Cheerleaders at Wide World Sports - it is a good thread. :)

[OhMari]

We watched Formula One racing yesterday and after the race the cheerleaders competition came on tv at Walt Disney World, Wide World of Sports..

I know people grown and moan when they deal with them at the resorts, and at the parks, but they really caught my attention and I was truly impressed.


Not only did they do stunts that seemed to define logic, they had to do cheers to get the audience to participate.

Good for these girls I thought, highschool is a hard place to be and participate in activities. These girls were not these little things. They had muscles and were strong. The commentator's say, that they lift weights to become stronger and work out for their physical endurance to compete at a high level on top of the practices they have almost all year long.

I truly enjoyed watching the competition.

 

[Kitty 34]

I had a niece who participated in competitive cheer years ago. I used to love going to her competitions as much as my son's basketball games.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

My DD13 did competitive cheer since 1st grade. I helped coach her team since 5th grade. Competitive cheer is not the same as standing on the sidelines yelling rah-rah like a lot of people think. It's HARD work and takes a lot of training, practice, and dedication! People think it's easy because the girls *make* it look effortless. I always invite people to come and watch a practice or two to see what REALLY happens before the girls take the floor at competition. It's MONTHS of hard, and at time tedious work.

 

[Squirlz]

Did you see the Ferrari tire changer get hit? That was gruesome.

 

[Mumketeer]

My DD and I found the whole cheerleader thing kind of annoying. They seem to get on rides in big groups and have no problem butting in front of everyone. If you are in a standby line and 20 people all butt in at once because they all had to pee together it is annoying. Also, just because someone is in shape and small do not assume they are cheerleaders, and want to hear all about cheerleading. It is awful to be stuck in a line and have to hear all about your routine, we kind of don't care, but we will be polite and say all the right things, but what we would really like to say is why do you think you and your friends have the right to butt in front of us.

 

[Southernmiss]

I've known some of the cheerleaders that the OP is referring to. You are right. It is a lot of work, time, dedication, focus, strength and energy. And the stunts and dances they do is at a different level than back in the day.

Many high school sports are done today at a level that people who have been away from sports and young people would not believe. Our daughter was invited by a soccer team several hundred miles away from us to join them at Disney for the Soccer Showcase in November as their goal keeper was injured and they were looking for another. DD and those who go to these competitions are all in tip top athletic shape. Most of them also excel in their schools as top scholars.

We are winding down one soccer season and school year and I am exhausted from keeping up with her!

 

[NotUrsula]

The only beef I have with "Competitive Cheer" is the name. It seems an oxymoron to have cheerleaders competing to lead cheers for themselves.

I'm happy to concede that they are serious athletes, but the name implies an odd situation of self-aggrandizement when their own activity IS the competition. Please, change the name to something more descriptively accurate.

(Oh, and for the love of Pete, lose those giant hair bows! )

PS: At the resorts, the problem with the cheer teams is that they tend not to let up. DH ended up sharing a building with a cheer competition when he was at WDW for a conference, and the issue that he had was that they were constantly practicing, even late at night, which translated into loud yells echoing all over, and giant thumps against the walls and ceilings.

 

[cgncga]

We watched Formula One racing yesterday and after the race the cheerleaders competition came on tv at Walt Disney World, Wide World of Sports..

I know people grown and moan when they deal with them at the resorts, and at the parks, but they really caught my attention and I was truly impressed.


Not only did they do stunts that seemed to define logic, they had to do cheers to get the audience to participate.

Good for these girls I thought, highschool is a hard place to be and participate in activities. These girls were not these little things. They had muscles and were strong. The commentator's say, that they lift weights to become stronger and work out for their physical endurance to compete at a high level on top of the practices they have almost all year long.

I truly enjoyed watching the competition.

