Martial Artists — Cheerleaders In Disguise?

[CristinaLlorens]

Have a look at this article. Hope you find it interesting!

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[JowGaWolf]

Interesting...Interesting that people really don't understand martial arts in this day in time.
That article is so far off the mark.

But once you get to the end you'll see why the person wrote it that way. They are trying to get Cheerleaders or girls who like cheer leading to come to their event lol.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

The writer of the article seems to be confusing martial arts in general with the subset of martial artists who focus on performance choreography for modern forms competitions and demos. Those individuals are indeed working to present a choreographed visually impressive spectacle for the entertainment of the onlookers - much like cheerleaders, dancers, and figure skaters.

Most martial artists don't fall into this category. Kata are traditionally intended as a training tool, not as entertainment. Most traditional kata don't include the flashy moves reminiscent of cheerleading. Many martial arts don't even include kata at all. To address another point in the article - many (probably most) also don't include splits or high kicks either.

The news clip about a cheerleader tackling a thief is pretty silly and irrelevant. Suppose we found a report of a plumber catching a thief - would you say that plumbers and martial artists were the same? The girl in question didn't use her cheerleading skills to catch the thief. She just grabbed him.

Frankly, the article reads like clickbait rather than anything written by a subject matter expert attempting to convey genuine information.

 

[TwentyThree]

Actually, I'm convinced my time cheering - competitive cheering to boot - made me a better martial artist as an adult (as I did not start as a child).

I wrote a blog post about it here:
The Stick Chick: How Cheering Made Me a Better Martial Artist

 

[Dirty Dog]

Actually, I'm convinced my time cheering - competitive cheering to boot - made me a better martial artist as an adult (as I did not start as a child).

Participation in any athletic activity, especially those that emphasize flexibility and general conditioning, can make you a better martial artist.

That doesn't make it any less ludicrous to act as if being a cheerleader is the same as being a martial artist.

 

[Tez3]

Actually, I'm convinced my time cheering - competitive cheering to boot - made me a better martial artist as an adult (as I did not start as a child).

I wrote a blog post about it here:
The Stick Chick: How Cheering Made Me a Better Martial Artist

Brilliant blog! I'm passing it on to my daughter who competes in Cheer, she had also trained in martial arts including MMA. All the injuries she's ever had come from Cheer not martial arts, not even MMA. She's a flyer so has been dropped several times including on her head. she's had black eyes, bruises, sprains and torn muscles from Cheer.
My daughter and her fellow Cheer people are at great pains to point out that they are competitive people not dancers who are the fluff at sports games. Competitive Cheer makes you very fit and very strong, I have tremendous respect and admiration for them.

Silly article in the OP.

 

[lklawson]

Actually, I'm convinced my time cheering - competitive cheering to boot - made me a better martial artist as an adult (as I did not start as a child).

I wrote a blog post about it here:
The Stick Chick: How Cheering Made Me a Better Martial Artist

It's not cheer per se, but rather some of the requisites for successful cheer that are directly applicable to martial arts. For instance, I always say that, in my experience, dancers tend to make good martial artists. This is because dancers tend to have an excellent sense of their body, good balance, a certain level of athleticism, a good understanding of timing and distance, the learned skill of taking instruction, and often a certain amount of being inured to pain experienced while practicing. Can other athletic pursuits provide similar benefits which are directly applicable to martial arts? Of course!

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[JR 137]

The 'skill set required' graphic is applicable to any true sport (I don't mean darts, bowling, etc.).

Even the memory for sequential coreography part; (American) football, basketball, etc. all use plays, the sports that don't have specific plays have strategy regarding what to do and where to be in different scenarios.

Does cheerleading have a lot of similarities to martial arts? Absolutely. Not much more nor much less than any other sport IMO.

Will cheerleading make someone a better martial artist? Yes. Will basketball ball make them better? Yes.

On an individual person level (skill, not strategy), sports are all about movement, kinesthetic awareness, etc. The better you move, the better you are.

The article is trying too hard. The same argument could be made for any sport.

