New Study

[newcheermom]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080811200423.htm

Are we really doing enough?

[CoachJen83]

Oh how I hate when these stupid "statistics" come out on cheerleading!

[ucaCHEERalum]

Ok...it seems like we get one of these NEW articles about every 4-5 weeks. 

Is cheerleading dangerous - yes.  But so is driving.  If you obey the rules and guidelines (ie.  have a spotter...wear your seat belt) then the chances that you'll get hurt when something goes wrong are drastically reduced.

I'm not here to dispute the number of injuries...I will offer up my thoughts on the reasons we have so many.

1.) Coaches...there aren't enough good ones.  Schools (especially at the highschool level) won't pay for qualified coaches or they won't pay to help them get the training/certification they need.  You can't expect to run a good program - let alone a safe one without the proper folks being in charge. 

2.) What they don't mention when they talk about these injuries is what percentage the cheerleaders make up of the student athlete pool.  Anyone who knows cheerleading (again, especially at the highschool level) knows that you can often have more girls cheerleading than in all the other major female sports combined. 

I judged tryouts for a local highschool just recently.  They had 100 girls trying out and they were going to take 85 for football (freshman, jv, and varsity), wrestling, and basketball (girls and guys, freshman, jv, varsity).  Now if you look at their roster for volleyball and basketball you'd find about 15 girls on their volleyball teams and 13-15 on each basketball team (alot of them are the same girls - different seasons y'know).  So here is the math.

Volleyball: 15 for jv & 15 for Varsity= 30 girls
Basketball: 15 x 3 (frosh, jv, varsity) = 45 girls

Cheerleading: 85 girls

Now obviously this model isn't going to be the same at every school but I would bet that its very similar around the country.

3.) OUR SEASONS ARE LONGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE.  While football is a fall sport and basketball is a winter sport, cheerleaders "cheer" almost the entire year.  That is two seasons worth of potential injuries that are blurred and lumped together in "studies" like this.

Ok so what did we learn here...

LOTS OF PARTICIPANTS (double or even triple that of other sports) + LONGER SEASON (again, sometimes twice to three times as long as other sports) = MORE POTENTIAL FOR INJURY

Its math people...do the math, think logically, and stop freaking out.

[alumnicoach]

I judged tryouts for a local highschool just recently.  They had 100 girls trying out and they were going to take 85 for football (freshman, jv, and varsity), wrestling, and basketball (girls and guys, freshman, jv, varsity). 

Its math people...do the math, think logically, and stop freaking out.

Okay, I've been shamed into not freaking out (publicly anyway).
But yowzaa....I can't help but be insanely jealously of a 100 girl tryout!!!

[ucaCHEERalum]

I wasn't trying to shame anyone...I just get very passionate about stuff like this. 

As for the tryout - it was at a pretty big school, but not one that would be classified as huge, and it took about four hours on a Friday night and then another 5 the next day.  It seems like a lot but really it breaks down to 25 girls/class (frosh, soph, junior, senior)...with more young ones (coming from the feeder middle schools) than old.

Thinking back to my highschool days - long ago - we had roughly 65 girls on the squads.  This was in a relatively small city in Iowa.  I think my class had about 360 kids or so.  Again, maybe having that many cheerleaders isn't the norm everywhere...but when you think about it...there are alot more cheerleaders out there than there are girls basketball players.

[jbo_su]

"The difference is due to a new partnership between the UNC center and the National Cheer Safety Foundation, a California-based not-for-profit body created to promote safety in the sport and collect data on injuries, which provided the center with previously unreported data."

Is this a reliable, legitimate group? And WHY was there no quote or information from AACCA? (oh wait, because that wouldn't help their cause..."

[ucaCHEERalum]

Is this a reliable, legitimate group? And WHY was there no quote or information from AACCA? (oh wait, because that wouldn't help their cause..."

I'm very wary of groups like this - they use words like "National" and "Foundation" to sound official.  Where are the credentials?

I myself am head of the National Burrito Safety Foundation.  We're here getting the word out about Burrito Safety - you can't just bite right in...you might get burnt by all that gooey cheese.

