anything goes with emma chamberlain - cheerleading

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

Maybe not all of us have cheered, but we’ve all been passionate about something, and had a competitive drive to push ourselves to be the best. But how much is too much? And how do we adjust when we���ve given up something we’ve been so dedicated to for so long? Emma talks through her cheerleading career, the ups and the downs, the lessons learned, and how it’s helped shape her. Plus, she finally gets started on Tiger King and is completely hooked like the rest of us!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello guys. How are we all doing? Welcome back to anything goes with me, Emma. Hope you guys are all having a good day. Funny story, I actually just recorded about 15 minutes of this episode, and I just didn't like it. And I've never done that with a podcast before I've never restarted, but I did today.

So that's kind of odd, but anyway, let's get right into it. Today, we're going to be talking about my past with cheerleading. I got a lot of requests for this weirdly enough. I did not expect to get a lot of requests for this topic because I just didn't think that people would be interested in it, but apparently you guys want to hear me talk about cheer. I think it's probably because the cheer documentary on Netflix just came out. And a lot of people are talking about cheer.

It's kind of like the hot thing right now, which is crazy to me because when I did cheer, it was not cool to be a cheerleader. It's funny to see, and I love how it's become more respected in the world. I know a lot of people, you know, used to debate whether or not it was a sport and all that. I think after this documentary, a lot of people think it is a sport and have a lot of respect for it that they didn't before so that's been really amazing to see as an ex-chair leader and You know you guys want to hear about it. I have some pretty cool stories in my okay cool as a gross word to use

I said that and I cringe immediately. I have some pretty fascinating stories about cheer and just like my journey with it that I think would be maybe kind of interesting, hopefully. We'll see, you can be the judge, you can let me know. So let's just chop right into it. Before I start, I want to explain cheerleading. It's tiny bit just for you guys who don't maybe understand how it's kind of all laid out. So there's a few different types of cheer. There's school cheer, which is basically run through your school and you usually

cheer for football games, basketball games, all of that and it's basically a school sport. So it's through your school and the difficulty level is usually a lot lower. It's more dance based rather than like tumbling and stunt based. This is just stereotypically. Some school teams are really good and like are really like it's more of a serious thing, but I know for some schools it's also not and that's been more of my experience. But that is school cheer and then you have competitive cheer, which is it's a private-owned kind of gym.

It's basically like doing a club sport. So it's like not run through a school. It's like run on its own and you're never cheering for a sport. You're just cheering as a performance. Basically think of it as like competitive dance, except for a sport, you're just cheering as a performance. Basically, think of it as like competitive dance, except for a little bit different. You basically, there's a bunch of different teams based on skill level and age.

Levels one through six, although five and level five and six are kind of similar skill level. It's just slight differences, but I won't get into that today. And then there's a bunch of different age groups and you basically compete at competitions against other teams in the same division as you. And you try to win.

And there's, you know, of course, some competitions that are the ideal ones that you want to go to, like NCA, which is a competition in Dallas, Texas, that's like the biggest chair competition in the US. Every team goes or at least all of the like, you know, good teams go. And then you have worlds which is only for level five and six. That's basically like the quote unquote Olympics of cheerleading and then you have summit which is like basically worlds but for the lower level teams. Okay, so that's cheerleading. That's basically the layout. And then of course, there's college cheer too,

but I'm not gonna get into that today because I don't, I don't have any experience with that. So, any who, let's just hop right the fuck into it. So, I started cheer because my cousin was a cheerleader and she joined the gym in our town and she started kind of teaching me some cheer moves or whatever and I really liked it. I actually thought it was really fun and so I ended up joining the same gym as her and

the first team I got on was a youth level one okay and let me tell you we were fucking awful fucking awful and actually most of the teams at my first gym that I went to were not very good. Just because we were a small town and not a lot of cheerleaders went there, we didn't have a lot of members at our cheer gym. And because of that, there was less, like the teams weren't as strong, I think,

because we didn't have as many high level athletes at the gym, right? So like we tried to have a level three team, but the level three team, which level three is like doing round off tucks, which is like a round off, and then a back flip for those who don't do cheer, don't know anything about that. And, you know, that was basically the main skill

that kind of differentiated level three from the other levels, is that you were allowed to flip. So, like our level three team wasn't very good because we only had probably seven people that could actually do those tumbling skills. So we never ended up winning very often, but I was not on that team until my third year at that gym, so we'll get into that later. Basically, our gym was not very good, but there was a lot of drama, you know, mainly because

we lost a lot, but also because there was a lot of competitiveness between the athletes, right? I remember me and this girl somehow built a feud. I don't really know what happened. I think her mom got kind of jealous in a sense of me because of like I think I was put in a better spot than her daughter in the routine and I was more front and center. I think than her daughter. And I think her mom got mad. And then basically a feud started between me and this girl.

