This past Thursday, the 16th, SWIC held a cheerleading clinic for all males and females interested in cheering for Blue Storm. My coach made the clinic open to all current SWIC students. Those of us who are already on the squad ran the clinic while my coach watched the new girls. We were taking a minimum of five girls and three boys; we had 18 girls show up, which was a surprise to us. The girls were split up in to groups of who could tumble and who could not. The prospecctive cheerleaders were taught a cheer and three types of jumps called a toe touch, a hurkey, and a pike jump. It was obvious from the beginning of teaching the girls who was capable and who was not. I know this sounds harsh, but to be a cheerleader, especially one who competes, you have to be able to keep up and catch on quickly. I will be nice and not call out any of the particular girls who were not cheerleader material, let's just say we knew right away who we wanted on the squad.
The world of competative cheerleading is intense to say the least. Squads prepare all summer and all basketball season just go to competitions, not to mention all of the time spent working on cheers and stunts and such for basketball games. Competing in cheerleading is just as difficult if not more difficult than any other sport.There are so many rules and guidelines to follow it's unreal. The National Cheerleader Association takes competitive cheerleading very seriously. Since all of the dances, stunt, and tumbling sequences in a cheerleading competition are very intense and possibly dangerous, the NCA has laid down many rules and to how you may do certain things, and what you may not do at all. Cheerleading is dangerous no matter what level you are at. There are children and young as five years old. If those little girls do not learn cheerleading safety at the young of an age, they will never care about how dangerous cheerleading and competing can be until they or someone they compete with or against is seriously injured. I wish that everyone would take cheerleading as seriously as I do. As cheerleaders, our support would go way up, and the amount of people mocking us would go down. Everytime someone says something rude about cheerleading I want to ask them to come to practice with me and do what I do, and then see what they think about cheerleading.
You know, I'm kinda disappointed to see that nobody has left any comments on your page. As my mom use to say about Cheerleading, "In any other sport if ya miss the catch, all you lose is the ball." This being said the safety and the guide lines to being a Cheerleader are highly under noticed, not only by the general population, but also by new cheerleaders. They get it in their head that its about the popularity contest, the unrevealing attire, and the attention of boys. Pretty much just keep up the good work, let people know what its all about, and above all else, have fun!
ReplyDeleteHi I am interested in trying out for the cheer squad. is there a day of try outs? or what?
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