Cheerleading in Australia

In Australia, competitive cheerleading is a rapidly growing sport.

History

Prior to 2000, cheerleading was primarily known as the dance-and-pom style displayed by professional cheer squads for NRL rugby. The US movie Bring It On (released December 2000 in Australia) popularised acrobatic-style cheerleading, and has been credited with sparking subsequent development as a competitive sport.

During the 2000s and 2010s, the style of cheerleading seen as pre-game and half-time sideline entertainment at professional hurens matches continued to attract criticism for objectifying women, and some clubs discontinued their cheer teams. For example, the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2013 announced they would cease their relationship with the studio contracted to provide their cheer team, the Belles. The next day, when journalists sought comment from other football clubs, the chief executive of the Canberra Raiders stated that they were "reviewing the club's game-day entertainment". He denied the move was based around any female exploitation, rather citing cost as a factor. As of 2019, most clubs have dropped cheerleaders.

Governing bodies

Gymnastics Australia

The Australian Cheerleading Union (ACU), founded in 2008 and managed by Gymnastics Australia (GA), was recognised as the official body by both the International Cheer Union (ICU) and by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC).

GA recognised Cheerleading (code CHL) as a "gym sport" alongside artistic, rhythmic, trampoline, acrobatics, and aerobic gymnastics. Cheer has similarities to acrobatic and floor gymnastics. Acrobatic Gymnastics (code ACR), also involves partner or group lifts, balance, and throws. Floor, which involves tumbling and balancing, is one of four disciplines that compose Women's Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) and one of six in Men's Artistic Gymnastics (MAG). All three (ACR, WAG, and MAG) are governed internationally by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), whereas cheerleading is governed by the ICU.

In December 2017, GA resolved to cease being the governing body for cheerleading in Australia, with an exit process to proceed through 2018.

Australian Cheer Union

Originally formed in 2008 as a subsidiary of Gymnastics Australia to manage cheerleading as a sport, the Australian Cheer Union became independently established as part of Gymnastics Australia's exit from the sport. It is recognised by the International Cheer Union (ICU) as the official body of cheerleading in Australia. ACU is working towards the goal of advancing cheerleading and performance cheerleading in Australia with a focus on healthy competition and participation as well as overall industry growth, working very closely with ICU to obtain recognition of cheerleading by the International Olympic Committee. As part of their current strategic plan, ACU aims to achieve recognition as a National Sporting Organisation with Sports Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee. After submitting an application to Sports Australia in 2022, they were denied on the grounds that two competing organisations had applied for NSO recognition with varying eligibility requirements met by each organisation.

International All-Star Federation

As in the United States, the US All Star Federation (USASF) and its international version, the IASF, function as de facto governing bodies. Whereas the ICU world championships only allow one national team in each event from a given country, the USASF worlds accept all teams that have won bids from local championship competitions and at Hence USASF coaching, credentials and competition rules are seen as highly desirable.

Australian Cheer Sport Alliance

The Australian Cheer Sport Alliance (ACSA) was formed in 2017 by a number of event producers in order to foramlise the role that coaches, gym owners and event producers had been delivering as key stakeholders to the sport. Founding board members included members from Gymnastics Australia, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, Australian All Star Cheer Federation, and Aussie Gold. ACSA provides a wide range of resources and policies to promote, develop and support all star cheer and dance in Australia, including standardised age grids, skill lists and rules to be implementeed by its sanctioned event producers. In September 2022, ACSA applied for national sporting organisation recognition by Sport Australia, however, this application was denied by Sport Australia on the basis that both ACSA and ACU had submitted applications as competing organisations, with both having varying eligibility requirements met. At the time of denial, ACSA released a press statement updating the cheer community of this denial, and stating that it looks forward to working with ACU to bring the two organisations together.

Rules

Most competition events follow USASF/IASF rules for age divisions, difficulty levels, and terminology.

