California High School Cheer and Dance Association

The importance of staying safe, understanding the rules and protecting our cheerleaders can never be overstated. With much more media attention being placed on cheerleading and the dangers associated with stunting and tumbling, it is now more important than ever for every coach and advisor to understand and be educated on the safety rules that govern our activity.

Though many coaches and advisor claim to be “familiar” with the rules, we continue to see inexperienced and young coaches push the safety limits with their teams. Some high school cheer teams continue to throw back tuck basket tosses on the sidelines of a football game or during their halftime performance. Other teams will perform harder, more elite skills without a mat underneath them. From small mistakes to major rules violations, it all starts with a coach and advisor taking the time to become educated on the latest safety rules and then enforcing them with their team.

So where should every coach and advisor start? The CHSCDA is now every coach and advisor’s number one resource in the state of California for rules understanding and education. While other associations within our industry have established and developed the safety standards and guidelines we all must follow, CHSCDA will help to bring a clearer and current understanding of those rules to every coach/advisor in California.

Let’s start right now with some of the most commonly seen problems by coaches and advisors throughout school based cheerleading programs.

The CHSCDA Top 5 Cheerleading Rules Clarifications and Misunderstandings

All cheerleading teams should practice and perform on suitable surfaces. This means either on a mat, grass or rubberized surface at all times. When performing stunts at basketball games, the following skills are prohibited except when performed on a matted surface only: basket tosses and other similar multi-based tosses; stunts where a main base uses only one arm to support the top person; twists into or out of stunts that are free from contact; and twisting tumbling skills.
All partner stunts and pyramids are limited to two persons high. This means that it would be illegal to have a flyer supported by another flyer that is supported by a set of bases. Under no circumstance should any high school cheerleading team perform a partner stunt or pyramid that exceeds two high. These types of stunts and pyramids are reserved specifically for college cheerleading teams.
Back tuck basket tosses or any type of transition that puts a flyer in an inverted position, backwards, is illegal. Often high school cheer teams and coaches will see this type of stunt, transition and toss performed by similar aged all-star cheerleading squads. However, just because an all-star squad is able to perform such a trick, does not mean that a high school team can or should.
In order to perform a legal forward flip the following stipulations must be met: the flyer must first have continuous hand to hand contact with either two bases or two posts (NOT one base and one post and NOT hand to hand contact with one backspot); the flyer must transition from shoulder height or lower to a cradle or the performing surface only.
When a flyer in a half (also called a prep or elevator) is acting as a brace for another stunt group in a pyramid, the bracing half MUST have a separate backspot during the transition and while the flyer is acting as a brace. It would be illegal to not have a backspot in place while a flyer is acting as a brace.