Why Cheerleading Has Become A Prestigious Activity

By Richard Graham


Spectators at sporting events, regardless of whether they are junior league, school events, university tournaments or big professional sporting events, are used to being entertained and sometimes even awed by cheerleaders. Cheerleaders have almost become an accepted part of any event. Spectators even feel cheated if they are not present during a match. Indeed, cheerleading is a popular activity everywhere, Morganville NJ to Las Vegas.

Cheerleaders are mostly associated with sporting event but the tradition of cheering is ancient. The Old Testament describes battles where special groups of soldiers were tasked to bang their cymbals, blow their trumpets and display their flags, all in aid of cheering on their armies and to motivate them to try even harder. This tradition of using cheerleaders during battle persisted for hundreds of years.

The modern form of cheer leading was first recorded at Princeton University in 1877. At that time, all the male spectators at football matches chanted a special cheer, now known as the locomotive, in unison. Their efforts were directed by a small squad of cheerleaders. When a Princeton student emigrated to the United States in 1884, the tradition was established at the University of Minnesota. The tradition of organized cheering quickly became popular at other universities and schools.

Females were not allowed to be cheerleaders until 1923 because it was viewed as unseemly behaviour for ladies. Only in 1923 did females first become eligible to be cheerleaders. This was also at the University of Minnesota. The idea of female cheerleaders did not find favour for a long time however. Only in the early forties did the idea of female cheerleaders catch on. Today it is an almost exclusively female sport.

Over time, the purpose of cheer leading has not changed much. The task of the cheerleaders were, and is, to get the spectators worked up, to motivate them to cheer for their teams and to motivate the sports teams to perform at their very best. In time, cheerleaders started to play a more prominent role in providing entertainment for spectators before and during matches.

Cheer leading has become immensely popular. Being part of the squad is an automatic ticket to social acceptance and popularity. Competition is fierce and there are now even tournaments for cheerleader squads. In fact, cheer leading is no longer just a supporting act to sports events. It has become a sport in itself. To succeed in this sport requires a very high level of dedication.

There is a dark side to cheer leading. Astonishingly it is the sport with the most fatal and serious injuries in the world. Fierce competition has led to trainers demanding ever increasingly dangerous and spectacular stunts and it is especially during pyramid routines that injuries occur. Other critics have condemned the fact that successful cheerleaders are expected to be beautiful and sexy.

There can be no doubt that cheer leading is a demanding sport. Participants need to master complicated movements and they need to be very fit. Competition is fierce and only the very best can expect to be selected to the top squads.




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