I wouldn't be surprised. I know a cheerleader who interviewed for CBS news for a big story to air this week. The media is all over the study statistics. Now they have one floating around that shows $4 billion in medical bills for cheerleading injuries in 2007.
We just need to report the injuries so we can show them it is not true. I wish we could get scientific participation numbers. Any ideas?
Has anyone heard about Oprah doing a show on cheerleading safety featuring some of the same people who were on the E! show?
Oprah? Don't think so, don't ever watch her or care too.
I had a local newspaper call me the other day. The reporter wanted to know about cheerleading. I asker her what would you like to know? She said there is talk about cheerleading injuries. I told her, maybe at the schools but not really anything to talk about in allstars. I told her one broken finger, one broken arm and yes some sprains in ten years of all stars. I also told her that our staff is USASF certified, which she didn't know anything about. And then I told her our coaches and staff are all first aid trained by a firefighter that comes into our gym once a year. We have been since we started. I also let her know that there was a couple times where our cheerleaders came down wrong in stunts and we called 911. Nothing serious happened to our cheerleaders, but our staff knows that if there is any question about an injured athlete, call parents and professionals immediately. The reporter ended up not running the story.
I know that there are crazy things that happen in every sport, and as coaches you try to avoid any kind of accident. But the stories that are out there now concerning cheer seem to be out of the ordinary.
I heard a big story about Ashley Burns and Lauren Chang's death is coming out but I didn't believe it because it was Oprah. That's crazy. Lauren wasn't in the E! story though.
Did anyone see the injury articles in the Cheer Biz Magazine? It said most injuires come from HS cheerleading. I didn't catch the E! special, did it talk only about cheer injuries in general or was it focused on HS or All Star specifically?? Any of the crazy injuries I have had on teams I have coached was in HS or youth because they didn't have proper floors or equipment. Most of the injuries occured when we were forced to practice on grass.
Did anyone see the injury articles in the Cheer Biz Magazine? It said most injuires come from HS cheerleading. I didn't catch the E! special, did it talk only about cheer injuries in general or was it focused on HS or All Star specifically?? Any of the crazy injuries I have had on teams I have coached was in HS or youth because they didn't have proper floors or equipment. Most of the injuries occured when we were forced to practice on grass.
It did talk about injuries for the first 45 minutes (it was 2 hours long), but there was a lot on all stars and how cheerleading has evolved, male cheerleaders, some Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders stuff, cheer parents, ect. I have never seen anything like it on TV.
Some people may have thought it was negative. I thought it gave a pretty good perception. Pointing out that participation has increased and safety needs to meet that demand is not the end of cheerleading, it is the first step in being recognized as more than just sideline support.
i didn't get to see these reports. the good thing about all this is that there will be a standard and guidelines that will be set in place for all coaches to adhere to.
well - I voiced my opinion to our school advisor... apparently, my daughters " Jr. high cheer coaches", who are college cheerleaders, thought it would be fun to teach the girls college level stunts. I was not happy, nor did I have warm fuzzy's. At least my girl had enough courage and experience to say "no, I don't feel comfortable doing a 2 1/2 ~ 3 person stunt (she was suppose to be on top). They did some other things, and then one of them said hey -- lets try tuck basket toss -- My kid (the flier), again said umm -- I think those are illegal), and refused to do it.
We got into this for the fun -- we've done the all-star end in cheer, we currently do the all-star end in dance -- this was suppose to be no-stress, fun stuff.
She told me in the car what happen and i went to the cheer advisor yesterday -- who agreed, and will be discussing it further with the coaches.
This is where I think all schools (private, jr high, HS) need to have some kind of overall regulating body that says, these are the rules, these are the types of things you should be doing and all coaches at a school should have some kind of training or certification or something. Maybe there is and its just that these girls are inexperienced in coaching (although 1 has been coaching pop-warner for 2 years), I would think she should know better.
