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Chelsie Sitko Dr. Garrlets English 080 4 November 2004 Cheerleading It was a Friday night football game at Byron High. I remember running out to all of the bright lights cheering and yelling for the team as they entered the field. Then all of us stood in line making sure we were in each others windows so everyone could be seen. Then I would yell “Ready, set!” As we started cheering, the crowd would cheer along with us, and it would not be long after that the team would score a touchdown. When the squad heard those words we would do jumps and tumble all down the side of the field. We did everything on the field that our coach taught us to. Cheerleading was my favorite sport in high school, and required a certain amount of talents broken down into categories to be on the squad like having a loud voice and knowing the cheers, being able to do the required jumps, being able to tumble, and stunts and competing. One of the first things cheerleading consists of is having a loud voice and memorizing the cheers. Having a loud voice allows the person to be able to yell to the crowd. Everyone has to be able to yell at the same time and keep in the same rhythm as the other members of the team. Sometimes if a person is not loud enough the coach may even make that cheerleader do a cheer by themselves in front of everyone so that way they will know how loud they have to be. They also have to memorize the cheers because if they don’t the timing of the cheers will be off. If the person doesn’t know the cheers the coach may not only get mad but the teammates as well. Memorizing the cheers can be an easy thing if the cheerleader practices them at home as well as at practice. If all the cheerleaders memorize the cheers, and are able to be loud, it makes everyone look more like a team. Another thing that a person must do in cheerleading is be able to do jumps. Jumps are a very important part of the squad because it really makes the team look good if everyone is on time and at the same height. This is especially important when the squad goes to competition. There are three jumps that most squad will require a person to have, and they are the toe touch, side hurdler, and the pike. A toe touch is like a straddle jump in the air, the persons legs must come up to their finger tips. The second jump called the side hurdler is just like a toe touch except for one leg is bent to the side. The last jump is the pike and that is where a persons legs are straight in front of them and their arms are reaching out to their toes. Jumps are a very important part of cheerleading. Also another thing that is very important in cheerleading is being able to do tumbling. Some squads may require that a person must have them but some do not. Most of the time the required tumbling is back handspring or a back tuck. A back handspring is when a persons throws there arms in a backwards motion over their head, then their hands touch the ground as their feet come up and over backwards as well. A back tuck is when a person flips backwards the same as a back handspring, but does not use their hands. Instead the cheerleader would use their arms to grab their knees while flipping backwards. Some other things that go along with tumbling is cartwheels and round offs. Also there are the splits, right, left and the middle. Some squads are very hard and may want the cheerleader to have all of these skills, but some may be more lax than others and require less. Tumbling is defiantly an impressive quality to have. One of the last things that cheerleading is broken into is being able to stunt for competition. Competition is when teams from all over get together to compete to be the best. In competition a cheerleader works hard on the team and they may also learn new things like stunts from other teams. Stunting is an essential part of competition. There are many different stunts that a squad can learn like a half, where three girls lift up another at their head level. There is also a full where three girls lift up another girl but over their head. Then there is basket tosses where three girls throw the flyer into the air. When in the air they can to a jump like toe touch or pike. There are a ton of more stunts that can be done at competition and these are just a few of the basic ones. Stunting and competition are a big part of cheerleading. Cheerleading is something that most high schools have. At some cheerleading is very big into competing and others are not. Cheerleading is very disciplining and hard work depending on the coach. Cheerleading has many parts to it including voice and memorization, jumps, and tumbling as discussed.
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