Positions

Within competitive cheerleading there are multiple different positions a cheerleader can perform, these positions vary depending on level and the state of the cheerleaders in the team. These positions are backspot, frontspot, base and flyer.

Backspot
The backspot stands at the back of the stunt holding the flyers ankels. They assist the flying in loading into the stunt and they catch under the flyers armpits when the group cradles. If the flyer falls anywhere the backspot must catch the flyer.

Frontspot
A frontspot is not essential, you do not need one, but you can have one. They stand at the front of the stunt and if the flyer falls forward then they must catch her. When the group cradles the frontspot catches to one side of the flyers shins. Usually the frontspot counts so the group is in time.

Base
Usually their are two bases, the bases hold the flyers feet with two hands making sure they are always looking at the flyer. Bases are in my opinion the most important people in the stunt, they are what gets the stunt in the air. Bases must use their entire body to get the flyer up in the air, dipping their legs and arms. When the stunt is a single leg then there becomes a main base and a second base, the main base holds the foot as usual but the second base does something called a "burger" around the foot. This is where the bases hands act as the bread and the flyers foot acts as the meat creating a "burger."

Flyer
Flyers are the people who get lifted into the air, they must stay tight the entire time squeezing everything making sure they are looking up so they don't fall. Usually they must be light and flexible so they can pull a shape or stretch in the air without hurting the bases.

(Example cheerleading stunt video.)

Group Stunts And Partner Stunts

Group Stunt is where a group of five or four cheerleaders (back spot  flyer, front spot and two bases) make a one to two minute routine purely on a series of stunts. These routines involve only a little bit of tumbles if the team wants to, but no jumps or dances at all. Sometimes if the group feels unsafe or that they may fall they are aloud to have a spotter, spotters just sand by the group whilst they perform and if the flyer falls then they catch them. The team also has to chose a level of which they chose to perform at, these levels affect the difficulty of stunts they are aloud to perform.

Partner Stunts is mostly the same as a group stunt except it has only one base (lifter) and one flyer (person who gets lifted). The routines go for about one minute long but sometimes more. The difficulty of the stunts vary on the different levels, but partner stunts always have a spotter because it can be very dangerous.

Dynamite Dave Cheer Abilities

Cheer Abilities is an Australian cheerleading program for kids with disabilities. It allows these kids to achieve skills that they are told they could never accomplish. Within most Australian cheerleading companies they have a cheer abilities team, these teams train just like any other team and then they perform a routine at competitions. Dynamite Dave is one of the many participants, he cheers for a company called Cheer Factor with coach Sonia Roarty. Recently at the Australian Allstar Cheerleading Federation Nationals Competition in Sydney he was noticed not just by the judges and other competitors but by the media, a television show called The Project on channel 10 did a special report on him (Dynamite Dave Cheerleading Report).  This report also features his proud father Peter Pizarcoff, Peter is the MC for all of the Australian Allstar Cheerleading Federation (AASCF) competitions, which until recently I was unaware that Dynamite Dave was his son.

Kiara Nowlin

Kiara Nowlin was born on the 27th of November in 1995, she is an American Gymnast, world champion power tumbler and a nationally ranked cheerleader. Kiara began her gymnastics tumbling life at just the age of three at Gold Coast Gymnastics in Ventura California, at just the age of three and a half Kiara was landing her third backhand spring. Since she wasn't qualified to be on a competitive gymnastics team until age seven, so Kiara became very recognized as she started performing at exhibitions with team gymnasts at Gold Coast. At age five she began cheering for an allstar cheerleading team, and even though her plan was to quit at age eight she continued competing in both gymnastics and cheerleading. All of her hard work had definitely since paid of as she won seven scholarships and awards due to her athletic ability. Now she competes in the California Allstars in the unlimited Co-Ed division wining several gold medals along with her team at the U.S. All Star Federation Cheerleading Worlds. As for her career Kiara has made many public appearances, staring in magazines and even on the popular television Ellen Degeneres show in 2008 (Kiara Nowlin on Ellen Degeneres.).

