Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Cheerleading Uniforms And The History Of This Sport

By Anne Kelley


A popular organized activity that is related to sports wherein participants cheer, yell and shout to motivate the attendees of most sporting events is known as cheer leading. Professionals claimed that this certain activity is a sport of its own. Those who are members of a cheering squad makes use of cheerleading uniforms that are appealing while they bust their dance moves in court.

Cheerleaders can be seen in most sports activities in schools, professional sports games and other organized dancing competitions. The moves in this certain activity consist of complex tricks that are physically demanding. Others consider this as a sport since cheerleaders are very serious athletes. However, some people question this fact because they believe that the activity is not very strenuous.

The history of this activity can be associated with the sporting history of the United States. The first ever football game that was held in a university in New Jersey saw the birth of cheer leading. The game was between Princeton University and Rutgers University in 1869.

A few years later, the male students of Princeton created an all male group who started cheering in unified chants and yells. They did it to show support to their rugby team. As a result, their team was able to win the game due to their method of motivation.

Thomas Peebles, a graduate of Princeton came to Minnesota. While staying there, he was able to teach the students at the University of Minnesota the yells and chants that were done from his alma mater. During that year, there were two more students that yelled and chanted to motivate the same rugby team. Their actions later on spread like wildfire in their school.

Universities and other colleges were able to adopt and develop new methods of cheering, yelling and as well as fight songs in 1889. However, two consecutive defeats took place the year after that. The loss gave them the courage to try out something new like using megaphones for cheering.

It was a smart move for them to do so because their team eventually won. Due to that, more changes and additional fame followed. Cheer leading became as popular as other sports. After the popularity that it gained, newer skills and techniques were added until it reached its current form.

As what you have learned, cheering was solely made for males. However, an all female group was introduced by the same university in their sporting games in 1923. Females became the majority of member of cheering teams in the early 1940s. The transition of participants was due to the flight of most males to fight during the second world war. At present, ninety percent of cheerleaders are composed of women.

Moreover, cheerleading uniforms have also evolved over time along with additional techniques like tumbling and fight song team dances. Traditional motions and acrobatics are being inserted in current routines. Some schools also developed the use of flash cards or signs to gain the participation of the crowd. Training camps have also been created to provide proper education on the important elements of the activity. However, critics have opened the issue on how the activity focuses extreme demands on the bodies of young women that pushes them to perform severe regimens.




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