WEEK 7

After conducting my fieldwork, I feel as though I can offer a lot to this subculture. The main thing that I feel that I can do for the All-girl Cheerleading Squad at Ball State is that I would like people to know about all the hard-work and commitment that the team members give. I feel as though this will really help them get the recognition that they have so rightfully earned and to no longer be rejected by the word, "sport." Something that the cheerleaders at Ball State can give back to the community is hope that the BSU Cardinals can give a game and provide the right amount of enthusiasm and entertainment that is needed to keep the fans and players of the basketball team and the football team. My contribution, as being a member of the team, is to provide these teams and fans with all of the above. Without cheerleaders, the sporting events tend to lack school spirit. This is no way could ever help a team towards a win and having a peppy group of girls in front of a crowd really helps with the atmosphere.

SURVEY!

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=pix71ypxvg97aq3550097

Taking another look at my subculture.

My first impression on my subculture was very different from what I expected it to be. Because I am an insider to my subculture, I got my first taste of it when the cheerleading season first began. My initial thought of my subculture was that it was going to be a lot easier than the team that I was on in high school, which is correct, but I thought that it was also going to be very demanding and difficult. While there are difficult and demanding aspects to Ball State Cheerleading, it is not nearly what  I expected. Because before I came to Ball State, my high school team and all-star team focused on competitions rather than games, which is obviously going to require the team to be more advanced and to have skills perfected and mastered. At Ball State, the focus is on games because that is what cheerleaders original purpose was meant to be. At first, this made me downgrade the team that I was a new member of, but I quickly learned that just because the BSU team does not have the skills that I am accustomed to, that does not make them work any less hard. It is just a different focus.

I feel as though I really belong in this new space. I originally felt intimidated by the older members of the group, which caused me to hold back on some of my skills. However, as time went on, I began to feel more and more like an insider. I realized that new people and environments take time to get used to.

I know that I am an insider of this group just as much as any other member to the squad. This is because I did the same try-out as everyone else and had to preform the same skills. However, I do not have as much as a say in things and know less about the subculture than the older girls that have been members of the team for a longer amount of time. This can cause me to be somewhat of an outsider because my knowledge of the subculture is not as extensive. 

WEEK 6 Posting

Cheerleading Injuries. The World of Sports Science. 18 Feb. 2009 

http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Ce-Do/Cheerleading-Injuries.html

In this article, it discusses the risks that cheerleading can put on one's body. It explains that while cheerleading may not have the highest level of injuries to other sports, but when a cheerleader is injured, the damage is usually severe. Due to the trend of cheerleading being all year round, there are no breaks for a participant's body parts to recover. Also, in many elementary schools and high schools, there are not adequate training facilities available for the cheerleaders to train on during their short pre-season. The most common areas of the body that are injured on a cheerleading include the wrists, ankles, feet, knees, and back. These injuries can be caused because the cheerleader is still at too young of an age to develop the endurance, strength, and flexibility that is needed for this sport. Injuries may also occur for the impact that gymnastics has on the body. Another reason injury occurs so often if from falling from a pyramid or partner stunt of having a poor dismount from the air.

I can use this article in many different ways for my mini-ethnography. It can be best used to prove the point that cheerleading requires practice and that a participate needs to be following a number of different rules and precautions in order to be safe. This article will also be useful in the sense that it will make people realize that cheerleaders must use the proper techniques and not attempt a skill that has not yet been perfected without a qualified spotter who can assist them. 

