Extracurricular Activity-

All-star cheerleading

One of the extracurricular activities that I do outside of school is competitive Allstar cheer. Cheer is definitely my favourite activity to do. The reason I love cheer is because it has many components. Cheer requires lots of athletic ability being at your top physical shape is important. Cheerleaders push themselves by preforming and entertaining crowds. Incredible strength is required, for example when your stunting you are lifting and propelling one hundred-pound girls into the air with your base partner and back-spot. Cheer consists of grinning flyers (the ones at the top) that squeeze every muscle in their body to make sure that they will not get dropped, or wobble. They come spiraling down, flipping into the trust of their teammate’s arms hoping they get caught. Stunting is the most inconsistent part of cheer because everything could be going right until your flyer gets off balance, her body position isn’t right, the bases hand slips, or the back-spot steps out, many things could happen.
I have been doing cheer for nine years at Vancouver All Stars. I am currently on a level four team. Cheerleading has gotten me so many opportunities. Cheerleading has landed me many roles in TV and commercials. Just last year my team won “a bid” which is money and an invitation to go to a competition. We received a bid for a competition is Orlando Florida. The experience was amazing.
Cheer isn’t just physically hard, but it’s it mentally challenging as well. Like all other team sports, you push yourself because you don’t want to let your team down. You can’t let self-doubt and fear get into your head and stop you from performing at your greatest potential. Cheer is ninety five percent physical and five percent mental, but when it comes to being a successful cheerleader on stage it’s the other way around. Its muscle memory as soon as you walk on the stage and the music starts your body knows what to do, but will you be able to stay calm under the pressure, and keep yourself focused? You can’t let previous mistakes or think about the future mistakes distract you from doing your best in the moment. You must rebound from mistakes and carry your head high confidently to head into the next skill. You also have to believe in yourself and know that you can do it, you have to let go of doubt and negativity. You need to face your fears. Competitive athletes all require as much mental focus as physical ability.

Cheer is important to me because it has been my life for the past nine years. It taught me strength, toughness, but mostly how to become a team player. Without this sport I don’t know what kind of person I would be today.