As people debate whether or not cheer is a sport, the Tom Tom staff decided the best way to find out is if we try it out ourselves. Watching cheerleaders flip around the mats and throw people in the air always looks so fun. How hard could it possibly be? We were excited to try it out.
When we arrived, the ACHS cheer team immediately put us to work. They asked us to help roll out the mats. Let me tell you, that is a whole sport in itself. Trying to keep the mats straight and lined up was much harder than it looked. Most of us bailed after the first five seconds. Standing to the side was a much easier option. It also definitely made it easier for the cheerleaders when we were out of their way. I think we messed the mats up more than we helped.
After the mats were out, it was time to warm up. I was expecting it to be the dynamic stretching that I do in every other sport I play. But then things took a turn for the worse. They had us doing things that the human body is not made for. They made us walk across the mat in a handstand. I cannot hold a handstand for five seconds, let alone walk all the way across the mat. Several of us fell on our faces at some point. After that, we did another handstand warmup. We stuck our leg out in front, swung it back, went into the handstand, put one leg down, and then stood up; it was even more confusing than me trying to explain it here. Plus, we were supposed to do this all in sync. I messed up the entire timing. My favorite warm-up was the forward roles. We had to dive into them which made them so much fun. If you ask me, I think I did exceptionally well. Those were the most tiring warmups I have done in my entire life. Who would have thought I would be out of breath before practice even started?
Next up: jumps. We started off easy with T-jumps. Well, easy for the cheerleaders. Trying to get the arm motions down was a huge struggle. I was fully capable of doing the motions, but the timing was extremely difficult. I do not know why picking up on the counts was so hard for me. I barely got the timing down when they switched up the jumps on us. We attempted to do a straddle jump. I do not understand how the cheerleaders bend that way. Either they are insanely flexible, or I am insanely inflexible. I think it is probably a little bit of both. Even though I was very bad at it, the cheerleaders were extremely encouraging, making it a lot more enjoyable. The last jump we did was my favorite. Your front leg is straight out and the back leg is bent. That jump made me feel like a true cheerleader. All of the jumps were so much fun, but they are significantly harder than they look.
The last event we did was stunts. In the beginning, we mixed one Tom Tom staff member in a stunt group at a time, breaking them into groups; that way, no one got hurt. At least the rest of the group knew what they were doing when there was only one of us in each group. I was a designated base. I was expecting the flier to be lifted up slowly but I was most definitely wrong. She went up so fast I struggled to hang on to her. That probably means I did not do much of anything, but I am going to pretend I did really well.
“Up one two,” one of the cheerleaders said, and then she was in the air. My heart started to race. They wanted me to lift the girl over my head. I cheered when I was younger, so I had a general idea of how to do it, but it has been eight years since then. I was so scared I would drop the flier. Thank goodness the rest of the group said not to lift her higher because I do not think that would have ended well. It was finally time to put it down, which was a struggle in itself. The other cheerleaders went down so fast, and I had no idea how I was supposed to put her down. I ended up just dropping her, in a sense. I felt bad because I felt like I should have put her down more gently, but she just kind of fell out of my hands. Stunting was definitely the most difficult part of practice.
After we stunted one at a time, we decided we wanted to do a full Tom Tom staff stunt. Senior Mason Willis and junior RJ Deguzman were the bases, senior Teddi Wetu was our backspot and junior Mia Bellucci was the flier. I think I was more scared for Bellucci than she was for herself. Instead of just lifting her to their chest, they lifted her over their heads. She was so shaky up there, and I panicked, thinking they were going to drop her. I was ready to catch her as a spotter. Thankfully, they got her down without dropping her. It was not smooth, but it worked.
When we were done stunting, it was time for the cheer team to do their own thing at practice. We were disappointed because we wanted to tumble. For safety reasons, the coach did not allow us to attempt flips. Understandably, she did not want anyone to get injured. We tried to convince her, but we were unsuccessful.
On that note, that was a wrap-up of our cheer practice experience. It was very fun but also very difficult. We gained a great deal of respect for all cheerleaders. When we see their future performances, we will understand how much hard work and dedication was put into the routine. We all came to a unanimous conclusion that cheer is undoubtedly a sport.
