I teach in Georgia. Georgia considers cheerleading a sport. I suppose it's a Title IX thing, but still -- cheerleading a sport? How stupid.
Cheerleaders like to argue about it almost as much as I do.
Yes, it's a sport. We go to competitions.
No, it's not a sport. Debate is a competition. Is debate a sport? No. Neither is cheerleading.
But we're athletes. We practice and work hard.
Actors practice and work hard. Is acting a sport? No. Neither is cheerleading.
Can you go to a football game to watch a sport, and if you happen to notice the cheerleaders, actually end up watching 2 sports at once? I don't think so.
The cheerleaders say But the competitions are the sport part. The games are just what we do to practice.
That's nice. So I guess it's OK for the football team to scrimmage on the sidelines of a cheerleading competition?
Girls can be catty sometimes. Who hasn't heard a bunch of cheerleaders standing around, badmouthing the opponent's cheerleaders?
You can't even do a Russian Toe Touch right!
Oh yeah? Well, you don't keep your arms straight! And don't get me started on your herky!
I guess at some point an overly assertive psycho-cheerleader decided to put her money where her pom-poms are and challenge another squad to some kind of competition to lay the argument about who's the best to rest once and for all. And now they call cheerleading a sport.
Maybe we need to set straight exactly what does qualify as a sport:
1) Is the goal to physically outperform another person or team?
2) Is performance evaluated by attaining some quantifiable goal?
3) Is strategy involved?
In my opinion, you need to be able to answer "yes" to at least two of these questions to qualify an activity as a sport. Let's see how cheerleading measures up...
1) They can make a case for this one. They go to their little competitions and try to do the best routine. OK, that's one.
2) No. In sports it's all about getting past the line, doing it faster, doing it more, etc. In cheerleading it's all about what some judge thinks about the quality of their routine. Of course, this means that gymnastics, figure skating and competitive diving are not sports. I never thought they were anyway.
3) No. They do their routine, but don't have to change their game plan depending upon conditions, the venue, the other team's strengths or weaknesses, or anything else.
There you have it. Cheerleading is not a sport. It's a hobby, and activity, a performance. But not a sport.
Posted by podge at September 5, 2003 5:25 PM