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thumbnail image Lee_Russakoff
name Lee_Russakoff
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body Life is for Livers
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Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

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People, I've been telling you for years: Cheerleading is A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E.

And while safety efforts have cut injuries in the sport down, cheerleading is still the most dangerous female sport ... by far.

According to a report on FOXNews.com, there were 102 fatal, disabling or serious injuries among high school female athletes between 1982 and 2007. Sixty-three of them occurred in cheerleading.

Gymnastics (nine) and track (seven) were a distant second and third.

However, inroads are being made.
The number of cheerleading injuries fell slightly in the 2007-08 academic year.

"Progress has been slow, but there has been an increased emphasis on cheerleading safety," said the study's author Frederick O. Mueller. "Continued data collection on all types of cheerleading injuries will hopefully show that these safety measures are working to reduce injuries."

Your Feedback

Is this at all surprising? Is anyone in your family a cheerleader? Do you think of it as a dangerous sport? Sound off here



Message Edited by Lee_Russakoff on 06-29-2009 10:34 AM
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 10
  • date 06-29-2009 06:09 PM
  • author vic98 writes:
body I am not at all surprised. My daughter started Cheering at age 6 for a community pound football league that also had Cheer competitions. She was good and really liked it so by age 10 she joined at competition group that also hooked up with a local gymnastics school. I was active with both groups and would help as I could. As an RN I can say over the years I came to see most the people in charge would push the girls limits and I am not sure what if any training they had. At age 12 at a practice that I could not be at due to work after doing a back handspring she c/o her right arm hurting and the couch told her it looked fine. Ten min later she did another handspring and sustained a commuted fracture of her right arm. She was full arm/hand casted for 5 months. School other sports etc were ruined for that year not to mention the expense and suffering. I honestly feel under the circumstances it could have just as easily been her neck. That was the end for us. The girls can be dazzling but I feel there is too much push to out do whats been done before and has generally become too extreme.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 11
  • date 06-29-2009 09:43 PM
  • author lucky5 writes:
body PS....Please don't call professional dancers, ie: Dallas Cowboys, Redskinettes..."cheerleaders". They are dancers NOT cheerleaders. Come on Fox or Comcast whomever posted the pics...get it right!!
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 12
  • date 06-30-2009 09:21 AM
  • author hylkman56 writes:
body In the end, what's the value in all that these girls go through with the multitude of injuries? They cheer through high school, in money-making(for the company) competitions, maybe in college, and then what?? They go through the rest of their lives with orthopedic issues. I agree with the others who say pick up an instrument, make music and make people happy the rest of your life (professionally or casually)....and no injuries. They do fundraisers for the bands, as well.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 13
  • date 07-01-2009 12:32 AM
  • author Ghost417 writes:
body What in this world isn't dangerous? You can be hurt or killed walking down the hall to the bathroom, so does that mean we should wear diapers? You can be hurt or killed driving to work in the morning, so does that mean we have the luxury of quitting our jobs because of it? I'm sitting here in my house watching TV and I could be killed if the place explodes beneath me, but does that mean I have to run screaming out the front door for fear of being killed? Guess what, I can also trip and fall on the steps and break my neck, so that's quite a dilemma there, isn't it?

Pro athletes play football, basketball, etc., because they like doing it. Cheerleaders cheer because they like doing it. Pilots fly because they like doing it. Just because YOU think that the risks outweigh the rewards doesn't mean the person doing the activity should think the same thing.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 14
  • date 07-01-2009 12:49 AM
  • author CoachNips writes:
body First it isn't a sport. Don't get me wrong it takes athleticism, but most areas it is a club to support the kids competeing, in sports, for their school. I have been coaching polevault for 11 years. One season nation wide we had 3 deaths in a 7 week period. Does this mean we should end it? No, not at all. In our state we have to be certified as coaches now. I have to ask. Are thes young ladies being taught appropriately? Most injuries I have seen in the vault have been due to poor coaching. Sometimes flukes occur. I'm sure cheer is the same way. Injuries happen in everyday life. The question is how much risk is the individual willing to take. This is stupid sensationalization. There are so many more people involved in sports we are bound to see more injuries. It's exponential. Let's talk about all these injuries and put fear in peoples minds. Great idea, let's live in fear. I say go do what you feel is enjoyable to you, know the risks, take reasonable precautions and have fun. Stop freaking everyone out with fear. Maybe we should just lock ourselves in our homes and hope the world becomes less dangerous.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 15
  • date 07-01-2009 12:54 AM
  • author dschutte writes:
body My daughter wanted to cheer from the time she saw cheerleaders at a high school football game. She started cheering for the peewee football league and continued cheering in elementary, junior high and high school. She has dislocated her knee. She had a stress fracture in her back and was in a Boston brace 23 hours a day for 5 months. She is 5'2" and was used as a base. She has been kicked in the face numerous times during builds and got ganglion cysts in her wrists from repeated tumbling runs on the basketball floor. I have two older boys who played competitive sports but they never had the injuries their little sister did.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 16
  • date 07-01-2009 01:15 AM
  • author sparkyTWB writes:
body When I first learned that college cheerleaders actually receive scholarships, I threw up twice.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

body I am a cheerleader for my high school and we've had some injuries. During championships last year, one of my captains was in a knee brace as she had been all year. I hurt my ankle so bad back in February and it never fully recovered. A few girls had to wear wrist braces. Honestly, yeah, its dangerous, but nothing a real love of the sport doesnt conquer.
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

  • comment number 18
  • date 07-01-2009 01:54 AM
  • author ddwh writes:
body Cheerleading is not a sport, it is an activity....PERIOD!
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Re: Careful with Those Jazz Hands...

body As a past competitive cheerleader myself, I can definitely agree with the fact that cheerleading is a tough and dangerous sport. I cheered on an all-star team starting from age seven, and I also participated in varsity cheerleading at my high school for four years. During my freshman year in high school, I had a major injury that almost led to total paralysis. While I was doing my back tuck toss, the stunt went wrong, and I ended up landing on the track, placing me into a concussion and dislocating a disc in my neck. I was rushed to the hospital, and I finally regained consciousness. I was ordered to see an orthopedic surgeon and found out that my disc in my neck was displaced a 1/2 inch. If it was displaced another 1/2 inch, I would have been paralyzed. To this day, I am still unable to remember the full extent of my injury. The reason I had such a catastrophic injury was due to inadequate safety and a coach whose skill level was not up to par. No one was punished and changes were not made to ensure that no one would undergo any other serious injuries. Dangerous stunts and unsafe procedures by the same coach were still administered. For cheerleading to be respected and safe, safety regulations need to be installed, and high schools, along with all-star teams need to make sure that their coaches are highly trained. The risks of cheerleading must be taken seriously, otherwise more injuries and deaths will result.
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