All-Star The "non-cheer" World Reactions To Us Poofheads...

A little bit off topic but one of my favorite memories of my cheer career ever is when I went out to eat after a cheer competition in my full uni and makeup and bow in Orlando. I was approached by a man and his young daughter who asked if they could take a picture with me (and I was not on any well known team that someone would recognize and want a picture of) because they were visiting from Brazil and although his daughter had seen cheerleaders online and on TV, she had never seen one in person. She was SO excited and so adorable and it absolutely melted my heart.

But aside from that, I did get very many weird stares from people and my waiter asked if there was a "convention" of some sort going on. Haha


The Fierce Board App! || iPhone || Android || Upgrade Your Account!

I did a year-long project in AP Lang that was pretty much about the world's "outside view" of cheerleading. (How many people actually think it's a sport, why or why not, what kind of people think different things, etc.) And when I did my presentation at the end of the year people were amazed at the world that we have. When I was talking a lot of people had no idea of how deep we all get into the "cheer world." When I was planning my presentation I also had to make it 10 minutes long...and I timed it at like 30 minutes...it took me a long time and a few outside opinions to cut out the stuff I thought was interesting, but would just make normal people bored....hahaha.


The Fierce Board App! || iPhone || Android || Upgrade Your Account!

I've seen many hilarious situations already.
Because I live in a country where cheerleading in any form is unknown, the shock to "normal" people is way bigger.

1) When we just started, we had to do a presentation somewhere with one stuntgroup. They came to my house to get dressed and their hair and make-up done. Just before we left, we decided to run the routine a few times at the end of my street where there is a little sports/grass field. People came outside with camera's to take pictures of us practising and kept yelling stuff as "wait! hold that pose! i wanna take a picture".

2) another funny thing in my street is, there is this old man who often sits outside on a chair watching everyone who passes. and when i walk to my car with my soffe shorts with the cheer print on the back, he Always starts singing "cherie" which is an old song (cherie meaning sweetheart). He doesnt get that my shorts says cheer and not cherie

3) Whenever we drive home from a camp or competition, we stop at random places to stunt. people love it!! we stood many time on a parking space stunting and people came out to watch, ask questions,... even when we just started and couldnt do more as a prep and simple craddle. for us it's nothing but for an outsider its really impressive. once we had a group of other teens that tried to copy us, kind of like a cheer battle. it was funny because they didnt manage to do any stunt so they went to sit on their hand and knees and one stood on top we talked to them and thaught them a basic stunt and they were so happy.
we had one bad experiance stunting in public though. we went to a local music festival where there are Always tons of people. we were stunting and in meantime handing out flyers from our gym. but police wasnt amused and we got arrested!!!

4) There is a competition called ECC in Germany, it's close to the boarder with Netherlands and Belgium and it's during a long weekend and it's in the warner brothers movie park, so alot of non-cheerleaders go there that weekend too. you can get a bid for worlds there so the level is pretty high compared to some other competitions. Last time I had the luck so sit behind a dutch family, they thought it was some kind of stunt show I overheard them talking and it was so funny how the dad was trying to explain the kid that these "acrobats" work on these stunts for years and are pro's. He did not know what to say when his kid asked where to robes were to pull the people up after seeing some level 6 stunts then the presenter said something about thanks for being at this cheerleading competition and at the same moment a young girl walked upstairs to go see her mom. that man's jaw dropped! and his kid was like: daddy! it's not a show! it's a competition!!!

5) my own mom is pretty funny too when it comes to cheerleading. she doesnt really get it I took her once to a competition and one of the teams that competed was a team that i know several people from as i attended a tumbling camp at their gym. this team won the competition and my mom was all overwhelmed (67 years old, standing on a chair and clapping her hands). She was so impressed by this team she thinks they must be the best one in the world. every time i come back from a competition she says: oh i bet that team won huh? they are so good!! she can't believe they got beaten so many times
I decided to show her some videos from worlds and also the routine from Sr Elite from 2010. her reaction: well they are good but still got a lot of work to do!
haha i guess that proves a video is nothing compared to seeing it live?

Sharkie said:

5) my own mom is pretty funny too when it comes to cheerleading. she doesnt really get it I took her once to a competition and one of the teams that competed was a team that i know several people from as i attended a tumbling camp at their gym. this team won the competition and my mom was all overwhelmed (67 years old, standing on a chair and clapping her hands). She was so impressed by this team she thinks they must be the best one in the world. every time i come back from a competition she says: oh i bet that team won huh? they are so good!! she can't believe they got beaten so many times
I decided to show her some videos from worlds and also the routine from Sr Elite from 2010. her reaction: well they are good but still got a lot of work to do!
haha i guess that proves a video is nothing compared to seeing it live?

