Cheerleading
My first encounter with cheerleading came when I was in my first year of secondary school. It was the first time I'd seen anything to do with cheerleading in the UK, before that I'd just considered it to be an 'American thing'. I remember seeing a poster in the P.E. block at my school that advertised an allstar cheerleading club. I only considered it for like 5 seconds before my low self-confidence got the better of me and I pushed the thought aside. I hadn't even been diagnosed with autism yet but what I did know was that I was awkward and clumsy so there was no way I'd be able to do something as athletic and complex as cheerleading.
The type of P.E. sessions we did changed from term to term and around that time we were doing gymnastics. Gymnastics is a large part of cheerleading. The sport also includes dance and stunts. I absolutely hated any form of P.E. because in my mind I wasn't the least bit athletic, was terrible at sports, and plus I hated the feeling of being judged by my classmates for my lack of competence. So most of the time I just didn't even try and got very low results for that class. Despite all this, gynmastics seemed to be one of the types of P.E. that I was strongest at (Interestingly, the other ones were badminton and swimming. I seemed to much prefer individual activities to team sports, which were my literal worst nightmare) so I was somewhat disappointed that we never did it again.
Fast forward to over ten years in the future. I started university last year. The university that I attend is small and doesn't have many clubs or societies, but it is part of the wider University of London network so in normal circumstances students from my university would be allowed to join the societies at the other UoL unis. Having found this out, I took a look at the online list of societies that UCL (being a much bigger univeristy with a wider range of student activities) had to offer. Sure enough, UCL had a cheerleading club. Again, I considered it but after watching the amazing videos they'd uploaded of the team doing crazy stunts and tumbling I thought, "There's no way I'll be able to do that," and forgot about it.
I'm coming back to the story of what happened to me at the beginning of this year again, when I just suddenly lost interest and motivation for all the things I used to love. Around this time though, a new interest emerged. I'm not sure why or how but I just suddenly developed this huge interest in cheerleading and began watching all sorts of videos about it online. I started to think about all the things I'd achieved over the last few years, things I never thought I'd be able to do. So, if I could do all of those other things that I thought were impossible, why couldn't I learn cheerleading?
Due to the pandemic, UCL societies were only accepting members from other universities under special circumstances so I made up my mind to send a request when I returned to London. Sadly, my request was denied but I didn't let it stop there. For various reasons, rather than waiting until next academic year I really wanted to start learning cheer as soon as possible so I began to search for adult cheerleading clubs in London that weren't connected to a university. There I found Ultimate Cheer who were happy to give me a free taster session for their non-competitive adult team, Deuce and were also very accomodating of my additional needs. I really enjoyed that first session and by the end of it was able to base a prep (this is basically when two people - the bases - stand on either side of the 'flyer' and she stands on their hands as they lift her up into the air) despite having never done anything like it before. I became a full member of Deuce shortly after and was able to perform with them at the club's showcase a few weeks later.
I joined Deuce very close to the end of the season so soon came the summer holidays. Since I'd be going back to my hometown of Birmingham for the holidays and there aren't really any sessions during the summer anyway, I wanted a way that I continue to exercise my cheerleading-related skills so I wouldn't be too out of practice by the time I returned to London next academic year. After some researching online I discovered the Revolutions Gynmastics Club and their weekly adult gymnastics classes.
Gynmastics
I attended the class for the first time last night. At first it was a bit overwhelming as there were many other people there who'd been attending the classes for much longer than I had and were demonstrating amazing tumbling skills left and right. However, the staff and other students were all very nice and helpful and by the end of the class I'd learnt how to do a somersault. The cheerleading team I'm currently a part of doesn't cover tumbling but it's my goal to one way progress to one of the competitive teams that do so having some basic tumbling stills already should give me a bit of a head start.
Trampolining
Recently, I subscribed to Buckt Go. Buckt Go is a subcripition service only available so far in Birmingham and London. Through the subscription, each month you receive tickets for you and one other person to five different activities in your chosen city. This month was my first month and one of the tickets I received was for Flip Out, an indoor trampoline park in Oldbury. Coincidentally my boyfriend, James had expressed the desire to go trampolining only days before I recieved the offer.
James and I went today. The park had plenty of trampolines (of course), a few foam pits, and various mini obstacle courses and activities. They had a lot of the same equipment that they had at the gynmastics club so I was able to try out a few of the things I'd learnt there yesterday. We were both out of breath after only a few minutes of bouncing and getting out of the foam pit after we'd jumped in via one of the trampolines was probably more of a workout than anything else. James wasn't a big fan of the experience but for me the time felt like it had gone by way too quickly and I'd defintely like to go back again.
As you can see, I've had a busy few days. Both the gynmastics class and the trampolining session were great workouts and I could literally feel the sweat pouring off me after only a few minutes. I can't wait to progress even further with cheerleading and gymnastics. Often adults are told it's too late for them to start cheerleading but if I can do it then I think anyone can so definitely give it a try if you're interested!
What's your favourite sport or athletic activity? Have you taken up any new athletic hobbies as an adult? Let me know in the comments!
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