CHEERLEADING INJURIES: A NARRATIVE REVIEW OF LITERATURE

NAME: GEROME ALMADEN DIEGO

TEACHER: SIR RONALD MAURICIO
STRAND: TVL 12-A
ABSTRACT

Cheerleading injury is caused by the high demands to the Musculoskeletal system with its
gymnastic-like maneuvers and potential to fall from a height or collide with Team members.
There are no studies present specifically Investigating the etiology of cheer-related injuries but
Theories based on authors’ suggestions on contributing Factors are evident in the literature One
theory that has been investigated in other sports Is the landing technique of female athletes.
Landing patterns affect how the body absorbs energy and force. Proper landing requires
controlled actions of the muscles of The abdomen, hips, thighs, lower leg, and feet. A flexed
Position of the hip, knee, and ankle allows the muscles, Rather than the joints, to absorb most of
the ground reaction force as it is transmitted up the kinetic chain. Despite this benefit of landing
in a flexed position, at initial ground contact, female athletes assume a more erect Position
compared to their male counterparts. It has been Suggested that females may attempt to dissipate
the forces Over a wider range of joint motion and that in an erect Position, they have a muscular
landing strategy that allows energy absorption from their ankle plantar-flexor Muscles. This
extended position highlights a potential Key risk factor for ankle injury in the female athlete to a
decreased ability to absorb ground reaction forces during landing. The landing mechanics of
female athletes and the repetitive nature of cheerleading, further increase the risk of injury to the
ankle when practice stunts are performed on a hard vinyl floor. Muscles provide shock
absorption, but when fatigued, the ligaments and bones of the ankle experience significant stress
and strain due to the impact of the hard surface Other factors contributing to injury in
cheerleaders are their long season, various practice surfaces, weather conditions and the
distraction of loud crowds and music. there are reports on eating disorders among high school
cheerleaders due to the weight limits and the small uniform that exposes the stomach and legs.
Malnutrition and significantly low body mass may contribute to injuries in this particular age
group. In a survey study on dieting, body dissatisfaction and eating problems in female high
school cheerleaders, Thompson found that 46% were trying to lose weight, 44-73.5%, depending
on their race, reported body dissatisfaction, and 13.5% had a possible eating problem. Thompson
concluded that cheerleaders were not more likely to have eating disorders or distorted body
images than other female adolescents and that high school females are at ‘high risk’ for eating
disorders.

CONTENT
It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition.
Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain
components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting.

Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called “cheerleaders”) cheer for their team
as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It
can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition.
Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain
components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting.

Cheerleading originated in the United States, and remains predominantly in America, with an
estimated 3.85 million participants as of 2017. The global presentation of cheerleading was led
by the 1997 broadcast of ESPN’s International cheerleading competition, and the worldwide
release of the 2000 film Bring It On. The International Cheer Union (ICU) now claims 116
member nations with an estimated 7.5 million participants worldwide. The sport has gained a lot
of traction in Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the
Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with popularity continuing to grow as sport
leaders pursue Olympic status.

Cheerleading carries the highest rate of catastrophic injuries to girl athletes in sports, with most
injuries associated with from stunting, also known as pyramids.

Cheerleading, team activity in which elements of dance and acrobatics are combined with
shouted slogans in order to entertain spectators at sporting events and to encourage louder and
more enthusiastic cheering. Once exclusively a sideline activity geared toward supporting school
sports, cheerleading has gained recognition as a sport in its own right and often operates outside
the school context altogether. Cheerleading has long been considered an iconic American
activity symbolizing school spirit, leadership, youthfulness, and sex appeal. The southern United
States (including Texas) is usually considered the heart of modern cheerleading, although the
activity is well established throughout the United States as well as abroad, having gained a
foothold in countries around the world.

The first college cheerleading championship was televised in 1978, with several more following
in the early 1980s. Since then, cable networks have broadcast a wide range of cheer
championships to national and international audiences, and competitive cheerleading has been
the focus of Hollywood films, reality TV shows, and news reports

None of that could have happened without the growth and involvement of the modern
cheerleading industry. In all parts of the United States, squads are affiliated with different
cheerleading companies, or associations, which run competitions, summer camps, coaching
clinics, safety certification seminars, and their own product lines for uniforms and apparel. The
“founding father” of that industry, Lawrence Herkimer, was himself a cheerleader at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. In 1948 Herkimer started the National Cheerleaders Association
(NCA), which is headquartered in Dallas, and the younger but larger Universal Cheerleaders
Association (UCA) is based in Memphis.

