From an outsider's perspective you can see beautiful, mindless robots, screaming and performing neat stunts. This is not the case from the inside; cheerleading is much more than that. Many people are under the impression that cheerleading is not a sport. I am the voice of reasoning that will let you in and show you that cheerleading is, in fact, a sport. Cheerleading requires a lot of physical effort on the body, just like any other sport. Cheerleading, in general, is a team effort. There are many aspects of cheerleading, making it a versatile sport. There's more than meets the eye when it comes to cheerleading. Pike, toe touch, eagle spread, left herkie, right herkie, these are all forms of leaps in cheerleading. When performing these jumps, the cheerleader leaps into the air bringing both legs up and out at the same time in a specific shape or form, while pointing her toes. The jumps performed by cheerleaders can easily be compared to the dunks of a basketball player. All of these jumps require adequate legs, thighs and abdominal muscles, just like any basketball player. The cheerleaders not only have to jump, but they also have to kick. By this I don't mean a simple karate kick, I'm talking about something much more difficult. To perform a cheerleading kick you need to be very flexible. Cheerleaders must be able to maintain an upright body shape while lifting their foot off the ground to the highest possible point above their head with pointed, sharp, precise toes, without looking sloppy or tripping. This requires flexibility, skill, endurance and strength. Not only must cheerleaders be able to jump higher and kick higher, but they must also be able to support another person's body weight. The base person has to be… middle of the paper… for my first cheerleading team, in seventh grade, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In fact, the tests were so tough and challenging that I couldn't pass. This didn't put me off at all; it just gave me the reason to try harder. The following season I came back with a bang; I was on the cheerleading team. Cheerleading is an experience that I would never give up for anything in the world. I learned more lessons about teamwork here than in any other sport I played, because in cheerleading I mainly had to communicate with other cheerleaders. Cheerleading involved a lot of work and commitment on the part of me and my teammates. When I started cheering I was a pretty fat cheerleader; by the end of the season my body was perfect enough for a show-stopping bikini, and that's the one change that really made me realize, “yes, I'm an athlete; cheerleading is a sport.”