Hard part of cheerdance: It's no joke

MANILA, Philippines - Think being in a pep squad is child’s play?

Take it from cheerdancers/cheerleaders themselves.

“It’s hard in terms of conditioning alone,” said Luigi Gesmundo, a mainstay of the National University Pep Squad.

“We have to jog up and down NU’s eight-storey building 10 times, do pushups and other exercises, just to keep in shape. We need flexibility and strength because it involves tossing girls, lifting and other stunts,” he added.

Andro Garde of La Salle Animo Squad attests to the demanding nature of cheerdance.

“It’s really difficult on our part because we attend all the games of the team the whole season. And we have to perform a different routine each time so we train more or less every night,” said Andro Garde of La Salle Animo Squad. “And if there’s the competition like the UAAP CDC, we hold more practices.”

For all its physical rigors, cheerleading has been even called “abnormal sport,” so said Gesmundo.

And likely, time will come that the pep squads’ exploits will contribute to the tabulation of their school’s sporting excellence at the end of each season.

“I think it should be,” said Kae Madrigal of UP Pep Squad, to which her co-captain Laurence Bautista added: “We train as hard as other varsity teams – even harder.”