Why Choose Cheer for Your Child? Let Us Count the (Very Good) Reasons

cheering your childParents have more than a few choices when it comes to their children’s sports participation. With so many options for kids to participate in, what makes cheerleading one of the top options? Why has it become one of the fastest growing kids sports in the USA? And why should parents seriously consider this sport for their child?

There are, in fact, lots of good reasons why cheerleading is a great option for kids – and yes, it is a sport, even Bleacher Report agrees – here are just a few of them for you to consider.

They Learn the Importance of Trust and Being Trustworthy

Cheerleading is all about trust! Kids learn the responsibility of trust, what it means to lose it and what it takes to win it back. The flyers must trust their bases to keep them in the air and to catch them when they fall. The bases have to trust that their flyers execute their skills with precision. For cheering to work the team must be on the same page and they have to trust one another. That lesson in trust – and teamwork – can then be taken forward into many other aspects of a kid’s life as they grow up.

They Learn How to Practice Good Time Management

Competition cheerleading, like any other elite sport, often calls for a big time commitment. Cheer kids must learn how to juggle not only cheer practice but also school, family commitments, friends and all the other things they need – and want – to do in their young lives. With these time management skills mastered they have learned something that will benefit them for years to come, at home, at school and certainly once they head out into the world of work.

They Develop Greater Mental Strength

Cheerleading is about 30% physical and 70% mental. Cheerleaders need to be able dance, tumble, jump and stunt multiple times in just a few minutes, and make it look good, so it is hard work! Kids learn, when cheering, how to get back up when they fall – mentally and physically – and be the better for having done so. Cheerleaders are tough cookies, and that’s a quality that can take you far in life.

They Forge Strong Friendships

Cheerleaders spend so much time together between training, competing, fundraising and display performances that they can’t help but become friends. Add to this the trust that is needed between athletes to execute all the skills that are needed for cheerleading and lifelong friendships are built. Cheerleaders end up being more like brothers and sisters than friends.

They Learn the Value of Teamwork

Cheerleading teaches kids to work as one focused unit. It helps them learn how to handle the inevitable disappointments. If one person fails, the whole team fails but if one person succeeds the whole team succeeds. It takes the hard work and kinship that is synonymous with football teams and replaces the dirt and mud with rhinestones, hairspray and bows. Cheerleaders work just as hard as a football team and they look good while they are doing it too!

Integrity Gymnastics, Dance & Cheer is one of the few organizations in Kansas City to offer exclusive cheer classes with experienced coaches. Please check out our current classes or call us if you have questions.

For questions and inquiries, feel free to give us a call 913-766-8918 or email us: tumble@integrityop.com