And it was like her mom was crazy. She would sit in and stare at me during practices. And was like micromanaging where I was in the routine versus her daughter, and it was this whole crazy dance mom shit. And my mom and I are very path of least resistance. Okay, we just wanna have fun. So that was definitely an upsetting experience. But it definitely put a fire under my ass

because me and this girl have this feud and so we wanted to be better than each other. Like, we both wanted to be the best, because she started to get really good, and then I was like, oh shit, that's my enemy. I need to get better than her now. So put a fire under my ass, and I ended up actually getting really fucking good,

probably because of her, to be honest. And we both ended up getting really good for that matter. And the drama with that was terrifying. I remember one time her mom called my mom and she said that I was bullying her daughter and I was like, dude, I've never spoken a word to your daughter since we've started our feud

and I don't like confrontation, so that's just not true. And then they tried to get me kicked out of the gym and it was just this whole drama. Mind you, at this time, I'm like 11. I don't know what was going on. Also just drama with the coaches. They were really strict and rude for no reason, loved to scream at us, for no reason,

mainly just for a power trip. It was funny to me, because we would get screamed at it all the time, but we weren't even good, so I don't really know where the screaming got anyone. But it kind of got to a point after about three years of being at this smaller gym. We just lost all the time. We were constantly losing. And my skillset kind of surpassed the level of this gym. skillset kind of surpassed the level of this gym. There was not really a team that fit me well, that was like

challenging me at all. I kind of reached the peak of potential for that gym. And so my friend and I decided that we were going to go to this gym called California All Stars, which was basically one of the best gyms in the world. I think it was top three. They were famous within the tier community for being one of the best. They were super well known. Every time you go to a tier competition, if you were against California All-Stars, you

would just accept the fact that you were losing. And I wanted that shit, dude. I wanted that so bad because I had worked so hard for the past three years to get the skills that I had and whatever and I was like, and so had my friend and so we were like, fuck it. We're gonna convince our parents and we're gonna go to California All Stars. The gym was an hour and a half away

and we would have to be there three days a week, but somehow our parents let us go. And we were so relieved to get out of our old gym. It just felt like such drama, unnecessary drama. And like, it was like, we were actually passing about this in a different, larger way. And we were like, let's just get the fuck out of here. So we went to California All-Stars. And it was crazy. Number one, you feel dope as fuck because you're at one of the best gyms in the country.

But that doesn't mean that it's easy because I was used to practices that didn't really kick my ass. Well, when I went to California All-Stars all of that changed. These practices, they were two hours, two to three times a week, which doesn't seem like a lot, but we would get our asses kicked. Okay, the conditioning was insane. Like, girls would be throwing up, people would be crying, people would be like eating

shit because they were too fatigued. They couldn't do it anymore. Like we'd be like falling on our faces and shit because we were so tired. The flyers, which are the people that would get thrown up in the air, which was me, would get stretched until we cried. When it was time for competitions,

like bigger competitions, we would have extra practices and we would be in the gym like Five days a week six days a week Right before competition We would all be exhausted. We'd all have bruises all over our bodies because you know We're throwing each other up in the air and then catching each other. It's inevitable that you're gonna get bruises we would Our bodies would be like constantly sore our joints would always be swollen. It was insane

But I fucking loved it. It was it was my, I wouldn't want to do anything else. It was like, I was so fucking passionate about it. It was like, I was doing homework on the way to practice, going to practice for two hours, coming home, icing my joints, doing more homework, going to bed at two, waking up, doing it all over again and like I somehow Like never got sick of it and it was just like it was my fucking it was the love of my life like I was Obsessed with it and when we go to competitions it only got better because we were all so conditioned and we were all in such good

Fucking shape from getting our ass kicked all the time. Then when we go to competitions, it was like seamless. And most of the time we would win until we'd go to the really big competitions like the ones I mentioned earlier, like NCA and all that where we would get our ass kicked sometimes because there were other gyms from other states that were on the same wave as us

and they were getting their asses kicked as well. But at the more local competitions it was just like easy and it was fun and performing was like the best performing was the best fucking feeling of my life. Like I've never felt a feeling like that. It's like you're so nervous and then you black out and you perform and then you get off stage and it's just like the most magical fucking feeling. And so I was addicted to it and I could not stop. So I didn't stop for fucking six years or whatever but there were sacrifices that you made. You know what I mean? Like I when I wasn't at practice I was supposed to run two miles twice a week and post my proof that I was stretching on the team Facebook page.

