I know every sport you need to practice at least three times a week, but in cheer it really does take a lot more than that. In basketball you learn a few plays and how to dribble a ball. In cheer you learn how to base, fly, third, tumble, jump, chant, and a routine. You don’t think that is physically possible in an hut practice three times a week do you?
There is so many components to cheer that you seriously need a lot more time than almost any other sport when practicing. Here at Thompson Rivers University we have three full team practices on tuesdays for two hours in the morning, thursdays for two hours, and on sundays for three hours. On top of set full team practices I attend an addition tumbling class for an hour once a week. Right there is eight hours a week. Now sometimes we go to a drop in night and work stunts with our stunt groups, which is another two hours of practice. The team here at the school is decent but we aren’t no cheerlebrity team where they practice twenty hours a week minimum.
An all star team has to practice about three times as much as my time if not more. Also, they pay more than double what I pay to be on the cheer squad. As you move to a bigger and better team the costs and the amount of time you practice increases.
Okay, so about eight hours of practice a week is what my team is usually doing but, then we also do volunteering as a team, fundraising events, and cheer on the other sports teams at the school. Now add that all together thats a lot. Sometimes I see my team members six days a week. And the safest part about that is that our school does not fund our team and doesn’t really care about the cheer squad. This makes all the time we put into cheer feel almost worthless because our own school doesn’t even notice us. Question. How are we suppose to put in countless hours to a sport that fully represents are school and feel good at the end of the year? We go unseen by the sports directors every year, no matter how much time we put into the sport.
The World of Cheer 