Cheerleading: Nature And Nurture

Many people have something in their life that they consider themselves to be exceptional or reasonably competent at. The skill can vary from something such as memorizing, cooking, singing, or even participating in a sport. For me, the sport that I am reasonably competent at would be cheerleading. One of the greatest debates amongst topics such as those mentioned is whether the skills are acquired by nurture, which is a person’s experience, or nature, which is a person’s genes. For cheerleading, I would say that the skills are acquired by both nature and nurture. One is just as essential as the other when it comes to a sport such as this. Nurture plays a fairly large role in a sport such as cheerleading. A majority of the skills that are involved in cheerleading need to be learned at some point in life. Skills that would be applied in this sport consist of setting up a stunt, which is the term for lifting a girl into the air, or even executing

The role nature plays may not be nearly as large as the one nurture plays, but it is nevertheless very much a part of cheerleading. The most fundamental skill in cheerleading that would be considered a result of nature would be flexibility. I have been moderately flexible since the time I was little which helped me tremendously in cheerleading. Some people may argue that flexibility is a learned skill and not genes, but I differ. I believe that something such as stretching could assist to improve flexibility, but there are many people who are born naturally flexible and it is in their genes. Being a cheerleader could also be a form of genetics. For instance, my mother and aunt both cheered in middle school and high school. It is not necessarily a gene, but I believe this was handed down to me, which made me eager to cheer throughout middle school and high school as well. Nature is not an immense part of cheerleading, but the role is still there in some