About Baton-Twirling
Baton-twirling is a sport that is commonly seen in high schools and colleges across the country, but is lesser known and not as talked about as cheerleading. It is related to cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics, and takes quite a bit of dedication and hard work. Most people do not even know what baton-twirling is, except the fact that it obvious involves twirling a baton.
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Identification
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Baton-twirling is the sport of twirling a baton (a stick usually made of metal) while performing a choreographed routine, similar to cheerleading and gymnastics. It requires grace and coordination with the timed releases, catches, and twirling of the baton. This can sometimes involve more than one baton as well.
Considerations
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Baton-twirling is a great focused sport for people to get into and can be involved in college, high school, middle school and younger. If you start off with gymnastics before getting into baton-twirling, it makes it easier, as there are many aspects of gymnastics involved. Another sport to get involved in is ballet, as there are also many dance aspects involved. Because this sport is so focused, it improves coordination and grace.
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Events
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There are many events for a baton-twirler. There are competitions, local, national and international, in which to compete. Baton twirling also usually is seen with marching band performances for other sports events, as cheerleading is seen with other sports events. This is seen usually in high school and college, mostly for football events, but involves other sports events as well.
The Baton Twirler
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The baton twirler has to be very disciplined in her sport. She has to practice as much as a cheerleader does, to get the routine memorized and the coordination down. Because there are dance steps to remember and a certain agility and flexibility that is necessary for them to perform, she must keep herself in tip top shape. Sometimes the baton twirler will perform with batons, flags, rifles, and in more advanced cases, fire. The baton twirler is seen in teams called drill teams, flag corps, or color guards. A baton twirler can be either male or female, just as in cheerleading. One of the more recently famous baton-twirlers is Jonathan Burkin, as he was seen on the television show America's Got Talent.
Theories/Speculation
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There is somewhat of a debate on which sport is the more challenging: baton-twirling or cheerleading. There are many good points to either case, and it is no question that both take time, dedication, and hard work. They are very closely related, which makes it even harder to argue which is harder. There is no solid answer to that question just yet, but varies from person to person, usually saying that one is harder than the other when they have been involved in the one they are promoting.
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Resources
- Photo Credit shiyali
