It is 93 catastrophic injuries, not deaths. May seem like a small amount but when there is no standardized reporting system and researchers have to hunt them down; not so small.

Second point and more important of the 93 more than 2/3's could have been prevented. Please careful in publishing on the web information that is untrue. Making the statement that most injuries are not preventable and you have not seen the data is negligent for an attorney.

According to the statistics from the Cheerleading RIO 2006-2007 Summary of Findings produced at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, 54% of the injuries reported were strains and sprains. Where did you find that head/spinal cord traumas were a common cheerleading injury? Keep in mind that cheerleading is often a 12 month activity whereas other sports are limited to 3-4 months. Cheerleaders are exposed to three times more opportunities for injury.
Hiring qualified cheerleading coaches and mandating a variety of safety training would go a long way to reduce injuries. School administrators should provide the time and funding for safety education. Providing mentors for cheer coaches would also give the new cheer coach a resource for general coaching information.

Debbie:

Regarding the question of head/spinal cord traumas being common cheerleading injuries - statistical evidence. Check: More ...

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It's important to note these aren't necessarily life-altering traumas (at least not in every case); concussions qualify as head injuries and spinal cord injuries may be the result of prolonged high-pressure activity rather than a blunt injury. However, they still qualify.

Regarding the second half of your comment: I couldn't agree more. Remember, I was a competitive cheerleader for four years - I know how long the season is and I'm well aware of the numerous opportunities for injury and I consider the high risk very unfortunate. I agree that properly training coaches can help decrease risks; however, despite Ms. Archie's viewpoint, I maintain that the majority of injuries are not preventable. While we can lessen the odds of an accident occuring, we can't ensure that it won't. Think about it: these injuries are generally accidents. If we could prevent all car accidents, we would, right? Unfortunately, that's not realistic. Similarily, safeguarding all cheerleaders from injury is not feasible. The best we can do is properly train both staff and squad members alike and hope that they use that training at both practices and performances.

The fact is that without investigating each case (something that isn't done for any sport) we don't know how many are "preventable". Even then, it is often a matter of opinion whether something that could have been done better would have actually prevented the injury.

What we can do is make sure that cheerleaders are under the direction of a qualified and knowledgeable coach. I would add that they are following the rules, following recognized learning progressions and have an emergency plan, but those all fall under what a "qualified and knowledgeable coach" would do.

We also don't know how many of these injuries were under the auspices of a rec league, school or all star program of if they were kids in the backyard "playing cheerleader" as we've seen on YouTube, etc. Debbie brought up an important part when looking at any numbers. If you are going to look at cheer injuries, you have to consider the increased exposures as if they were playing two and sometimes three sports since they go year 'round.

We may not be able to prevent the accidents part, but we can do our best to make sure that when there is an injury, it is the result of an accident and not because proper procedures weren't followed.

Well Mr. Lord why aren't the catastrophic injury cases reported? Who is studying the more severe injury causes? Is cheerleading a sport? Where does your organization stand on adopting safety regulations?

There are better catastrophic injury reporting systems in place now and more are being developed. We have looked into several catastrophic injures. Whether cheerleading is categorized a "sport" or not is irrelevant. That term and its implementation vary from state to state. More importantly is how cheerleading is regarded at the individual institution. Our organization, and every other I know of, is all for adopting safety regulations. Most states require it. Like every other "sport", that is still incumbent on the athletic director, coach, and parents to make sure those regulations are being followed.

I beg to differ, Mr. Lord - whether cheerleading is or is not a sport is completely relevant in terms of liability and rules/regulations. And similar to any other "sport" there need to be federal regulations in place. Doesn't every state follow the same rules in terms of when a flag is thrown in football (granted, not every ref would make the same call, but for the most part there are clear-cut guidelines stating when a flag should be thrown). Similarly, organizations (not individual institutions) should be responsible for establishing a concise set of guidelines for ALL cheer squads, coaches, and athletic directors to abide by. I feel the age-old expression "easier said than done" applies here: it's easy to say an organization supports regulations; however, there needs to be movement in order to establish and enforce those regulations on an organizational - not institutional - level.