Competition divisions

As in the US, cheer teams are grouped into classes based on a combination of age, level, and team size. Certain categories are also separated into "all-girl" (females only) and "co-ed" (mixture of females and males) groups. For large events, organizers can choose to additionally split on studio size, depending on the number of teams registered. The aim is to have a manageable number of teams in each group.

For example, a team might compete in "Youth level 1 small-gym", or "Senior Co-ed level 5".

Age classes

All-star age groups are based on the competitors' ages at 31 December, that is, how many years old they turn at their birthday during the given calendar year. In contrast, USASF has used age at May or August for normal divisions and December 31 for International divisions.

Overlap in the age divisions means that athletes can compete as members of multiple teams. For example, a 10-year-old can perform in youth, junior &/or senior teams.

The age ranges have changed over the years as the sport evolves, with changes in the 2023-2025 age grids raising the minimum age for open teams gradually to 16+ to align with IASF guidelines.

The age group of the athletes within a team also restricts the level the athletes may be entered into. Currently, there are age groups that see splits within the age division into "sub-divisions", with younger athletes of the division not allowed to enter into higher levels.

During the period of covid, adjustments were made to the age eligibility grid to allow athletes one year older or one year younger than the limits to participate in the teams. As of 2023, this extension to age eligibility no longer apply under the ACSA age grid rules, which event producers such as AASCF are applying.

Currently, both domestic "club" age groupings are offered as well as IASF age classes. IASF age classes are offered for teams that plan on competing internationally and competing within Australia for an international event bid.

Levels

Difficulty or safety levels are most often based on USASF rules, starting from "Novice" (similar to USASF "Prep") followed by levels 1 to 7. Level "4.2" combines level-4 stunts with level-2 tumbling. Level 4.2 is being phased out over 2024-2025.

For each level, there are detailed lists of allowed and disallowed moves in tumbling, stunts, pyramids, and tosses. This enables teams to compete with others at the same level of ability, and disallowing more difficult moves prevents competitors from dangerously attempting moves beyond their ability.

The novice level was introduced in 2013, and is a variation on level 1 rules that has additional disallowed skills for safety purposes. For example, while walkover and walkover variations are allowed within level 1, these skills are not allowed within novice levels, and no single leg stunt may past waist level. Novice teams do not face deductions, rather receiving warnings, and is designed as a way to intimate new athletes into the rules of the sport.

Cheerability category

CheerABILITY is a separate division that adapts the rules of cheer in order for disabled athletes to participate and have access to the sport. Within this division, teams may either compete as "independent", meaning that 100% of athletes meet the adaptive ability criteria, or as "unified" with no more than 75% of the team being made up of non-adaptive ability athletes. Eligible disabilities include impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, visual impairment, intellectual impairment or hearing impairment. Assistants are allowed in both independent and unified categories, with rules being adapted for accessibility, ability and safety purposes. These teams may compete in team cheer, non-tumble cheer, group stunt, partner stunt and assisted partner stunt routines. There is also a performance cheer/all-star dance version of this category known as DanceABILITY.

University Cheer

Competitions may offer a division for university cheer teams to compete in. These teams must be composed of 100% current university students from the same university, stating their university ID number and presenting their ID card to the event officials. University student athletes are not permitted to perform twice at the same university cheer level, for example in a 3/4 all girl team and a 3/4 coed team. While on a 100% university team crossovers between university teams and all star teams are permitted, any university with an open university team mixing current students, alumni and outside athletes do not allow crossovers as they compete in the regular open all star divisions. Elite divisions are equivalent to performing level 5 all star club skills, with premier divisions being equivalent to performing level 6 all star club skills. Elite and premier divisions are eligible to compete at the University World Cup Cheerleading Championships. While IASF rules for skills allowed per level apply for university divisions, the exception is the 1NT and 1/2NT divisions in which any IASF level appropriate tumbling is allowed but not required. To maintain the traditional sideline cheer spirit roots of which university level cheer rose from, university teams are required to have a 45 second chant and are scored on cheer crowd leading. The exception to this is the 1NT university division.

