Shane Womack, Director of Marketing for Inside Cheerleading magazine, responded to the msnbc article by Melissa Dahl, Health writer, titled:
Flying without a net: Cheer injuries on rise
Activity more dangerous than any other sport for young girls
Shane Womack:
I have to strongly disagree with this article. Unfortunately she has gotten some wrong information…
Therefore, here are some of the points that didn’t make it into the article.
The role of cheerleading:
The first is the issue of the role of cheerleaders and stunting. Most school cheer coaches recognize that their primary role is to lead the crowd at athletic contests. They can better fulfill this by doing basic “game stunts” like the thigh stands, elevators, extensions and yes – even some basket tosses. The game is going on behind the cheerleaders and the crowd is seated in high-rise bleachers. Stunts get the attention of the crowd, so that you can draw their focus to the cheer team in order to better lead them. Signs are more effective when they can be seen and partner stunts can accomplish this. In addition, the skills the cheerleaders do can build a rapport with the crowd and help them be a conduit between the crowd in the stands and the athletes on the field. As we teach, it is important to recognize that there are times for “game stunts” and that the more intricate type of skills that help attract great athletes are better reserved for entertainment-style routines at halftime or for competition.
Risk Assessment:
While there are difficulties in doing some risk assessments due to participation figures, there are in fact places where we can do risk assessments, particularly in high school cheerleading. The data from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries Annual Report shows that in 2007-2008 there were 3 high school catastrophic injuries and approximately 400,000 cheerleaders. That puts the risk of catastrophic injury per 100,000 participants at .75 but as the article does mention, that doesn’t account for the fact that cheerleaders participate all year. That means that the number of injuries for cheerleading took multiple seasons to accrue and to “normalize” the data to compare it to other sports you would have to half the risk level. That puts cheerleading at around .375 catastrophic injuries per 100,000. In simplest terms comparing it to other high school sports, that means there are 10 sports that have a higher risk of catastrophic injury than cheerleading – including 3 girls sports – ice hockey, gymnastics and soccer.
And this bears out our own experience. While articles are quick to point out common sports injuries like ankle sprains or the occasional knee brace, they have a hard time finding a program where they can point to a pattern of more serious injuries than other sports such as soccer, baseball, track, etc.
Decrease in Injuries:
Perhaps the most unfortunate part of the entire article however is that it ended with the idea that recent improvements in cheer injury statistics are due to coaches somehow “hiding” injuries. This improvement can more likely be attributed to a concrete set of circumstances than to an unsubstantiated comment.
In 2006, the NCAA working with AACCA required that all of their college cheer programs would have to be supervised by a safety certified coach in order to retain their catastrophic insurance coverage. In addition, the AACCA required that our safety rules had to be followed by these programs or their certification could be revoked. It is important to note that prior to this requirement, cheerleading made up 25% of their catastrophic claims. Since this requirement, there have been no cheerleading catastrophic injury claims with the NCAA.
Since 2004, 12 state high school associations have required their cheerleading coaches to complete the AACCA Safety Course.
In 2006, the AACCA removed basket tosses from the basketball court surface for colleges and high schools and further restricted colleges from performing 2 1/2 high pyramids on the basketball court. Further rules restrictions regarding surfaces have been implemented by both the AACCA and the National Federation of High Schools since then.
In 2004, the United States All Star Federation (USASF) was formed to provide a framework to support non-school cheerleading known as “All-Star”. They have a skill-based leveling system for rules and a credentialing program for coaches and gyms.
These efforts on the part of the NCAA, the National Federation of High Schools, the US All Star Federation and the AACCA are much more likely the reason for increased safety than the idea that cheer coaches have started hiding injuries, and it is unfair to all of the great coaches that work tirelessly to provide a safe environment for their teams.
We do commend the Journal for pointing out that the risk of cheerleading is actually closer to that of soccer than of football which has the vast majority of high school and college catastrophic injuries. However, when the true successes that have been achieved aren’t reported, it is hard to continue those successes and help them spread to other states and organizations.
Why this information was left off I can only speculate. My conversations with the reporter where very good and her questions showed a genuine interest in digging down to the real facts. There were quite a few cheer issues addressed in a short space and the article included some cheerleading history as well. Perhaps there just wasn’t room to get it all in, and unfortunately this was the part that was not included. There are many factors that go into what makes it into an article.
Regardless of the reasons, these are important safety improvements and we hope the record can be corrected.
What do you think? Are you going to be the one to go tell this athlete her sport is too dangerous?
Leave a comment.
15 comments ↓
Cheerleading isn’t dangerous.
The coaches are often not qualified. Many teams have a mom coach and not someone that knows the technique and body positions necessary for a safe environment. It would be the same as a a random person coaching gymnastics…
How scary is that thought? ‘Just a random person coaching gymnastics’. I couldn’t imagine that in our gym.
K is right, it needs to evolve in to the professional realm of gymnastics – and it needs to do this quickly.
