Strength Training Is Part of the Solution
Last year there were 30,000 incidents of cheerleading injuries in the U.S. severe enough to require emergency room visits and treatment. This is six times greater than in 1980. From 1982 to the spring of 2008 the number of catastrophic injuries (including two deaths) suffered by high school cheerleaders in this country was 73. This is the highest number attributed to any female athletic activity. Number 2 was gymnastics with NINE. Furthermore the NCAA reported that in the 2005 stats their insurance arm spent 25% of its liability claims budget on cheerleading injuries while spending 57% on football. The number of football players covered by the NCAA is 10 times greater than the number of cheerleaders.
Clearly there is a problem here and concerned parents should be involved in the proposed solutions.
There is general agreement that cheerleading has developed into an activity that is quite different than it was 30 years ago. The movements are more acrobatic and gymnastic in nature with many moves borrowed from the discipline known as handbalancing. Apparently the practitioners are more athletic, more daring and there is a considerable motive to remain competitive between schools what with cheerleading competitions becoming stand alone activities.
Because cheerleading is not recognized as a school sport in most states (Florida being a notable exception), there is less oversight provided by the school districts and consequently many of the sponsors are merely roll book carriers with little expertise in coaching an athletic activity. What little training is available is meager and insufficient. Cheerleaders performing tumbling movements should be supervised by adults with experience in spotting as is a prerequisite for coaching gymnastics.
Moreover the people running cheerleading programs have been advised by the football community that requiring safety equipment would indicate an assumption of danger and hence liability should any claims go to litigation. Subsequently there is no oversight procedure requiring the use of safety mats or spring loaded surfaces for either practices, performances or competitions.
In all of the proposed solutions I've encountered, nowhere is strength training mentioned as a part of the answer. This is not surprising since the topic never comes up in the female athletes' torn ACL discussions.
Much of what the modern day cheerleaders are performing is very similar to the ancient art of hand balancing in which one person (the top mounter) performs acrobatic or gymnastic maneuvers while being supported by another person (the understander). Circuses used to regularly feature hand balancing acts and in fact, Burt Lancaster was a circus hand balancer before becoming an actor. Practitioners of this art used to perform strength training exercises to improve their performances and to minimize injuries. Why should cheerleaders be any different?
Not only will properly designed strength training improve the durability of the muscles and connective tissues that would lessen the severity of an injury, it would delay the onset of fatigue. Muscular fatigue late in a performance or competition may well be the cause of miscues and non-support on the part of the bottoms that lead to injuries.
A couple of training session a week of power snatches, power cleans, presses and squats should be enough to significantly improve the performance and durability of cheerleaders and head off some of the injuries and lessen the severity of others.
The movement to minimize the danger of cheerleading must include all of the aforementioned factors. Official oversight, acceptable standards of technical proficiency, sophisticated adult instruction and supervision, appropriate safety equipment and well designed strength and conditioning all figure into raising the bar of safety standards.
I'm convinced that parent booster groups will have to be the ones that lead the way on this one by getting involved with school district administration, providing input on supervisory personnel, funding safety equipment and campaigning for inclusion of cheerleading into the strength and conditioning program. I know that most strength and conditioning coaches are probably overloaded as is, but there is a disproportionate injury rate in this activity and providing services might provide some leverage for increasing the strength and conditioning program.
As a society we believe in solving problems through litigation, legislation, diplomacy, administration, education, good intentions, psychology, financing and pharmacology. Injuries happen to tissues and their component cells and molecules. Strength and conditioning professionals can improve the tissues.