Mr. Lord, Don't you think responsibility should start from the top (AACCA, etc) and not the bottom (Parents)? Shouldn't it start with the organizations that teach the coaches and certify them? Didn't you admit that you need to improve your courses? That they are too easy? You told me "coaches that break the rules must be held accountable by someone reporting them." Didn't I do that? Didn't I say I had proof? Didn't I say I knew you have a chapter on psychological/ emotional readiness? There's also a rule of safety over competitiveness. Didn't I tell you about my daughters brain injury, and how it was pure negligence and why? Then you ignored me when I emailed you back. Nice!

Didn't you say all coaches that complete the course signs that they will abide by the safety rules and procedures? Then I've read you say that they are not rules but only "suggestions." Which one is it? You told me that you wouldn't penalize or take away the coaches certification because it would affect their livelihood. What about my daughters livelihood? Didn't you tell me the only thing I could do would be to speak with my pocketbook? Then you went on to say that you know how hard that can be when a daughter is so impassioned with the idea of cheerleading. To try and make me feel like I would be hurting her more?

You want to sit on your high horse and tell parents it's our responsibility to make sure the coaches have taken the courses and are certified and it's up to the parents to make sure the coaches follow the rules. What rules? I made sure they were certified way before knowing your name. I, unfortunately, know it now due to this horrible event and being told by you there's nothing I can do. Your misleading piece of paper that seemed so impressive to me and so many other parents, amounts to nothing! We trusted you! Parents are not coaches! We are not trained! Are we supposed to give you more money and take your course to learn what the coaches have learned? Which you've admitted is inadequate anyway. What parent should have to do that? Something horrible happened and I contacted all the organizations involved and got the run around and guess what...I soon find out they all belong to one company, Varsity! Are you people all puppets? Do as Mr. Webb aka Big Brother says?

You people need to get your act together. You are letting coaches do as they please, because no rules, equals no consequences, and don't think they don't know that! That's when they push to get that routine a step above the next, to get to Nationals. Then a child's life is in danger and you call yourself a safety expert? Oh, that's right, in court it has only been against the injured child. When I thought of cheerleading, I thought of happy, proud, young children, working hard at something they love. Now, knowing what I know, it scares me. Not that there might be a bad coach out in the mix, it's that none of these organizations that certify coaches will help the child or their family. Now my child has to constantly struggle, emotionally and physically, everyday. Due to the fact, the coaches livelihood is more important than my daughter's.

I am a High School Cheerleading Coach of 20 years, who has AACCA training, and have all of the training offered to me. I do follow the rules set before me by the NFHS guidelines, but I see cheerleaders/coaches at other schools who don't follow these rules at all. I get to hear all of the time, "why can't we do that"? And while I can tell a coach that you may not do a basket toss in my gym without a mat. What they do at their school is up to them and their administration, who may not know any better. I have on occasion told an Athletic Director that what your cheerleaders are doing is not acceptable by safety standards, and whether they enforce the rules is up to them.

Many Administrators are not aware that there are safety guidelines put out by the NFHS or AACCA, so the education needs to start at the top to insure that they can tell their coaches what they expect. But I have also heard, "who is going to make me stop doing this? The cheerleading police! ha-ha!" If the School Administrators know that they can be liable for injuries, especially from a negligent coach, I think their eyes would be opened.

But it takes a diligent coach to stay educated and on top of the rules to try to prevent any injuries that she can prevent. And reliable, knowledgable coaches are hard to come by, and a lot of schools have a hard time hanging on to coaches for various reasons.

I would just about bet that a lot of the injuries reported can be attributed to girls trying things on their own, ie. the girls doing a basket toss on the concrete parking lot for an early morning news show and she was dropped. But it also up to the coach to inform the girls of the rules.

But I think that the bottom line is....someone needs to enforce the rules, and set consequences for breaking them. The state of Indiana doesn't consider Cheerleading a sport, so therefore it isn't governed by the IHSAA. And most states are the same way.