Like I had to show my flexibility basically and show that I was stretching at home. So that took up three days of the week when I wasn't at practice two to three times a week. And, you know, on top of that, I was doing school and trying to like have a social life. And so, I didn't really end up having a social life. My social life just ended up being cheer to me on this because I just didn't have time for anything else. And so, I started California All Stars when I was in eighth grade.

And then, my second year of California All Stars, I was in high school. And when I got to high school, things started to get crazy. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is more than a website builder. It's an all-in-one place to make an online space that's entirely your own. Their all-in-one platform allows you to customize everything from the fonts and color scheme to your domain name. All you have to do is choose from one

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Just because I was like trying to balance being a high school student and doing cheer. And it was just like, it was crazy. Not to mention my second year of California All Stars, which was the year that I did it, freshman year of high school. I remember I tried out and I wanted to level up from level three to level four. But during tryouts I ate shit and I

didn't land my skill. So I went home and I cried for three days and I ended up making level three again and I was pretty fucking upset. So that kind of bothered me and not kind of bothered me the whole season because I just wanted to level up so bad and I didn't. So it was fucking heartbreaking for me and that kind of bummed me out the whole season. But then on top of that it was my first year of high school and I'm like figuring that out. So it was tough. But I remember that year of cheer, which was actually my last year spoiler alert I Remember I had some like traumatizing experiences that I wanted to share number one I sprained my ankle so fucking badly

We were basically doing the stunt where basically It was a dismount from a stunt so it's basically how you get out of the stunt So to make it look presentable it was basically where I would lay on my back, they would lift me up and I was laying on my back and then they would throw my legs over and I'd split them and then I'd land on the floor with my feet together. So they'd throw me over, so I basically do like a flip over my head

and then land on my feet. And I remember one time, I just didn't have my footing right and I landed straight on my ankle with And I remember one time I just didn't have my footing right and I landed straight on my ankle with my whole body weight. I'm literally cringing right now to talking about it and I sprained my ankle so bad. I couldn't breathe for like probably five minutes. I couldn't stand on it. I was like I had to drag myself off of the mat and I couldn't even cry because it hurt so bad. I was hyperventilating.

It was the worst pain I've ever felt to this day and I've broken bones. I don't even understand how something could be that painful. I thought that my ankle had snapped in half. It, in fact, hadn't I just sprained it really bad. Or I think I tore a ligament maybe. I don't remember, but it was so bad. And I remember I had to sit out for a little bit

with my sprained ankle, but then even when it was still fully sprained and hurting, I went back to practice and I was practicing on my spray nankle and it was fucking traumatizing. Another time I was really sick, I had a 104 fever at practice and I went anyway. And I asked if I could maybe participate a little bit less because, oh, I don't know, I had a 104 fever. And if you guys have ever had a 104 fever, your body feels like it's

a thousand pounds and you can barely move. Okay. They made me practice with a 104 fever. And I was sobbing the entire practice because I was in so much pain and it was so uncomfortable, but I did it anyway. And all of these little things like that kind of started to set me off because it was getting to a point where the team that I was on was not the team I wanted to be on. I did not level up. I was like going through these like tough, mental, and physical battles, right?

Just to be on a team that I didn't really wanna be on, I wanted to be on a different team. And so I was starting to get really uninspired. But at the same time, I had created such strong bonds with everybody on the team and with everybody at the gym. And like, I was still passionate about the sport. It was just I was kind of discouraged at that moment. And on top of that, I wanted to start high school cheer.

