Cheerleading has gone through remarkable changes throughout the years, from long skirts and cheering on the sidelines, to a highly competitive atmosphere with stunting and tumbling. Here’s a look at how cheer has changed throughout the years.
The Start of Cheer
The sport started in the 19th century and was mainly a male sport. Cheer was created to boost the spirit at football games and make the fans more enthusiastic. The cheerleaders of the 19th century had a main focus of doing basic sideline cheers creating fan engagement from the stands.
Women Joining Cheer
Women started to join cheerleading squads in the 1920s and 1930s, completely changing the sport. The cheerleaders of this period wore sweaters and long skirts and started using pom poms. Cheer in the 20s-30s showcased simple routines with basic stunting and dancing.
Competitive Cheerleading
There was a significant change in the 1980s and 1990s when cheerleading started to become a competitive sport. Regional and national competitions were held where teams would show more difficult routines with complex stunting, tumbling, and dancing. The sport finally started to gain recognition and require more athleticism with a higher skill level.
Gymnastics Comes Into Cheer
Modern cheerleading started to showcase gymnastics skills and higher-level stunts, along with difficult pyramids where all of the flyers were connected in the air. Judging became more difficult including scoring based on execution, difficulty, creativity, and safety. Safety started to become a high priority as cheer acquired one of the highest injury rates, leading to strict rules and guidelines to help prevent these injuries. Cheerleaders of this era had to start training more rigorously in order to perfect their routines and improve their skills.
Media’s Influence
Cheerleading gained exposure and grew in popularity from movies like “Bring It On” and “CHEER.” These movies show the competitive aspect of cheerleading and the difficulty of the sport. As cheer’s popularity was increasing, cheerleaders on certain teams started to become “cheer influencers” and these teams started to gain attention on social media.
Cheerleading Today
Cheerleading today is divided into two sections- all-star cheer and school cheerleading. All-star cheerleading is divided into different levels with teams that travel to competitions across the country. School cheerleading competes at competitions within the state and still showcases sideline cheerleading. Cheer today has also shown inclusivity with Co-ed teams being common and cheer ABILITIES for athletes with disabilities.
Overall, cheerleading has developed from a simple way to create school spirit into a highly skilled and extremely competitive sport.