I think all states are different in how the coaches are. Where I leave all coaches who's squads stunt or tumble must have the AACCA training. The state also offers other classes for coaches to take. We have a rules clinic where we go over rules that are in the NFHS rule book and are expected to follow them. I'll admit I see coaches all the time not following the rules and it drives me nuts. My girls also ask why we are not allowed to do certain things. I believe in CYA I'm not going to do anything that is ilegal because I do not want to deal the consequences. Who is to report these infractions and what is to be done? I have talked to a friend who works as a judge and cheer consultant in our state and she says to call the other coaches on it. My problem is I am not the cheer police and Why should I if I know nothing will be done. I definatly have approched a coach if I think someones safety is at risk but its the little rules like not cheering when someone is shooting a free throw ect. I don't want to make enemies. I want to promot good sportsmanship.
I totally agree that there are too many injuries and that we as coaches need to educate ourselves not only on the safety of the stunts and tumbling passes that we allow our girls to perform but also on the correct way to handle an injury should it occur. I never allow my girls to perform anything unless we have it flawless in practice. Of course there are time that no matter how many times you have hit it it could go up wrong. Thats why you have to teach your girls the art of falling stiff and always being prepared to catch. Practice falls and catching so they know what to do.

All of you have something to add to this discussion and all of you have something to add to the rules governing the sport. The question remains who or what organization is enforcing the rules. Having rules without a mechanism of enforcement isn't very assuring to parents whose child is participating in the sport. And yes, I called it a sport.

Do any of these participating cheer organizations offer a catastrophic insurance program? If not, why not? It seems to me, and I coached soccer for ten years, that even one cheerleader suffering a catastrophic injury is too many. If a cheerleader suffers a catastrophic injury what support do they get from any of these organizations?

Ms. Roth, I'm sorry, but you are incorrect. There are no federal regulations for other sports like football. My husband coaches football. His rules come from the state association. All sports here in Mississippi are governed by the Mississippi High School Activities Association and when I was in Virginia, they were governed by the Virginia High School League. The MHSAA governs cheerleading and it is a sport here. But they also governed cheerleading before it was a sport. We have to follow the same NFHS rules and have statewide training sessions now just as we had before. What is different is that we also have a recognized state championship and more leverage with our administrators, but that comes down to your relationship with your administration which doesn't change just because of a new title. In my particular situation, not much changed. One thing that did change is that we are all required to have AACCA safety certification and our course was quite informative. Did it teach me much? Not really as I've been coaching for 15 years. It did reinforce the things our programs already has in place like physicals, stunt progressions and emergency plans.

Under the MHSAA we do have access to catastrophic insurance, but they also have that in Tennessee (I had to attend a rules meeting there when the schedule conflicted here) and it isn't a sport in Tennessee. It is designated as an "athletic activity".

Ms. Lobosco, I don't know what your situation is, but it should come from all sides, top and bottom. But AACCA is not the "top". They aren't our police force. Our governing body is MHSAA. If we have a coach that's not doing their job, the A.D. is the one responsible for taking action, just like with football or basketball. There are no MHSAA going around watching or policing football coaches either. Guess where most infraction reports begin? Parents who got information from their kids on the team who knew something about another team violating the rules. You should take this all to your A.D. and if that doesn't work, take it to the district board.

I have had the opportunity to meet Mr. Lord in person at one of our state conferences. He gave a course on spotting drills and the fundamentals of partner stunts and I must say that he is one of the most knowledgeable cheerleading people I have ever met. But if I am violating a rule, AACCA is not the boss of me. My Athletics Director is.

Last, I know this has been brought up above by Ms. Archie, but the article still says there were 93 deaths. I've looked at the link to the article that was cited, and the source there says there were "The group has documented 93 incidents resulting in death, head injury or permanent disability between 1982 and 2007." You stopped at "in death" and didn't include the ", head injury or permanent disability." Of course that is still an alarming number, but 3 deaths is very different from 93 when we're talking about 20-somthing years.

Thank you.