My DD13 did competitive cheer since 1st grade. I helped coach her team since 5th grade. Competitive cheer is not the same as standing on the sidelines yelling rah-rah like a lot of people think. It's HARD work and takes a lot of training, practice, and dedication! People think it's easy because the girls *make* it look effortless. I always invite people to come and watch a practice or two to see what REALLY happens before the girls take the floor at competition. It's MONTHS of hard, and at time tedious work.

I've only been involved in the cheer world for a few years, and all of my involvement has been with the special abilities side of things. However, two experiences this year have led to a huge amount of respect for cheerleaders and their families.

When the Mom of one of the athletes at my daughter's gym died very suddenly in January, the support (financial, emotional and logistical) given to her daughter was amazing. I've never seen so many teenage girls at a funeral, either.

Then, at the end of April, my daughter's special abilities cheer team competed for Canada at ESPN. It was amazing to see the respect that the other, able-bodied athletes gave this team. During the Opening Ceremonies, the other Team Canada athletes walked on to the stage first and set up an honour guard for our athletes. Then, the night of the competition, most of the other Team Canada athletes were there cheering our kids on. When the co-ed team sat in front of me blocking most of my view of the stage, several of them moved to allow me to sit up front with them so that I could take photos.

Cheerleaders may get a bad rap at times, but these two events have definitely earned my respect.

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[sa cheermom]

I've only been involved in the cheer world for a few years, and all of my involvement has been with the special abilities side of things. However, two experiences this year have led to a huge amount of respect for cheerleaders and their families.

When the Mom of one of the athletes at my daughter's gym died very suddenly in January, the support (financial, emotional and logistical) given to her daughter was amazing. I've never seen so many teenage girls at a funeral, either.

Then, at the end of April, my daughter's special abilities cheer team competed for Canada at ESPN. It was amazing to see the respect that the other, able-bodied athletes gave this team. During the Opening Ceremonies, the other Team Canada athletes walked on to the stage first and set up an honour guard for our athletes. Then, the night of the competition, most of the other Team Canada athletes were there cheering our kids on. When the co-ed team sat in front of me blocking most of my view of the stage, several of them moved to allow me to sit up front with them so that I could take photos.

Cheerleaders may get a bad rap at times, but these two events have definitely earned my respect.

Congrats to Team Canada, they were great! I love that this year the ICU competed the CheerAbilities teams.

 

[OhMari]

Competitive cheer is not Sideline Cheer that cheers for other teams. All star cheer, which is the type of cheer that was at ESPN WWOS the past 2 weekends never say a word and do not cheer for other teams. It is a sport that has a confusing name and is not the rah, rah cheer that most people associate the name with. Cheer or Stunt/Tumbling is in the next Summer Olympics.

As for the bows, perhaps baseball should get rid of caps? It is part of the uniform. And many teams are trending to other ponytail decorations that are not bows.

As for your husband, I cannot understand how he was placed in a resort with cheer teams. All Star Sports, where the cheerleaders are housed is closed to other guests during competitions, at least during Worlds and Summit.

If it was a random team that decided to be at another resort, hopefully your husband called and complained. Disney has VERY strict rules about practicing in courtyards, hallways, etc. I believe 10pm is the curfew cutoff for any teams.

ESPN showed the girls practicing in the court yards. They said the girls continually practice and some practice well into the late night.

 

[sa cheermom]

nm

 

[DisneyOma]

We were just at the World Championships a couple of weekends ago (our third year in a row.) Now, this is a different type of cheer than college/high school, but the stunt and tumbling is the same or even harder. Curious about these reports of rude cheerleaders, I had a careful eye out for any "large" groups of cheerleaders. I didn't see a single one. Mind you, having been in the sport for a long time, I am adept at recognizing them. Nor did I see any cutting that wasn't any more unusual than the standard amount of rude people. I never heard a conversation about cheer. I did see plenty of families that were exhibiting very rude behavior.

