Sometimes you wonder, is cheerleading really fun?
“Cheerleading looks too strenuous and complicated to be fun”, the thought runs through your mind.
The stretches flyers have to do in the air, the bases having to lift someone up or the tumblers having to flip their way across the mat hardly seems like any “fun”.
While that may seem true but it is also just a small fraction of the whole cheerleading experience. Don’t forget the practices, friendships and competitions is also a part of the experience! And all of these makes cheerleading a little more fun than you’d expect!
So, how or why is cheerleading fun?
One : The Friendships!
Cheerleading is a team sport – a bond will naturally form between you and your teammates as you work together day in and day out. These friendships makes cheerleading extremely fun! You get to stunt together, share the problems you face and most importantly, you have the same passion. It is just like having a second family!
Having to work together may seem like a chore, but it is actually really fun and at the same time, it helps you to learn how to work with other people. Working together in cheerleading comes in two parts – stunting and planning a routine together. Both of which are super fun!
Before you can even start stunting together, you have to work out the dynamics of stunt; the timing, the hand placements and each person’s role. The picture on the right shows how a typical pre-stunt would look like. The cheerleaders are suzying their stunt to make sure the dynamics are properly understood by each person.
Planning a routine usually starts out with a rough sketch of idea on pen and paper as seen in the picture on the left. They huddle up close together and share their ideas! And sometimes, even share a laugh!
I remember my cheerleading days where my teammates and I would try all sorts of stunt sequence, transition motions, pyramid formations, jump sequence and dances. We often took inspiration from cheerleading videos and one of my fondest memory was laughing at how whatever we tried to follow in the video looks nothing like it!
Two : The Skills
There are many cool and challenging skills in cheerleading and the thrill of being able to do something of that nature makes cheerleading so fun. You would imagine that only the hulk would be able to lift anyone that high in the air or that the flyer would only be the weight of say, a child. The fact that it seems impossible gives you this exhilarating feeling when you actually accomplish it. Hey, you don’t actually need the strength of a hulk to lift someone nor do you need to weigh only 20 kilograms to fly. You think to yourself, “if I can do something so impossible, what else can I do?” and suddenly you’re hooked to trying out new stunts, new tumblings and new jumps. And that’s what makes cheerleading so fun – you get to defy the limits that you place on yourself. You’re a rule breaker!
Jokes aside, when trying new stunts, you’d probably look like the picture on the left before you actually look like the picture on the right. And that’s okay! The fun lies in getting there, not being there.
Three : Having a goal
Everything you do in life should have a purpose, but sometimes you do fun things just for the fun of it – there is no purpose apart from providing yourself some entertainment. Having an end goal or purpose for an activity often associates that activity as something stressful. If you want to get good results, you have to study for more hours or if you want to pass your piano exams, you have to practice more frequently. Would you think that I’m spouting nonsense if I said having an end goal actually makes the activity more fun? Well, that is actually the case but it is only applicable for activities that you truly enjoy. Some might actually find studying enjoyable and not stressful at all.
Therefore, if you truly enjoy cheerleading, the end goal which are competitions actually makes the whole experience really fun! It may seem stressful having to prepare and practice a routine good enough to compete. But, in each and every failure and fall, you know that you are one step closer to the end goal and somehow, you find joy in all of the stressful moments.
Huddling together right before the most nerve-racking 2 minutes and 30 seconds of your life; stressful but reassuring at the same time.
You know that no matter what happens, you have these amazing friends who just like you, are ready to give their all for what they love. And that’s the fun – being able to share your passion with someone else!
Cheerleading is extremely challenging, but there are so many fun that comes along with it that in the end, it all just seems worth it. So is cheerleading fun? Definitely!!
