Rah-rah risks: tip-top athletes have turned cheerleading into an extreme sport--one with rising injuries.

DID YDU KNOW?

* In the United States, 80 percent of all cheerleaders are between the ages of 14 and 18.

* In the 1930s, high school and college cheerleaders began using paper pom-poms in their routines. In 1965, inventor Fred Gastoff created the more durable vinyl pom-poms--like the ones used in cheerleading today.

CRITICAL THINKING:

* Currently, cheerleading is not officially considered a sport in most states. Have a class discussion about what a "sport" is and whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport.

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS:

LANGUAGE ARTS: Besides cheerleading, there are other methods to promote school spirit. Think of an original idea to boost your school's spirit. Then, write a paragraph describing your idea and why you think it would work.

RESOURCES

* Students can learn more about cheerleading at this kid-friendly site: www.kidzworld.com/site/p2492.htm

* This Web site offers clear explanations of some cheer lingo and stunts: www.cheerleadingcoachescorner.com/resources.htm

Think all the action at a football game is on the field? Take another look at the sidelines. There, you'll likely see cheerleaders flipping in midair, springing off the ground for toe touches, and balancing on each other's shoulders to create a pyramid. Although these extreme feats add excitement to the game, they also can be dangerous.

In the early days of cheerleading, squad members chanted on the sidelines with megaphones and pom-poms. Today, "cheerleading is a competitive sport with a great emphasis on athleticism and gymnastic skills," says Mark Hutchinson, a sports-medicine doctor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. With an increase in the number and level of difficult stunts, injuries have risen also. Between 1982 and 2002, high school and collegiate cheerleaders suffered 42 severe injuries, two of which were fatal. Plus, as cheerleaders will attest, less severe injuries, such as muscle soreness or ankle sprains, are now part of the sport. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, emergency-room visits for cheerleading injuries jumped from 15,700 in 1994 to 28,400 in 2004.

STUNT SCIENCE

Why so many cheerleading injuries? For one, the sport involves tumbling, lifting stunts, and dancing. That means cheering puts physical demands on nearly every body part.

Some cheerleading stunts are riskier than others. "All stunts that place the athlete at height are the riskiest," says Hutchinson, who has studied cheerleading injuries. Two lofty stunts are responsible for most cheerleading injuries: the basket toss and the pyramid. In a basket toss, two cheerleaders--called bases--face each other and intertwine their arms to form a "basket." This basket holds another cheerleader--called the flyer. Then, the bases bend their knees and spring upward, sending the flyer sky-high. "The potential energy (stored energy) of a person being thrown 15 feet into the air is much greater than when a basketball player jumps 3 feet off the ground," says Hutchinson. That stored energy converts into kinetic, or motion, energy as the Cheerleader whizzes back into the "basket." With all that momentum (mass multiplied by the speed in one direction), even a small error can mean a serious mishap.

EXTREME TUMBLING

Doing airborne stunts was Ashlee Buczek's specialty. She was a ninth-grader at Cardinal Ritter High School in Indiana when she made the varsity cheerleading squad. Besides being a gymnast, Ashlee had a small body type--making her a perfect flyer.

The thought of cheering sent Ashlee's confidence soaring. But for her parents, the thought of her rocketing into the air had them worried. Their concern turned into reality on a chilly night in November of 2003. That day, the squad had practiced early in the morning, so the cheerleaders were fatigued. That night at a football game, Ashlee's father watched the bases launch Ashlee into the air for a basket toss. Rather than descending straight down from the toss, Ashlee's body came down at an angle. By the time the bases tried to readjust to catch her, it was too late. They couldn't keep her from hitting the ground. It didn't help that the athletes were wearing slippery warm-up suits to keep toasty while cheering.

"She came down headfirst onto the asphalt track," says her dad, Pete Buczek. The impact fractured Ashlee's skull. Also, the impact severed a nerve that connected to the olfactory, or smelling, region in her brain. Her broken skull healed, but Ashlee lost her sense of smell and the ability to hear out of her left ear.

SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF

Not all cheerleading injuries are so severe. For instance, ankle and knee sprains are the most common cheerleading injuries, says Hutchinson. The ankle joint, or region where the lower-leg bones meet the top of the foot, is involved in just about every aspect of cheering, from absorbing some of the stress when landing a jump to switching the foot's direction in a dance step. Helping to keep ankles steady are ligaments, or ropelike tissues, which connect the foot's bones with the leg bones.