 

[pgsmith]

Have a look at this article. Hope you find it interesting!

Sorry, but I have to agree with the prevailing opinion that it is simply a blatant effort to get those involved in cheer to pay attention to your event. It may actually contribute to that, but has no other redeeming value.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I'm going to go against the grain here. I don't think people are giving themselves as much credit as they should. The sport isn't what is making you better in Martial arts. It's you as a person that is making you better in martial arts. The same dedication that it takes to be good in a sport is the same dedication that it takes to be good in martial arts.

The only thing that sports will do is to provide some type of conditioning that is also present in martial arts. If a person makes it as a cheerleader then that same drive can put into martial arts and the same skill sets of flexibility and balance will be learned (provided that the martial art instructor trains it).

I think the better wording would be. "Competitive cheering helped me to become good in martial arts" Most people who play a sport and try to be good in that sport will often have the drive and the determination to be good in martial arts." Having the physical and mental conditioning required for martial arts is one thing. Actually being good in martial arts is something totally different because there are so many areas of martial arts these days.

The thing about being good in something is that much of what is required comes from the person who is doing it. There are many people who are flexible, strong, and athletic who suck at doing martial arts. So pat yourself on your back and give yourself more credit.

By the way. I like the title of
How Cheering Made Me a Better Martial Artist
Better than the OP article title. It's really difficult to discount personal experiences and that would be more attractive to girls.

From a male point of view, I think women who do martial arts are awesome. I think more women would be involved in martial arts, if woman knew just how much men like women who do active sports or martial arts. I know gals like to impress guys just like guys like to impress gals. One of the easiest ways to do it is to take up a martial arts or some kind of sport. It's no wonder that the cheerleaders are the center of attention in schools. It's just too bad that Martial arts isn't a school sport. I would have been all over that.

But back to the point. If you are good in a martial art or sport, then pat yourself on the back because you worked hard to be that good.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Sorry, but I have to agree with the prevailing opinion that it is simply a blatant effort to get those involved in cheer to pay attention to your event. It may actually contribute to that, but has no other redeeming value.

Yes that's the purpose, which is why the sign up is at the bottom of the page. lol

 

[JowGaWolf]

I think the only way to get more girls and women into martial arts is to start changing the perspective of it. The only reason my wife got into martial arts is because I told her that guys like women who art athletic and a woman that does martial arts is like a bonus. That ranks right up there with a woman who plays videos games lol.

My wife originally got into because of what I thought of women who did martial arts. Now that she's doing kung fu, she's actually enjoying it because she likes it. It turns out that she likes punching and hitting people just as much as I do.

The martial arts world has a strange reputation and there's no unity in terms of "what it's supposed to look like" and "who takes it." As long as an article doesn't mislead. If a someone has a personal experienced with being a cheerleader and that person says it helped them to be good good in martial arts, then who am I to argue.

I just didn't like the way the OP article was positioned with the title. That article made me want to put a cheerleader into a ring to eat some punches and some kicks so they can see the difference. I probably wouldn't have thought of it that way if it wasn't for that last video of the cheerleader tackling someone in the mall.

 

[Tez3]

That article made me want to put a cheerleader into a ring to eat some punches and some kicks so they can see the difference. I probably wouldn't have thought of it that way if it wasn't for that last video of the cheerleader tackling someone in the mall.

I take it you don't actually know how tough cheerleaders are? I'm assuming too that you are thinking of the dancers that you see at sporting games and not the rather awesome competitive cheerleaders.
Cheerleaders are very used to being kicked, kneed and punched in the face as well as the rest of their bodies, they lose teeth, have black eyes, cracked ribs, cracked vertebra, broken noses and that's just from training which is more than most martial artists can say. Stunting is inherently dangerous. It's not the cheerleaders who need to learn the difference it's the OP and the writer of the article.
My cheerleading daughter by the way has won several full contact fights, she says it's easier than Cheer.