Furthermore, any "STUDY" that doesn't consult with groups (AACCA) recognized by the NCAA (and others) is nothing more than sensationalistic trash, IMO.

[Kong]

Some good points have already been brought up here.  I'll preface this the same way I preface anything I say about cheerleading safety.  If coaches were educated we'd be going a long way to reduce injuries to cheerleaders...especially the catastrophic ones many of which seem to occur with either uneducated, poor or no supervision.

Now, some things I noticed about this article and the parties involved.

As I began reading the article, the name of the organization came up...the National Cheer Safety Foundation. They are the subject of some of the data being compiled. If their website is any indication about how they compile research, I don't understand how they can combine what they learn with the National Catastrophic Injury Report from the University of North Carolina and come up with increased statistics. They have a link on their website where they want people (cheerleaders, coaches, parents???) sending in information about the injuries. Now, some questions:

• Are sports keeping track of their injuries in the same manner?  If they are not, how can we be sure that their injuries aren't being under reported as well?
• Is UNC doing anything to follow up on these injuries?
• Are they doing anything to follow up on other injuries reported (from other athletics)?
• Where are they getting their injury information when it does not come from the online survey?  Are they distinguishing between both reports?
• What's to keep the same injury from being reported multiple times?

Like any statistic compiling, there are issues.  Case in point...this article still focuses on the same recycled statistics dating back to 1982.

Kong

[AACCA Director]

I'll just add this. Any valid reporting is beneficial, and I've asked Dr. Mueller to forward details of these injuries so that our rules and education committees can take a look at them.

As for the numbers being used by the media, it's a PR game to some extent. Look at the numbers in the headlines and look at the numbers in the report. There are 5.35 and 6.49 injuries per 100,000 participants for female gymnastics and female hockey respectively.  These are significantly higher than cheerleading with 2.0 injuries per 100,000 participants.  Yet headlines still read "cheerleading is the most dangerous". That's not just misleading, it's false according to the report. Yes, there are more catastrophic injuries to cheerleaders than other females, but if there are more participants, there will be more injuries given the same or even with a lower injury rate.

Now, take into account some problems with the number used for cheerleading participation.

The figure of 95,177 supplied by the National Federation of High Schools was never intended as a study of cheerleading participation in high schools. Rather, it was a study to attempt to find out how many participants were involved in “competitive cheer”. This study was only replied to by 25 states and there was no definition of “competitive cheer”.  There are over 20,000 high schools in the country. Very likely each has at least one cheer squad and many have multiple teams consisting of 12 – 24 cheerleaders. It is not uncommon in states like Texas to have 3 or 4 teams with a total of 50 or more cheerleaders!  A more reasonable estimate of the number of participants is in the 300,000 to 500,000 range which would put the injuries under 1.0 per 100,000.

The last consideration when it comes to accurately comparing injury rates is the number of exposures, which isn’t within the scope of this particular study. However, since most cheerleading teams cheer during both the fall and spring sports seasons, there is twice the exposure to injury.  In order to be fair, the injury rate would have to be halved in order to compare it to sports that last only one season, which would bring the injury rate to under 0.5 per 100,000 participants.

Now before someone says "but that's no consolation to the parent that has lost their child", there is never consolation for such a tragedy.  But in the spirit of accurate reporting, let's report accurately.  If our cheerleaders stopped cheering and started doing gymnastics, ice hockey or many of the other sports with higher than 0.5 injuries per 100,000 participants, you can see what would happen.

Are we doing enough? I'd ask that question of everyone involved. Are coaches doing enough to make sure kids aren't attempting skills they shouldn't be attempting? If not, get rid of them. Are athletics directors giving support to cheerleading in terms of training, matting, reasonable places to practice, and are they checking to make sure coaches are following safety standards? Are cheerleaders doing their part to not practice without a coach present, telling the coach if they are uncomfortable doing a skill, focusing on the skill at hand? Are parents aware of their coaches credentials and if they are following the standards set forth? If not, what are they doing about it at their school? Are they pulling their kids from the program if they are concerned about safety, or are they letting them continue in an unsafe program?

