is high school cheerleading a sport?

Cheer4ca · Member

is high school cheerleading a sport?

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

I dont really agree with that. My older daughter had to cut her cheer career short by a year because of injuries sustained from years of the hard floor. Those types of injuries would not have occured if she was able to use a spring board floor. The spring floor doesnt mean your any less of a tumbler its what you do with that tumbling when your on the floor that counts.

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

Oc Mom I was worried about Em when I heard about her going High School not All Stars I think I even mention that before about the hard floors and injuries that is what happened with our older daughter. I hope Em's ankle gets better! smile

Cheer4ca · Member

I agree with you that yes less injuries occur on spring floor. But and maybe not in your daughters case you see more kids throwing skills on spring that they shouldnt be throwing mainly in the tuck and backhandspring stages. I only mention that I enjoyed watching on regular floor because you didnt see as many kids throw skills they didnt have. but I am all for spring and think hs should switch over we shall see what the future holds. Hopefully Em will be ok with her ankle. Best of luck To Everyone

OC Mom · GURU

Thank you for the well wishes. I am blessed that all of her high school coaches are also all star coaches and won't risk hurting the girls. The don't throw big tumbling at games or in the gym. And when they practice, they do so at the all star gym. So, even though Em can do some pretty good skills, she isn't throwng them on the hard floors. Her ankle injury is from a shoulder sit. Yea, she gets hurt when she's doing something that WON'T hurt her. lol. But as for the competing on hard floors.... oh I am completely against that. We don't see gymnasts throwing ANYTHING on hard floors. That's cause the gymnastic world knows better. I heard a coach tell a high school girl once, "if you can do it here (spring) you can do it here (hard floor)." Well, just cause you can do it on a spring floor doesn't mean you SHOULD be throwing it on a hard floor. Hey, I can drive well at 50 mph, but that doesn't mean I can drive well at 50 mph over hills and thru a swamp!!! lol

Cheer411 · Senior Member

TRUE! TRUE! TRUE! Our high school gym seems cursed. I have seen move kids leave the floor needing assistance from a knee or ankle injury. And these injuries are not just related to cheerleading. The injuries are from wrestling, volleyball, basketball, etc. there are more kids walking around on campus with crutches than even I could remember back in my high school days.

OC Mom · GURU

Yea, you know you have injury issues when, not only do you OWN a pair of crutches, but they've been used several times on DIFFERENT occasions!!! lol

michelle h · Member

You guys all have really good points about how high school teams should have spring floors to reduce injuries, but there's many reasons why they don't. Spring floors aren't something you can take apart and store, and put back together quickly by a bunch of high school girls. At all-star cheer gyms, once the spring floors are laid out, they stay put until they are replaced. For high school teams you usually use whatever gym is not being used, but the type of mat you use needs to be put away after so other sports can use the gym. And most teams don't have enough money to rent out an all-star gym floor to use ..
plus, if you went to a high school like i'm at, cheerleading isn't necessarily at the top of the school's priorities, so you often get stuck practicing wherever other "real sports" are not practicing.
anyways, i think those are the main reasons why high schools don't really use spring floor, and why USA doesn't use spring floor for HS competitions.

Also, about whether or not spring floors help your tumbling, in my opinion they really affect tumbling. I've gone from a spring floor to a high school mat in one day, and i could throw a round off BHS on spring floor, but i needed a spot on hard floor. it might just be the way i tumble, but that's just my opinion.

LadyW · Senior Member

no tumbling on a hard floor is definelty different. Danielle had multiple B/H on the floor standing and running. When we switched over to studio dance -- we didn't even get mats (only to practice on). It took almost 3 months to re-train her legs and muscles to handle the rebound off of the floor. I think with spring floor you get use to the floor helping you, but with hard floor you have to really sit and then use your thigh muslces to push off.

Now that she is back on spring floors, she tends to land very hard because of that.

OC Mom · GURU

But it's not the roundoff bhs that worries me... it's the girls who do standing tucks and fulls. And to practice them on a mat is so tough on the body. I am worried about em's back now. Let alone her knees and ankles.... the pounding on a hard floor like that is just ridiculous.

michelle h wrote:

You guys all have really good points about how high school teams should have spring floors to reduce injuries, but there's many reasons why they don't. Spring floors aren't something you can take apart and store, and put back together quickly by a bunch of high school girls. At all-star cheer gyms, once the spring floors are laid out, they stay put until they are replaced. For high school teams you usually use whatever gym is not being used, but the type of mat you use needs to be put away after so other sports can use the gym. And most teams don't have enough money to rent out an all-star gym floor to use ..
plus, if you went to a high school like i'm at, cheerleading isn't necessarily at the top of the school's priorities, so you often get stuck practicing wherever other "real sports" are not practicing.
anyways, i think those are the main reasons why high schools don't really use spring floor, and why USA doesn't use spring floor for HS competitions.

Also, about whether or not spring floors help your tumbling, in my opinion they really affect tumbling. I've gone from a spring floor to a high school mat in one day, and i could throw a round off BHS on spring floor, but i needed a spot on hard floor. it might just be the way i tumble, but that's just my opinion.

