Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition. Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting. Cheerleading originated in the United States, where it has become a tradition. It is less prevalent in the rest of the world, except via its association with American sports or organized cheerleading contests.
Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is commonly defined as ages 9–12 ending with the major onset of puberty. It may also be defined as simply the 2-year period before the major onset of puberty. Preadolescence can bring its own challenges and anxieties.
The participation of women and girls in sports, physical fitness, and exercise has existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of economic development. The modern era of organized sports did not begin to emerge either for women or men until the late industrial age.
An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete.
Steven Lee Smith, is an American technology executive and a former NASA astronaut, being a veteran of four space flights covering 16 million miles and seven spacewalks, totaling 49 hours and 25 minutes. Smith’s spacewalk time places him in 14th on the all-time American and World spacewalk duration lists.
USA Baseball is the national governing body for baseball in the United States, and is a member of the United States Olympic Committee and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The organization is responsible for the selection of the United States national team for various international competition, including the senior professional team, the collegiate national team, the various youth national teams, and the women's national team.
The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) is the labor union representing all current Major League Baseball players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League club are eligible for membership in the Association.
A summer camp or sleepaway camp or residential camp is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps are known as campers. They generally are offered overnight accommodations for one or two weeks out in an outdoor natural campsite setting. Day camps, by contrast, offer the same types of experience in the outdoors but children return home each evening. Summer school is a different experience that is usually offered by local schools for their students focused on remedial education to ensure students are prepared for the upcoming academic year or in the case of high school students, to retake failed state comprehensive exams necessary for graduation. Summer residential and day camps may include an academic component but is not a requirement.
USA Football is the governing body of American football in the United States. It is the United States' member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and a recognized sports organization of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. It selects and organizes the U.S. men's national team and the U.S. women's national team in federation-sanctioned international competition. They also organize the men's and women's flag football teams.
The National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.. NAYS provides a variety of programs and services for everyone involved in youth sports, including professional and volunteer administrators, volunteer coaches, officials, parents and young athletes.
Baseball Factory, Inc. is a United States company specializing in player development and college placement of high school baseball players. The company is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, approximately 20 miles southwest of Baltimore. Over six hundred events, across all 50 states, are hosted by Baseball Factory throughout the year, ranging from national tryouts to camps, tournaments and showcases. As of 2017, Baseball Factory has helped over 100,000 baseball players compete at the college level, garnering more than $1 billion in scholarships.
Sport psychology is defined as the study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport. Sport is defined as any physical activity where the individuals engage for competition and health. Sport psychology is recognized as an interdisciplinary science that draws on knowledge from many related fields including biomechanics, physiology, kinesiology and psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors. Sport psychologists teach cognitive and behavioral strategies to athletes in order to improve their experience and performance in sports.
Girls on the Run, a national non-profit organization, designs programming that strengthens third- to eighth grade girls’ social, emotional, physical and behavioral skills to successfully navigate life experiences. The program’s intentional curriculum places an emphasis on developing competence, confidence, connection, character, caring, and contribution in young girls through lessons that incorporate running and other physical activities. The life skills curriculum is delivered by caring and competent coaches who are trained to teach lessons as intended.
The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) is one of the two main national organizations in youth soccer in the United States for children aged 4 through 19. AYSO was established as a non-profit soccer organization in Torrance at Jefferson Elementary School in 1964 with nine teams. Today the organization claims membership of over 50,000 teams, with over 630,000 participants.
The U.S. Soccer Development Academy (DA) was an American soccer league. Formed in 2007, the league featured youth academies and youth clubs from various organizations, including Major League Soccer and the United Soccer League. The DA's mission was to provide education, resources, and support to impact everyday club environments in order to develop world-class players.
Youth sports is any sports event where competitors are younger than adult age, whether children or adolescents. Youth sports includes school sports at primary and secondary level, as well as sports played outside the education system, whether informally or organized.
Sports communication is a field of communication studies that specializes in the elements of communication in sports. Sports communication can be defined as "a process by which people in sport, in a sport setting, or through a sport endeavor, share symbols as they create meaning through interaction". This field encompasses the study of interpersonal and organizational communication among participants within a sport, fans, and the media. Researchers also examine the way that sports are represented and communicated in the media. Many careers in the sports industry are involved in the interpersonal and organizational communication process. These range from technological occupations, like media and marketing, to team psychologists who focus on relationships between players.
Athlete Ally is a nonprofit LGBTQ athletic advocacy group based in the United States. The group aims to make athletic communities more inclusive and less discriminatory and helping athletes to advocate for LGBTQ equality.
Sports-based youth development or SBYD is a theory and practice model for direct youth service. Grounded in youth development, sports psychology, and youth sports practice, SBYD aims to use the sport experience to contribute to positive youth development. Sports-based youth development is similar to sport for social development.
Early sports specialization is the phenomenon of a child or teenaged athlete intensively pursuing a single sport or athletic activity year-round, instead of participating in a wide variety of activities. Premature emphasis on a single sport is associated with physical injuries, mental health problems, and psychosocial harm to young athletes. Many young athletes who are pushed to excel in a single sport quit playing prematurely, or are forced to stop because of injuries.