These cheerleaders are athletes. (Did you know cheer/stunt&tumbling is a provisional sport in the next summer Olympics?) These kids have curfews and and restrictions that prohibit lengthy visits to the parks. They are there to compete, not to vacation. Vacations happen with t heir families, not teams, after the competition is over. Really, the only place you will see large hoards of them is at Wide World of Sports, Allstar Sports and Coronado Springs.

My one week over three years observation was that this "rude cheerleader" thing is an exaggeration made up by people who want to ***** about cheerleaders.

Then why are they up all night thumping about, running around, etc, as so many people have posted? And yes, they are there to compete, but they also go to the parks in groups, and have caused trouble. My older daughter competed in another sport that was pretty much large groups of girls (a few boys) traveling in packs, so I know the chemistry of this type of event. On their own they may be fine, but get a bunch of them together, and the dynamics rev up a few notches. Add that they are cheerleaders, which means they like to be loud and active, and that clicks it up even more. From what I've noticed, and read, they are not well supervised. So I put the blame on crappy chaperones. But I do that for all group events.

One thing I noticed that works well to keep kids in line is to have them dress in some sort of identifying, uniform clothing. My daughter's team had to wear their warm-ups to and from the arenas, and they had certain travel clothes, dinner clothes, etc. It was a basic wardrobe they all wore for the week of competition. So, if kids were acting up, there was easy ID, and word would get back to the coach/club about the behavior. This worked quite well. No one wanted to embarrass the club, ever.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

As for the bows, perhaps baseball should get rid of caps? It is part of the uniform. And many teams are trending to other ponytail decorations that are not bows.

Right! And I can't tell you how many times I see a team of girl softball players sporting cheer bows on gameday, and they are wearing them for fun! It is definitely NOT part of their uniform, but the bows are cute, so they wear them.

Most people have a problem with the skirt length of a cheer uniform...or the croptop....but the bows? That's a new one. It's just a hair accessory!

 

[NotUrsula]

Competitive cheer is not Sideline Cheer that cheers for other teams. All star cheer, which is the type of cheer that was at ESPN WWOS the past 2 weekends never say a word and do not cheer for other teams. It is a sport that has a confusing name and is not the rah, rah cheer that most people associate the name with. Cheer or Stunt/Tumbling is in the next Summer Olympics.

I know that it isn't the same; that's the point. The name is totally misleading as to what the sport actually is. Something like team acrobatics would seem more accurate.

As for the bows, perhaps baseball should get rid of caps? It is part of the uniform. And many teams are trending to other ponytail decorations that are not bows.

Sports change their uniform all the time, so why not? Baseball caps serve the practical purpose of shading players' eyes, but I would think that in the competitive cheer arena, those large bows are actually something of a hazard, because they could get caught on a hand.
or foot.

As for your husband, I cannot understand how he was placed in a resort with cheer teams. All Star Sports, where the cheerleaders are housed is closed to other guests during competitions, at least during Worlds and Summit.
If it was a random team that decided to be at another resort, hopefully your husband called and complained. Disney has VERY strict rules about practicing in courtyards, hallways, etc. I believe 10pm is the curfew cutoff for any teams.

There was a construction project at ASSp at the time, and the overflow teams were moved to CSR. Staff came around and called them down, but each time after 30 minutes or so they started up again.

 

[scrapquitler]

We have been at WDW several times when the cheer/dance competitions were going on, and we've been in some of the resorts where they stayed, and really, we have no complaints about them. YES, they travel in huge packs, but we always saw them well behaved. If anything, a little too perky for our taste (esp. in the morning LOL). Kids that are focused and working hard aren't something to complain about.

 

[kaytieeldr]

We were just at the World Championships a couple of weekends ago (our third year in a row.) Now, this is a different type of cheer than college/high school

These kids have curfews and and restrictions that prohibit lengthy visits to the parks.

So it can easily be the high school/college competitors cutting in lines in the parks, practicing in courtyards late into the night, etc.