What are the TOP TEN things people should know about cheerleading?

[VarsityAndrea]

Are you tired of hearing the typical stereotypes from your friends who aren't cheerleaders? Well, you can help take those stereotypes and demolish them for good by helping Varsity.com!

We are looking for cheerleaders to help us compose a list of "The Top 10 Things You Don't Know About Cheerleading." If YOU could tell the world 10 things they DON'T know about cheerleading that you think everyone should know, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM?

Help us out with your opinion RIGHT HERE on the Varsity.com Forums!

[coolcoach]

**That it's a very demanding sport, and that the athletes who participate practice just as much (if not more) as other sports do.

For example, my niece plays varsity volleyball. She told me that she has practice 2 days per week. She was very surprised to learn that my cheerleaders have practice every day with games on Fridays.

**That it's NO MORE DANGEROUS than any other athletic activity.

[Miss April]

ohhh, coolcoach, your replies were the same as the first ones that came to mind for me

1. Cheerleaders are very hard working athletes. It doesn't matter if you want to fit the limited bubble of being labeled a "sport" or if you don't.  Cheerleading is an athletic activity.

2.  Cheerleading is not the dangerous sport that the mainstream media portrays it to be.  The safety of any cheer team is the coaches responsibility.  Sometimes accidents do happen, though most times accidents can be avoided.

3.The stereotypes you have about cheerleaders (and cheerleading) are just that... Stereotypes  Cheerleaders are people, there are nice people, there are some not so nice people.  There are not more mean girls, slutty girls, air heads, whathaveyou in cheerleading then there is in any other sport/activity/subculture.

More to come as I think of them

[SoCalCheerCoach2]

All teams have varying levels of ability (just as in every school sports team).  Just because some cheer teams are not as dedicated as others and/or not as talented as others doesn't mean the sport as a whole should be mocked or considered "easy".  There are many contributing factors to a successful cheer squad: qualified coaches, extremely dedicated memebers, adequate practice space, funding, etc.  Some teams unfortunately are not as blessed as others and the school may not support them which creates adversity in becoming a truly great squad.  Until all schools take cheerleading seriously, there will always be teams that may bring a "bad name" to cheerleading.  However, the name of cheerleading should not be tarnished due to it.

[coolcoach]

*Cheerleading is about more than just wearing a cute uniform and shaking your pom poms on the sideline. There is so much more to it.

*Cheerleaders are NOT STUPID AIRHEADS. My squad has a team GPA of 3.4.  Many of them maintain Honor Roll GPAs, while participating in cheerleading and other school activities like the debate team, Student Council, etc.

*Cheerleading is a positive activity that helps young women (and men) develop self-confidence and higher self-esteem.

*Cheerleading can open up a world of other opportunities for participants. Many girls and guys have been able to attend college with cheerleading scholarships.

[LCSD1 coach]

We practice and perform year round.  Our season really doesn't end.  For my squad we have tryouts either the end of March or Beggining of April.  During the summer the girls have 2 camps, several performances and parades, then we have fundraisers and community service.  Then we not only cheer for football and volleyball but we time for swimming.  Then we cheer girls and boys basketball along with wrestling.  Then add all the pep assemblys and activities we put on.  Then on top of all that we practice morning and after noon for two months for our state routines.  State is the first part of March and then they get a two week break and we are back at it with try outs.  So like a said our season doesn't end we go year round.

[MidwestCheerleader]

Excuse me...but I am a competitive cheerleader for Midwest Cheer Elite in West Chester, Ohio. I have been to The Cheerleading Worlds 3 times.
 1. Cheerleading is the top sport for the most catastrophic injuries and deaths.
 2. Competitive Cheerleading isn't standing on the sideline cheering for the football/basketball teams. It isn't cheering for your school and doing lame things. It's getting out on the floor, flipping your body, throwing people around and dancing your butt off.
 3. We practice a lot more than any other sport in the world.
 4. We have broken bones, sprained or pulled muscles & ligaments, we fall and get dropped from 15ft in the air and it's no big deal . We have to learn to shake it off and do it for the team. When we are back stage warming up at a competition, if you fall you have to work through the pain for 2min & 30sec. It's called TEAMWORK. We don't have another person standing there to step in and do it for us when we get hurt like in football.
 5. We don't have any type of padding that protects us from our injuries.
 6. CHEERLEADING IS A SPORT ! All-Star cheerleading is a sport. Not sideline or competitive cheerleading for your school.
 7. Not all boys that cheer are gay. I know some boys that do it so that they can get a college scholarship.
 8. It is very expensive. You travel all over the U.s and pay a lot of money for competitions. It's so worth it though.
 9. Some cheerleaders will drive 2 hours jsut to cheer at a good cheerleading gym. I myself drove 2 hours from West Chester, Ohio to Louisville, Kentucky to cheer on Gym Tyme. It was a very good experience but my mom owns Midwest Cheer Elite so I decided to come back and cheer for her again this yeear.
 10. Cheerleaders are not always "peppy" girls who alwasys wanna look cute. We are about winning and hitting our show. Doing our best on the floor. We aren't here to cheer for a team to win. We are here to show off our skills and win! 