I was like, well, doing high school cheer could either make me want to quit competitive cheer or it could just reinforce my love for competitive cheer. So let's do it. So I joined my high school team freshman year. And I joined late because I didn't expect myself to want to do it. So I joined my high school team freshman year and I joined late because I didn't expect myself to want to do it. I didn't think I'd even have time on my schedule to do it and to be honest I didn't but I did it anyways. I tried it out anyway like two months late and I made the team obviously because I did

cheer already. So I had all the skills level like there was no way I wasn't going to make the team obviously because I did cheer already, so I had all the skills level. Like there was no way I wasn't going to make the team. School cheer was not my thing. I hated cheering for games. I had to practice three times a week for high school cheer while I was also practicing two to three times a week for competitive cheer. So it was like this fucking weird like I was like doing both and I like sometimes would have to skip high school practices to go to

competitive cheer practices because With competitive cheer you can't miss a practice where else you literally get kicked off the team Whereas with high school cheer was a little bit less strict. So I would have to miss practices sometimes, sometimes practices with overlap, where I'd have to like, you know, go to high school practice for like an hour and then drive all the way across town an hour and a half

and then go to fucking my competitive chair practice. It was a mess, okay. But I managed to make it work. And I hated high school cheer though. I really hated it. I fucking hated it. I was like, I remember one time I got dropped pretty badly because I was a flyer for my high school team as well. And we were trying this new stunt on a hard mat with no springs. And they dropped me like bad. Just onto my back. And that was when I knew that I needed

to stop doing high school cheer because they fucking fully dropped me. And it scared the shit out of me on a hard mat. And I realized that they are not, like in competitive cheer, everybody's very trustworthy. Like everybody knows what they're doing. It's very rare that you hurt yourself when you're stunting. I mean, it happens for sure,

but like there's a lot more training that goes into the stunts that we're doing and we're a lot more prepared. Whereas with high school cheer, we just weren't trained to be doing difficult stunts. So I got dropped and I was freaked out and I decided I needed to pack off from school cheer and I was like, I'm only going to do, you know, the easy stunts from now on. I don't want to, I'm not going to, I don't want to try crazy shit with this team, but I stayed on the team. And fastforward. I ended up having to miss a lot of practices around the time of NCA,

which was the big cheer competition. So I was missing a bunch of high school practices and missing some games when we had a cheer for games. So they kicked me off the team. They kicked me off the cheer team. And I was mad about this because I was like, I mean, I was kind of relieved, but I was also kind of like, yo, I'm missing practices to do cheer elsewhere.

And then when I come back, I know how to do everything still that you guys are learning. Because I was doing cheer elsewhere, I wasn't like I was missing practice to do nothing, I was missing practice to do nothing, I was missing practice to do cheer. And then I'd come back to the next practice and get filled in in five minutes and it was fine. It was never an actual problem. I think the problem was that, I think the captains of the team

were kind of just salty at me for some reason. I kind of got that vibe. And I think that they just were like, they thought that I thought that I was better than everybody because I was doing cheer at a separate gym. But like really, it was just like, I just was passionate about cheer and wanted to do both. But they were kind of like, no,

like you're being like, you know, bitchy because you're not putting your full attention and love towards our team. But it was like, I was showing up and doing my job for the high school team and then some. So me being kicked off had to have just been an ego issue in my opinion. So I was kicked off the high school cheer team and I just continued doing competitive cheer.

Okay. NCAA comes around, we lose, we got six, I was heartbroken and I decided I'm gonna quit competitive cheer. I was like fuck this shit, I'm done. I just couldn't do it anymore. I was so burnt out, I had been doing cheer for six years and you know I think the combination of doing high school cheer and competitive cheer just made me lose my mind. So I quit and it was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make because cheer became my whole entire life for six years I had no other thoughts. I had no other Care in the world. That was all I thought about those all I cared about

You know it took away my summers because I was doing cheer camp all summer and I had rigorous practices all summer So it wasn't like I could go on vacation during the summer I literally couldn't go on summer vacation because I was practicing all summer You know during the school year there were like I know a lot of kids had to miss prom Because they had to go to cheer competitions like it was like that and so I wanted my life back So I did I quit and I got my life back. And you know, I already had gotten kicked off the high school team. So I basically had a free schedule, which was when I started doing cross-country and track, which is a story for another day. But um

