The development of cheerleading in the USA. The main types of cheer teams in the USA and their functions

Since its founding in 1880 cheerleading became the most beautiful kind of support. Sure, leadership country is the USA. Nowadays there are over 3 million people who really love cheerleading and find this kind of sport very serious. In the USA there are 7 types of cheerleading:

1. School-sponsored.

Most American middle schools, high schools and colleges have organized cheerleading squads made up solely of students. Several colleges that compete at cheerleading competitions offer cheerleading scholarships. School-sponsored cheerleading promotes school spirit and motivates the players and fans. A cheerleading team may compete outside of sporting events (local, regional, and national competitions), and cheer for sporting events and encourage audience participation. Cheerleading is quickly becoming a year-round sport, starting with tryouts during the spring of the preceding school year, organized camp as a team, practices, attendance at various sporting events and ending with National competition season, typically from winter through spring. School cheerleaders also compete with rec-style routines at many competitions all year-round. They practice hard for them and come up with a 2 minute 30 second routine to show off at the competitions. Like other school-level athletes they compete to win their league title and to move on to bigger competitions eventually reaching nationals the ultimate title for a school squad. The advantages to a school squad versus an all-star squad are cheering at various games. For some squads the level of competition on the weekends can be equal to an all-star squad.

2. Middle school cheerleading.

Middle school cheerleading was evolved shortly after high school squads has started. In middle school, the squads serve mostly the same functions as high school squads and follow the same rules and regulations. Depending on how advanced the squad is, they usually do similar stunts as a high school does. The cheerleaders cheer at basketball, football, and other sports in their school. They also perform at pep rallies and compete against other schools from local competitions all the way to nationals. Cheerleading in middle school sometimes can be a two-season sport, fall and winter. However, many middle school cheer squads will go all year round like high school squads. Middle school cheerleaders use the same cheerleading movements as their older counterparts, but perform less extreme stunts, ranging from simple elevators, knee stands, extensions to harder stunts such as the heel stretch and scorpion(it’s balance when leg laterally or in back)

3. High school cheerleading.

In high school, there are usually two squads per school: varsity and a junior varsity. Some schools also include a freshman level of the sport in order to develop skills as the athletes mature. High school cheerleading contains aspects of school spirit as well as competition. These squads have become a part of a year-round sport, starting with tryouts in the spring, to year-round practice, to sporting events to cheer in the fall and winter, and to cheerleading competitions. Most teams practice at least three days a week for about two hours each practice during the summer. Many teams also attend separate tumbling sessions outside of practice. During the school year, cheerleading is usually a five- to six-days-a-week sport. During competition season it often becomes seven days with practice twice a day sometimes. The school spirit aspect of cheerleading involves cheering, supporting, and "pumping up" the crowd at football games, basketball games, and even wrestling meets. With this they also make posters, perform at pep rallies, and bring school spirit to the other students. Its competition aspect makes cheerleading its own sport. There is year-round practice, cheer camps, and competitions throughout the winter. There are different cheerleading organizations that put on these competitions; some of the major ones include state competitions and regional competitions. Many high schools host cheerleading competitions, bringing in IHSA(Illinois High School Association) judges. The regional competitions are the qualifiers for the national competitions, such as the UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) in Orlando, Florida every year. The competition aspect of cheerleading can be very enduring; styles and rules changing every year make it important and difficult to find the newest and hottest routines. Most teams have a professional choreograph their routine in order to ensure they are not breaking any rules and they will be up to par with the other teams.

This is some rules:

Ø Cheer- programs have great sports areas, including quite a number of acrobatic elements, require insurance when the complexities of the program

Ø Required elements of Cheer- programs are jumps, pyramids, constant support, Cheer-Dance, Cheer-chants, Chand-chants, acrobatic elements (flip-flops, wheels, rondaty etc.)

Ø DANCE program Unlike programs Cheer doesn’t include acrobatics and chants, fit well in any show can be performed as in sports areas, and on the floor. The program always uses pompoms.

Ø Required elements of Dance program are pirouettes, splits, jumps and swings. All required elements are performed by all team members.

