When you and your team participate in high school cheerleading competitions, you must follow a variety of specific rules regarding eligibility, safety, appearance and conduct. These rules vary by state and competition, so look up the specific rules for each competition you attend. Before joining your school's cheerleading squad, you might want to familiarize yourself with the general rules of the sport.
Eligibility Rules
Though each high school cheerleading competition has its own specific eligibility requirements for teams and individuals, all competitions enforce certain basic rules. To compete in cheerleading competitions, you must remain in good standing with your school and you must remain enrolled full-time. You might also have to meet a certain minimum grade point average to qualify to compete in certain states. You must also have an up-to-date physical evaluation or medical release form. In some states, such as Indiana, a signature from your school principal validating that these forms remain on file will suffice.
Teams must also meet certain eligibility requirements. Each team must have a coach or accompanying adult. Teams must meet registration deadlines and must check in promptly upon arriving at the competition. Some states require that coed squads have certain numbers of members of each gender. The Indiana Cheerleading Competition Rules, for example, dictate that small coed squads have at least three males and large coed squads at least four males.
Safety Rules
The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators, commonly abbreviated as the AACCA, releases revised safety rules every few years. The most recent safety rules outline many specific regulations governing partner stunts, suspended splits, basket tosses, released transition stunts, hanging pyramids and released pyramid transitions. The rules often require you to have spotters and bracers while performing certain stunts. The AACCA prohibits many other specific stunts, including backward suspended rolls, single based suspended rolls, dive rolls, helicopter tosses with a rotation greater than 180 degrees and single based split catches.
The safety rules also require that all teams have coach supervision at all times during practice and competition. Individual participants must have the proper training to perform stunts, and must perform proper conditioning and strength training workouts.
Appearance
Different competitions have different rules regarding your appearance during competition. The Indiana Cheerleading Competition Rules, for example, dictate that you cannot wear bobby pins. This state's rules also dictate that ribbons cannot have glitter or wire edges and cannot reach to the shoulders. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators prohibits you from wearing any kind of jewelry during competition. You must wear athletic shoes at all times.
General Rules
Most competitions place time limits on routines as well as on routines' music portions. The Indiana Cheerleading Competition Rules dictate that no routine can exceed two-and-a-half minutes and that no routine's music portion can exceed one-and-a-half minutes. In most competitions, judges will consider you out of bounds if you step or land off of the competition mats.
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