What if what were doing isn't cheerleading, what if it is something else? (serious)

Welcome to our Cheerleading Community

Members see FEWER ads... join today!

  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #16
If we weren't called cheerleading you COULD say cheerleading isn't a sport. That is the sideline stuff. What we do is called ________
 
I think everyone will agree that at the allstar and competitive level, that we aren't cheerleaders
We are sports athletes
But where do we go from there
Who would be the person/entity that would start that revolution
Someone needs to lead it
What we do incorporates Stunts/Acro, Gymnastics/Tumbling, Dance and showmanship.

Maybe tccheer can help us out here with out the athletes in the NCSTA identify themselves. I know girls from UMD and they say they are cheerleaders if someone asks.

I always have practice and people say for what... so i say for allstar cheerleading and we just compete, no actual cheering.
So whenever asked, i always tell people, we compete, we dont cheer.

I know that it's easier for them to tell outsiders that they're competitive cheerleaders and don't really get into the details unless someone asks. I know on MD, QU and Oregon's campus the other student-athletes see the girls as fellow athletes as this point. Especially males ... for some reason it's easier for males to accept what they do as athletic and competitive. At early morning strength and conditioning workouts, these girls workout right alongside the baseball/lacrosse/softball teams, so it's hard for them to argue that they're not athletes. Especially when some members of the competitive cheer team can out benchpress some of the guys haha.

I'm confident at some point there's going to be a name change, but it's important that whatever the name it doesn't alienate anyone.
 
I agree, because I have often wondered is this really cheerleading... or is it something else, could it ever be called something else? And this is just because what we are doing now is completely different than how cheer was originally intended. Cheer was created to get get the crowd involved during games... we aren't doing that anymore (all star wise).

But on the other hand I wouldn't want to get rid our the "cheer" part because we are still doing cheer (motions, jumps) all those basics that we learned many many years ago. Ya know back to the running, just because you are a sprinter or long distance, you are still a runner. We are still essentially cheerleaders, we have just branched off of that typical cheerleading persona.

Like everything else, people are not going to want to change the name and I'm sure there are people who are reading this now thinking everyone is crazy and thinking "I have been a cheerleader for x years of my life.... now I'm not... doesn't make sense." I just think in order to call it something different, we can't go all crazy and start calling it something that doesn't even resemble cheer. We can break a part cheerleading and put it into categories, you have sideline cheer, spirit cheer, competition cheer and so on.... maybe that is the route we need to take.... but I'm not sure if that is a big enough change to make people understand that all star cheer is a sport....
 
If we weren't called cheerleading you COULD say cheerleading isn't a sport. That is the sideline stuff. What we do is called ________

Maybe we should raise some money and get a consulting group to come up with a new name.
Corporations can do it for products, so we can do it for a name.


Im gonna post your fill in the blank on facebook.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #21
I understand the idea you don't want to loose the roots of what we do (aka sideline cheerleading) but if everything tomorrow we do was referred to as Acrosport I could see a lot of issues being solved right there.
 
We might not like to admit it but there is that group of kids (and Moms) that come to Allstars to be a "cheerleader". These are the ones that maybe didn't make a school team or need skills to do so. While they may not be in the program for more than a few years they do represent a chunk of revenue. Will these people still some if we call it something else?
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #23
Acrosport can train you to be a better cheerleader... while competing in acrosport. Couldnt they?
 
BUT, this is how I see it. When I was a "cheerleader" in the 80's and early 90's (God help me, lol) the following is what we performed on the sidelines: stunts, tumbling, jumps, chants and dance.

Now my girls are all star cheerleaders and the following is what they compete on the floor: stunts, tumbling, jumps, dance, motions.

The only difference to me is how it has evolved, the elimination of "leading the crowd with chants", and the setting of guidelines and rules as to what is allowed and what is not. So to me, competitive cheer is exactly what our sport should be called. And cheer athletes are what the competitors should be called.

However, if we could get the USAG to adopt us as a sport under their criteria, I would be all for it. Goodbye Varsity, hello Olympics!! :)
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #25
People to go gymnastics gyms to work on cheerleading tumbling... why not acrosport gyms to work on cheerleading tumbling for the sidelines?
 
If we weren't called cheerleading you COULD say cheerleading isn't a sport. That is the sideline stuff. What we do is called ________

This is the $64,000 question.

And if you can work "fierce" in there, it would make a lot of people happy.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #28
Can't sue another name, I don't think.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #30
Anybody here good at latin?

Phrases related to what we do and or like:

Gym, Acro, Stunt, Tumble, Motion, Jump, Astics?, Flip, Spin

And, not gonna lie, if it isn't catchy it wont work. It has to be catchy.
 
Back