All-Star Your Worst Cheerleading Injury?

[flipmac]

I've sprained my neck and concussion from fulls on dead mat...

Worst I've seen is a girl throw I think was meant to be front walk over In a returning corner pass... Didn't land with a straight foot and leg snapped between knee and ankle...

Even worse, it was during a best tumbler comp, so the arena was dead quiet and we all hear the snap and its echo, follow by her blood curdling screams

I went drop dead pail, and almost threw up, had to go outside for air, I wasn't right for 3 weeks after that.

 

[Leithal Weapon]

This thread has terrified my a little haha! Thankfully I've never had anything terrible. I also tore my UCL in my elbow on the floor at WCC Asia/Pacs in Brisbane, hit our main stunt, pyramid and a basket (by some miracle) but cried as soon as our music stopped haha. No tumbling or stunting for a month and physio every week. I've heard UCL surgery is really common for that injury so I feel so lucky to have avoided it! Thankfully I can tumble again with just a little pain occasionally, but 2 months later and my tumbling still isn't back where it was.

Plus my ankles are terrible and I feel like I have shin splints every week, but I tough it out

 

[Asterism]

Oh my God. That's me. I was doing two to backs on the tumble track, which I've done for years and I landed really wrong. My ankles were crossed somehow (that never happens) and I guess it was just the right angle for it to happen. I rebounded, heard girls screaming then looked down and saw it. The staff helped me tremendously. They kept me calm and I didn't even cry the whole time. Nothing was broken luckily. I just dislocated my ankle at the joint and it broke skin. I will be able to compete close to the end of January but I can't jump or tumble until about June.
I'm so sorry if this picture freaked anyone out. I didn't want it to get out but obviously you can't control girls with cellphones. Now my teammates show it to people that say cheer isn't a sport. Lol.

I am so glad you're recovering! It looks/sounds horrible so it's really good to know that you dislocated it there and it wasn't actually broken, I can't imagine how horrible it would be to recover from that kind of break. I'm sorry to hear you're out for so long but I'm glad you'll be able to cheer again, best of luck!

 

[FightTilTheEnd]

I am so glad you're recovering! It looks/sounds horrible so it's really good to know that you dislocated it there and it wasn't actually broken, I can't imagine how horrible it would be to recover from that kind of break. I'm sorry to hear you're out for so long but I'm glad you'll be able to cheer again, best of luck!

Thank you. Luckily it hasn't been a bad recovery because surprisingly I haven't had that much pain. Once again, I'm so sorry if the picture freaked you out in any way.

 

[Asterism]

Thank you. Luckily it hasn't been a bad recovery because surprisingly I haven't had that much pain. Once again, I'm so sorry if the picture freaked you out in any way.

Don't apologise for your injury! I won't say it didn't freak me out but only in the sense that "omg, I hope this girl is going to be okay and can cheer again"

 

[FightTilTheEnd]

This is kind of an update on my injury but also how it has been a way to change the opinions of the people that have heard my story. This is an essay that I had to write over a issue that is important to me. Of course I chose cheerleading being known as a sport. I just felt like I should share this to show you all that even though really bad injuries may occur, you can recover and overcome them.

"An issue of importance to me is the discussion over whether or not competitive cheerleading should be considered a sport. It is a very personal issue. Most people do not consider cheer a sport because it’s technically not a contact sport. I refuse to compare what I do with something that another athlete does. If cheerleaders like me want to be taken seriously, we shouldn't put down other sports or athletes. I recently received a catastrophic injury that made a lot of people realize how serious it can be. I openly dislocated my ankle in bad tumbling accident. My foot was almost four inches away from completely separating from my leg. The picture of my injury went viral and it changed a lot of the opinions of people who heard my story.

The day that I got hurt seemed like just a typical Sunday. My team had mostly tumbled during practice and it had been a good tumbling day for me. When practice got out early I decided to stay later and tumble some more, which is something that I usually do. I was doing standing two backhandsprings to backtucks on the tumble track, a long, tight trampoline. The first backhandspring was normal, the second backhandspring was really fast, and the beginning of my backtuck was high. Midway through my backtuck I could see that my ankles were crossed. I couldn’t react fast enough to fix them. I landed facing the front and could tell that something was wrong. I rebounded a couple feet into the air and heard screams from some of the girls in the gym. I looked down and saw my distorted foot not in its correct place and caught myself on my other foot. I had no idea of what had just happened and I automatically grabbed my ankle to see what was wrong. I felt something that I knew I shouldn’t have felt. One of my coaches yelled, “Don’t touch it! Don’t look at it,” and propped it up so I would not lose any more blood. It took me a few minutes to realize that I had just touched blood and bone.

A mom from the gym sat beside me and leaned in front of me so I couldn’t see what my ankle looked like. I couldn’t feel anything and I hadn’t seen the bad side of it yet. I just told everyone, “As long as I can’t see it, I’ll be fine”. The thought of crying or freaking out never occurred to me. I just did what I had always been told to do; just push through this. I told myself, “Eventually the pain will go away and I’ll be fine.” I didn’t see the point in making a scene because it wouldn’t make anything better. All that I could do was think about how long that I’ll be out and what all that I was going to miss out on. I kept questioning myself and wondering why I hadn’t just gone home because then I would have been okay. I knew that this was unavoidable and I’d have to face this head on. I didn’t freak out until I got out of recovery from surgery because all that I could think of was that it’s my senior year, this shouldn’t be happening, and how much that I’d miss out on.