 

[lklawson]

I take it you don't actually know how tough cheerleaders are? I'm assuming too that you are thinking of the dancers that you see at sporting games and not the rather awesome competitive cheerleaders.
Cheerleaders are very used to being kicked, kneed and punched in the face as well as the rest of their bodies, they lose teeth, have black eyes, cracked ribs, cracked vertebra, broken noses and that's just from training which is more than most martial artists can say. Stunting is inherently dangerous. It's not the cheerleaders who need to learn the difference it's the OP and the writer of the article.
My cheerleading daughter by the way has won several full contact fights, she says it's easier than Cheer.

Statistically speaking, Cheer is the top leading competitive sport for teenager injuries last time I checked. They're always talking about stiffer regulation to make it safer.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[JowGaWolf]

I take it you don't actually know how tough cheerleaders are? I'm assuming too that you are thinking of the dancers that you see at sporting games and not the rather awesome competitive cheerleaders.

You misunderstood my comment. I said " The article made me want to put a cheerleader into a ring to eat some punches..." This isn't what I think of cheerleader. It's like watching a movie or reading a book, both trigger some kind of mood and emotion and that's how the OP article made me feel. The second article said the same thing as the first and used the same arguments. The only difference is that the second article spoke of personal experience and didn't try to position cheerleading being the same as martial arts because they aren't. Being able to take a beating is not high on goals of Martial arts. In fact, if I'm kicked, kneed, or punched in the face in martial arts, then it means that I didn't do something right.

I'm proud that I don't have to lose teeth, have black eyes, and cracked ribs to prove how tough I am. I'm equally proud that if someone doubts that I was tough that I could give at least one of those injuries to the person that I'm fighting.

My cheerleading daughter by the way has won several full contact fights, she says it's easier than Cheer.

I'm sure easier is also referring to the lack of injuries. When you fight someone that is of equal skill or better then easy is the last thing that comes in mind.

 

[Tez3]

and 'not so' teenagers, we have people ( men and women) competing that go right up to sixty something, we have 'mum' squads.
Please watch this, it's my daughter Katie's Cheer people, you'll see the hard work they put into it, the dangerous stunts, incredible cuteness of the tots, the older ladies ( and gents). The floor in the gym comes up and we have fight nights in there.
My daughter is at 8.36 sitting in themiddle smiling and at 10.26 on the right. it's a good watch that will have you smiling.

 

[Tez3]

I'm sure easier is also referring to the lack of injuries. When you fight someone that is of equal skill or better then easy is the last thing that comes in mind.

No, an MMA fight is easy, it's two or three rounds of a couple of minutes fighting ask any fighter which is easier training or fighting and they will tell you it's training. Fighting is the enjoyable part, the bit you get to enjoy, the part everyone looks forward to doing. It's the icing on the cake.

I'm not sure what you mean though by lack of injuries?

 

[JowGaWolf]

you'll see the hard work they put into it

This is what makes them good at cheerleading and it's exactly the same thing that makes any good at what they do. "The hard work that we put into it."

 

[JowGaWolf]

I'm not sure what you mean though by lack of injuries?

The lack of injuries in MA compared to Cheerleading. I get injured in MA but not to the extent that cheerleaders get injured. Like I don't have to worry about falling on my head. There's nothing about my training in which that scenario will ever happen. While I'm not falling on my head, my training isn't "easy" or "comfortable."

But that all depends on how hard the training is at the MA school. I know not all martial arts schools have tough training and conditioning so I was assuming that your daughter's MA school has the tough training and conditioning.

 

[Tez3]

The lack of injuries in MA compared to Cheerleading. I get injured in MA but not to the extent that cheerleaders get injured. Like I don't have to worry about falling on my head. There's nothing about my training in which that scenario will ever happen. While I'm not falling on my head, my training isn't "easy" or "comfortable."

But that all depends on how hard the training is at the MA school. I know not all martial arts schools have tough training and conditioning so I was assuming that your daughter's MA school has the tough training and conditioning.

My daughter trained with us. She also breaks in racehorses for a living, another dangerous job. I do worry a lot! Riding horses means you do not ever let her get her legs around your ribs when grappling, she's been known to make grown men cry.