For cheerleaders, placing too much stress on the ankles or landing on an uneven surface can strain these ligaments, causing an ankle sprain. "[Cheerleaders] are performing tumbling runs on un-matted surfaces and dismounting from partner stunts and pyramids. That increases the stresses and risk of injuries in the lower extremity," says Hutchinson.

For bases, boosting flyers into the air takes a lot of upper-body strength. "Upper-body injuries are particularly associated with the athletes serving as bases," says Hutchinson.

Mary Katherine Smith and Lindsey Bell, both ninth-graders at Collierville High School in Tennessee, are bases on their squad. Lindsey says that her ankles and wrists are often sore. To help prevent injuries, both cheerleaders make sure to stand in a way that puts the least strain on their backs and upper bodies. For instance, leg muscles are key to malting a stable base in a pyramid (see Nuts & Bolts, p. 8). In one modified pyramid, Mary Katherine lifts a squad mate above her head and helps to throw the cheerleader into the air. "Mainly, you have to use your legs to push her up, because most of the power comes from your legs and not your arms," she says.

READY, OK?!

What are coaches, parents, and cheerleaders doing to help minimize injuries? Jim Lord, the executive director of the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors, has teamed up with national organizations to provide safety courses for coaches. He focuses on a technique called "performer readiness." Using this method, coaches teach stunts in order of difficulty, with each stunt leading to the next, like stepping-stones.

Pete Buczek helped to get a law passed in Indiana requiring schools to abide by certain regulations that would be determined by a group of cheerleading and safety experts. Some safety measures he hopes to include in the guidelines are the use of mats for all stunts, and limits on risky stunts such as basket tosses. As for his daughter Ashlee: She is still cheering, but now she puts safety first. "She still does tumbling on the ground. But she's not allowed to fly," he says.

Nuts & Bolts

To perform daring stunts, cheerleaders need muscle power. The human body has three types of muscles: smooth muscles, which control the movement of organs such as the intestines; cardiac muscles, which pump blood in and out of the heart; and skeletal muscles, which help cheerleaders move their bodies. For instance, to make stable bases in pyramids, cheerleaders use their quadriceps (KWAD-ruh-seps), a type of skeletal muscle located in the thigh area.

GRAPHING SKILLS

In "Rah-Rah Risks" (p. 6), you learned about some of the injuries related to cheerleading. Below are two charts. One shows which body parts are most often injured through cheerleading. The other displays the causes of cheerleading injuries. Use the information from the charts to complete the sections that follow.

Body Parts Injured Through
High School and College
Cheerleading

Injury Site      Injury Distribution
                      (percent)

Ankle                    22
Knee                     15
Hand                     13
Back                     12
Shoulder                  8
Wrist                     8
Head and neck             7
Elbow                     5
Abdomen                   2
Foot                      2
Groin                     2
Hip                       2
Leg                       2

Causes of Cheerleading Injuries

Cheerleading             High School       College
Activity                Cheerleading     Cheerleading
                          Injuries         Injuries
                          (percent)       (percent)

Gymnastics                  17.7             20.5
Partner stunts              29.4             41.9
Landings                     8.8             1.7
Spotting                    14.7             3.4
Pyramids                     8.8             5.2
Cheer/Chant routines        14.7             8.5
Other                        5.9             18.8

Source: Cheerleading Injuries: Patterns, Prevention, Case Reports,
by Mark R. Hutchinson, MD, The Physician and Sports Medicine,
Vol. 25, No.9

Part A: Graph It!

1. The above charts feature data that are percentages of a whole. What type of graph best presents this type of information? (If you need a hint, review SW 9/19/2005, TE 9.)

2. On a separate piece of paper, create appropriate graphs for the above data. (Hint: You should have three separate graphs when you finish.)

Part B: Analyze the Data

DIRECTIONS: On a separate piece of paper, answer the following in complete sentences.

1. According to the provided data, what is the third-most injured body part due to cheerleading?

2. What activity causes the highest percentage of injuries in high school and college cheerleading?

3. Compare the data for high school and college cheerleading injuries. Are the trends the same?

ANSWERS

Part A

1. A circle graph, or pie chart, best represents data that are percentages of a whole.

Part B

1. The hand is the third-most injured body part due to cheerleading.

2. Partner stunts cause the highest percentage of injuries in high school and college cheerleading.

3. No, the trends are not the same. High school cheerleaders have higher percentages of injuries from landings, spotting, pyramids, and cheer/chant routines. College cheerleaders, however, tend to have higher percentages of injuries from gymnastics, partner stunts, and other activities.