Is it level 4 or 5 that wins competitions?
There is a large difference between level 4 and 5 because of the difficulty. Level 5 is the hardest level you can reach level 4 being the next step down. When someones skills are not yet perfect for level 5 they are put on level 4 just so they can work harder on their skills so they improve.
Even with the practice and determination, harder levels have many more dangers by performing these skills. When the girls started competitive cheer they are taught how to be hollow and squeeze their stomach muscles so that they don’t open up while upside down and fall. Injuries are very common in competitive cheerleading, especially in these levels. “You have to practice and get spotted so you are safe and prevent injuries.” said Kristina McKittrick. As the athletes grow older and continue to do competitive cheer most of them start to forget their technique and that is when injuries can happen. Some people get "mental blocks" from getting injured while tumbling and become afraid to do a skill they had because they are unsure if they are going to be safe or not. Mental blocks are very common especially as kids get older because when they're young they don't think as much as "I'm flipping upside-down and could fall on my head" they normally think to just go and do the skill because that is what they were taught. Most people who haven’t tried competitive cheer have no clue how much skill it takes to stay safe, have good form while tumbling and stunting, and have a smile on their face the entire time.
| Level 5 is the hardest and highest level for competitive cheerleading. A level 4 team is much easier and less demanding than a level 5 team. Level 4 also requires talent but the tumbling is much simpler. “It is the hardest level because the competitions are more advanced and everyone wants to win” said Maddie Lieb. Level 4 tumbling involves layouts and standing tucks where as level 5 involves running fulls and double fulls , whip full/double full, and standing fulls. Also, stunting plays a huge contribution into the difficulty of both levels. Stunting for level 4 includes ball-ups, full downs, and kick singles. For level 5 stunting involves tic-tocs, 360 and double-ups, and kick and switch kick doubles. To get to these levels it takes a lot of practice and determination.
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To stay safe while practicing these hard skills they need strength. Strength will help their tumbling get higher and make it look cleaner all together. Tumbling works muscles that most people don’t use so one of the only ways to strengthen them is to tumble more and more. “The tumbling and stunting that they girls perform require a lot of strength and endurance and that’s how they manage to stay safe and keep their teammates safe.” said Riley Gillespe. Even stunting the bases need strong leg muscles to push their flier up in case something goes wrong. The flier needs good abdominal muscles because they need to squeeze their core so they don’t fall even if something goes wrong with the bases. All of the cheerleaders on our senior level 4 and senior level 5 have to work out stretch after every practice and at home.
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Practice is one of the main contributions of competitive cheer. Every team practices at the least twice a week for 2 hours. The level four team at our gym practices less then they do on level 5 because their competitions mean more than level 4 and level 5 set the reputation for the gym. “Competitive cheer gives you something to work for at practices and in life plus it helps you stay in shape” said Maddy Lampert. The coaches normally make them come in once a week alone for an hour at the least and work on skills that they are struggling with so that they don’t waste their practice on it. Practices are normally set up in the same order every time and they normally start with workout, then stretch, then warm up stunts, then run through our routine with only stunts, then warm up tumbling, then we run the entire routine 10 times before we leave hitting at least 5 perfect and lastly we have another workout at the end. Practice contributes to competitive cheerleading the most out of everything else.