Nutrition for Cheerleading, Part 2. 5 Nov. 2005. HyperStrike. 18 Feb. 2009

http://www.hyperstrike.com/Nutrition-For-Cheerleading-Part-2-Article-41.aspx

In this source, it talks about the importance of nutrition and diet that cheerleaders, much like any other athlete needs to have. It provides the viewers with and "in-season training diet," what a pre-competition meal should consist of, the diet that a cheerleader should have during a competition or at a game, and also a recovery meal plan. For the in-training diet, the article states that it is important to have plenty of protein and good fats. The protein is essential for muscle repair and also an energy source. For the pre-competition diet, it is important for the cheerleader to consume food that will help maintain focus and endurance. It is also important that the cheerleader does not eat foods that could potentially make him or her sick during the competition and wear their meal on their uniform. In order to do this, the source claims thats it is best to eat low-glycemic foods which helps sustain blood-sugar levels, keep protein and fat intake to a minimum because they slow down digestion, the avoidance of bulky foods, and gas-forming food such as cabbage and dry beans. During a competition, it is important to stay hydrated, and glycogen depletion. The recovery meal is best to be consumed as a liquid. This is because it enables recovery to occur more quickly. It also allows you to eat for a variety of whole-foods between. Returning to the training diet is recommended after competitions. The article also discusses the negative effects that alcohol has on the performance of a cheerleader.

I will be able to use this source to inform the readers about what kind of diet if ideal for cheerleaders. It will allow people to be aware of the strenuous diet that cheerleaders need to endure in able to keep their bodies healthy. 

BOX 18

As I walked into Worthern Arena for a Ball State All-Girl Cheerleading practice, all the girls were scattered around conversing on the east side of the large arena. It was 6:55 p.m. and all of the cheerleaders were stretching before their coach, Rhea, arrived at 7 p.m. to begin practice. The second that Rhea walked into the gym, all of the cheerleading got up and began running laps before going to the free throw line to preform standing tucks. Many of the girls had their tucks without a spot, but a few required someone to stand there and lend a hand for them in order to make a solid landing. After all the standing tucks were thrown and the girls were winded, it was time to do running tumbling across the basketball floor. Most of the cheerleading did multiple back handsprings, 8 being at the most, before stopping.

After the Ball State cheerleaders were done practicing their tumbling, it was time for them to go over the material that they were going to preform for the crowd during the next girl's basketball game. The things that they practiced mostly involved drilling their pyramids and partner stunts. During this part of the practice, I could sense that a lot of the cheerleaders were growing frustrated. This was because some of the partner stunts that Rhea was asking them to throw were dangerous to throw on the wooden basketball floor without a mat. A few times, a whole stunt group fell to the ground. However, the flyer was always on top of all the other group members, so at least the flyer's bases were doing their job in the sense that they were keeping the flyer from hitting the ground.

At the end of practice, all of the cheerleaders gathered in a group where Rhea told them announcements about the upcoming game and other things that needed to be addressed. 

After observing this practice, I realized that since I am a part of the team, things that I see and notice may differ from other people. I did not find that the practice was very productive. I noticed that there were a lot of times when the cheerleaders stood around and conversed. However, I know that there was also a lot of hard went into the practice. Being that the season is almost over, I have to consider that the practices are much less demanding and there is not a lot more for the cheerleaders to do since there are only two basketball games left in this season. Overall, preforming fieldwork on this practice made me realize things about the Ball State Cheerleaders that i had not before realized when I just participated in the practice.

WEEK 5 - Posting 5

Since I am already at my fieldsite quite frequently, I have been able to gather quite a bit of information on cheerleading. However, I am having trouble finding outside information on the subculture because it seems as though whenever I use a search engine, I can't seem to find the right keyword to use leaving me to find useless information for my assignment. 

Because I am an insider of this subculture, I do not feel as though i need to spend more time at it than I currently do presently. However, in the time that I do spend there, I plan to interview the coach of the All-girl squad and a few members of the team to get their personal thoughts. I feel that I am working at a good pace for this project and am getting a lot of useful information that I can use, but there is a lot that is left to do. I feel that I need to research the physical aspect of cheerleading; meaning, what kind of physical shape do the girls need to be in and the kind of diet that is recommended for them to have. Researching on the internet has been rather difficult thus far in my research and I am worried that I will not be able to find useful information with efficiency in the library or from other resources.

In class writing - Feb 10

As I walk into my Grandma and Grandpa Feichter's house on Christmas Eve, the instant smell of ham, cookies, and other delicious food fills the air and engulfs my attention. We are instantly greeted with open arms by my Grandma Caroline who smothers us with hugs and kisses exclaiming about how much my brothers and I have grown up so much since the last time we saw her, even though it had usually been only a week or two since our last visit. 