I think it is getting there- the problem is that unlike gymnastics, cheerleading still happens in a variety of outlets. Churches, town rec centers, and pop warner teams still rely on volunteer coaches to run their teams. Not everyone seeks out a cheer gym for cheerleading. You would never run a gymnastics rpogram out of a church basement in this day, but that is the reality of cheerleading. All Star and high school coaches are trained, but only because they are required to be.
can somebody explain why crowd reaction to sporting events needs to be choreographed?
This is tricky. Gymnasts aren’t expected to do anything other than compete in gymnastics. Cheerleaders exist because they have a role in supporting football, basketball teams, but then also want to be athletes and compete against other cheerleading squads to determine who’s the best. The sport is an amalgamation of stunts, pyramids, dance, cheer, formations, synchronization, tumbling, jumps, transitions, etc. How do you train one coach to be an expert in all of that?
I watched the UCA all star competition on tv last week, and there were many teams with full squads (16 people) doing handspring double fulls as the standard. That’s nuts — 16 people on one squad and there were 10 squads of kids competing at that level. Obviously these kids are getting some kind of gymnastics training — or at least tumbling training. And tumbling skills like that should be under some kind of trained supervision.
Would love to see this reigned in under some kind of federation or association that is independent of any of the large corporations that are making lots of money from the sport. I think it would help to ensure safety and then also there could be a real championship. Right now there are 3 or 4 different organizations that call their championships a national championship. Let’s see the best competing against the best and see who really is the best — based on uniform rules, regulations, safety guidelines and judging criteria.
JIM – the crowds reaction is never choreographed (otherwise they would be the cheerleaders). The hope is that you get the crowd excited so they support the team.
As a former cheerleader for both a highly competitive squad and a highly supportive squad, seeing a crowd from 1 thousand people to 100 thousand+ people all yelling the same thing is amazing and truly improves the game day or competition experience. Anyone who has doubts of competitive cheer needs to go to a UCA competition in florida. Anyone who has doubts of supportive cheerleading needs to go to a big10 or sec football game.
COACH M – there are more like 15-20 organizations that have a national championship. similar to any sport’s “divisions”. there is one overall national championship which is actually called worlds. it’s in florida after all the organizations announce their national champions and they all attend the competition.
Coach M, what you were watching is all star competition, and it is for the most part under a federation, the US All Star Federation. Those teams are under the direction of people who know what they are doing and can teach tumbling. The high school teams are different. They are governed by their high school state associations, and not all of them govern cheer. There are some great coaches out there, but there are of course teachers who are not skilled in coaching or cheer techniques as well. The same is true of other school sports (except football where we all know they hire a football coach and have him teach a history class or two)
The rules are different for school teams for that reason. They don’t allow more than a single full, which if someone’s doing it, they usually learned it and then brought it with them to the cheer team. They also can’t do the 2 1/2 high pyramids and inversions that all star can do.
Hopefully they will get more regulation at the high school level and push coaches education – and less competition. That’s what’s driving the difficult skills.
I think that cheerleading is the most dangerous sport for girls because cheerleaders learn poor technique and throw random skills they are not even ready for. While gymnasts learn the right technique and we do skills that we are ready for (most the time).
“Obviously these kids are getting some kind of gymnastics training — or at least tumbling training.”
Most likely they used to be gymnasts.
“Would love to see this reigned in under some kind of federation or association…”
USAG announced some sort of cheer program awhile back but I don’t know what happened with it.
We have an all star program at our gym and in 4 years there have been no broken bones, but we are a safety first gym. The scary thing is when you go to a cheer comp and they have kids out on the floor with casts on helping with stunts and tumbling with one arm because they are hurt. Cheerleading is suffering from growing too big too fast, with no enough smart coaches to go around.
GETATEN09 – you can hardly generalize that gymnasts only do skills they are ready for (parkettes!) and cheerleaders have bad form and throw random skills… most good cheerleaders were gymnasts who wanted to enjoy a social life and eat. i think both sports are amazing and empowering for females and without one, the other one would suffer greatly.
Whenever my gymnasts returned from cheerleading season (which gets longer and longer), I’d spend a few weeks correcting their technique that they squandered at cheerleading. Hopefully, that’s improved.
As for your question, I won’t tell an athlete her sport is too dangerous. But man, do I want to tell her that her sport is just stupid.
AM – You’re a pathetic excuse for a coach. 1. People like you are the reason people have such a horrible perception of gymnastics. 2. If you care about your athletes working hard and learning dedication, why do you allow them to just quit the sport for several months a year. 3. Without cheerleading, elite gymnastics would be even more of a dying sport than it already is.
“Without cheerleading, elite gymnastics would be even more of a dying sport than it already is.”
Personally, I’m not seeing how “elite gymnastics” or gymnastics in general would suffer without cheer. They’re two completely different sports.
K – what got up your butt?
AM – how did they waste their technique during cheerleading season? I’m not sure what you mean by that. (or perhaps you think “squander” means something else)?
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