The DegreeGirl  “Don’t Fret The Sweat” campaign recently awarded $20,000 to five winning cheerleading teams of the Degree Girl Varsity Awards on their Facebook page. These cool and confident teams told DFTS how they were able to come together to overcome sweat-inducing moments and then rallied their communities to vote for them on Facebook. In celebration of the winning teams SportsGirlsPlay.com is hosting a giveaway a Degree Girl gift set for you, too!

The giveaway package includes:

• iHome – inspiring teams to get active before, during or after practice, with quick and easy music access
• Degree Girl Just Dance deodorant
• Degree Girl gym bag to hold gear
• Degree Girl water bottle to stay cool during workouts

The Degree Girl team sent us one of the giveaway sets to keep so we could give you our take on each item in the set. The iHome player is a fun docking station and speaker for your iPod that changes colors as the music plays. It charges your iPod while it plays music – perfect for practices, relaxing in your room or hanging out with friends. My 13-year old daughter immediately took the iHome to her room and it has become a part of her decor.

In addition, the gift set comes with a black gym bag for carrying all your gear to and from practice. The bag is very roomy and has plenty of pockets, too. The Degree Girl is my teen’s new favorite deodorant – according to her, it smells good and after using it for the past few weeks of gymnastics practices she has asked for a second one to keep in her locker.

So, how do you win this gift set for yourself?

Required entry: Leave us a comment on this post telling about a situation in sports that tested your nerves at first, but through determination, courage or encouragement from friends, you made it through! It could be about your first game, a championship meet, learning a new skill – you name it, we want to hear about it!

Bonus entries: Get BONUS ENTRIES by letting your friends know about our giveaway. Get one extra entry for each of the following, but come back and leave a second comment telling us where you shared it:

• Post about it on your own blog, in a forum, tweet about it or share it with your friends on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter (we are @SportsGirlsPlay) – please send us a tweet letting us know you are following us and introduce yourself, too.
• Like us on Facebook (we are SportsGirlsPlay and Don’tFretTheSweat) – again, feel free to leave us a note on Facebook saying hello and that you are entering the giveaway.

Rules

• Leave your comment(s) no later than midnight January 10, 2012.
• Make sure your email address is right. We only use it to contact the winners and we will NEVER share it or publish it.
• You must be 13 or older to enter. If you are under 13, just ask your parent, grandparent, favorite aunt or uncle to enter for you!
• We will be using the “And the winner is” plugin to select one (1) winners at random.

Disclosure: Degree Girl sent us a gift pack for purpose of review but the opinions of the products are our own!

As the debate as to whether cheerleading is a sport continues and as cheerleading statistically continues to be considered one of the more dangerous high school sports, it is important to note that many cheerleading injuries can be prevented. STOP Sports Injuries, a campaign started by famous sports professionals and well-known national organizations, has an entire section of their website devoted to sports specific injury prevention, treatment guidelines, videos, and resources. Cheerleading is one of the sports for which they have valuable information for parents, coaches and cheerleaders.

The information available on STOP Sports Injuries that pertains to cheerleading specifically, includes:

• What types of injuries are most common in cheerleading?
• How can injuries be prevented?
• How are cheerleading injuries treated?

Visit the site and download the printable cheerleading injury fact sheet for more information.

My thoughts:

No – cheerleading should not be considered a competitive sport for Title IX purposes. Even though cheerleaders are performing more and more athletic moves, train like athletes and now have more competitive opportunities within their “sport”, the primary role of cheerleading at the high school and college level has traditionally been to cheer on and support the school’s athletic teams.

If competitive cheer is going to evolve into a “sport” of its own that basically combines the elements of dance, gymnastics and acrobatics, then they need to give it a new name. And there is a trend to that – it’s called Stunt and Tumble. And even if it develops into a new sport, should a “new” sport replace a well establish sport in a college sport line up? I don’t think so. Even Cheerleading expert Jeff Webb agrees that cheerleading should not be considered a competitive sport for Title IX purposes.

So, what are your thoughts? Competitive sport or NOT?

While the hairstyle options go from a simple sleek ponytail to elaborate braided styles, we have found that having a relatively simple team hairstyle for the lower levels is really helpful. It helps build team unity, ensures a neat and pulled together look, and the girls end up looking so cute. The older girls tend to have their own favorite styles and since they understand the importance of having a hair style that not only looks good but also keeps their hair out of their face, we let them pick their own styles.