CSE MOM · Veteran Member

-- Edited by CSE MOM at 04:02, 2007-07-18

OC Mom · GURU

What did you edit??? lol

CheerTaxi · Veteran Member

I have to agree with you OC Mom. My daughter is doing HS and All Star and her HS team was in our 4th of July parade and my daughter was doing standing tucks and multiple BHS all the way down the middle of the street!! No mat, no nothing, just concrete pavement! A couple of the other girls were doing RO, BHS, tucks too! I kept telling her to stop, it was just a parade for god sakes! They were also doing some pretty advanced stunting and basket tosses in the middle of the street! Luckily nobody got hurt or injured, but anyone that knows my daughter, knows the crutches, ankle braces, and walking boot are at the ready at all times!!

I keep trying to tell my daughter not to tumble at all unless she is at All Star's or a competition with the HS. I really don't think anyone at the school really cares whether the girls throw tumbling passes during games, rallies, or half time. They really only need to do it at competition. Just my opinion.

OC Mom · GURU

THHAAANNNKKKK YYYOOOOUUUUUUU

THAT is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. This subject makes my heart sink. Seriously. I was talking with a friend last night about this and she said, "Well I can see why they would make it fair. some school can't afford a spring floor or to use a gym." So I said, so does this mean that if their football team can't afford pads, we should all stop using them? How about the pole vaulters? Our school cn't afford the landing thing so YOUR SCHOOL had better not use it too! What cacmaime idea is this to not use something that protects our girls from injuries??? If your school can't afford it, then only have a game squad!!!!! Don't compete!!!! Or offer two levels or divisions!!! Division 1 is mat only and you can only do particular tumbling whereas Division 2 allows all tumbling but it's on a spring floor.

WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TAKE AWAY A SAFETY ITEM IN ORDER TO MAKE IT EVEN??????? Can u tell I'm really angry?

I ASK THIS..... TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS WHO ARE COACHES AND OWNERS.... what if they told you that all cheer gyms couldn't afford spring floors. What would you do? You can't use spring floors this year. Please, someone enlighten me cause my blood is BOILING right now. I am VERY VERY upset at the very THOUGHT of Emily tumbling on mats. And I'm not talking about just at competitions. I'm talking about every day practices. Over and over and over and over......

-- Edited by OC Mom at 12:51, 2007-07-19

Cheer4ca · Member

For the Cheertaxi mom post. That is really dangerous as someone who coaches I cant believe they allowed them to throw those skills on pavement thats just not safe. You need proper matting at least if not spring to be throwing those skills. Im surprised when we do parades and community events if the kids are dying to show off they do minimum libs with full spots no cradels and bhs for the strong ones nothing else and I dont even like that. Its not good for their bodies and injuries to be tumbling under those circumstances. Our kids tumble on panal mats during basketball so we dont have that issue and they can only do bhs on the football track they must go to grass if they want to do more. most dont which we are a ok with. yikes hope everything works out . Our booster club bought our mats and our kids do fundraisers to get more .

Mama Cribz · Member

OC Mom wrote:

THHAAANNNKKKK YYYOOOOUUUUUUU

THAT is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. This subject makes my heart sink. Seriously. I was talking with a friend last night about this and she said, "Well I can see why they would make it fair. some school can't afford a spring floor or to use a gym." So I said, so does this mean that if their football team can't afford pads, we should all stop using them? How about the pole vaulters? Our school cn't afford the landing thing so YOUR SCHOOL had better not use it too! What cacmaime idea is this to not use something that protects our girls from injuries??? If your school can't afford it, then only have a game squad!!!!! Don't compete!!!! Or offer two levels or divisions!!! Division 1 is mat only and you can only do particular tumbling whereas Division 2 allows all tumbling but it's on a spring floor.

WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TAKE AWAY A SAFETY ITEM IN ORDER TO MAKE IT EVEN??????? Can u tell I'm really angry?

I ASK THIS..... TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS WHO ARE COACHES AND OWNERS.... what if they told you that all cheer gyms couldn't afford spring floors. What would you do? You can't use spring floors this year. Please, someone enlighten me cause my blood is BOILING right now. I am VERY VERY upset at the very THOUGHT of Emily tumbling on mats. And I'm not talking about just at competitions. I'm talking about every day practices. Over and over and over and over......

-- Edited by OC Mom at 12:51, 2007-07-19

OC Mom, I couldn't agree with you more. It drives me crazy when HS coaches allow stunting and tumbling on the unprotected gym floor, the track or the street (in Cheer Taxi's example).

Unfortunately my daughter is also one of a handful of tumblers on her HS sqaud and personally I think she and her fellow tumblers like to tumble at the games because people in the crowd are often in awe (if they're looking). Yes, even I am impressed that, despite learning to tumble on a spring floor, she is able to throw a round-off back-handspring back tuck on a hard surface (with a high set) - but I also would prefer that these skills be saved for competition. At least I have the confidence that she won't land on her head - but i wonder how much damage she is doing to her joints. She won't know until she's 40 and walking around like she's 60.

Of course that could still be her future even if she only tumbled on spring floors...only time will tell.

FLYER4EVER · Member

Wow this is very close. What ever happened with this. Did the little girl get to cheer for her high school. I think it is very much a sport.

cheerflyer9 · Newbie

I think it all depends on how competitive your high school cheer team is. If they don't compete, I wouldn't really consider it a sport. More of an activity.

lvnlife · Member

Of course it is!!!!!

cheerislife · Veteran Member

hard decision because some high school teams are just horrific but some are amazing .... if i had to choose i would probably say yes it is a sport cause it would not be fair to all the teams that are great to say no it isnt... so that is my overlook on the subject .