Historical age/level division grids

Current 2023 Australian Cheer Sport Alliance Age Grid (Released November 2022)

In 2023, event producers who are members of the Australian Cheer Sport Alliance are expected to follow the ACSA age grid in order to receive ACSA sanctioned event status and create uniformity across the industry. Events expected to fall in line with this grid due to their sanctioned status in the past year include All Things Cheer, Aussie Gold, Australian All Star Cheer Federation (AASCF), Cheercon and Infinite Spirit All Stars.

* Indicates that at this level within the age division, a split between all girl and coed divisions is made. ** Level 4.2 is currently being phased out, no longer being offered for the senior division in 2024 and being no longer offered for the open division in 2025. ***Within the IASF divisions, levels 5 - 7 athletes may be 1 year younger in eligibility while competing in the Australian season but must meet the minimum age requirement in the year of international competition. ^ Open division will move to the minimum age of 15+ in 2024, and 16+ in 2025 to align with IASF age grid standards.

Scoring

Scoring systems vary depending on the event organiser.

At AASCF competitions, the components of cheer routines – standing and running tumbling, jumps, stunts, pyramids, and tosses – are scored separately out of 5.0 for the difficulty and for technique. Stunts and pyramids are also scored for creativity, so they are worth 15.0 instead of 10.0 points. Building skills (stunts, pyramids, tosses) account for 45 points out of 100 (35 of 90 at Level 1 where there are no tosses); tumble skills (tumbling and jumps) for 30 points, and an additional 25 points are scored on dance break, overall routine composition and performance. Points are deducted for falls and rule violations.

In 2015, four event organisers formulated a common scoring system which they named the "Australian Independent Scoring System" (AISS), also known as the AIEP scoring system.

Under this system, scores are apportioned as follows:

• 50% Building Skills (Stunt/Pyramids/Tosses)
• 30% Tumbling Skills (Standing/Running/Jumps)
• 20% Dance & Choreography

Australian competition event producers

The major cheer competitions in Australia are run by cheer federations and by independent event organisers. Events run from March through to October, in line with the Southern-hemisphere school year.

• Australian All Star Cheerleading Federation (AASCF) was founded in 2006, and is affiliated with USASF and IASF. AASCF offer bids to IASF worlds as part of their yearly nationals and have previously offered Summit bids at different events throughout the year. AASCF runs several competitions over the course of a June to November competition season, including Winterfest, Battle, States, Spring Carnival and Nationals. While previously AASCF were known for offering a summit-like bid-only end of year competition known as Pinnacle, this has been phased out in 2023 in favour of "The Road to IASF Worlds". The Road to IASF Worlds is a day 2 competition after AASCF Nationals for teams competing for a 2024 worlds bid only, instead of being open to any team who had won a bid at previous events throughout the year like Pinnacle. AASCF Nationals are rotated between Melbourne and Gold Coast.
• Australian Independent Event Producers (AIEP)
  • Aussie Gold International Cheer & Dance Championships are held annually at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre in Queensland. Aussie Gold also runs events in regional Queensland and in several state capitals. Brisbane and Rockhampton were added in 2016; Mackay, Perth, and Adelaide in 2017; and Melbourne in 2018.
  • CheerCon, a supplier of cheerleading uniforms and accessories founded in 2008, CheerCon also runs competitions in eastern and southern states.
  • Cheer Unlimited Australia (CUA). Founded in 2011 and based in Western Australia, CUA runs events in WA, South Australia, and Queensland.
  • Spirit Industries Australia (SIA) runs an annual event in Sutherland, south of Sydney in NSW.
• Battle at the Beaches, an outdoor competition at Manly, NSW.
• CheerBrandz. Based in Auckland, CheerBrandz runs events in New Zealand and Australia.
• Dance and Cheer Events (DCE), formerly World Cup Cheer and Dance (WCCD) – all states.