OT Cheerleading Is Not A Real Sport....

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Off Topic
Jun 7, 2012
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At least not when it comes to Title IX. That's what the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled. Quinnipiac University tried to classify Cheer as a sport and it was struck down. This kind of backward thinking infuriates me. I don't see how someone could not see how competitive, hard working and strong cheerleaders are, and what a high level of athletic talent they possess.
I feel like cheerleading was set back 30 years.

Federal court rules once and for all that cheerleading is not a real sport | Prep Rally - Yahoo! Sports

Any thoughts?
 
It's wonderful that you love what you are doing, but I think you should care. When people are told what you do is not a sport, it demeans all cheerleaders.
 
I agree. I do get a little aggravated when someone just says to my face that it's not a sport, but as long as I'm having fun and still love what I'm doing, I could care less about it actually getting the legal title.
 
The real thing people should be looking at in this article isn't wether cheer is or isn't a sport, but that in America we base the ability for a sport to get recognized on wether or not there is a corresponding male or female sport to it. Title IX still exists and is limiting schools from freely creating varsity sports.
For those that don't know, in simple terms... Title IX says that whenever you have a men's sport at college there must also be a sport open to women as well, for awhile there were a majority of men's sports.

On a side note, I think cheer should be a sport, it will eventually.
 
At practice a coach of mine told us why he thinks cheer isn't a sport. Because sports such as ones in the Olympics are hundreds of years old, and have the time to evolve while cheerleading is still a baby and figuring out how to coach this is still a rough spot and cheerleading itself still needs it's time to grow, to become something bigger and better than already
 
Well Cheerleading, at it's roots, is not a sport. All-Stat/ Competitive is, but that's not really "Cheerleading" it's a whole different animal. We're doing everything a cheerleader does, minus the actual cheering part.
And injury statistics, while valid, does not make it any more of a sport. Also, the article didn't seem to mention anything about competitive cheer or its evolution into all-star.
It seems to me that when this discussion is being had it never is about the competitive aspect. We think ifnim that way, but that is because we live in the competitive world of cheer, not the sideline. Having sai that, that's where STUNT and other such programs have come from. It gives everyone a way to differentiate the two, because lets face it, those of us who do all-star are not really "cheerleaders" at all. We are more gymnasts than anything. Which would be why Cheerleading if added to the Olympics would be a subsect of gymnastics, like the trampoline, acro, and rhythmic.
People don't realize that everything we do as cheerleaders is a form of gymnastics, including stunts.
Having said that there are a surprising number of people who would say that gymnastics is not a sport either.
Basically if one delves a little deeper I think it could be viewed as a sport but it would have to be called something else at the very least for people to understand it.
However it doesn't matter what people in the outside think of any of it; it's all about the people involved. And as this is something like the top fastest growing sport along with soccer(?) or whatever else. I don't think we need to worry about classification. We are the majority. Whatever the case I don't really care. It's something I'm passionate about and that's all that matters.
Just something I was thinking about a little bit earlier today.
 
It makes me upset when people say this, but i mean, people who say this generaly are not cheerleaders soo... why should i listen when they have NO idea what they are talking about. :)
 
While I've read more into depth on this ruling, I totally understand why cheerleading wasn't ruled a sport. The ruling acknowledged that while cheerleading is incredibly athletic and takes a high level of skill, it's completely disorganized.
There are like twenty different ways to be a National Champion, some more notorious than others, but there nonetheless. There's no real governing body, and I believe they also mentioned a lack of post season.
Though it bugs me when people say "Cheerleading causes the most injuries!" because that is a dang old statistic. And even when it was taken, it was probably because of lack of proper coaching and not knowing safety rules. It's not like we're just throwing people up in the air and walking away. Plus there's a risk of injury in ANYTHING athletic. Golfers get injured when hitting a little ball, but you don't see that in the headlines...
 
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