Did you know that cheerleading is one of the fastest-growing sports
in Australia? Well, yeah.
I bet you didn't. I did.
I bet you didn't even know it was a sport.
Of course it is.
How do you know all this? ALL: We're cheerleaders!
Turns out it's true.
These young athletes are all part of a competitive cheerleading team
called Altitude.
Makes sense.
So it is getting quite big in Australia now
and I think there's been a lot of presence of cheerleading
in popular media.
So, for example, there's been some Netflix shows
that have featured cheer.
There's YouTube channels, Instagram,
and I think that's really helped to bring it alive
and make more people aware of what it's all about.
What is cheerleading?
How would you describe it to someone who doesn't know?
Well, it's like dance and like gymnastics
and kind of like not really, but kind of circus.
And, like, you kind of all, like, join it all together.
Teams in all-star cheerleading usually learn a routine.
It's about two and a half minutes in duration.
There are two groups and they do a stunt
and then I tumble through the middle of them.
And it will include some dance, some jumps,
some tumbling, things like flips and cartwheels
and that kind of thing.
Has a large proportion of stunting,
so lifting people in the air, spinning them, throwing them,
catching them and pyramids as well,
which is when we have multiple stunts coming together
and making really complex structures.
When you say you're a cheerleader,
people think you're just on the sidelines,
like cheering, cheering teams, like football teams on.
But really, it's a massive teamwork sport and no pompoms required.
We have our own competitive teams.
We compete against other competitive teams.
It's very athletic. It's very heavily team-based.
So it's quite different to a lot of the perceptions that people have
about the sport.
The team are training hard at the moment
ahead of a big international event.
How are you feeling about going to Hawaii?
I'm nervous, but then I'm so excited
'cause I've never gone overseas before.
It's probably the first really large international competition
that's been able to be held in Hawaii since COVID started.
So this is the kind of experience for us
that we've been just itching to have the whole time
we've been in existence,
so we're really looking forward to being able to go.
I'm a bit flexible, so do you think I could do it or...?
Yeah. I think you could...
I think you could do it.
Reckon you can do that? Easy!
Sweet!
OK. Oh, at the back. OK. Sure, yeah.
I wasn't really watching properly before.
Was it like... And then legs will go out?
OK.
Crocodile? OK.
(GIRLS GIVE INSTRUCTIONS)
Down...up.
And the legs will go out?
It'll happen. Yeah.
Just stretching.
Ready and five, six, seven.
One-two, bend, three-four,
five, six-seven.
Yeah, pretty good, guys. Yeah.
What's next?
I would say it'll take you some years to get, like,
some skills, but I think you'll still be able to do it.
I'm one of the team!
Alright!
Now we're talking.
You are still pretty flexible. Thank you.
"Pretty flexible."
What was that last step again?
I feel like I just missed something there.
Five, six, seven, eight...
One, two and three and four...
..five, seven...
..three, five, seven...
Oh, good job, guys. We nailed it!
It is by far - and I'm very biased, I know -
but it is the most inclusive, team-based sport
I've ever come across.
There is a place in the team for every single person.
It doesn't matter how big or tall or short or small
or whatever the skill set,
there's always something that every individual can bring
to the team.