No, I’m not talking about Whitney. Yesterday one of my favorite things came on TV. Cheerleading on ESPN. For those of you who don’t know, I cheered for six years through my high school experience. During that time, I lived to cheer. I was one of the smallest on my squad and I was THE loudest. Being one of the smallest, I was also the flyer (girl thrown up in the air). Lots of the time I was in this position in the air. My bases (girls holding me) were about 6'2'' with their arms over their heads 
I was completely willing to have my body be at the hands of 3 sometimes 4 girls to toss me up and the air in hopes that I’d be caught. Sometimes the catching part worked out, other times I found myself flat on my back coughing because the sudden impact with the mat/gym floor/ground(yes we often practiced in the grass) knocked the breath out of me. I hacked a little, got me breath, jumped from the ground and said, “Lets do it again!” In all my six years, I came out with bruises galore and a twist to the knee. I don’t think I did too bad considering I once gave my spotter (girl who tries to make sure I get caught) a coconscious. She did her job catching me, but unfortunately the doc later told her it was like a 60lb sledge hammer falling from the sky to land on her head.
Anyway we were pretty freaking awesome. Yes, I’m tooting my own horn here. All that falling was worth it, because…we were pretty freaking awesome. I still have people from my high school that come to me and tell me how great we were, and I should mention I’ve been out of school for six years. And six years later, I find I can still drop in the splits with little stretching, pull up a scorpion
or heel stretch
. I still know bits and pieces to dance routines I learned over the years. What I’m getting at, is I’m still in fairly good shape.
Or so I thought.
Remember cheerleading on ESPN? Oh my. Watching that reminded me just how poor of shape I’m in now and how great of shape I was in then. And I’m not talking strength wise, cause I’m still fairly stout. Nor do I mean flexibility, cause I’ve still got that.
I’m talking about stamina. And there's only one way I know to get it. Yep. Dance. I know I'm bad off when I get out of breath by watching people dance on tv. I've got a lot of work to do.
Monday, April 30, 2007
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2 comments:
Fun to watch that, isn't it?
I had a very good friend who was an University of Arkansas cheerleader when we were in college. She said you REALLY get to know your male partner...his hand in your crotch, with all it's sweat. Sounds so romantic, doesn't it? LOL
that video is great! and I know nearly all those dances!
I never worked with male cheerleaders. always wanted to cause they'd be able to throw me higher than the girls. but yeah, the hands on the sweaty body parts, you really don't think about it. It's the same as football players laying all over each other on the ground, baseball players slapping each other on the behind. It's just part of it.
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