The Basics of Cheer Stunting

Series Summary

Cheerleading was invented by a man in 1898, who first directed a crowd in cheering on the University of Minnesota. Since then, cheerleading has become a popular culture phenomenon and a sport. Cheerleaders began as male, but slowly females, who had few offerings for collegiate-level athletics, dominated the hobby. In the early 1970s, the Dallas Cowgirls changed professional cheerleading into simply dance, removing most of the stunts and tumbling in favor of revealing outfits and choreography. In the early 1980s, cheerleading as a competitive sport became popular, and stunts and gymnastics gained in popularity for high school teams. Now there are many official styles of cheering, both amateur and pro, and local spins.

In this free video series, expert cheerleader and cheering instructor Lucy Spain will teach you all about cheerleading stunts. You will learn the importance of safety, how to start and end a stunt, and when stunts should be used. Lucy gives advice on pyramids, basket tosses, how to count out the steps, and more. You will learn all-girl stunts, partner stunts, and how to improve your stunting abilities with conditioning. Lucy gives you all her cheer knowledge right here!

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Lucy Spain on behalf of Expert Village here to talk about cheerleading stunts. Cheerleading stunting is one of the most exciting and fabulous aspects of cheering. It's actually the reason why I started and continuing cheering for all these years. Stunts are also the most serious and dangerous aspect of being on a cheerleading squad. You really need to make sure that you're mature enough to handle this because you are going to have other people's lives in your hand when we're working with stunts. There are so many wonderful variations on stunts that can be performed with so many different variations and people. We have stunts that start with as little as 2 people and go all the way up to about 20 people when it comes to building big pyramids. We use girls and men in both of our stunts. We can have all different positions. It's basically really important to learn stunts because these are going to come in handy when you're doing your cheers, when you're getting the crowd involved, holding up signs, and when you're taking them to competition. Once you have decided you want to start stunting, it's really important to learn about the safety precautions that are in need."