cheer growing, gymnastics in decline?

I first heard this in Australia. Now an Oregon paper cites statistics from a USA survey by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

From 2000-06, overall participation in gymnastics declined 25.5 percent while participating in cheerleading increased 11.3 percent,

Does that ring true where you live?

Cheer was late coming to my town, but it’s booming now.

… Last April, Metro joined a growing number of gymnastics gyms adding competitive cheerleading programs. Now, it has more than 200 kids enrolled in cheer classes or practicing with teams. …

Offering the fun of tumbling with less stress and practice time, competitive cheer is the new gymnastics.

Gymnastics stagnates

At Oregon high schools, the demise of girls gymnastics and the rise of cheer was like a handoff: The Oregon School Activities Association held its last gymnastics state championship in 1983 and its first competitive cheer championship in 1984.

…

It’s difficult to say whether athletes increasingly are leaving gymnastics for competitive cheer or whether cheer is merely giving them a place to land when their bodies grow too big or battered for the demands of gymnastics.

But participation trends and coaches’ anecdotes suggest a heavy crossover between the sports, both of which are overwhelmingly female.

“When I talk to (gymnastics) club coaches, they say that they’re losing a lot of kids to cheerleading,” Maryland competitive cheer coach Jarnell Bonds said. “And they’re sort of bitter about that.”

Meanwhile, colleges have slashed men’s gymnastics programs in the past 25 years — from 51 Division I teams in 1982 to 17 in 2006 — both to help them comply with the Title IX federal gender-equity law and focus support on potential cash cows such as football and men’s basketball.

Women’s college gymnastics has suffered, too, victimized by the high cost of specialized equipment and training. Division I college women’s teams dropped from 99 teams in 1982 to 65 in 2006.

read the entire article – Competitive cheer is No. 1! – OregonLive.com

Many gymnastics people dislike and are even resentful of cheer. They see it as an inferior sport requiring less skill and fitness. Only grudgingly are gymnasts willing to admit that cheer is a real sport. That cheerleaders are improving madly.

There should be no conflict. I agree with Steve Penney who was quoted later in the article:

… (the) president/CEO of USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, said cheer and gymnastics complement each another.

“If you look at cheerleading today, especially competitive cheerleading, there’s a lot of tumbling, there’s a lot of gymnastics-related skill that you’ve got to have,” Penny said. “So cheerleading almost requires a gymnastics background these days.”

He also said gymnastics gyms offer a safe place for cheerleaders to learn tumbling skills.

I want all kids to start gymnastics and trampoline in a quality club, and later specialize into Artistic, T&T, Cheer or any of two dozen other acrobatic and fitness specialties. The gymnastics club is the starting point.

Thanks to Doug Davis of TumblTrak who mentioned this story in his monthly newsletter.