Before I rip into the utter disregard for safety in this cheer program, I'll point out the positive things. The kids work their butts off and support one another. The series showcases the personal struggles in the lives of some of the cheerleaders, but none of these struggles stem from any of the stereotypical cheerleader drama that you see in movies. These are kids trying to do their very best in life and that's admirable. I'll also positively note that the head coach Monica instills in the kids a work ethic. It's also great that she is willing to accept kids with rougher backgrounds into the program and be a role model to them in certain ways.
But oh man.... It's hard to watch this show at times due to the utter disregard for these kids' safety. I really shouldn't have to qualify my review because any viewer with a brain can see this, but I'm sure some people will assume that I don't understand competitive cheerleading (since no, I wasn't a cheerleader), but I will note that I competed in Division I college athletics. I've been around all kinds of high level sports my ENTIRE life (playing, coaching, and watching). I've overcome injuries that required surgeries all in the name of the sports I've loved. And yes, this kind of cheerleading is most definitely a sport. It is intense and dangerous acrobatics aimed at winning a national championship by having the most difficult and well-executed routine.
The routines are dangerous. That in and of itself is a concern and you could debate that certain stunts should no longer be allowed, such as basket tosses where a cheerleader is thrown incredibly high into the air, executing multiple flips and twists, only to be caught in the arms of several teammates. Cheerleaders sometimes die doing those kinds of stunts. That said, I feel like that's a different kind of debate altogether, because as it is, competitive cheerleading currently allows that kind of thing. So going into this TV series, you kind of have to accept that premise since it's currently part of the sport and to win a National Title, the team would have to include those stunts. And the kids in this series are seriously good athletes, performing seriously complex sports.
Therefore, I actually think the thing that is most CRAZY about this show (and admittedly entertaining in a train wreck way) is how these kids worship their head coach Monica and do anything she says. If she says to do the routine full-out or throw extra tumbling runs even if they are way too winded to perform these things safely, they do it, no questions asked. If they're clearly in physical pain, the coaching staff tells them it's mental and to shake it off, so they do. This is a dangerous formula. It's the formula of cults. It wouldn't be so bad if Monica and her assistant coach made better decisions, but since Monica is not the kind of coach you should actually trust, she constantly puts her kids in danger and MANY of them get hurt as a result. Granted, you see this too often in many sports (football comes to mind), but I'm not reviewing a docu-series about a dangerous football coaching team, but I wouldn't hesitate to do so if I watched it.
Without giving away any major spoilers, I'll give a few examples. When one of the athletes has a chronic rib cage injury that leaves her crumpled on the floor, they do NOT have it checked by a doctor. Just the college trainer. The assistant coach goes as far as to admit in his interview that they don't know exactly what is wrong with her, but they call it "ribiosis." If you Google "ribiosis" it does not even return any legitimate medical hits on the first 2 pages. Instead, it comes up under cheerleading pages (incl. discussions about this show). Why? Probably because it's code word for "the cheerleader has cracked ribs but we aren't going to do an X-ray on her because we need her to compete." Good Lord.
Additionally, a common training method that Monica employs is to have them do their routine "full-out" (which means all of the stunts, basket tosses, tumbling, and pyramid) while they extremely winded. This is meant to be part of their conditioning! Hello! There are some sports you can do while extremely winded - such as soccer or basketball or running. But other things that can have devastating outcomes if performed without precise form should NOT be done while extremely winded - such as max weight lifting, gymnastics, and cheerleading stunts. If these things can't be done with correct form or with the required strength, it is a recipe for disaster. This is HOW people get hurt (and, yes, this happens in the show - while winded, the cheerleaders make serious mistakes and injuries happen). These cheerleaders should be conditioned with safe methods instead of being forced to throw dangerous stunts. Anyone who doesn't understand this and defends Monica for doing this (calling her "tough") has either never played high-level sports or they DID but they only had bad coaches. Because I was so lucky to have some great coaches at both the high school and college level who knew what they were doing, who knew how to push us without putting us in danger.
When another girl is struggling with a rib injury (sensing a pattern?), the trainer tells her that she needs to go to the ER after practice. When the girl tells Monica this, Monica's response is an irritated, "Cute." Cute? Who responds like that upon hearing that an athlete (that they are supposed to care about) has a rib injury bad enough to be checked out at the ER? Oh, that's right: A coach whose #1 priority is to put her best athletes in a routine no matter what, even if they are injured, suffering, and will possibly deal with long-term chronic pain their whole life as a result of doing incredibly jarring stunts while already injured. Immediately, I said to my roommate, "Looks like that trainer is getting fired!" In reality, the coaches should be fired.
This show was unbelievable on so many levels! But it is worth the watch for sure!