[dawnss]

1). TECHNIQUE is a must, if you do not care about how you present your skills then do not even think about stepping onto a cheer mat, as a matter of fact go over to the gymnastics instructors and see what they do people who don't care about technique .
2). Like any other sport talent is an advantage but if you do not condition, stretch, ask your coach questions if you need help then fix whatever problem you are having.
3). You NEED to prepare for tryouts at least four to six months in advance that way when you go to tumbling class you can fly through the basics because you have the strength and the flexiblity to perfect your tumbling. Oh and do not make the mistake that basics is not important for any skill in cheerleading, because if someone has ugly looking basic skills than more than likely there advanced skills will be horrid to watch, if they even get that far. With tumbling in mind, know that gymnastic and many cheer coaches are neat freaks and if you do not want to take the time to have pretty looking backbend kickovers than you can stay in a beginning tumbling class. And I just want to add that if you want to be a cheerleader then, you should take a tumbling class and not a gymnastics class, because some of the technique taught in gymnastics is very different from cheerleading.
4). The age old flying issue: Just because you are 5 feet (I am by the way so I am not making fun of shorties) and are 95 pounds does not mean you will become a flyer. Most bases would rather base someone of the same height who is 110 pounds but who understands technique, proper body alignment, and who is strong (now if the flyer is 95 pounds and fulfills the above requirements then that is a different story).
5). Know that cheer is year around and that it is expensive, if you need to fundraise like I did then do it and do not complain, since I wanted to cheer for American Cheer I had to go door to door selling car wash tickets in almost 100 weather, just do it.
6). You need to condition and stretch at least five days a week.
7). You need to be a team player, if you do not have what it takes to work with people who you do not like then do a solo sport.

[pvcheer]

Cheerleading is fun and hard work. Don't let the uniform fool you. A lot of those girls are tough and a lot of the guys are pretty strong. It takes a lot of strength to hold another person in the air.

[moolahface]

I HATE it when people say that high school cheerleading not being a sport. Here are some things I would like to point out about high school cheer:

1.) Above all, there is a variety of high school teams just like a variety of all star teams. Some contribute to the stereotypes, but that doesn't make all high school teams like that, just like SoCal said.

2.) That said, most high school teams actually do compete, contrary to popular all-star belief. My team has practice every day after school for three hours on average, with the exception of sunday. Even when we do have our games to go to, we have a practice beforehand. We work just as hard as an all-star team, and we support our school on top of that!

3.) We HATE the cheerleader stereotypes just as much as any all-star team does. So the idea that high school cheerleaders are sluts isn't true at all. I've seen just as many (if not more) all-star teams with barely-there uniforms and prostitute makeup as I've seen high school cheer teams being sluts.

4.)I'd also like to mention the mean girls cheerleader stereotype. Every cheerleader wants it to be completely erased. But does it really help when All-Star teams and High School teams can't stop bashing each other?
I mean, it makes me so mad when all-star cheerleaders try to erase the cheerleader stereotypes by saying "oh, no, that's only the high school cheerleaders. we're not like that." which only makes the problem worse because then they seem like they're being unfair (mean girls stereotype!) and we seem like exactly the stereotype we're all trying to erase.

I wish that All-Stars and High School cheerleading could just honor their differences instead of relentlessly bashing each other all the time. Please keep this in mind the next time one decides to bash the other... step in and try to make a difference.

Sorry that was so long, haha. I'm just sick and tired of people thinking that high school cheerleading is easy, because it's not.

[Native Spirit Cheer]

1) That we are like the cheerleaders from Bring it On (Since I coach at a predominantly Native American School, my come back to "Bring It On" references is: "You know, Bring it On does for cheerleading what Dances with Wolves does for Native American culture. That usually stops things in their tracks).
2)That my girls are the "Queen Bees" of the school.  We actually had someone call me to say that "We are doing a Queen Bees and Wanna-bes seminar tonight, and I think it is especially important that the cheerleaders should go."  I apologized to my girls later that night for wasting practice time on that seminar.
3) That cheerleading is derogatory toward women...don't even get me started on that!
Okay, that's all I have for now, as I need to pick up my daughter from school!!