Pajiba

great review - my interest is firmly piqued

I am judging this book by its cover.

Fun times, Carrie! Now I totally want to watch Bring It On again (but not Bring It On Again, though).

I'd read the book, but I'd rather see the choreography. That's the fun part for me. Thanks for the review, though!

Is there any kissing in the book? Maybe some pillow fights?

Sounds like a good read.

I also felt the same way growing up, I was super bummed that there was no cheerleaders in Canada (at least where I lived) but even if there were, I doubt I would have made the cut.

I was the track and field/varsity soccer girl, and though our high school won a lot of state championships in cheering, I got into a huge pissing match with some of the girls when I refused to accept cheerleading as a sport. Is it athletic? Sure. Can it be dangerous? Sure. It is NOT a sport in and unto itself. Read George Carlin's definition of what makes a sport and you'll see what I mean.

Cheerleading (the hardcore teams at least) is a combination of gymnastics, dance, and beauty pageant. We already have gymnastics in the Olympics, so that's a sport. Dance is an activity and very hard to do, but not a sport. Beauty pageants as a whole are evil and though competitive and not a sport. Just because pieces of your activity have already been established in the sporting world, your offshoot is not a sport.

I had friends who cheered and I hung out with them and tried out the routines for fun (I know how to do some tumble moves) and it's 85% gymnastics, 10% dance movements and yelling, and 5% looking good in a ponytail and a half shirt.

To recap, cheerleading (whether Pop Warner/Collegiate/Competitive) is NOT A SPORT!!!!!

One thing that WAS a guilty pleasure for me was watching MTV True Life: I'm An Inner City Cheerleader. They showed it after True Life: I'm A Competitive Cheerleader. Of course the competitive girls were from the Midwest and all white with huge budgets and the school rose and set on the team, but the inner city (a.k.a mostly black) girls didn't necessarily have the lifts, but the dancing was amazing. It was literally like watching the movie Bring It On. The white girls had the mechanical stuff down, but the blacks and latinas brought the actual SKILLS. Plus, seeing the bitchy white girls' faces at competitions when they realized they had no butts and no soul were priceless.

Jennifer,

In my entire sporting career I did swimming (5 years), both indoor and outdoor track and field (4 years) iceskating and gymnastics when I was a little girl (2 years), boxing (5 years), and varsity/club/travel soccer (15+ yrs), including a Div 2 university.

I've done the hours-long practices, running in the snow and rain, vomiting from speed drills in high August, sprained toes, fallen arches, pus-filled blisters, dislocating everything there is to dislocate, 5 mile runs, scars everywhere from cleat marks, broke my nose three times playing college soccer and have been told if I break it again I'll need plastic surgery. I don't need to brag about what I went through for boxing, because if you've seen boxing you'll know how much one sweats, bleeds and gets hit in the head and face.

I stay away from alcohol now because alcoholism runs in my family, but at the height of my drinking I could do eight rum and cokes and ten shots of tequila (not proud of that anymore.)

Why don't they just call cheerleading "dance gymnasts"? That's what you're doing! You're dancing and doing gymnastic tricks! Just like ice dancing...it's just skating, with dancing!

If "A sport is something requiring athletic prowess where individuals compete to be the best" as you say, are we including bowling in that? Billiards? Curling? Horseshoes? Those things take talent to do and individuals compete to be the best, don't they?

Cheerleading is also not necessarily judging on athleticism alone. Why the curled and sprayed hair and lipstick? The glitter eyeshadow? If you want people to respect you as an athlete then focus on the talent! Stop making little girls put on eyeshadow and taking points off for not smiling. In all my years of soccer and boxing, I never won a match or a game by a judge telling me, "Well, you were losing, by since you had that Maybelline coating your lashes, we HAD to give you the trophy!" Women are allowed to be strong and athletic and winners and role models without having to cheer for men (which is what cheerleaders started as), or putting crap on their faces so they can look more "feminine."

I don't NEED a makeover. When I played sports I took off my jewelry, popped my mouthguard in, tied my hair back with a bandanna and prepared to kick some ass. I saved my makeup and hairspray for more important things--like work and dates and putting it on when I felt I wanted to, not when a coach told me I HAD to wear it to gain favor.

Like I said before, I had friends who were cheerleaders. I played around with them and was able to lift them while they did heel stretches, basket tosses, and even when they had to cradle out. I already knew how to do handstands, cartwheels, round offs and back hand springs from fooling around and doing gymnastics as a little kid. As long as you're in decent shape and have upper arm strength you can lift another person.

In high school our cheerleading squad were state champs, along with the varsity soccer team I was on. Our school had a senior day, where each sports team switched with another sports team to try out their gear, practice drills, etc and see what it was like to play that sport for a day. All of the cheerleaders were at their peak condition (no out of shape girls that sat on the sidelines) and the same went for the soccer team. The cheerleaders and soccer players switched for the day, and it was interesting to see the cheerleaders (most of whom had insisted that their activity was a sport) struggle doing soccer practices. They weren't used to the long runs (we did a few miles as a team), they couldn't do wind sprints, and although they could do the hand/eye coordination and run around and kick the ball, they were shocked at how hard the undergraduate players hit when fighting for the ball. They had no idea in soccer (which 98% of the world plays) that it takes skill to head the ball, it takes brute strength to slide tackle someone, and it takes endurance to run up and down a field the size of a football field for an hour without getting sick or cramping up.

To recap what I said the other day: Gymnastics + Dance + Beauty Pageant = Cheerleading. One sport and two activities combined. Just because it's a midwestern/southern thing and wholesome as apple pie doesn't make it a sport.

Relating to soccer, even if you don't like it, you can't argue it's not a sport. Any event where players have played with taped up broken legs, a goalie was shot and killed when he lost the World Cup for his team, 98% of the world plays it (some in abject squalor and in the most remote places on earth) and where people have risked jail and death to play or simply watch a game (see: Nepal, Tibet, Iran) I think it at LEAST trumps cheerleading.

Put that in your Maybelline and smoke it.

Those girls in the header pic could stand to lose a few pounds. Bunch of fatties there. Look, that one doesn't even have ribs showing. Fatty fatty tubs of lard. No man will want an assload like you, elephant-butt. Better drop 10 ... no, make it 15 pounds, hippo. No food for you, two weeks!

Hey, I can SEE you eating that lipstick, Bryttanneeee. Drop it, right now, and spit that out, fat-ass. You make me want to puke. But instead, I want to see YOU puke, lard-o. Here's a bucket, give me a gallon, right now, or you're off the team!

*sits back to watch cheerleader self-esteem crumble, chortles*

We consider golf a sport, don't we?

I had that same thought. Man, golf is stupid. But then so are a lot of other sports.

If God dropped acid, would he see people?

This is precisely the info I have been searching for. Just wait till my friends heard about it. Thank You.