Looking to the right, the huge Christmas tree that my grandparents decorated together in different colors or brown and gold ornaments looks as though it is glittering and magical with the stand of twinkle light that is carefully placed all throughout the tree. In the family room, my aunts, two cousins, and their spouses and children are talking and quickly get up to greet us upon our arrival.

There is always so much tasty food set up in the dining room and the smell instantly draws me to look at the food spread. 

Week 1 - Posting 1

One paper that I had written was a research paper that I did my junior year in high school. I was taking an English Literature class, so that paper topic had to be something that had to be linked to England or British. Being a very big Spice Girls fan when I was a child, and to be completely honest, still am, I decided to write my paper on this amazing girl band. At first the paper was really hard to get started because I was not accustomed to writing research papers, and the Spice girls proved to be a hard subject to find a book on with information about their history on when they were big and about their break-up. However, I pulled through and did really well on the paper. 

During the writing process of the paper on the Spice Girls, I found myself procrastinating a great deal with the different steps and found myself cramming to have certain parts of the paper done by the deadlines. At first, everything that I did was really unorganized and really hard to follow. Needless to say, it took my awhile to get everything together. When I was writing the paper, I had to be in my bedroom at home, with no interruptions. I could not seem to concentrate when music or the TV was on. I had a lot of difficulty with the concept of the research paper because I did not know what belonged where and what information was relevant to include.

The difference between editing and revising is very simple. I feel that editing needs to be done by someone else so that they can find mistakes that you may have missed. This is because the writer of a paper may just skim over it and read what they thought they had put but it really did not make any sense. Revising is done by the writer themselves. I believe that revising is when you look at your paper and decide that something does not belong or belongs somewhere else. I also think that revising can be done after a paper has been edited by another person.

Box 15

One place that always makes me think of sensory details is my Grandma and Grandpa Feichter's house at Christmas time. Although I go there many times throughout the year, every time I walk into the house, I always look to my left half-heartedly expecting to see her big Christmas tree that she so delicately decorates in shades of brown and gold with presents surrounding the room. Something that always comes to my mind when I go there at Christmas time is a memory so little, but it has never escaped me. That memory is of my Uncle John, who divorced my Aunt Jane close to a year after the memory. It was of him riding on this new horse that my grandparents had purchased for my cousin, JT. Uncle John was riding on it like he was in a rodeo and I thought that it was the funniest thing every.

Another thing that I am reminded of when I go to my grandparents house at Christmas time is this punch that never fails to be present every year. My grandma makes it was Green Sorbet and then pours Sprite on top of it. It is always a big hit with my family and she constantly has to keep on re-filling the punch bowl. 

As I am thinking about this memory, I can hear Nat King Cole and Frank Santra playing softly in the background and the smell of ham cooking in the kitchen. My whole, yet very small family, is usually gathered in the living room the whole night playing game such as Racko and Bingo and trying to win prizes off of the prize table that every brings a small gift or two for. My little brother, Griffin, is always the caller for Bingo and every one always gets a kick out of it because he gets really into announcing where we can mark our numerous cards next.

By the time the night is over, everyone is always stuffed from eating all the food that grandma had prepared for the holiday party and everyone is usually found laying around watching the Christmas story before my immediate family heads off to midnight mass at our church and when all my little cousins go home and await Santa to come and bring them presents that night.

Box 12 - Privileges

I am very fortunate to be blessed with many privileges. Some of them are as follows:

- because i was born into a upper middle-classes family, I am blessed to be able to be apart of a family who can afford luxuries that aren't necessarily necessary for life, such as an extra car, and a nice house.

- because I am the only girl in my family besides my mom, I get spoiled by my parents and grandparents because I am the only girl

- I am privileged to be Catholic

- Went to private school for all life until college, including attending a college prep school for high school enabling me to be more prepared for college

- being able to attend college

- freedom by living in America

- privileged for being able to make the Ball State Cheerleading team

One of the things that will really help with my research is actaully being apart of the Ball State University All-girl Cheerleading squad. This is because that since I am an insider of this group, I will be able to gather more information about this subculture because I will be able to attend all of the functions. However, since I am an insider of this group, I may form a bias over it and see things that others may not see as if they were just observing.