All-Star Cheerleaders With Eating Disorders?

[bellaaa]

i know how you feel!
i am a flyer on a senior 3 team, im 16 and im a junior (11th grade) in high school. at school i am very tiny and skinny compared to EVERYONE! even some freshmen. on my team there are two flyers who are alot shorter then me, they are in 6th grade (10-11 years old)and i always feel so much bigger then them! i just always feel like i am way to heavy at cheer and way to light at school. i know this sounds funny but i feel like i need to be lighter on my bases even though they say im a feather, i just dont always feel like it compared to the little flyers on my team. this is something i have been worrying alot about lately because i really want to fly and its something im really good at!

This makes me sad. Honey, you are 16. You say that you feel bigger than the two flyers on your team that are 10. It is six years between you guys. Six years is kind of a long time when it comes to body progress, it is ALL NATURAL that your body looks different than theirs. Six years of body progress makes you "bigger" than the 10 year old girl. That means taller (and stronger ;)), not fat.
So please, don't feel like you need to be lighter. In six years, those 10-year old girls will feel the same way as you. They will look like you do today. Taller, stronger, beautiful. Prove to them that they don't need to feel insecure by then. If you are a good flyer, you don't need to worry. If you are not, cheerleading is a sport and in sports you get better. Work hard and be confident. And of course, if you want to talk you can always send me a message.

 

[Deleted member 8658]

This makes me sad. Honey, you are 16. You say that you feel bigger than the two flyers on your team that are 10. It is six years between you guys. Six years is kind of a long time when it comes to body progress, it is ALL NATURAL that your body looks different than theirs. Six years of body progress makes you "bigger" than the 10 year old girl. That means taller (and stronger ;)), not fat.
So please, don't feel like you need to be lighter. In six years, those 10-year old girls will feel the same way as you. They will look like you do today. Taller, stronger, beautiful. Prove to them that they don't need to feel insecure by then. If you are a good flyer, you don't need to worry. If you are not, cheerleading is a sport and in sports you get better. Work hard and be confident. And of course, if you want to talk you can always send me a message.

thank you so much! this message made my day! :)

 

[fiercerando88]

Alrighty, resurrecting this thread unfortunately. I'm currently assistant coaching a hs lax team and there was a little incident today with an athlete that really sparked some questions. We asked the captain about it and she said some things that made us really nervous. Just wondering for any parent, coach or anyone really who's gone through this... how did you approach someone who you think might have an eating disorder? Any tips or suggestions? If you want to pm me that's fine. Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Alrighty, resurrecting this thread unfortunately. I'm currently assistant coaching a hs lax team and there was a little incident today with an athlete that really sparked some questions. We asked the captain about it and she said some things that made us really nervous. Just wondering for any parent, coach or anyone really who's gone through this... how did you approach someone who you think might have an eating disorder? Any tips or suggestions? If you want to pm me that's fine. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Make sure you speak to the athlete in private and have the coach that she is closest to speak to her, preferably a female. Just express your concern about her behavior and tell her that you care about her and you are worried. Have the name of a few counselors ready in case she decides she'd like to see someone.

My coaches approached me last year because they thought I had an eating disorder. I didn't, thank goodness, but this is how they did it and it made me feel the most comfortable and not insulted.

 

[Born2Tumble]

The scariest conversation i overheard was between my CP (9 years old) and her bestfriend (10 years old). After Christmas break they were speaking as to where they didnt know I could hear them. The conversation consisted of the two of them ranting about how they needed to be back in the gym because they felt they had gained weight over break and they didnt want to get fat. The continued to go on about how skinny they wish they were. Let me say both girls barely have an ounce of fat on them, my CP is pure muscle i dont think i could even grab skin off her body its that ripped and tight. Its just scary that kids this young of age would already think this way.

 

[GreatWhite92]

Talking about calling a flyer fat, I coached a youth 1 team where of course everyone wanted to be a flyer. After calmly telling them that not everyone is going to be a flyer we had a few upset. Of course these who were upset were the ones who would complain and say "shes heavy"....The first time I heard it I made everyone run. These were like 7 year olds. After the first time, I let them know that if anyone calls anyone else heavy or complains about a flyer being to fat then they will run. We had a couple more instances after that but it definitely got better.

 

[TheUltimateFan]

Strange timing just seeing this thread now. Last week I was at a restaurant and heard a serious commotion at a large table with the families of a girls' soccer team, maybe 12-14 years old. Another restaurant guest had come out of the restroom and told the parents that their daughters were in the bathroom making themselves throw up. At least 5 or 6 girls were involved. I was shocked. I know bulimia is a growing problem but realizing these girls were engaging in this as a group was horrifying. Is this becoming so common that girls are willing to openly share this with each other?

