There are two types of cheerleading. Recreational and competitive. Competitive cheerleading is the one counted as a sport, but both types of cheerleading are the same amount of fun.

                                                          Recreational Cheerleading

Recreational Cheer is just sideline cheerleading, such as for a school team. This type of cheer consists of cheer, jumps, a little bit of tumbling, and sometimes stunts. Now you may have some questions like these when you want to try out for a team:

What kind of skills do I need?

Do I need a back handspring or any kind of tumbling?

Do I need to have my splits?

What are the parts to a stunt?

Well I will answer all those for you! Back handsprings or any other kind of tumbling is very helpful when trying out for a squad. If you don't have at least a back handspring, then what you are able to do on the team is very limited. But don't worry! You can still make the team without your back handspring IF it is not required to make the team. In some cases it is, so you will just have to see what your school says about that. For the splits, it is very helpful if you have them also because you never know when you will have to be a flyer. If you want to be a flyer then it is very important to have them, due to the fact that you will be pulling the body positions in the air. Splits are also good to have for tumbling like front and back walkovers, which require some flexibility. The parts to a stunt are a flyer, bases, and a back spot (optional: front spot). A flyer, or top person, is the person being lifted into the air to pull a body position by the bases. The bases hold the flyer in the air. The back spot stands in the back of the stunt and secures the flyer's ankles. You will know more on how to stunt at tryouts. So basically, any skills that you have can be useful in cheerleading!

                                                             Competitive Cheerleading

Competitive cheerleading is a little different from sideline cheer. Instead of performing for a crowd at a game, you compete against other teams to impress the judges. This type of cheerleading consists of stunting, tumbling,dance, and jumps. In competitive cheer, there are different levels. It basically determines what level you tumble. So if you can only do a cartwheel, you would be put on a level 1 team. A single or multiple back handspring(s) would be level 2 and so on. The level of a team also determines what stunts you are allowed to do. See hear for more information.