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Paige Pierson 00263-13220 14 April 2014 Injuries Among Cheerleaders Dangers and injuries involved in cheerleading in high school
and college levels impact the cheer world severely. The average age of the injured cheerleader is seventeen years old. The authors Boden, Tacchetti, and Mueller of the mainly focused article Catastrophic Cheerleading Injuries reviewed twenty-nine out of thirty-nine incidents reported. Most injuries occurred executing pyramids, then basket tosses and tumbling was the least. Out of the twenty-nine reviewed, two of the outcomes were death. Thirteen skull fractures, eight cervical fractures, three spinal cord contusions and one concomitant head injury and cervical fracture. NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) does not include cheerleading in their records, meaning they recorded no injuries. According to the same article the timing of most injuries occurred November through March (a usual season length). Also, most of the injuries happened indoor on hard floor, with thin mats and few spotters. A good amount of these injuries were top girls landing on their heads, necks, backs on wood or other hard floors. I agree with this article, mostly because it is factual based and everything stated makes sense. There is however, one point I disagree with in the main article. There is a section that speaks about basket tosses. It explains how flipping baskets are no longer allowed. This in fact, is untrue, Purdue cheerleaders execute flipping baskets such as back tuck baskets and full twisting flipping baskets several times throughout a season, and they do this legally. There is another article that I disagree with all the content. The article is Cheerleading injuries: patterns, prevention, case reports. It contradicts the other articles I have retrieved. This article states how
injuries involved in cheerleading are very rare and when they do occur are usually very minor. Obviously, I strongly disagree with this whole article. I do not think the author, Hutchinson, has done much research on the topic at hand. I think the other three articles I have reviewed clearly explain the true dangers that come along with the sport. To me this article seems very false, but to cut this article some slack, it is from 1997, which could explain the lack of injury because there was a lack of skill thrown back then. Now a days skill level and danger level have increased tremendously. Another article Cheerleading-Related Injuries to Children 5 to 18 Years of Age: United States, 19902002 explains the injury rate of cheerleaders of a younger age group than the previous articles. It researches injuries from five to eighteen years old. Studies show that injury rates are rising, basically doubling during a thirteen-year study period. This article agrees with the main article. It further explains how the rates and trends of cheerleading-related injuries in a nationally representative sample. This article also further explains what a coach is now required to accomplish before becoming a coach. This includes a mandatory completion of a safety training and certification program. My last supporting article, Anterior Glenohumeral Laxity and Stiffness After a Shoulder-Strengthening Program in Collegiate Cheerleaders further explains a more specific type of injury among collegiate cheerleaders. It agrees with the intensity and dangerousness of the sport, but specifies the shoulder as a main injury. It says that sixty two percent of cheerleaders sustain a type of shoulder injury in their career. I agree with this statement because several cheerleaders I know have some type of shoulder issue from stunting. Either the shoulder pops out of place or the shoulder repeatedly gets spun/yanked out of place. Trainers to try to reduce pain by taping many of the girls with shoulder injuries up. This article was a type of
study, it studied to see between two research groups, which shoulders healed better, ones with strength and conditioning programs or ones with out. All in all, I agree with three out of four of the articles. Also, three out of the four articles basically agree with each other! Cheerleading is a high intensity and dangerous sport. There are several injuries involved in cheerleading, whether they are reported injuries or not. On the Purdue University Cheerleading team last year alone there were a total of twelve injuries from that year, out of twenty-two girls between head injuries, back injuries, ankle injuries and shoulder injuries.
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