 

[AllstarObsession]

Strange timing just seeing this thread now. Last week I was at a restaurant and heard a serious commotion at a large table with the families of a girls' soccer team, maybe 12-14 years old. Another restaurant guest had come out of the restroom and told the parents that their daughters were in the bathroom making themselves throw up. At least 5 or 6 girls were involved. I was shocked. I know bulimia is a growing problem but realizing these girls were engaging in this as a group was horrifying. Is this becoming so common that girls are willing to openly share this with each other?

I have never met a girl that does not have disordered eating at some point. Even if they do try to hide it, its usually not hard to figure out. Especially among my best friends, its not hard to notice when we go to get frozen yogurt or pad thai and some of us dont get anything.

 

[sun77]

The scariest conversation i overheard was between my CP (9 years old) and her bestfriend (10 years old). After Christmas break they were speaking as to where they didnt know I could hear them. The conversation consisted of the two of them ranting about how they needed to be back in the gym because they felt they had gained weight over break and they didnt want to get fat. The continued to go on about how skinny they wish they were. Let me say both girls barely have an ounce of fat on them, my CP is pure muscle i dont think i could even grab skin off her body its that ripped and tight. Its just scary that kids this young of age would already think this way.

I'm personally aware of an 8 year old girl that developed an eating disorder. It wasn't discovered/treated for several years because it was never even thought of as a possibility due to her age... if anything strikes you as a concern at all, no matter their age, give it serious attention.

@ fiercerando88 I'll PM you later today.

 

[Labegg]

My CP has been a base and a back, She claims some flyers are "heavyier" than others because they don't hold their own weight. There are times that she comes out of practice not wanting to base the "tinyiest" (height & weight) flyer because she doesn't hold her weight and control her body and loving to base the "biggest" (height & weight) because that flyer is in control of her body. Young flyers need to understand that muscles (thus more weight) often = better body control making them seem lighter to their bases. Bases need to understand that its not how much the flyer weighs its how well they control their body. Its hard to make them understand that at level 1 & 2 those flyers are learning to control their bodies and are going to feel heavier to their bases and bases are learning how to position themselves to best evenly distribute the load.

 

[cupieqt]

Perfectly said Labegg

 

[dream-infinity]

I'm going to be honest. I'm not the skinniest, I have a memory from when I was really young and realized that I wasn't the smallest or the skinniest. My friend once told me that I was the biggest girl in our class. That was in 5th grade. When I look back at pictures I see that she was bigger than me, I didn't see that then though.

When it comes to cheerleading coaches some should really get a filter. One coach told my team that we needed to do these sit ups because our uniforms where so small. The same coach also approached a flyer on my team and asked if she had every considered a diet, the flyer was very brave and said that she would never go on a diet, the coach then said that she should consider another position on the team.

 

[Amy Smith]

I had a eating disorder , friends died from it..... however i was ill and cheerleading helped me recover because if i got better abit i'd be able to go. When i went i made friends and needed to be strong so i got healthy by using cheer as a goal :) need to be healthy to do cheerleading strong and alot of energy :)

 

[cheerisloving]

I have been blessed with good body image, which is good living in this world today. This is a great mechanism when dealing with clueless bases. Of all our flyers, I'm the youngest at 16 and all the others are 18 year old fetuses. Obviously I'm not first choice of girls to base because I'm "too big" and when I caught wind of it, I let my coach right away and she told me I was probably the best flyer on the team and its their job as bases to be strong to hope me up. She says alot conditioning will help take of the pounds. :) And when dealing with friends, I don't condone the "I'm soo fat" comments. That's how you nip that in the bud. You have to reaffirm that they're beautiful. Its the only way to keep them believing it.

 

[kykycheermom]

My cp hit a huge growth spurt at the beginning of the season. She's 10, but about 5'3" now. She started the season flying in team stunt on her one team. She was eventually replaced. This KILLED her self-esteem. She had an extremely hard time because her original bases just didn't want to base her because she was one of the bigger flyers. I've been told by several other people that she's not a heavy flyer, and she was son wet noodle. They used her size as an excuse to get out of basing her which made her just want to die. She would overcorrect in the stunts, trying to make their lives easier when honestly, the one girl just never felt like catching her foot (saw it repeatedly with my own eyes). It got to the point where she didn't know what to do because everything she did was wrong and she was "too heavy for them" to lift. Having beaten an eating disorder myself, I'm hyper-vigilant over her self-confidence and body esteem issues. She hates being bigger than her friends, she hates that she's so tall, etc. While she never liked being taller, she never had an issue with her weight-until this year. I am trying so hard to nip it in the bud NOW so that she will never have to endure what I went through, and I still fight down everyday. She is sooooooooooooo much better than she sees herself as and it makes me so angry that other kids would do this to such a wonderful girl. (sorry, this is mainly a vent post, but I had to get it out)