We've put in some major changes in the last couple of years and I expect we are seeing some benefits of that now and that will be in the future reporting.  Schools can no longer do basket tosses and twisting dismounts on the basketball court. More states are requiring training courses for coaches.  Parents are more aware of the risks of cheerleading and have options if they choose to take them.

None of this mitigates the responsibility we all have for cheerleading safety.  So, more reporting - great. Sensationalist journalism (where are the reports of the injury rates of female hockey players and gymnasts or the fact that there are three times the number of emergency room visits for female basketball players than cheerleaders) - not so much.

[AACCA Director]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-15-2008/0004868475&EDATE=

[steelcheer]

wow

[ucaCHEERalum]

wow

\

...and the nomination for post of the century goes to...

*pause for drum roll*

STEELCHEER for use of the word, "WOW".


Just kidding with you Steel...welcome to the board.

[coachsmc]

Yes, we should always be reminding ourselves and our kids about the importance of safety.  But, we can still protest to skewed information presented to the world concerning our sport.

Any coach with a background in competitive cheerleading knows the rules and just how important it is to follow them.  The problem sets in when coaches are hired who are unqualified and unprepared to coach a team on a competitive level.  There are too many times an inexperienced coach trying to put advanced stunts in the air without a clue. 

Although cheer is gaining respect within the school system, in respects to it being considered a sport at some schools, it is still a back-burner program in the eyes of most administrations.  Screening applicants for the cheer team coaching position is not a priority.  Furthermore, there is a lack of practice facilities within the school system.  With the exception of a few schools, whose cheer programs' coaches and advisors have worked MANY years to gain a fair playing field with the rest of athletics, other sports get priority in facilities before cheer.  It is impossible to run safe practices if the facilities to do so are not available. 

Consequently, the dangers assessed about participating in cheerleading are not solely based on the nature of the sport; they are based on the lack of attention and support from the schools which they promote.

[cheerlael]

Oh how I hate when these stupid "statistics" come out on cheerleading!

i used to live near federal way

[LCSD1 coach]

1.) Coaches...there aren't enough good ones.  Schools (especially at the highschool level) won't pay for qualified coaches or they won't pay to help them get the training/certification they need.  You can't expect to run a good program - let alone a safe one without the proper folks being in charge. 

I have asked on several occasions to be sent to a bone and joint class to learn the proper way to wrap an ankle ect. and have been told no I don't need it.

 I also have asked to be sent to some classes so that I can get more training and education on keeping up with the new stuff NO. 

When I became the coach the AD sent me to Vegas to the NCA coaches conference and I learned so much but do you think he would send me back NO.

 Thank Goodness this year we have a new AD and I get to go to the Conference in Dallas.  I do wish that not only my AD but our Wyoming commisioner cared enough to educate more of our coaches.  The stunting that I saw by some of the schools smaller than mine scared me.  At the hotel during state basketball I watched a small squad doing a prep and bear hug dismount it was scarry. I asked if we (my team) could help and we went and helped  with their dismount and prep with my squad.  The coach said she learned more from us in that hour than she did at her camp.

Thats the other thing.  I have had some awesome instructors but I also have had some that might as well have never shown up.  Can we request that we get a previous instructor if we loved how they taught?

2.) What they don't mention when they talk about these injuries is what percentage the cheerleaders make up of the student athlete pool.  Anyone who knows cheerleading (again, especially at the highschool level) knows that you can often have more girls cheerleading than in all the other major female sports combined. 

This also can be bad if you have a small number compared to other sports.  Lets take my squad for example.  a couple of years ago I had a cheerleader break her back in a gymnastics class (on her own time)  I also had one fall out of a stunt because the girls threw and caught it funny and she put her hands down fractured the wrist.  Another girl was playing around after practice on our back handspring machine and threw her shoulder out.  Our back spot caught a stunt that was falling and got a concusion.

With a small amount of girls this looks really bad when you have half of your squad sitting the bench due to injury.  This was also before my school would purchase mats to practice on.  Needless to say after my pushing, and the fractured wrist, and the girls mother complaining we got practice mats.  (Our Ad didn't seem to think we needed them).