you know, and I sucked a cross-country and track. Oh my god. But the last cheer story I have Oh my God, but the last cheer story I have is after I'd quit high school, well after I'd already quit competitive chair and then got kicked off the high school team, the high school team had a performance and they were like, hey, one of our flyers can't perform, do you want to step in? And I was like, okay, so y'all motherfuckers just kicked me off and now you want me back suddenly and randomly okay? You know what sure at that point I was kind of missing cheer a little bit because I had already been done for a few months and So I agreed and lo and behold I practiced with them twice Perform with them and during that performance I

broke my hand because somebody was in the they basically we had to kind of reformulate the routine if that makes sense like we had to kind of reconfigure the routine and one of the girls forgot that we had changed something so she walked right in front of me while I was tumbling and my hand bent under itself and I broke I broke the like bone right below my pinky finger knuckle So if you feel that bone, it's just this straight bone. I

broke right under there kind of near the knuckle actually and I broke it within the first 30 seconds of the performance and I didn't know what had happened. I thought maybe it was fine So I performed on it. I had so much adrenaline that I just performed on top of my broken hand I'm tumbling on it. I'm doing stunts on it on a hard mat no springs and I fucking did that shit. And I remember I get off the stage, if you will, or it was more of the mat, because it wasn't really a stage, but I get off the mat and I looked on at my hand and my hand is fucking bent. Like my hand could fold over in a way I'd never seen it

do before. So I get off stage and I'm like, I think this is broken. And my mom was like, holy shit, honey, we're taking into the urgent care. And I was like, okay. So first I go and get myself some sushi. So my mom and I go and get sushi with this fucking broken hand that looks like limp and shit.

I'm being dramatic. It was not that bad, but I mean, it was fully broken. You could see it, you know, but we went and got sushi first. And then we went to urgent care and we got the X-rays and whatever and it was broken. And so then I was really done with cheer. Any chance of me going back and doing cheer again was I was like, no, that was what sealed the deal for me.

I decided I never wanted to do cheer again. And that was that. So that was the end to do cheer again. And that was that. So that was the end of my cheer journey. This episode is brought to you by the all new 2024 Chevy Tracks pack lightly. It's okay if you did. In the all new 2024 Chevy Tracks, you and all your family, all your friends, all your kids,

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and switch therapist any time for no additional charge. To get started, visit betterhelp.com slash anything today to get 10% off your first month. That's better HLP.com slash anything. But I wanted to talk about kind of a funny element of cheer that I don't know, I just think it was interesting. So when I was a cheerleader, there was this whole community within cheer. It was like its own kind of cult in community.

And there were cheer liberties, like celebrity cheer celebrities, that everybody envied and wanted to be. And everybody would watch their teams perform just to see their favorite cheer liberty. It was like a full, we literally called it cheer liberty. How fucking cringy is that? But, you know, there was like, and you know, when you go to the big competitions, those teams would be there. And you would watch your favorite teams perform and it was like fucking magical. And I know one of the girls, it was one of my favorites.

She's actually in the cheer show on Netflix. Her name is Gabby Butler. And I remember I was obsessed with Gabby Butler. I remember I took a photo with her at a cheer competition, still have that photo to this day. It's fucking iconic. Yeah, it was like her biggest fucking fan. I wanted to be her.

And so, you know, after they would perform, we would take photos with our favorite cheerlevardies. And I don't know. And some of them, you know, had YouTube channels. I know there was one girl that had a YouTube channel. That was a cheerleader. And I was obsessed with her. And I, one time saw her dad at a cheer competition.

And I went up to her dad and I was like, I love your daughter. Like I watched her videos. And it was just so funny. It was like, it was so funny how this community was like so weirdly tight knit, but also like there was still that like, like idolizing. It was so interesting. So anyway, I loved it though. I loved every minute. And I wish I could go back. And that's my cheer story. I hope that that was even relatively interesting.

Um, I don't know how it could be to be honest. Sorry, I needed a sip of coffee. Um, I don't know if that was interesting, but that was my cheer journey. Um, I can still tumble to this day, but I'm not flexible anymore. Oh Oh my god. I lost all my flexibility and I'm so sad because it would just be so fun if I could just fucking Do the splits and shit. I probably missed some stories that like some cheer stories, but I Feel like that's all I have for right now. That's all I can remember, but let's answer some cheer questions First question were your teammates nice or were they stereotypically mean?

