These kids are not standing on the sidelines cheering on male sports teams they’re serious athletes competing at an elite level.
Cheerleading has a slightly confusing reputation. We’re programmed from a young age to think that they stand around, jump up and down and cheer on the boys. This could not be further from the truth.
The movie ‘Bring It On‘ was probably our first taste of what the competitive world of cheerleading is truly about, but let’s be fair that was a fictionalised teen movie that came out when teen movies were (and rightly so) taken with a pinch of salt.
We recently watched an incredible documentary/reality series on Netflix called ‘Cheer Squad‘, we became hooked and the next thing we knew we were 8 episodes deep… woops! Check out the sneak peak below and we DARE you not to watch the entire season tonight.
“If one person makes a mistake… you’re done”, Yikes! That’s some serious pressure.
The show got us thinking about what the cheer scene is like here in Ireland… it turns out it’s pretty massive.
So what makes this type of cheerleading unique? First off, like we said…they are SERIOUS athletes, it’s a dangerous sport with genuine risk of injury if you don’t know what you’re doing.
All Star Cheerleading combines the athletic disciplines of acrobatics and tumbling and the athletes have just 2 1/2 minutes to demonstrate their skills to the judges… without falling (that’s us out).
Check out Team Ireland at the US All Star Federation World Championships last year,
There’s a huge community of dedicated cheer squads across the country so if you want to get involved you can find out more information from the Irish Cheer Sport Association.
We would very much like to fly through the air please… is that so much to ask?
