Join Cheer

So it’s almost time for the new academic year to begin and it’s also time to think about recruiting new people for Cheerleading!

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll see that I do love Cheerleading and I’m so happy that I joined in my second year of university. It’s a great way to stay in shape, improve flexibility and of course to meet some great new people. Both men and women are welcome as we compete in co-ed (mixed) competitions.

So, what is cheerleading? We get together twice a week for practice and this is when we learn the routine which we shall take to competitions. We normally do some stretching, learning the routine, and sometimes conditioning and finally a cooling down period which is also mainly stretching.

Competitive cheerleading is a mix of dance, cheer, tumbling and stunting all put together into a two and a half minute routine. It’s hard work (as some people have to lift others, whilst the flyers are being thrown into the air) but it’s so rewarding when you successfully put forward a routine. Our last competition was at the end of June, where I *sprained* my ankle (I think it’s actually more than a sprain as this was 7 weeks ago now and it still hasn’t healed! Maybe I should get it looked at again…) but it was an overall enjoyable competition!

Of course, it’s not just competitive cheerleading, we have fun practices. Like a few months ago the squad had an army *Smoed* themed practice and I sadly missed it but it looked like so much fun! We also hold soooo many socials, there’s a Team Greenwich event at Sparrows every Wednesday. It’s not all drinking though, we do hold other events for the non-drinkers (although you are welcome to come along to Sparrows if you don’t drink of course!!!), and we go out for meals and have movie events at the university.

There’s also a DANCE SQUAD and a SPIRIT SQUAD if you don’t want to be on the cheer team itself. The SPIRIT SQUAD goes to other Team Greenwich games such as American Football and we cheer them on with our pom poms (obviously poms had to be in there somewhere), afterwards Cheer and American Football go out for a few drinks to all get to know one another.

For the DANCE SQUAD, they usually compete at the same competitions as the CHEERLEADING COMPEITIVE SQUAD and they compete at regional and national levels in Pom, Hip Hop and Jazz.

And then of course there’s TOUR, which Team Greenwich goes to every year. I’ve been twice now and it will be my third time next year! It’s an amazing experience and if you join Cheer (or any other sports team) I would recommend going, it’s so much fun and you get to know your squad so much better. You don’t have to be a drinker to go on Tour, you can come and enjoy yourself without drink!

Our Cheerleading squad is full of lovely people, so you can come along and see us at both of the Freshers Fairs (Greenwich 24^th September/Avery Hill 22^nd September) and have a chat with us about joining. See you in September! J