Like what you see in the movies? Definitely not stereotypically mean. Like I actually, I think majority of the girls were really nice and cool, and I got along with 90% of them, but of course in any group of teen girls, there's going to be some conflict. So there was definitely a few girls that were mean,

but I don't think that that had anything to do with cheerleading and everything to do with the fact that we were all teen girls and some teen girls are just fucking rude. Next question, how many friends did you make from it? I actually made so many friends. Like I would say 50% of my friends were cheer friends back in the day. I don't really speak to many

of them now, but I mean, we're all on good terms. If I reached out to them, it would probably be fun, but you know, they're all in college, living their life and shit. So yeah, but I definitely had some like homies that I like kept around for a while from cheer, which was really special. Next question. Did cheer teach you any important life lessons? I would say yes. It made me realize like the importance of showing up on time and showing up like when you're asked because, you know, and it made me good at it too,

because like, you know, we had these practices and you couldn't be late, you know, or else you'd get kicked off or with California All Stars anyways. You had to be on time. Like everything, the rules were so strict, right? So it kind of ingrained in me to be on time and to show up ready. And it also taught me how to work with a team in a way that I had never done before.

And like how, you know, working together rather than against each other is so valuable when you're on a team. It's like supporting one another and being uplifting to one another creates like team morale that's unstoppable. But the second that you start turning on each other and resenting each other, if somebody's struggling,

is the second that your team is gonna fail. And I think that that was a really great metaphor for me for life. But also just like the beauty of working together and me being somebody who's quite a control freak, having to put my control freak side aside and kind of work together with a team, like really made me put myself second in a sense for once and like made me realize that like we have to all be in this together and shit We're all you know Next question was there a lot of pressure to look a certain way a thousand percent. Oh my god

um, I hate to fucking bring up this topic again because it just sucks and it's not fun to talk about but I Do think that cheer kind of has Is this is slightly responsible for a decent amount of my And it's not fun to talk about, but I do think that cheer kind of has, is this slightly responsible for a decent amount of my body image issues that I've had? Just because I was a flyer, which was somebody that needed to be lifted up. And, you know, as a flyer, you want to stay light. So I became kind of obsessed with my nutrition at a very young age. I was like counting my calories and like doing research on foods that were good for you,

which I think actually that, you know, me educating myself at a young age on fitness and nutrition, and like how to stay in shape was good, but I think that it got to a point where it was obsessive, and I think that that was really negative for me, but I think I did learn a lot about healthy eating and how it, in whatever, which is actually really valuable. So it was like this double-edged sword with that, but because then it also was like half of these girls, especially the cheer leverities that I mentioned earlier,

are fucking shredded. Like, six-pack,ies that I mentioned earlier, are fucking shredded. Like six pack, huge muscles, like whatever. And I wanted to look like that too, because that's what was cool in the cheer community. And I never really got there. But just because I don't think I'm built like that, I don't think I can get like that. But, you know, I was like doing 300 sit-ups every night so that I could look like that and I never fully got there. But definitely.

And also even at the cheer competitions, your hair, your makeup needs to be fucking on point. Or else you're getting judged by other teams. You have to have a spray tan or else you aren't fitting in. Because everybody needs to be tan for some reason so I'd get spray tans for every single competition or do You know loving tan or whatever There is definitely a huge focus on the appearance mainly being shredded tan and having fire hair and makeup was was the focus and I Mean I actually kind of liked getting dolled up like that. I'm oh my god my fucking freshman yourself

I remember I would get so excited for cheer competitions because it would give me an excuse to get super dressed up. And I thought that I looked so fucking good and I'd send Snapchat's to boys. So that is that. And they probably were like, at the time being a cheerleader wasn't that cool, whereas now it is,

but it wasn't back then. So they probably were like, what the fuck is, why does she look like she's going to a pageant? But I thought that I looked hot, so they probably were like, what the fuck is, why is she, why does she look like she's going to a pageant? But I thought that I looked hot, so. It's kind of a shame, whatever. Somebody asked me, what was my favorite move or trick? Probably a round off tuck was just my favorite because it just became really easy for me,

which is basically a round off where you do a cartwheel, but then at the end you put your feet together and you jump. It's very hard to explain. If you want to Google a round off tuck, feel free. So a round off tuck was my favorite. I also used to really like standing tucks, which is where you basically do a backflip, just standing.

