If Baton Was Easy We Would Have Pom Pons & Be Called Football

 

 

       It’s unbelievable how many people believe that twirling isn’t as hard as sports like football or cheerleading. Don’t get me wrong I love football, I am a die hard Jaguar and Steelers fan but how is catching or running a ball harder then what twirlers do? Yes I know large men are trying to tackle you but we have metal sticks spinning above our head… are you going to try and say that’s not dangerous? And unlike football players we don’t have padding! I understand that you have to have hand eye coordination, speed, agility and ofcourse will to be a good football player but twirlers need that too & much more! We have to take all that and add in grace, technique, twice as much hand eye coordination and balance/ flow. Not to mention if were on a team we have to depend on eachother. We exchange batons poblably ever 20 seconds and if one baton is thrown wrong then someone could get seriously hurt and ofcourse we would get slammed in penalities. Its not like football where we get 3 other downs to get our stuff together, we have one chance.

 

 

    And cheerleaders. All they do (excluding professionals) is stand in front of a crowd shaking their Poms and hips to the marching band music. I agree that those types of things can pump up a crowd but they have NO RIGHT to say that they are dancers, because they are not! We are dancers. We strive on technique and dance to be good baton twirlers not pom Pons and yelling words hardly anyone can understand. The jumps they do in thier routines are things i could do as a five year old. Or the "Ripple Effect". All you need to do is the same exact movement, in a straight line one member after another. What part of that is difficult? Its all an illusion to the crowd, and only people with no dance expirience are actually entertained by the effect. Why dont they put down the pom pons that couldnt even kill a fly and pick up a 4 IBS. metal stick and do ripples with that. See how many cheerleaders get knocked out that way! 

 

 

   I guess overall you could say my opinion is "Bias" but its not.. at all. When i was 4, 5, 6 & 7 i was a cheerleader. And not on a small comunity league, a state league. At age 4 i was considered one of the top 20 junior cheerleaders in the state of maryland. And i gew up with my older brother and his 5 bestfriends who loved playing tackle football in the field outside my house. I never liked being left out so i played with them every summer when i was a kid. They all loved tackling the little blonde girl just to rub in how i had no muscels. But i proved myself over the years to be just as good as them. So before you write off cheerleaders and baton twirlers as the same kind of dancers or thing football is the hardest sport alive; try baotn twirling. You probably wouldnt make it for two weeks at my level.