ArtesiaBuckDog
Your next American Idol
Okay, I'm looking to get some opinions on this topic from a portion of the population that isn't bleached-blonde and borderline anorexic.
As a sports editor, I've been having some problems lately with the local cheerleading squad, their sponsors, parents, etc. It's over the usual question: "Is cheerleading really a sport?" This has happened to me in the past....I'll be at a basketball game and some cheerleader's parents will come up and ask me when the cheerleaders are going to get some coverage in the paper. I always told them "Just let me know when their next game is and I'll be there," and that usually shut them up. But they've gotten more persistent lately, so I'm trying to decide what I should do about it.
To me, cheerleading is NOT a sport. Cheerleading is an activity. Is it an athletic activity? Sure it is. But that's the key phrase: "athletic ACTIVITY." Jogging is an athletic activity, yet I don't have joggers coming in asking me if I'm going to put how many miles they ran yesterday, what their heart rate was and how many calories they burned in the paper. Things are more complicated now, though, since the cheerleaders started attending "competitions" and even went so far as to invent a state cheerleading competition they seem to think is on a par with the state HS football playoffs.
Now they think that the fact that they compete is justification that they're a sport. They attend one, MAYBE two "competitions" a year, and let's not fool ourselves. They're basically giant social functions where the girls trade makeup and hair tips and the parents congratulate themselves on how popular and pretty their daughters are. In between, the girls go out on a gym floor, toss each other up in the air a few times, clap, fling their hair around and yell. But they say they are clapping, flinging and yelling in competition with the other clappers, flingers and yellers to see who reigns supreme in those areas.
My argument here is that yes, you are technically competing, but lots of other people compete and that still doesn't make what they're doing a sport. Chess is a good example.
I'm actually of the belief that any activity, athletic or otherwise, that involves judges is not a sport. When your fate is in the hands of a completely separate, outside group of people with personal biases, etc., then your athleticism isn't solely and directly determining whether you win or lose.
I'm posing this question because the cheerleaders have a public exhibition tonight they think I am supposed to attend. It's a rehearsal of the routine they're planning on doing at the state competition (another reason I think it's not a sport - there's no uncertainty, other than what if I drop Brittany on her ass, and no spontaneity; they memorize their routine and duplicate it), and they've informed me that it is my duty since they are a sport to attend this event, take photographs and interview all of them before they blast off for state in a few weeks.
There is pretty much nothing I would rather do less, but I am at a loss as to how to get out of it. If I tell them I don't think they're a sport, all hell will break loose. If I tell them to take their own pictures and bring the information in and I'll publish it, all hell will break loose, and if I tell them I'll do it but give it to the Society Editor rather than clog up the sports pages with it, all hell will break loose. I think I'm in a lose-lose situation but I'm still open to suggestions if anybody has any.
As a sports editor, I've been having some problems lately with the local cheerleading squad, their sponsors, parents, etc. It's over the usual question: "Is cheerleading really a sport?" This has happened to me in the past....I'll be at a basketball game and some cheerleader's parents will come up and ask me when the cheerleaders are going to get some coverage in the paper. I always told them "Just let me know when their next game is and I'll be there," and that usually shut them up. But they've gotten more persistent lately, so I'm trying to decide what I should do about it.
To me, cheerleading is NOT a sport. Cheerleading is an activity. Is it an athletic activity? Sure it is. But that's the key phrase: "athletic ACTIVITY." Jogging is an athletic activity, yet I don't have joggers coming in asking me if I'm going to put how many miles they ran yesterday, what their heart rate was and how many calories they burned in the paper. Things are more complicated now, though, since the cheerleaders started attending "competitions" and even went so far as to invent a state cheerleading competition they seem to think is on a par with the state HS football playoffs.
Now they think that the fact that they compete is justification that they're a sport. They attend one, MAYBE two "competitions" a year, and let's not fool ourselves. They're basically giant social functions where the girls trade makeup and hair tips and the parents congratulate themselves on how popular and pretty their daughters are. In between, the girls go out on a gym floor, toss each other up in the air a few times, clap, fling their hair around and yell. But they say they are clapping, flinging and yelling in competition with the other clappers, flingers and yellers to see who reigns supreme in those areas.
My argument here is that yes, you are technically competing, but lots of other people compete and that still doesn't make what they're doing a sport. Chess is a good example.
I'm actually of the belief that any activity, athletic or otherwise, that involves judges is not a sport. When your fate is in the hands of a completely separate, outside group of people with personal biases, etc., then your athleticism isn't solely and directly determining whether you win or lose.
I'm posing this question because the cheerleaders have a public exhibition tonight they think I am supposed to attend. It's a rehearsal of the routine they're planning on doing at the state competition (another reason I think it's not a sport - there's no uncertainty, other than what if I drop Brittany on her ass, and no spontaneity; they memorize their routine and duplicate it), and they've informed me that it is my duty since they are a sport to attend this event, take photographs and interview all of them before they blast off for state in a few weeks.
There is pretty much nothing I would rather do less, but I am at a loss as to how to get out of it. If I tell them I don't think they're a sport, all hell will break loose. If I tell them to take their own pictures and bring the information in and I'll publish it, all hell will break loose, and if I tell them I'll do it but give it to the Society Editor rather than clog up the sports pages with it, all hell will break loose. I think I'm in a lose-lose situation but I'm still open to suggestions if anybody has any.
I've just got a very set definition in my mind of what a sport is. If there isn't somebody in front of you that you're competing with, an actual opponent who you have to athletically best and who can play a major role in whether you accomplish your goal or not, I can't call it sport. Judges, like I said, can be biased and all sorts of other crap. If you're being judged, you're being judged on somebody's perception of your athletic ability as an individual in an activity or an event setting.
Nice. Can I quote you on that, dude? 