Like you just don't even, you just stand there and I got kinda good at those, but those were really hard. I wasn't as good at standing tumbling as I feel like my leg strength wasn't very good. Whereas my upper body strength was better than my leg strength. So I wasn't as good at doing shit just from standing,

but I did like doing standing tucks. Somebody said, please talk about the hair loss because of the tightest fuck ponytail is that damage your hair. I actually my hairline receded a little bit. It grew back, but my hairline did recede from doing cheer and my hair was burnt because I used to dye it blonde. And like all the teasing, you do so much teasing.

Basically with cheer hair, the bigger the better. So you wanted to tease it as big as you could, which is like back combing and making your hair huge while also looking somehow clean at the same time. It was very weird. You didn't want your hair to look like a rat's nest. You wanted it to look like this beautiful bump of hair, right? But that teasing is super damaging.

It would take two hours to come out every after every time we'd perform. It was a fucking mess. It was so difficult. And my hair was super damaged. And only recently has it all grown out. Now all my cheer hair has gone finally to like three years. Somebody said, do you think you would have done something with it if you didn't start YouTube and your gut didn't tell you that it wasn't right for you? I don't think I actually would have because after I broke my hand, I just was so over

it. And it was a combination of breaking my hand in getting sixth at NCA with my team. I just was over it. And also, I was about to age out anyway, because basically you can only really do cheer competitively until you're a senior in high school. And I only had two years left. And I was kinda like, I don want to waste two years of my life,

AKA the rest of my high school years, doing cheer when I'm just, when I'm not even gonna be on my dream team that I'd always wanted to be on. I was at my dream gym, but I wasn't at all my dream team. So I just ended up quitting, which is probably not necessarily the best,

but I am glad I quit because now look at me. I found other passions, you know what I mean? And that wasn't my passion. That wasn't my long-term passion. And I found passion in other things as well. After that, when it came to sports, because I ended up doing track and I ended up doing hurdles for a season.

And I actually really loved doing hurdles. And I would have never found that out if I wouldn't have quit cheer. So somebody said, here we don't have cheer in schools. So how would you describe the whole thing to someone who doesn't have a clue how it is? So I already kind of explained that a little bit in the beginning, but I will go into high school cheer a little bit more.

Basically high school cheer, at least at my school, it's basically where our team was also a competition team. So actually my high school team would compete against other high schools. But it was really weird because we wouldn't do like a normal performance. We would do like a cheer like TIG, we do a cheer like that, perform that in front of judges, and then we do a short competitive if you will routine and compete. But besides that, we were mainly doing pep rallies, like, you know, different rallies at school, we were doing, we would cheer for football and basketball, which the football players and the basketball players hated us. They thought we were so fucking annoying and I don't blame them

because it's just loud. It's not fun. Like they don't like it. Like they literally don't like it. Also, all the stereotypes about cheerleaders getting a bunch of dudes, not true. I got no dudes from being a cheerleader. At all, dudes thought cheerleaders were annoying. The guys wanted to date the girls that played soccer or did track because they thought that was hot.

So the cheerleader's got no love. Also the cheerleaders at my school anyway, not popular. That was not how it worked. Like it wasn't like the popular girls did cheer. Mind you, I did go to all girls' Catholic school and our brother school was in all boys'' Catholic school. So, like, we had a kind of different situation, but it wasn't like the normal stereotypical public high school cheerleader jock situation. Like, we just didn't have that, but even when we were like around the guys that were from our brother school, we still didn't get any love. So, that was

that. And somebody said, how do you feel about the Ransom uniforms? The uniforms for cheer are so fucking insane. They're like so glammed out and like so extreme, but I fucking loved it. It's one of those things where you have to lean into it, right? It's like, you kinda know it's a little bit corny, you know it's a little bit weird, but like you just have to immerse yourself in it and like enjoy it because it's fun to get slammed up like that.

So I always loved it, to be honest, and like the big bows and shit, like I, I just let myself enjoy it. It's like you can think that it's kind of bizarre and weird or you could just be like, this is what it is and I'm going to enjoy it. So that's kind of how I handled that. Last cheer question and then I'm just going to start talking about random shit because I have some other random shit I want to talk about. If you could turn back time, would you still enter cheer? Absolutely. Cheer was one of the best things I ever did in my life

and it was, it has some of my favorite memories and it just has such a warm feeling. It makes me feel warm in my heart even though I had some shitty experiences within it, I still love it. Like I love it. I still watch cheer routines to this day sometimes, and I miss it, and I miss performing, and it gives me this warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart. So that's cheer, baby. Oh my God, I literally just looked over at my nightstand.

