One of the benefits of the evolution seen in cheerleading is the excitement and athleticism in competitive cheer. Competitions can often be seen on television featuring all-star, collegiate, and high school cheerleading teams performing complicated, synchronized routines including the elements of high risk tumbling and advanced stunts.
While some programs and schools are well-prepared for the current levels of tumbling and stunting used in cheer, others have seen an increase in catastrophic injuries due to a number of factors including inexperienced coaches and stunting and tumbling on hard surfaces.
Experienced Cheer Coaches can Reduce Injuries
Competitive gymnasts invest years of their lives in training and preparing their bodies to perform advanced stunts. This same type of concern, care, and preparation should be taken when teaching cheerleaders how to tumble and perform stunts.
These athletes need to have a foundation of upper body, core, hip, knee and ankle strength combined with stability of the lower extremity and flexibility of the shoulders, spine, and hip. This takes years to obtain. Expecting youngsters to learn to tumble and stunt without the proper strength components necessary is a recipe for catastrophic injury.
What appears to be one of the contributing factors to the high incidence of catastrophic injuries in cheerleading is inexperienced coaches. Overlooking the amount of preparation needed to get a coach to the level of experience necessary to be able to safely teach tumbling progressions is a common problem in cheerleading today. One would think that one requirement for coaching competitive cheer should be significant hands-on training in teaching and coaching gymnastics.
Not only could an experienced coach correctly teach and spot cheerleaders to prevent athletic injuries, an experienced coach could anticipate situations that could result in possible injuries and take steps to avoid them. One situation is allowing cheerleaders to perform stunts without protective mats.
Tumbling and Stunting on Protective Mats can Reduce Injuries
Because the cheerleaders of today are more like synchronized floor routine gymnasts (but with 25 – 30 athletes performing simultaneously), the same analogy will be used when considering the use of protective mats.
Would gymnasts ever consider tumbling and performing advanced stunts on wood gym floors, asphalt, dirt, or grass? The answer is no. So why is it acceptable for cheerleaders to stunt and tumble on hard surfaces?
Acknowledging that risk is inherent in the sport of gymnastics, measures are taken to make it as safe as possible for the athletes. The same considerations should be taken in the evolving sport of cheerleading.
Will cheerleaders incur injuries even with the use of protective mats? The answer is yes. However, the severity of the types of injuries would be significantly reduced; perhaps even to the point of removing cheerleading as the most dangerous girls sport.
Change Starts with Program Review
The changes necessary to improve safety in cheerleading need to start with each individual program taking a hard look at what they want out of their program and if they have the resources to achieve their goals safely.
Unless programs have qualified coaches and protective mats to practice on, the programs should mandate that their cheerleaders keep their feet on the ground. This change alone could significantly decrease catastrophic injuries in cheerleading.
Second, even programs with experienced coaches and the resources to obtain protective mats should perform their tumbling and advanced stunts only on protective mats. Removing high risk tumbling and advanced stunts from game sidelines could also reduce catastrophic injuries (most catastrophic head and neck injuries were from cheerleaders who had been dropped or had fallen from basket tosses or pyramids on hard surfaces).
Experienced, qualified coaches together with tumbling and stunting only on protective mats would go a long way in decreasing catastrophic injuries in cheerleading. Until regulations are put into place to ensure the safety of today’s cheerleaders, program coaches and parents need to step up and make the necessary changes to keep their athletes safe.
References:
ABC News. (January 5, 2010). The Most Dangerous Sport of all may be Cheerleading. Nightline.
Mueller, F., and Cantu, R. (August 19, 2008). National Center for Catastrophic Injury: 25th Annual Report. University of North Carolina.
National Cheer Safety Foundation (June 29, 2009). Experts Call for Congressional Hearing on Cheer Injuries. Press Release: http://www.nationalcheersafety.com.
Shields, B. & Smith, G. (November, 2009). The Potential for Brain Injury on Selected Surfaces Used by Cheerleaders. Journal of Athletic Training 44(6).
Sportsmd.com, Preventing Catastrophic Injuries in Cheerleading, (accessed on June 25, 2010).
Terry Zeigler - Educating through writing with over twenty-five years of experience as a Kinesiology Professor and Certified Athletic Trainer.
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