March is Cheerleading Safety Month

When my daughters were high school cheerleaders, I sat in the bleachers biting my nails and covering my eyes, hoping they wouldn’t get hurt. After they both graduated I gave a big sigh of relief that my worrying about cheerleading injury days were over. Not so. Now they both have daughters of their own in cheerleading – whole new generation for me to worry about.

According to the United States Sports Academy, cheerleading injuries account for more than half of calamitous injuries in female sports. Most injuries are caused by direct hits on the body from falling on a gym floor. Studies have shown that other surfaces such as grass, rubberized track and artificial turf are not any safer. The safest surfaces for cheerleading are spring loaded floors or foam mats, which usually are not available at sporting events such as high school football games.

This is my granddaughter Natalie now at age 13 and at 9. She and her sisters have been cheerleading since they could walk. Her family owns Tilt Tumble and Cheer in South Lyon (Michigan), where Natalie practices safe tumbling and cheer stunts daily. Natalie and her sister Alli just completed their competitive cheer season with the South Lyon Paws UNDEFEATED! Here’s what Natalie has to say about Cheerleading Safety (the girl knows what she’s talking about!)

Cheerleading Safety by Natalie Tilt

There are many rules middle school cheer teams must follow in order to keep athletes safe. One important safety rule is that you can never let your flyer hit the mat. This means that the girl who is being held in the air can’t fall and hit the ground. This prevents injuries such as broken bones and concussions from an athlete falling to the ground from high in the air. It also prevents the flier from losing trust in her stunt group. Another rule to go along with that concept is that the backspot must be looking at the flyer the whole time or the team will receive a penalty. This rule was also established to protect the flyer because if she is falling the most important part is to catch is the head and neck, this is the responsibility of the backspot. Another rule strongly enforced in cheer is that all participants must remove all jewelry. This prevents any incidents in which the jewelry gets caught on something or hurts the cheerleader. The final, most important rule, is to always try your hardest. This rule is very important because without trying your hardest, you are putting yourself and others in danger. This may not sound like a dangerous situation but if you are slacking and only putting in half effort you could not land your tumbling pass and injure yourself. Also when you are in a stunt group everyone’s effort counts and effects the stunt group. If you aren’t giving it your all then the stunt could come down and many people could get injured. These are some of the many very important rules of cheerleading.