Governing Bodies Come Together For Cheerleading Safety

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing safety education, the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA) is in the final development stages of its next safety initiative, Safety First! This initiative will involve coaches, athletes, administrators and parents in improving cheerleading safety through awareness campaigns, educational programs and risk management procedures.

Safety First! is the latest of a number of safety initiatives that Cheerleading's governing bodies have implemented in past years. The results show, among other things, that cheer's total catastrophic injuries were cut in half from 2005 to 2006*, and that cheerleading's injuries per 100,000 participants is only 2.0, significantly less than the figures for popular women's sports such as gymnastics.

-- In 2005 the AACCA published "A Parent's Guide to Cheerleading Safety" to provide parents of cheerleaders with a way to verify that the programs where their children were participating were following established safety standards.

-- In 2006 the NCAA required all cheerleading coaches to be safety certified in order for their teams to have access to their catastrophic insurance coverage.

-- In 2006 the AACCA College Rules Committee restricted all 2 1/2 high pyramids, basket tosses and other select skills to be performed only on a grass or matted surface. High school teams, who aren't allowed to perform 2 1/2 high pyramids at all, were also restricted from performing basket tosses without a mat by both the AACCA and National Federation of High Schools. (In 2008, the AACCA College and High School rules committees standardized basketball court rules for both age levels, prohibiting released twisting skills and inverted skills on this surface.)

-- In partnership with AACCA, Varsity Brands established the College Cheerleading Safety Initiative, which includes safety awareness programs and participant testing at all of the Varsity Brands college camps.

-- At least 12 states now require AACCA Safety Certification and/or some component of the NFHS Coaches Education Program in order for their teams to participate in partner stunts, pyramids and other cheerleading gymnastics. At least 24 other states, while not requiring it, strongly support the AACCA and NFHS Safety Education Programs. These figures have improved dramatically in the past five years.

Dr. Gerald George, Director of Safety for the AACCA and senior editor of the AACCA Cheerleading Safety Manual, points to the presence of safety certified coaches as a key point to injury prevention. "In the cheerleading injury cases I have been involved with, the common theme is that all of the coaches were not AACCA safety certified when the injury occurred." Dr. George added, "It is incumbent upon state associations, and if not state associations, local school boards to require AACCA safety training for their coaches in order to help protect their student athletes."

In reviewing a recent report by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, some of the figures being reported by the media are misleading as they don't take into account the number of participants in competitive cheer. The report revised an earlier estimate for cheerleading injuries that had accounted for 55% of high school catastrophic injuries over the past 25 years to actually be 65%. That figure is misleading as it doesn't accurately account for participation or exposures given in the report. Cheerleading injury rates per 100,000 participants, 2.0, are actually less than a number of female sports, including female gymnastics (5.35 per 100,000 participants) and female ice hockey (6.49 per 100,000 participants).

In addition, because the majority of cheerleading teams cheer in the fall and spring seasons, and compete at summer camps and competitions, they have twice the exposure to injury than those sports that just compete for one season of the school year.

The AACCA will continue to improve cheer safety, confident that compliance with safety rules, proper supervision and skill progression, support from administrators, and parental awareness and involvement will bring an increased measure of safety to all cheerleaders.

*According to a recent report by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research that shows that cheer's total catastrophic injuries went from eleven in 2005, including one fatality, to five with no fatalities in 2006. No figures were reported for 2007.