Who Are the Judges in Cheerleading?

Quick answer: judges are trained evaluators who score each team's routine live, typically working as a panel that splits responsibility across categories like stunts, tumbling, jumps and overall execution, using a governing body or competition provider's official score sheet.

What Judges Actually Do

Rather than forming a single overall impression, judges generally score specific, defined categories - such as difficulty, execution, synchronisation and deductions - using a structured score sheet rather than a purely subjective overall rating.

How Judging Panels Are Typically Structured

Competitions commonly use a panel of multiple judges rather than a single judge, often with different judges focused on different skill categories - for example, some watching stunts and pyramids specifically, others focused on tumbling, and others on overall performance and execution. Splitting responsibility this way helps judges watch their assigned category closely across a fast-moving routine.

Judge Training and Certification

Judges are typically trained and certified through a governing body or competition provider's own judging education program, learning that organisation's specific scoring criteria, terminology and standards before judging events.

Why Judging Can Look Different Between Events

Because different governing bodies and competition providers use different score sheets, judging criteria and panel structures, the same routine can be scored somewhat differently at different events - one more reason exact scores aren't always directly comparable between competitions.

Related Terms

See Score Sheet for the document judges actually score against, and How Is Competitive Cheer Scored? for the broader scoring picture.