Some of the gymnastics hairstyles we have used over the years include:

Two French Braids is a great style for girls with slightly thicker, wavy to curly hair. Their hair type takes well to the braiding and it will hold, especially with a little gel and hairspray help. If your daughter is growing out her bangs, French Braids are also a good option. The only hair type that I have found to be really hard to French Braid is straight, fine hair – it just doesn’t hold without a TON of product. (Video tutorial for French Braiding)

Styles that use the little tiny hair bands to hold smaller sections of hair and create a pattern are very popular at gymnastics meets. One of the reasons they work, is that they really help control short bangs, layered cuts and work on all lengths of hair. The photo on the left is called the Pineapple and is created by making a series of small ponytails on the front row, then splitting each pony into two sections and feeding them into the next square section.

The version on the right is called the “Modified Pineapple” and is much easier to create. Basically you part the hair like you are doing two standard ponytails. Then divide each side into six sections, criss crossing the entire ponytail into the next section of hair. Secure the back into a ponytail and curl the ends if desired.

The style we use for our younger teams is one we call “Stripes” – it is easier than it looks, can be put in the night before and looks so sharp when the whole team marches in with it. We also have the girls curl their ponytails in ringlets. It adds a nice touch and helps shorten the longer ponytails.

The girl in the photo above actually had hair well down the middle of her back and it was very thick. Her Mom is the curl queen and was able to wrap her curls so tight that not only did they look awesome, they shortened her ponytail to a much more manageable length for the routines.

The secret to curls that look like the ones above is to wrap them when the hair is damp, not wet. Use soft foam rollers – we like the small 5/8″ foam rollers then separate the hair into small sections and spray with a good spray gel then smooth as you roll them. Let the curls dry completely before removing them from the rollers and don’t mess with them. We always use the end papers with the hair rollers, too – although I found that in a pinch you can cut up a single ply paper towel and use that in place of the end papers – they really help create the best curls.

One style that is popular with the older girls (and many of the cheerleaders in our area) is just a simple angled French Braid at the front that goes to a ponytail in the back. This is the style I get to do on my own daughter’s hair this weekend. It is perfect for her since she has angled bangs that are long but not long enough to go back into a ponytail on their own. Once it is in the ponytail I will just touch up the ends with the curling iron and then rub a teensy bit of Moroccan Oil through the ponytail for a really nice sleek shine.

If you are looking for even more great gymnastics, cheerleading or just generally cute hairstyles for girls, I recommend checking out Shaunelle’s Hair – she literally has hundreds of photos of the styles she has done on her daughter’s hair. In addition to great pictures, she also has plenty of how-tos for different styles, tips and the most creative up dos ever. These hairstyles may look complicated, but its not like you are doing hair restoration surgery or something.

Cheerleading used to be all about the cheers, the chants, the jumps and if you had a former gymnast on your team, the tricks. Now, there seems to be a greater emphasis put on the stunting, tumbling and more difficult tricks. Many of the high school cheerleaders are training on basketball courts, hallways and backyards as opposed to training facilities with appropriate matting, training aids (like trampolines and pits) or trained/certified coaches.

If cheerleading is going to continue to grow and become more of a “sport”, then it needs to have the same types of guidelines for training, coaching and safety in place like other scholastic sports. Every sport has its risks and kids can get hurt doing any sport, however, the numbers revealed in the report are definitely alarming and should send up flags that cheerleading as a high school and college sport needs to revamped. I’m not saying it needs to be eliminated – because at the high school and college level, I think it is pretty cool. They just need to re-evaluate the programs to try and reduce some of the risk factors.

What’s your take? Here are some additional articles on cheerleading injury statistics and safety:

• Sports Injury Research – Cheerleading Riskier than Football
• Cheerleading changed by injury
• Cheerleading Injury Statistics
• Cheerleading Safety
• Preventing Cheerleading Injuries

AC: What do you like most about cheer?
Dakota: I love stunting! I’m a flyer and I just love that. Also, you make so many friends in cheerleading. Sometimes it’s a long way to games, and we have to travel for hours on a bus, and you kind of bond with your teammates. I think that’s really nice.

AC: What is it about stunting that you love so much?
Dakota: You know it really came naturally to me when I first started doing it. It’s probably my most favorite thing about cheerleading—I’m the one who’s always like, ‘OK, let’s stunt now.’ I really love doing toe touch Baskets.

As usual the debate as to whether cheerleading is a sport continues, but as far as Dakota is concerned, cheerleading is a sport – and one she really enjoys.

Photo courtesy of PopCrunch

Do you consider cheerleading to be a sport?

I know there are a lot of people that just can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that cheerleading could even be considered a sport, but I have to say, yes it is.

Cheerleading takes strength, flexibility, stamina, and training. It is an activity that requires movement and repetition. Cheerleaders work together as a team (in most cases) and the basis of most cheer moves is gymnastics.

Now it is your turn! What do you think? Sport or activity?