Why Cheerleading is a Sport A sport is a physical activity involving skills in which an individual or team competes against another or others for fun. Cheerleading is a physical activity in which a team develops complex stunts, acrobatic steps, dances and jumps and competes against other teams. By this definition cheerleading should be viewed as a sport. However, when most people think of cheerleaders, they think of girls in kilts singing on the sideline for a football or basketball team. For ten years of my life I was a competitive cheerleader for an all-star cheerleading gym, which is completely different than cheerleading on the sidelines. In All Star Cheerleader, we trained 11 months a year and put together a routine. The jumps depend on how high the legs can reach in the air and how attractive the jump is. There are three types of jumps: toe touch, left and right hurdles, and spades. Toe touches occur when both feet are straddled in the air. Hurdles occur when one leg is kicked directly towards your head and the other leg is supposed to kick behind you. Finally, a pike is when both legs kick straight towards the head. The execution of the jumps involves tiptoes, arms in a T position and hands in fists. If the team doesn't execute the jumps with impeccable precision and impeccable timing. Jumping movements are not the only component where it is essential to be extremely tight and strong. They say sports teams exist to compete and cheerleaders exist to support another group that competes. Most people believe that people, cheerleaders, have some competition to show off away from the sidelines. However, as an Allstar cheerleader I have never cheered for another team. My only concern was training to compete against other teams from around the world. My dream was to win the cheerleading worlds. The cheerleaders trained almost all year round, four days a week for twenty hours, thinking only of holding the world champion trophy in their hands. At the World Cup we compete against hundreds of teams and our priority wasn't to spread the spirit. The main concern was to perform our physical skills with precision and accuracy and win the competition. Losing the cheerleading worlds puts girls in depression and winning makes them smile like a chucky doll. This level of emotion shows the competitive nature of the cheerleader. However, cheerleaders are athletes in a sport where you have to have more of the drive to win than you have to have physically