Cheerleaders leave crowd howling from very first move

If you think cheerleading is as simple as jumping around and waving pom-poms, you’d be wrong.

It’s a competitive, high-impact sport that not only requires peak physical fitness, but also a whole lot of gymnastic talent.

Cheerleaders have to have the strength, stamina and confidence to perform lifts, flips and synchronized dance moves – all in time to the beat of a song.

As if all that wasn’t hard enough, one cheerleading group faced an even bigger challenge when their music cut off.

Cheer Extreme Cougars were performing at the NCA (National Cheer Association) All-Star National Championship when, just over a minute after getting started, their backing track petered out.

So what did they do? Instead of admitting defeat and leaving the stage there and then, they proved to the judges just how professional they were.

Let’s rewind back to the very beginning of the performance.

The girls look incredible as they pull off flips, jumps and rolls in time to the music. Even the best gymnasts would be hard to keep up with them – they’re so fast that they almost seem superhuman.

Their performance sees them launch one another into the air with incredible strength and timing.

Imagine if one person was a step off-beat in this scenario. It wouldn’t just make a slightly disappointing performance – it could also result in serious injury.

Just as the girls showcase one of their most impressive lifts so far, their music comes to an abrupt stop.

But they don’t even show on their faces that anything of the ordinary has happened, continuing with their routine as if the music is still there.

In place of the backing track, spectators begin to yell “one! three! five! seven!” to help the girls keep in time.

They have clearly practiced their routine so thoroughly that music is just an added bonus for them!

Speaking in an interview about their persistence, even without music, one cheerleader from the group said:

“Knowing that the music stopped, and everyone else was counting, it made me more, like, wanting to hit the – pushed me more to hit the routine.”

A fellow teammate said:

“It was so ironic because our team phrase has been all year to finish. In that moment, I think the first thought was, ‘What just happened?’ and then the second thought was, ‘Finish.’ And we all went for it.”

The girls certainly weren’t going to let anything stop them from putting on a show!

They really do seem to gain extra enthusiasm with only the audience counting them on.

They pull off a whole host of moves that would land most of us in hospital, jumping in the splits, back-flipping, cartwheeling, and flipping their hair for good measure.

Most people would need to associate a move with a certain part of a song, but not this crew of professionals.

When their performance comes to an end, they receive what is undoubtedly the loudest cheer of the night.

The girls jump up and down and hug one another, clearly unable to believe what had just happened, but elated all the same.

It probably came as no surprise to anyone that they won the first place award for their outstanding performance.

You can watch the incredible moment that the music stops and the girls dance on in the video below.

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By Laura Shallcross

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Laura Shallcross is a contributor at SBLY Media.