It has been roughly sixteen weeks since and I’m able to walk around with an ankle brace. I’m also able to do what no one else ever expected me to do; compete again. The practices haven't been very difficult because I experience very little pain from becoming more active after being immobile for so long. However, any pain that I do have makes me realize how far that I’ve come in such a short period of time. It makes me very thankful for the successful recovery that I’ve had so far and how bright of a future that my doctor has proposed for me.
Cheerleading is a team sport. That’s something that I never forgot. During my recovery I was at every practice and competition. Since my team was there for me when I needed them the most, the least that I can do is be there for them every chance that I have. Even though I had to sit out at practices, I got to watch and help fix things that needed to be worked on in our routine and be a motivator to the team. I also got to give some of the moral support that a lot of my teammates needed. Now during practices when I think that I can’t do any more, I just look at my team for motivation. They’ve been very inspirational for me. My team was there for me through this hardship and I could never thank them enough for being there or me during one of the toughest times of my life.

I didn’t necessarily expect everyone that has seen what happened to me to automatically think that it’s a sport because the injury was so bad. Injuries happen in every sport. I was hoping that they would take it seriously instead of assuming that we just jump around saying, “Go team, go!” If anything, I’d like for my injury to be a testimony of the principles that are taught through competitive cheerleading. How important hard work, determination, and the support of your team can truly be. If it wasn’t for these three things, I don’t think that I would have recovered so well so fast. I just hope that when someone sees my picture that they will realize how dangerous cheer can be, but that doesn’t stop us from doing what we love so much. I hope to be an example of the passion for our sport that empowers everything we achieve. This is what I believe makes whatever an athlete does a sport; the passion for what they do and the lessons that they learn from it to be used later on in life."

 

[ssccxnce]

After reading everybody's injuries mine are all pretty much walks in the park. Lets see I had a broken toe, dislocated my toes doing a toe touch & two concussions over the 6 combined years I did cheerleading. My worst was definitely the concussion I got from catching a double down

 

[mariahnicole1216]

After reading everybody's injuries mine are all pretty much walks in the park. Lets see I had a broken toe, dislocated my toes doing a toe touch & two concussions over the 6 combined years I did cheerleading. My worst was definitely the concussion I got from catching a double down

Okay question. I broke/dislocated my big toe toe about a month ago, and while it has gotten better it's still noticeably bigger than my other toe and I can barely bend it in the middle joint. I haven't been able to give it much rest considering its still the middle of the season but I was just wondering how long it took for yours to completely heal and if you have any tips? The pain isn't too difficult to work through but its rather annoying.

 

[ssccxnce]

Okay question. I broke/dislocated my big toe toe about a month ago, and while it has gotten better it's still noticeably bigger than my other toe and I can barely bend it in the middle joint. I haven't been able to give it much rest considering its still the middle of the season but I was just wondering how long it took for yours to completely heal and if you have any tips? The pain isn't too difficult to work through but its rather annoying.

Honestly my toe never fully healed because I never rested it properly. The problem I had was I never got to tape my toe when I broke it because the toe beside it was also injured. Unfortunately it'll probably stay bigger then the other toe and remain annoying

 

[SamCheerios95]

I dislocated an elbow doing a back handspring and i had to miss 1 comp and only do minimal things in the second because I was supposed to be off my arm for at least 3 months :L

 

[m_ambrose]

5 bulging discs and 1 herniated disc. I could always deal with the pain. It's just such an awful injury because the pain doesn't really ever go away and my back will never be the same

I had an MRI done a couple of weeks ago and it turns out I have 2 bulging discs in my back
I'm not allowed to tumble/stunt until I go to the doctor next month.

 

[:) paigeypo :)]

Wow everyone's is serious! My worst Injury was two years ago when I broke two of my toes doing a toe touch in our hotel room. It was probably 10 min. Before we left to go compete. Regardless of my broken toes and split skin I wrapped that mess up and got my but on that floor. We actually got first and I hit all my stunts. After I got off the floor though I completely lost it and the inside of my shoe was all bloody haha

 

[WinstonsGirl]

I've had a concussion or 2 I'm sure, broken toes, charlie horses, etc. But I think the worst was on the first day of spring training last year. In warmup, I did my first RO and tore my calf muscle on the rebound. I couldn't walk/weight bear for about 3 weeks and didn't tumble for 3 months.

One of the worst I've seen was a girl who broke her ankle at the beginning of a routine. She kept stunting and in a prep twist cradle, her group tossed her sideways instead of up and she flew over her bases to the ground. I don't know how she finished that routine!!

 

[garretttt]

Worst i've had is a broken leg.

BUT the week before NCA i tore 2 ligaments in my ankle.....from doing a toe touch. I was in a boot and crutches and crutched through warm ups and still competed(no tumbling) it was the worst timing to get injured ughh. I just got off crutches on wednesday but im still in a boot and will have start physical therapy in about 3-4 weeks.

 

[xoxbeastbackspotxox]

I have a feeling I've mentioned this before but my worst injury BY FAR would have to be how both my kneecaps aren't aligned correctly. I'm in PT, usually once a week. It still hurts, a lot and this is almost year three with my knee problems. No fun.