Click to expand...

this is hilarious and cute at the same time, moms can be so funny when they are not directly involved in cheer , same with grandmas

The best moments are, when we drive home from a competition on a bus and stop at a McDonalds or Burger King and there are other buses with cheerleaders.
The workers and the non-cheer customers are always overwhelmed by so many girls with bows and glitter make-up.
Imagine a small fast food restaurant with 100+ hungry cheerleaders. At one competition some walked through the drive in because the lines inside were too long.
Sometimes me or cp forget to take out the bow after practise and go to a restaurant or supermarket and wonder why people are staring at us - till we recognize it´s the big bow
To be honest: When people ask what sport i´m doing, sometimes i just say coaching gymnastics or acrobatics.
It´s so much easier than to try to explain what cheerleading is, and no i didn´t hold a pom pom for a looong time, i don´t wear sexy boots and a bra dancing on a sideline nor does my cp and i won´t give you a presentation of: "Give me an A!"......
And it avoid questions like: Oh, you´re a cheerleader? Can you show me something?
Yes. I will build a 2,5 high pyramid right here in the restaurant...by myself. :banghead:

@fiercebowsnpoofs what a cute story!

When I came back from a long weekend at an away comp, my french teacher asked why I was gone. I explained to her that I traveled for a cheer competition and that we won. She wanted me to make a presentation about it (in French, of course). After I presented, she wanted to see my team so I showed my class a video. They all just seemed kind of confused haha

GreenStorm said:

And it avoid questions like: Oh, you´re a cheerleader? Can you show me something?

Click to expand...

hahahaha when people find out my cp is a cheerleader or see her or her sister in uniform, they usually ask, without fail - Show me a Cheer! My cps will look at me like huh? What do we do? And I'm like do part of your dance - and the kids are like seriously? Sometimes they will do part of the dance but I think people expect a cheer like Push 'em back, push 'em back - waaaaaaaay back! lol

When we were staying overnight in Philly for a comp, my daughter was asked if she was all dressed up because she was "in a pageant". Her somewhat snotty 6 year old reply was "I wear this bow for a REASON. I and a CHEERLEADER!"

Another thing that I really like is when several cheerleaders descend on the local tourist attraction on comp days. All you could see was a line of bows at the Liberty Bell. Kids from all over the states were stunting in front of it and making fast friends while in line. The whole place had such a celebratory feel to it that the regular tourists and employees were even smiling.

After comps, my CP usually changes out of her uni and takes her hair down to be more comfortable on the ride home. She's also starrrrrrving, so we will typically stop on the way home for something to eat. We get so many sideways looks, because there she is with her yoga pants, t-shirt, hair all in a messy bun, flip-flops, and bright sparkly make-up! Yes, people, she ALWAYS wears her make-up like this!

My favorite "normal" moment is one year at UCA which often times takes place during the same time of Braves spring training, as cheerleaders walk down the hall shared with Braves coaches. I heard some of them say "come see this, I saw them yesterday and WOW". A herd of coaches scamper down the hallway and watch the reverse screen. I thought to myself, these are PROFESSIONAL athletes/coaches and for 2:30 just enjoyed the show. Pretty cool to me.

Oh i love this! Usually when i meet people for the first time and they ask me what i like to do and i'm like ''i coach and do Cheerleading'' the typical reaction is either ''you do what?'' (most of the time with a baffled expression on the face'' or ''ohhh for what Team?''
It's really exhausting to try and explain what Allstar Cheer is ,so most of the time i'm just like ''it's a sport, we compete, it's not what you see on the sidelines'' and that's it.
I brought some friends to one of my competitions/showcases and they were stunned by what they saw. What's interesting to me though is that people who have a dance background usually tend to be more critical than others. One of my friends who used to dance was very critical when it came to synchronicity and bobbles, which was funny to me as she has never cheered before or even seen a routine.
Another friend of mine went to Tryouts with me and she left after 30 minutes because they asked her to base a prep. She was not amused hahaha, i have no idea what she expected but she told me afterwards that she felt like they were demanding things from her without even really explaining and she was just not ready for it.

Go search on twitter: "Cheerleaders on espn" the reactions are kinda funny seeing non cheer people tweet about the shows

It was a very slow news week last year in January, so I asked my editor if I could cover the Athletic Championships in Providence as a local news story: Providence Hosts Largest Cheerleading Competition in New England - News - The Cowl - Providence College