For a list of rules visit AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators). All high school coaches are required to attend an IHSA rules meeting at the beginning of the season. This ensures their knowledge of rules changes and their compliance with these rules. Routines usually last around 2 minutes and 30 seconds and require cheer, dance, jumps, tumbling, and stunting portions.

4. College cheerleading.

Most colleges and universities have a cheerleading squad. Most squads are coed, but the number of all-female college squads is rapidly increasing, in an effort to give female cheerleaders, especially bases, who have cheered on all-girl high school or all-star squads an opportunity to cheer at the collegiate level without making the transition to a coed squad. Unlike high school cheerleading, college squads may perform difficult stunts like rewinds, 2½ high pyramids, and flipping and twisting basket tosses. (For example Pyramid is a group of constants, standing close enough to touch each other. Basket-Toss is a stunt roll of 4-5, in which the bases of lateral arms linked and required the presence of the rear base). Most college squads compete at some level, and a handful of them compete nationally.

5. Youth league/athletic association.

Many organizations that sponsor youth league football or basketball sponsor cheerleading squads as well. Pop Warner and PPAL [pasco police athletic league] organizations are an example of this. The YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) is also a popular sponsor for youth cheerleading leagues, as well as numerous other sports leagues. Many local communities are creating organizations to go along with their Youth Football leagues and Youth Basketball leagues.

6. All-Star cheerleading.

The USASF was formed in 2003 by the competition companies to act as the national governing body for all star cheerleading and to create a standard set of rules and judging standards to be followed by all competitions sanctioned by the Federation, ultimately leading to the Cheerleading Worlds. The USASF hosted the first Cheerleading Worlds on April 24, 2004. In 2009, the first All-Level Worlds was held. It included teams from all levels, with each winner continuing to the online championships, where teams from across the nation competed to win the Worlds Title. At the same time, cheerleading coaches from all over the country organized themselves for the same rule making purpose, calling themselves the National All Star Cheerleading Coaches Congress (NACCC). In 2005, the NACCC was absorbed by the USASF to become their rule making body. In late 2006, the USASF facilitated the creation of the International All-Star Federation (IASF). As of 2012 all-star cheerleading as sanctioned by the USASF involves a squad of 6–36 females and/or males. The squad prepares year-round for many different competition appearances, but they only actually perform for up to 2½ minutes during their routines. The numbers of competitions a team participates in varies from team to team, but generally, most teams tend to participate in eight-twelve competitions a year. These competitions include locals, which are normally taken place in school gymnasiums or local venues, nationals, hosted in big venues all around the U.S. with national champions, and the Cheerleading Worlds, taken place at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During a competition routine, a squad performs carefully choreographed stunting, tumbling, jumping and dancing to their own custom music. Teams create their routines to an eight-count system and apply that to the music so the team members execute the elements with precise timing and synchronization. All-star cheerleaders are placed into divisions, which are grouped based upon age, size of the team, gender of participants, and ability level. The age levels vary from under 4 year of age to 18 years and over. The divisions used by the USASF/IASF are currently Tiny, Mini, Youth, Junior, Junior International, Junior Coed, Senior, Senior Coed, Special Needs, and Open International. The sport originally began with "all girl" teams and later co-ed teams began to gain popularity. That being said, the all girl squad remains the most prevalent.

7. Professional spirit squads.

Professional cheerleaders and dancers cheer for sports such as football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, or hockey. There are only a few professional cheerleading leagues around the world; some professional leagues include the NBA Cheerleading League, the NFL Cheerleading League, the CFL Cheerleading League, the MLS Cheerleading League, the MLB Cheerleading League, and the NHL Ice Dancers. Although professional cheerleading leagues exist in many countries, there are no Olympic Teams. In addition to cheering at games and competing, professional cheerleaders also, as teams, do a lot of philanthropy and charity work, modeling, motivational speaking, television performances, and advertising.

So, we can see high diversity of cheerleading teams in the USA and a huge number of cheerleading elements which show the complexity of this kind of sport. By the way, In 1980 cheerleading has been established the official rules and cheerleading became professional kind of sport.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16