🤸‍♀️ Removing gymnastics from school cheerleading: yes or no? (S2.27)

janie724
Jul 28
2 min read

Updated: Aug 18

Episode of March 24, 2025

School cheerleading has its ups and downs, and one question keeps coming up more and more often: should the gymnastics portion (tumbling) be removed from school teams? It's a topic that divides coaches, athletes, and parents. In this episode of Kick's Cheer Podcast , Janie, Nadia, and Keav share their thoughts on the reality of cheer in Quebec.

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💸 Gym or not… a question of means?

Spring floors (the sprung floor used for gymnastics) are extremely expensive. Few schools can afford them or have a suitable facility to install them. As a result, most schools train on dead mats (mats without springs), which makes tumbling more difficult, less safe, and sometimes discouraging.

🕐 A lack of time and resources

Most school programs offer only 2 to 5 hours of training per week. Coaching gymnastics requires specific skills, time, and often certification. But in the school system, many coaches are volunteer or poorly paid teachers, who already have to juggle multiple responsibilities.

👩🏫 Not a question of will, but of reality.

The podcast's participants are unanimous: it's not that schools don't want to include gymnastics; it's that they don't always have the tools to do so. And even when coaches would like to add tumbling, they face a lack of experienced athletes, suitable equipment, and financial support.

✅ The solution? Focus on non-tumbling

Rather than eliminating gymnastics altogether, the organizers propose a more balanced solution: favour categories without tumbling, but allow athletes capable of doing it to include it in the choreography, without it being an official judging criterion.

This would allow:

To reduce pressure on athletes and coaches.
To make competition fairer between schools with and without resources.
To highlight other aspects of cheerleading, such as stunts, pyramids, singing, and transitions.

🇺🇸 Inspiration from the United States

In the United States, some school teams are 100% non-tumbling or even stunt-free. Their focus: team spirit, school pride, vocal performance, and creativity. Why not take inspiration from this here in Quebec to develop school cheer in a different way, without compromising quality or accessibility?

💡 Conclusion: Evolve, but with the terrain.

Removing gymnastics altogether? Maybe not. But adjusting expectations and categories , yes. If we want school cheer to continue to exist and grow, we have to be realistic with the resources available. Leveraging non-tumbling to boost school participation could be an important key to the future of the sport.