Cheerleading
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cheerleading is an athletic activity that uses organized routines made up of elements from dance, gymnastics, and stunting to cheer on sports teams at games and matches, and/or as a "competitive sport". A cheerleading performer is called a cheerleader. It is most common in North America, but has spread elsewhere.
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[edit] History
Cheerleading first started at Princeton University in the 1880s with the crowd chant, "Rah rah rah, tiger tiger tiger, sis sis sis, boom boom boom ahhhhhhh, Princeton Princeton Princeton!!" as a way to encourage school spirit at football games.[citation needed] A few years later, Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles introduced the idea of organized crowd chanting to the University of Minnesota in 1894, but it was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell stood in front of the crowd, and directed them in a chant, making Campbell the very first cheerleader.[citation needed] Soon after that, the University of Minnesota organized a "yell leader" squad of 4 male students.[citation needed] Although it is estimated that 90% of today's cheerleading participants are female, cheerleading started out as an all-male activity. Females started to participate in cheerleading in the 1920s, due to limited availability of female collegiate sports. By the 1940s, it was a largely female activity.
Cheerleading is most closely associated with American football, and to a lesser degree basketball. Sports such as football(soccer), ice hockey, volleyball, baseball, and wrestling rarely have cheerleaders. The only Major League Baseball team with cheerleaders as of 2006 is the Florida Marlins.
In 1948, Lawrence "Herkie" Herkimer formed the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) as a way to hold cheerleading clinics. The National Cheerleaders Association held its first clinic in 1949 with 52 girls in attendance.[citation needed] The next year, the clinic had grown to 350 cheerleaders.[citation needed] By the 1950s, most American high schools had formed cheerleading squads.[citation needed] By the 1960s, cheerleading had grown to be a staple in American high school and collegiate sports.[citation needed] Organized cheerleading competitions began to crop up with the first ranking of the "Top Ten College Cheerleading Squads" and "Cheerleader All America" awards given out by the International Cheerleading Foundation (now the World Cheerleading Association or WCA) in 1967[citation needed]. In 1978, America was introduced to competitive cheerleading by the first broadcast of Collegiate Cheerleading Championships on CBS.[citation needed]
In the 1960s National Football League (NFL) teams began to organize professional cheerleading teams. It was the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders who gained the spotlight with their revealing outfits and sophisticated dance moves, which debuted in the 1972-1973 season, but were first seen widely in Super Bowl X (1976). This caused the image of cheerleaders to permanently change, with many other NFL teams emulating them. Most of the professional teams' "cheerleading" squads would more accurately be described as dance teams by today's standards; as they rarely, if ever, actively encourage crowd noise or perform modern cheerleading moves.
The 1980s saw the onset of modern cheerleading with more difficult stunts and gymnastics being incorporated into routines.[citation needed] Cheerleading organizations started applying safety guidelines and offering courses on safety training for coaches and sponsors.[citation needed] Today, cheerleading has grown to an estimated 4 million participants in the United States alone.[citation needed]
According to latest studies, there are nearly 3.5 million cheerleaders in the USA alone, and half as many dance team members and gymnasts, taking the total number of participants involved in cheerleading and allied activities in the USA to above 5 million. There are also tens of thousands of cheerleaders in Europe, Australia, and Asia.
[edit] All Star Cheerleading
In the early 1990s, cheerleading teams not associated with schools or sports leagues, whose main objective is competition, began to emerge.[citation needed] All-star cheerleading involves a squad of anywhere between 5-35+ females and/or males. The squad prepares almost year-round for many different competition appearances, but they only actually perform for up to 2½ minutes during their routines. The numbers of competitions a team participates in varies from team to team, but generally, most teams tend to participate in six or seven competitions a year. During a competition routine, a squad performs carefully choreographed stunting, tumbling, jumping and dancing to their own custom music. Teams create their routines to an eight-count system and apply that to the music so the team members execute the elements being performed with precise timing and synchronization.
