History Of Cheerleading and tumbling
The sport of gymnastics, and along with it tumbling, was first introduced in the United States in the 1830s. Although tumbling is still a part of gymnastics today, it has also evolved into its own event, and been incorporated into other activities, like cheerleading and dance.
In the 1880s, power tumbling had a National Championship in the United States. Back then, simple mats were still being used.
It was in the 1920s that females first joined cheerleader squads, and they brought tumbling along with them.
In the 1970s, there was still a stigma surrounding women's tumbling. While men's tumbling focused on strength and power, women's routines were judged by their grace and delicate movements. That all changed when a 17-year-old Soviet gymnast named Olga Korbuc performed, and captured the hearts of the world by displaying grace and power in her routines. Tumbling was now an activity that allowed both men and women to exhibit power!
The 1990s were a time for advancement and innovation for tumbling in cheerleading. High school cheerleading squads started to take after college-level teams and increased the amount of full-squad tumbling in their routines. Cheerleading first used a spring floor, designed to help provide "˜bounce'…show more content… In the early 2000s, the first spring floor cheer shoe was released, and these days there are several cheer shoes for tumble. Cheer wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for the showy moves that keep one eye on the cheerleaders and the other on the team they're rooting for. In the early 1920s women began to dominate cheerleading because sports held few positions for female athletes, and the men were being drafted off to war. The women were limber and light, so to the chant and megaphone gymnastics stunts were