Mr. Lord - Dr. Mueller's study does not include All Stars, rec or random people playing cheerleader, only high school and college cheerleaders injuries are included. All camp injuries are excluded as well. Also, Dr. Mueller does research each and every injury for each sport including verification through NFHS, NCAA or other applicable organizations. Since Varsity/AACCA/USASF/USACheer/ICU/IASF/NCA/UCA/ect has never reported any injuries to Dr. Mueller, maybe you didn't know. As for catastrophic insurance Mr. Lombardi, it is only available to protect coaches or schools or gyms for liability. I have contacted many insurance companies to set up a catastrophic injury plan for parents and no insurance company will touch it with a ten foot pole. The reason I was given was "too risky". CoachR - AACCA may not be the boss of you, but he who makes the rules, does rule. NCAA, NFHS, NCSSE and USASF all endorse AACCA's rules. As for who enforces them, good question? As for AACCA or NCSSE certification, it is worth as much as the paper it is printed on. Lauren Chang's coach was certfied - dead. Ashely Burns coach was certified - dead. Jessica Smith's coach was certified - broken neck in 3 places. Would you like me to list all of them that are certified that did not even know how to call 911? Owner's of competition companies are certified too. Spirit Cheer owners have AACCA and NCSSE certifications and their employees never even called 911 when Lauren was dieing, some kid in the crowd called. I guess they missed the emergency plan part of the training. So anyway, keep singing your song of how safe it is and how you are doing so much, how your rules are so great, how soft the grass is in Alabama and that all parents need to know is that you all certified their kid's coach. BOTTOM LINE: Cheerleading will be classified as a sport and there will be national regulations. The sooner cheer companies change their business plan to fit this model the easier it will be on the industry. Mr. Lord you sir, will never have the heart for kids safety that the parents who have lost their children participating in your sport do! We see right through you.

First, I apologize for inaccurately communicating a statistic: there have been 93 incidents resulting in death AND other catastrophic injuries, not just death alone. I accept full responsibility for the mistake and have corrected it within my post. That being said, I'd like to address Coach R's statement: "You are incorrect, Ms. Roth."

Please tell me where I make the claim that the federal government has created the rules and regulations for high school sports? Because if I did so, I did so unknowingly and will gladly stand corrected. As a matter of fact, my most recent post dealt with the IHSAA's ( a state organization's - failure to recognize cheerleading as a sport. I never pointed fingers at the federal government here... However, since you brought it up, federal govt trumps state and there have been numerous incidents where federal courts have gotten involved in and made the final ruling in incidents involving sport regulations at the high school level (I can provide specific cases, if necessary...) So while the federal government may not be responsible for the creation and implementation of high school sporting standards (that's another issue all in itself), they ultimately have the final say...

To all that commented to me:

My daughter suffered pure negligence. The sad thing is, I first went to the coach, she just told me off basically. Then I went to the event planner(Spirit Cheer), I was told by them that they follow USASF rules (even though they list rules and were right there that day), so I went to them, and they told me they follow AACCA rules. My daughter has done high school and all-star competitive cheerleading, this so happened during her all-star competitive experience which all the organizations I spoke to knew about and why I am told it goes to AACCA rules, I do not know. Although, the gym has all the certifications. Mr. Lord knows the story as well and he didn't give me any advice except for what I mentioned. He didn't even try to say no, it's a USASF issue because he knows they go by AACCA so-called rules. It's a big joke to him.

The man that mentioned to me in his post that he met Mr. Lord at a conference...I'm not saying Mr. Lord isn't a knowledgable man, a lot of people are knowledgable, serial killers are extremely knowledgable. You've heard "Oh my goodness, I can't believe my neighbor did that, he was such a nice family man, went to church every Sunday..." Just because you meet someone doesn't mean you know who they really are. Actions speak louder than words, these organizations have the duty to protect their name and athletes by having consequences regarding their certifications, if a coach is found liable. It shouldn't take all these years for them to figure that out. As you witnessed, they are "very knowledgable" and know exactly what they are doing. They are gambling with children's lives.

Bottom line, These organizations have no consequences for these coaches which implies danger for our children due to their impressive looking certifications that trick parents into thinking the coach is qualified. They also, do not care about our children or they would have taken their job and organizations more seriously years and years ago. It's their duty to do so. Why they would want a coach like my daughter's to hurt more kids is beyond me. I guess it's just part of their heartless monopoly game they are playing.

My daughter's life is not a game and will never be one, although, that's how they have been treating it. If you want to know her story, to a certain degree, go to the newer article by Megan Roth" School Safety/Cheerleading: Acknowledged as competitive, but not recognized as a sport." Maybe you'll get a better understanding. Here's a link More ...