Rules

Most people who don't follow competitive cheerleading are unaware that there are actually a set of rules the cheerleaders must apply when performing. There are 6 different levels, level 1 being the easiest and level 6 being the hardest, the rules vary depending on the level. Then within each level it is divided into three sections juniors, seniors and open. At every competition there are about four to ten judges that asses your performance based on your level. If a team breaks a rule they will loose points to their score, however if they apply the rules correctly then there team will gain points to their score.

Competitive Cheerleading

Most people stereotype cheerleaders as people who cheer for other sporting teams victory's. This was defiantly the correct term for a cheerleader when cheerleading first originated, however over the years cheerleading has developed into something much different. Competitive cheerleading is where a full team forms a routine and performs at a competition against other teams in there level. Teams that achieve high scores from the judges win special bids to travel and perform there routine either inter-nationally or nationally. When your team becomes one of the very best at a top level there is the biggest cheerleading competition that takes place in America once a year and it is called cheerleading worlds. When performing at a competition there are two different types of routines you can perform they are a pom routine or a cheer (stunt) routine. Pom routines are very similar to normal dancing except it involves each cheerleader to have a pair of pom pom's and some compulsory moves which are a kick line and jump series. A cheer (stunt) routine is performed on a sprung floor and it involves stunt, tumbles, jumps and dance. However the old stereotypical idea of cheerleading still remains with some teams only cheering and supporting football and basketball teams, competitive cheerleading has defiantly become a sport in its own right.

Cheer Extreem Allstars

Cheer Extreme Allstars is a top leading American cheerleading company in North Carolina founded in 1994 by Betsy Smith and in now owned by her daughter and son-in-law, Courtney Smith Pope and Ben Pope. This company serves the largest cheerleading program in Carolina with a total of seven locations and over eight hundred athletes. They have a top national reputation as one of the premier programs in the south-east   They have about twenty six coaches including the 2009 USASF coach of the year Courtney Smith-Popen (owner), she is one of the best in the cheerleading industry. Almost all of their teams have been to cheerleading worlds and many of them have brought home gold. Their leading most known team is Senior Elite and they were the ranked world champions in 2010 and 2012, they also made an appearance on the reality television show Americas Got Talent.

Maddie Gardner

Mary Maddison Gardner know as Maddie Gardner is an internationally known All-star cheerleader born on the 13th of July 1993. She began her competitive cheerleading life at the age of seven at Cheer Extreme Allstars. Maddie has since attended many cheerleading worlds and is mostly known for her first ever performance at worlds succeeding in doing the "ball up 360 tick-tock stunt"( Maddie's 360 Ball Up Tick Tock). This stunt is one of the hardest to master. As for Maddie's career she has done extremely well, she has made numerous media appearances as a speaker, celebrity judge and stunt instructor. She was also the chosen face to be on the front of cheerleading magazines in December, and was also the single most featured for the magazine as evidence by large posters and banners with her face on booths around the USA. In 2011 CNN (American T.V. news program) followed her team around videoing there success and preparation leading up to worlds (CNN Video). Lastly Maddie launched a line for fancy face cosmetics which is a cheerleading make-up company, including a Maddie Loves Shimmer Collection. In 2012 Maddie Gardener had made her final decision to graduate, ending her all-star cheerleading career. She told to interviewers that she had applied to one university with a competitive cheerleading team, the University of Georgia, to study communications. Maddie chose to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is now studying journalism.

The History

Cheerleading is a physical activity and usually a competitive sport based on organised routines including a series of dance, jumps, stunts and tumbles. Cheerleading began in the early 1877 in the United States and remains primarily American with an estimated amount of 1.5 million participants but is increasingly spreading world wide becoming more known. Most of the population sees cheerleading as an all girls sport, however believe it or not cheerleading first began as an all-male sport with women only beginning to dominate the sport in 1907 during World War II. Johnny Campbell was the very first official cheerleader by the date 1898. He was a student at the University of Minnesota, and he managed a crowd by cheering at a football game, this was what made him the first official cheerleader. However today it is now estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants are female. Modern cheerleaders are generally either competitive, or they cheer for basketball or football games.