The Cheerleading Renaissance

The decline of cheerleading was short-lived, however, and it soon rebounded to become more
popular and more profitable than ever before. The reasons for its recovery included the
increasingly athletic nature of cheerleading and the adoption of sport like elements such as
competitions, summer training camps, and rigorous practice schedules. Most cheerleading
squads no longer simply led cheers or danced on the sidelines. They also performed jumps and
stunts, built pyramids, and executed elaborate tumbling passes, whether at sporting events or in
cheerleading competitions. Those changes served to make cheerleading more appealing for a
generation of girls and women who had more options for athletic involvement than past ones,
and they led to a resurgence of male participation, particularly at the college level. The
introduction of difficult acrobatics was not without drawbacks, however; studies in the first
decade of the 21st century showed that cheerleading had become the leading cause of catastrophic
sports injuries (meaning serious injuries to the brain or spine) to American girls and women,
ahead of gymnastics and track.

Although the notion of competition was not new—interscholastic high-school contests were
organized as early as 1944—from the 1990s there was an increasing emphasis on competition
relative to other dimensions of cheerleading. The rapid rise of all-star cheerleading in the late
1990s was both a cause and a consequence of that development. All-star clubs are private for-
profit programs where children as young as six years old receive intensive instruction in
cheerleading, including gymnastics. They compete with other all-star cheer clubs within their
own extensive network of competitions. As a no scholastic site for learning cheerleading skills,
all-star programs initially served as a training ground for high-school and college cheer programs
but soon became popular in their own right.
INTRODUCTION

Cheerleading is not just about slick dance moves and prom poms, it’s so much more than that –
more like a cool mix of artistic and rhythmic gymnastics with a street dance twist. Expect
extraordinary balancing acts, frenzied flipping, tossing and twirling, and moves that wouldn’t
look out of place in the Olympic Games.

Origins
Cheerleading originated in the United States as a means of motivating participating athletes. It
also sought to encourage audience participation in the cheering process. It is thought that the first
organized cheerleader was a Minnesota student Johnny Campbell, who first directed a crowd in
cheering at a football match in 1898.

Soon after, more organized cheer squads consisting solely of males were established. In was not
until the post-First World War period that women started to get involved and gymnastic and
tumbling started to slowly be introduced. These days, it is estimated that 97 percent of
cheerleading participants overall are female.

Cheerleading has developed over the years to the extent that some people argue its right to be
considered a genuine sport in its own right – much like other artistic sports such as gymnastics,
synchronized swimming, figure skating or diving where scores are awarded by judges.

Growing Interest And Popularity

Cheerleading is a very physical activity requiring a great degree of skill and often a serious risk
of injury. There are frequent competitions which see cheerleading groups put to the test. Some of
these are broadcast on network TV and the success of movies such as the Bring it On franchise
has led to a growing interest in cheerleading across the world. In addition to its popularity in the
US, cheerleading is also regularly participated in many other countries including Canada,
Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the UK.

More and more schools are adding cheerleading to their school activities as a great means of
engaging their pupils in fun yet great physical activity. Regular competition helps give it a
competitive edge. Cheerleading is also seen at a range of sports including football, soccer,
basketball, ice hockey, volleyball, baseball, and also Twenty20 Cricket.

History Of Cheerleading
Although cheerleading is today predominantly associated with femininity, the original
cheerleaders were men. Cheerleading was connected to the emergence of gridiron football at Ivy
League colleges and universities in the United States in the mid-1800s, and the growth and
formalization of cheerleading paralleled that of football. Over the latter half of the 19th century,
as attendance at college games grew, large stadiums were constructed, and spectators were
distanced from the playing field. Cheerleaders—or “yell leaders,” as they were then called—led
cheers from the sidelines both to encourage the spectators and to serve as a form of crowd
control. By the 1920s cheerleading had become a formal extracurricular activity for boys in high
schools, colleges, and communities across the country, related to but distinct from other spirit
programs such as marching bands, drum corps, and drill teams. As ambassadors for their schools
and communities, cheerleaders were associated with such character-building traits as discipline,
cooperation, leadership, and sportsmanship.

