Quick answer: competitive cheerleading is a sport in which teams perform a short, highly technical routine - combining stunts, tumbling, jumps, dance and motions - that is scored by judges, rather than cheerleading that supports another sport from the sidelines.
Competitive Cheer vs Sideline Cheer
Cheerleading is often associated with cheering on a football or basketball team from the sidelines. Competitive cheer is different: the routine itself is the event, performed for judges rather than to support another team, and teams are scored and ranked against each other. See What Is Sideline Cheer? for more on that original form.
What a Routine Involves
A competitive routine typically combines several skill categories:
- Stunts - a flyer lifted, held or thrown by a group of bases and spotters.
- Tumbling - floor-based acrobatic skills like round-offs and handsprings.
- Jumps - timed, technical jumps performed in unison.
- Motions - a shared vocabulary of precise arm positions.
- Dance - formation changes and choreography that tie the whole routine together, timed to music.
Who Performs It
Competitive cheer is performed by school teams and by All Star teams based at private gyms rather than schools - with All Star now the larger and more specialised side of the sport. Athletes are organised into teams by a level system that limits which skills they're allowed to perform, based on age and experience.
How It's Judged
Routines are scored by judges on a combination of difficulty and execution, with points deducted for specific errors. See How Is Competitive Cheer Scored? for a full explanation.
Roles on a Team
Within a routine, athletes take on specific roles in each stunt - see Cheer Roles Explained for what a flyer, base and back spot each do.