We have only had one injury this past year and it was not cheerleading related.  One of my girls hurt her knee while playing powder puff football and was out for the season.

If I had a squad of 85 girls the injuries may not look as bad due to the numbers.  When our football team has torn ACL's and broken bones they can have 12 kids injured and still be fine if I have 4 I've lost half my team.

Not to mention that the football boys either are in the Aux gym or out on the field.  The volleyball team are in the main gym.  The wrestlers have the wrestling room.  The girls basketball players are in the Aux gym and the main gym as well as the boys basketball teams.  So where do the cheerleaders practice?  Any place we can find.  Our drill team even has a room.  We have a little multi purpose room up by our wrestling room but have been invaded by the football boys (so they can stretch) and the volleyball team (doing conditioning) so we lose time there.  We have gone in the auditorium because the celing is higher but there is something always going on in there too.  So if we really want they gym we can practice at 6 in the morning, provided the teams have not scheduled and early morning practice , or after 7 at night on Mon and Wed.

The fact that some of us really do not have a practice spot is a huge issue but tell the schools that. In fact our school has been deemed unsafe (earthquake unsafe) so they are building or remodeling ours but according to "whomever" we have too much square footage for the amount of students we have so when they remodel we will lose our Aux gym and drill team room.  That leaves us even less space for everyone to find a spot to practice.

[Jen H]

I bet this new study will be used as a source in the cheerleading article at wikipedia. They sure are doing great job repeating all the rest of them there. 

[EcheerCoach]

Thats the other thing.  I have had some awesome instructors but I also have had some that might as well have never shown up.  Can we request that we get a previous instructor if we loved how they taught?

Yes you can!!!  I have requested and been sent the same instructor for 3 years for my Private Camp!  We love her and she is familiar with us.  It is wonderful!!!

[LCSD1 coach]

Thanks EcheerCoach I think I will put in my request

[CoachErin]

I have asked on several occasions to be sent to a bone and joint class to learn the proper way to wrap an ankle ect. and have been told no I don't need it.

I asked the local jr. college sports med people/trainers if they would show me some of these things and they were happy to help. I didn't pay anything and it really taught me some good stuff. You may try this if you have the option available.

I completely agree with everything said in this post with regards to holding the coaches, ad's, school administrators and school districts more responsible for ensuring the safety of our athletes. And I certainly agree with anyone who thinks all high school coaches should be AACCA certified.

[coachamie]

Not to mention that the football boys either are in the Aux gym or out on the field.  The volleyball team are in the main gym.  The wrestlers have the wrestling room.  The girls basketball players are in the Aux gym and the main gym as well as the boys basketball teams.  So where do the cheerleaders practice?  Any place we can find.  Our drill team even has a room.  We have a little multi purpose room up by our wrestling room but have been invaded by the football boys (so they can stretch) and the volleyball team (doing conditioning) so we lose time there.  We have gone in the auditorium because the celing is higher but there is something always going on in there too.  So if we really want they gym we can practice at 6 in the morning, provided the teams have not scheduled and early morning practice , or after 7 at night on Mon and Wed.

Agreed. I have fought for this for a while, but it doesn't help! In the summer's we typically do get the gym, however once school is in we are generally forced to the cafeteria or hallways. The ad is over the wrestlers and they have their own room that they use for about 3 months out of the year, then it sits empty. I have asked when they aren't in season if we could use it, he kept saying we could eventually but would never let us. We finally did and it was perfect. It is the size of a competition floor. However he has now taken up the mats - he claimed our shoes ripped holes in them not to mention he and his boys would wear boots on them and we made sure we only wore cheer shoes or barefoot! All that is left now is a concrete floor with holes and metal sticking out of it (it used to be a wood shop room) We only have one strip which limits what we can do greatly! Not to mention we also don't have a convenient place to put our one mat which limits us from getting more. Our storage spot is the corner of the auditorium. No matter where we practice it takes a good 20-25 minutes to get the mat from the auditorium to where ever we are practicing and it always involves taking the mat up or down steps and around the cafeteria tables, and then after each practice we have to take it back. It is frustrating the schools fail to realize we don't have a space to practice, and I know most other schools have this problem too!