Netflix cheer show that showed the process and time of being a cheerleader. The people that watched it, were able to see how hard we actually worked for what we got. It made people realize that not every cheerleader is a national champion and we all work just as hard for that top spot. It is not something easy to get but I have been blessed my past few years to have been able to win nationals. It can be hard going back to school and people making fun of you because “every cheerleader wins” but I’ve learned to not listen to people who can't support me. 

Overall cheerleading is a sport that no one will ever understand unless you are involved in it. The dedication, money, work, etc. is just as much as any other sport. It's time for people to understand what we doing and possibly try it for themselves before bringing others down. This sport has shaped me into the person and athlete I am today so I will forever be grateful for everyone that supported me. The blood, sweat, and tears were all worth it in the end.