Women and people of colour were excluded from the private all-male schools where collegiate
sports and cheerleading first developed, but many state-supported institutions began to admit
women at the turn of the century, opening the way for their participation in sporting events.
Women began joining cheer squads during the 1920s and ’30s as collegiate sports proliferated
and men and women began socializing more in public. A separate cheerleading tradition evolved
within black educational institutions during the same period, with a similar emphasis on
character building and leadership. Overall, however, cheerleading remained an overwhelmingly
white enterprise, and evidence suggests that it became even “whiter” after desegregation,
because the total number of black schools diminished and black students were rarely elected as
cheerleaders in the newly integrated, predominantly white schools. It was not until the 1960s and
’70s, well after scholastic athletic programs had diversified, that cheer squads began to reflect the
ethnic and racial composition of schools. That shift was in part the result of protest activity on
the part of black and Latino students

BODY PHARAGRAPH

Cases found in the literature include splenic rupture

In a 16-year-old female from being tossed in the air
And caught26; coxa sultans/snapping hip syndrome in a
16-year-old high school cheerleader due to overuse from
Twisting maneuvers of the hip27; bilateral ganglion cysts
And triangular fibrocartilage tears in a 19-year-old cheerleader that developed gradually over
four years from ulnar abutment syndrome28; and a 17-year-old cheerleader
Who sustained bilateral ACL tears on an awkward drop
Landing.In 2001, Wolford described the diagnosis and surgical
Treatment for Cheerleader Syndrome; also know as idiopathic condylar resorption. Although
common in cheerleaders, this condition is not exclusive to cheerleaders.
Idiopathic condylar resorption occurs in females less than
20 years of age participating in sports and experience
Trauma to the jaw. Resorption of a mandibular condyle
Occurs due to systemic, degenerative, inflammatory, and
Traumatic causes, which then causes occlusal and musculoskeletal instability, resulting in TMJ
dysfunction and
Pain and dent facial deformities.

Studies presented here are not without limitations. All Of these studies were performed in the
United States and Therefore are not representative of the population as a Whole. Rules and
regulations exist in various cheer organizations but none are enforced worldwide so they change
From state to state and country to country. Also, no list Of all cheer teams exists to recruit teams
to gather data From so, whenever cheer teams are recruited for a study The population is never a
true representation. The epidemiology papers are where most of the data Is concentrated. These
contain retrospective data from Hospitals and coach or trainer reports. Limitations always Exist
when relying on recall and one can expect that injuries be highly underreported especially when
considering Concussion and its ill-defined definition. Although hospital data is reliable, most
injuries do not require a hospital Visit and if they do, the notes are often lacking useful detail
pertaining to the event such as location, type of stunt, Number of spotters or coaches, etc.
Similarly with prospective survey studies relying on trainers or coaches reporting the injuries
again may be underreported. This limitation stresses the need for a mandatory reporting system
Like those of other sports, as a stepping-stone to further Research and prevention strategies and
for evidence-based Safety recommendations
DISCUSSION

Is cheerleading a sport?:
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Was developed in 1906 to protect its athletes but cheerleaders are not included under this realm
Although not
Recognized as a sport by the NCAA, a study by Thomas
Et al in 2004, demonstrated that the physical fitness of a
Cheerleader is similar to that of any other collegiate sport
By comparing results on various physical tests (push-ups,
V02 max, body composition, etc.). Just like any other varsity sport, cheerleading has summer
camp, tryouts, regular practice schedules and competition. Comparable to
Gymnastics, a high level of strength, agility, power, and
Flexibility are required for the acrobatic-like maneuvers,
Cheerleading stunts and pyramids.
Sports injuries occurring and it is to be expected that similar injuries can
Occur in cheerleading.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, cheerleading is a sport, physically and mentally. Whether its high school cheer or
competitive cheer, cheerleading teaches you commitment, pushes you past your limits and allows
you to achieve a goal.

In conclusion, cheerleading is, in fact, a sport. Many people like to think of cheerleading more as
an extracurricular rather than a sport. That’s reasonable because they often are just standing at a
football or basketball game waving their pom pom. What those people don’t see are all the hours
they put into practicing, their will when it comes to their diet, the physical strength they have to
carry other people and do the impressive stunts that they do. People like to think their sport is the
toughest and like to degrade other sports. All sports require hard work, and3
No one understands how physical another sport is until they try it or give it a chance. For a sport
to be a sport, there needs to be a team and competition, routine, and one needs to have a skill and
be able to get physical. With cheerleading meeting all those requirements it is safe to say
cheerleading is a sport and cheerleaders are athletes who work harder than most.4