- Nov 19, 2012
- 17
- 9
I think the reason why cheer is treated so differently than other sports when it comes to injuries is because in other sports like basketball or football, yes it may negatively affect the team if one player is out injured, but they don't need every single one of their players on the field at all times. In a routine, every single person is important, and most of the time teams don't have backups, because it wouldn't be fair to just have alternates learning and practicing a whole routine for months and then just having them sit out for the competition. Even in dance or other performance type sports, yeah, the formation might be off, but most of the time they don't have to be lifting other people, and nobody else is LITERALLY depending on them for something in the routine/game to happen.
I can understand part of it, but when you have a flier who is important, or a backspot or a base who injures them self doing a back flip in the beginning of the routine, you have one person who is depended upon to catch someone who is moving through the air at a high rate of speed, and to do it safely. If that's not depending on someone, then I don't know what is. A base who injures herself isn't going to be doing the best job she can do to catch her flier, and if she pulls out, then there's only two other people who can catch the flier, with the potential of more injuries if they don't do their job exactly right.
I got you on the replacements, but I would venture to guess that there are some who can or would sit out for not being as good, and who could sub if it came to it. But I also am not an expert.