To read Janaye’s cancer survivor story go to
http://www.alexslemonade.org/newsroom/heroes/amanda-janaye-white

Wait til my next blog: MMA fighters who would make great male cheerleaders. GSP anyone?

wait a sec. -rewind-

I like the stuff you’re pointing our here Acosta dude. Not many folks would seriously, and effectively, be quick to make a case that cheerleading could be just as dangerous as MMA. If one wrong move is taken in either event it could definitely be detrimental.

Judging by the other comments, you could be onto something even greater and more creative here. Keep it up.

Oh. I’ll take my cheer now.

Glad you were willing to hear the cheer people out. :^) As was noted by everyone, including you, we have far more in common than you might think. But believe me as far as established accepted high risk activities go, cheer is still getting a hard time and really can’t be included in the list with football etc. I can’t recall the last time people and the media were up in arms over football or hockey safety. For whatever reason, the media just finds us to be a “sexy” story to chase after in its own twisted and badly reported way.

At any rate, I hope that both of our sports will gain in positive recognition and respect. Please take some small comfort in knowing that there are other athletic endeavors out there suffering from the same misperceptions and bizarre media frenzy as yours is.

Good luck!

Coach ~Jen

Zachary Cohen: I agree I don’t think there is a more inherit risk in either (as I said, I was just going based off the report I saw on Yahoo)and both should be regulated.

April: I never said basket tosses don’t require skill. Someone can fall 10 feet in the air if they aren’t caught though just like someone’s arm can break if they don’t tap, which I mentioned regarding Renzo Gracie. My point with that quoted sentence is MMA looks dangerous, while cheerleading, throwing someone in the air, doesn’t look dangerous because we’re conditioned to accept that the person IS protected and will be caught. Choreographed cheers are just part of cheerleading; I never said that was the only part of it. I just chose that part of it to make my point that Frank Mir’s post-fight speech says a lot more about the character of MMA than I can, even if I took the time and effort to devise a captivating, say, cheer, that would be inspire people to act a certain way. I don’t think cheerleaders are airheads.

Thanks for all the feedback and schooling me on cheerleading folks.

…its danger is more assumed than the real blunt force trauma that comes from falling ten feet in the air completely unprotected…

Who is “falling” from 10 feet “unprotected”? Basket tosses are an advanced skill, and so advanced members only should be doing them. I don’t know of any bases (outdated youtube videos excluded) that would toss their flier then leave her unprotected.

…It’s ban is simply a matter of misinformation and an unwillingness to learn…

Wow, this sounds familiar. Almost like something that could be said regarding cheerleading injuries and their “statistics”.

…Thankfully I don’t have to devise any choregraphed cheers to inspire anyone to do anything.

So, cheerleading is horribly dangerous, and also not anything more then coreographed cheers? Are all cheerleaders airheads too?

For example, I believe pretty strongly that a large number of the cheerleading related injuries that occur are because of under qualified coaches, and administrators who don’t take the proper steps to have their coaches certified. I live in the state of california and coach at a public high school. The default certification for cheerleading coaches at high school and college level is AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators), but the certification is tied to a person and not directly to the persons relationship with the school. What this means is that the school cannot, BY SCHOOL LAW, pay for coaches to get certified. CRAZY!

I will be the first to admit that potential for risk in cheerleading is very high. We do a lot of difficult tricks that could end up in serious injuries. However, I would also point out that there are ton of inherent risks in MMA as well. Throws, slams, elbows and knees provide high impact on potentially dangerous parts of the body. The way this has been solved in MMA has been by creating specific rules to prevent too serious an injury, and training refs to protect their fighters.

What I guess it boils down to is that I don’t believe that either of these sports is more “dangerous’ than the other. I think both have risks and it is very important that we take steps to mitigate those risks and proliferate each sport so that more people can get involved.

http://www.cheersafety.org/2009/06/cheerleading-and-media-again-again.html

I’m not saying that one is more dangerous than the other – but don’t trounce cheerleading for your gain.

The most dangerous sports out there are football, hockey, and gymnastics, followed by lacrosse and wrestling according to this study you undoubtedly got your info from.

As a cheerleading coach I kind of feel like we (MMA & CHEERLEADING) while not similar in activity, are in the same boat. Both wanting acceptance for what we generally know to be a safe, fun, character building activity.

May both sports gain the respect they deserve.