I record these podcasts in my guest bedroom, and there's a coffee sitting in here half finished from when I recorded last time, which was a week ago. So I should probably put that in the dishwasher. Anyways, now let's talk about other shit that's not cheer-related. I've been doing the same shit since last week.

I'm still playing Fortnite. Oh, but last night, let me tell you, last night, I caved and I started watching Tiger King. Everybody's been talking about Tiger King, which is this new Netflix show, which is basically about these people that are fucking insane, that like, breed big

cats, i.e. tigers, lions, etc. And everybody who's been talking about Tiger King, okay? And I normally don't like to watch shows that everybody's raving about because I always feel like I'm gonna get disappointed. But for some reason, every time it's a Netflix documentary of some sort, I know I'm gonna love it. So I ended up starting that last night because I could not fall asleep because my sleep schedule's been so fucked. I've been going to bed at like 4.30 every night. Probably because I'm on my phone, fucking idiot. But anyway, started watching Tiger King y'all, this shit's crazy.

This shit is crazy. You guys need to watch this. It is so fucking good. It's just so good in the drama. Oh, it's beautiful. The drama is amazing. It's a combination, it's like funny, because the characters in this, I mean, it's not characters, they're real people,

but they are such characters, the people in the show are such characters. And on top of that, it's like such a funny, like weird community of people that are all so bizarre. And it's just so fun. Like it's so fun. And then, you know, but within that, there's mixed in some murder mysteries.

It's like, and like some like, you know, weird, cult shit. It's like crazy. Everything I'm into in a show, and like some like, you know, weird cult shit, it's like crazy. Everything I'm into in a show, everything I'm into in a show. A little bit of murder mystery, a little bit of cult drama, a little bit of eccentricness, and a little bit of kind of weird fucking Florida ass shit, like just some weird shit, right like For example one of the people this isn't this spoiler, so don't we but like one of the guys who raises the big cats

He like also makes country music and he makes these fucking corny ass Music videos for them and they include them in the show and they're so hysterical to me I was crying laughing watching these. They're so funny and he's so funny and he doesn't even know it like, but he's also I think he's kind of a murderer. I don't know. I don't know if he's going to be a murderer, but I feel like he's going to kill somebody

in the show. Nobody spoil it for me, but he kind of gives me murder revives, so we'll see. But I still like Stan and Loki. Joe Exotic for all you who have watched the show. But it's so amazing. So I definitely recommend watching it if you're into that shit. It's literally everything that I could want in a show.

So I'm super excited to keep watching it and I rarely get excited about shows. But that's been that. And then what else have I been doing? I'm definitely running out of life experience and things to talk about here because I literally have not lived in days. So I'm kind of losing my marbles.

But I think the whole, I don't want to touch on this too much, but I will just maybe make you guys, maybe where it can be in this together. I was actually really enjoying being inside and taking this time to relax and like get creative, find myself whatever, whatever. Totally. I was enjoying it, right? I'm losing it now. I'm starting to lose it a little bit. I'm starting to really miss everything. And it's definitely taking a little bit. I'm starting to really miss everything. And it's definitely taking a little bit of a toll on me. But hey, we're in this together. Right, guys, we're gonna get through this shit. And that's that. I think we have another month,

at least in L.A. So we'll see how that goes. I think that's it for today's episode. I hope you guys enjoyed Feel free to ask me questions at AG podcast. That is our Twitter. I Always tweet the topic you guys can tweet me questions about whatever next week's topics gonna be also feel free to Request topics that you want me to speak about I like this podcast to be very interactive and I like to be have an open conversation with you guys so feel free to Tell me what you want me to talk about and I love that and appreciate that. So yeah, that's that I hope you guys are staying sane help healthy staying inside I think we all know that we're all staying inside at this point. I feel like that's I feel like people are now actually staying inside So that's good news

But yeah, I love you all. I appreciate you all Keep it real keep it one hunt, I'm not gonna say that. I was gonna say keep it one hundred, but that's fucking gross. And, peace out, love, ew. I was gonna say peace out, love you, but then I said peace out, love, that's fucking gross. Ew, sorry, let me try that again. Peace out, love you guys a lot.

Mwah. try that again. Peace out. Love you guys a lot.