All-star competitive cheerleaders are placed into divisions which are grouped based upon age and ability level. Judges at the competition watch for illegal moves from the group or any of its members. Here, an illegal move is something that is not allowed in that division, due to difficulty and safety restrictions. More generally, judges look at the difficulty and execution of stunts and tumbling, synchronization, the sharpness of the motions in the dance, as well as the cheer (if applicable), and overall routine execution.
All-star cheerleading is a relatively young sport, but is gaining popularity at a rapid pace.
[edit] USASF World Cheerleading Championships
The foremost competition for all-star cheerleading is the annual USASF World Championships held at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL.[citation needed] Since its inception in 2004, teams must qualify for the event by finishing at or near the top at one of several qualifying competitions.[citation needed] US teams have won the vast majority of the medals, but an increasing number of strong teams from around the globe have come to compete in the event in recent years.[citation needed] This competition has grown in popularity and prestige since its beginning as a small competition in 2004.[citation needed] In 2006, over 100 teams from 11 different countries competed in the event.[citation needed]
2004
| Division | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior All Girl | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Athletics (Dallas, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Maryland Twisters (Glen Burnie, MD) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg American Cheer (Bakersfield, CA) |
| Senior Coed | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Miami Elite (Miami, FL) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Spirit of Texas (Arlington, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Memphis Elite (Memphis, TN) |
2005
| Division | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large Senior | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Maryland Twisters (Glen Burnie, MD) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Athletics (Dallas, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg American Cheer (Bakersfield, CA) |
| Large Coed | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Miami Elite (Miami, FL) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Athletics (Dallas, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Top Gun (Miami, FL) |
| Small Senior | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Stingrays (Atlanta, GA) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Georgia (Atlanta, GA) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Star Athletics (Boonton, NJ) |
| Small Coed | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Spirit of Texas (Arlington, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Zone | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Twist & Shout (Edmond, OK) |
2006
| Division | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large Senior | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Athletics (Dallas, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Charlotte AS, (Charlotte, NC) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Maryland Twisters (Glen Burnie, MD) |
| Large Coed | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Athletics (Dallas, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Georgia (Atlanta, GA) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kentucky Elite (Lexington, KY) |
| Small Senior | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Athletics (Dallas, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Stingrays (Atlanta, GA) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Pro Spirit (McKinney, TX) |
| Small Coed | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Gym Tyme (Louisville, KY) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Spirit of Texas (Arlington, TX) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cheer Force (Simi Valley, CA) |
| International Coed | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Gym Tyme (Louisville, KY) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Star Athletics (Boonton, NJ) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Extreme Cheer (Lubbock, TX) |
| International All-Girl | Image:Flag of the United States.svg Georgia (Atlanta, GA) | Image:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg GuangXi University (GuangXi, China) | Image:Flag of Colombia.svg Jaguars All-Stars (Bogotá, Colombia) |
Worlds Medal Count by Program
| Program | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheer Athletics | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Georgia | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Spirit of Texas | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Maryland Twisters | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Gym Tyme | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Miami Elite | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Stingrays | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Star Athletics | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| American Cheer | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
[edit] Cheerleading Outside of the USA
[edit] Australia
In Australia, the National Rugby League has featured cheerleaders for some years.
Cheerleaders from all across Australia compete in the Australian Cheerleading Championships held annually.
[edit] United Kingdom
In the UK, many sports teams feature cheerleaders. This mainly started with Rugby League at the point when Superleague was formed. While American cheerleading teams tend to cheer primarily for the more mainstream sports, several UK teams have become associated with other sports as well. It has recently become a tradition for the Oxford Sirens, for example, to cheer for the annual Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge.
[edit] See also
- Cheering
- Mickey (song)
- Pom-pons
- Pom Squad
- List of cheerleaders
- American football
- Basketball
- List of cheerleading jumps
- List of cheerleading stunts
- Tumbling
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- National Council for Spirit Safety and Education (NCSSE)
- American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA)
- National Cheerleading Association and National Spirit Group (NCA and NSG)
- United States All-Star Federation (USASF)
- British Cheerleading Association (BCA)
- UK Cheerleading Association (UKCA)
- Varsity Spirit Brands (UCA)
- List of NFL cheerleading squads
- Cheerleading, Cheerleading photos
- Cheerleading video clipscs:Cheerleading
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