Learn cheerleading moves
on Studio 23’s ‘NCC’

"IT takes a real man to go and try cheerleading."

This is according to Joe Jackson, cheerleading coach from the Cheerleaders of America (COA), when asked on the stereotype on cheerleading being a "girl thing."

"Guys are just getting reintroduced to the sport. When cheerleading started, it was all guys, no girls. Then it moved to girls and eventually went back to guys because they realized they can go higher if a guy threw them," he explained.

Cheerleading, he says, is more than just a squad holding pompoms and cheering on the sidelines of a basketball or football game. It is and should be considered as a sport.

Jackson, together with fellow coach Elizabeth Kane, is currently here in the Philippines in support of the National Cheerleading Championship (NCC), the country’s first and only cheer-leading competition that employs international rules and regulations.

Studio 23 presents "NCC" which started airing last February 17. It is seen Sundays until next month at 6:30 p.m.

Jackson and Kane recently conducted a two-day cheer camp held at the Central Colleges of the Philippines where they trained cheerleading enthusiasts on the latest techniques and newest dance moves.

"We wanted to teach them the basics – motions and body positions that someone can learn on the ground such as high V’s, low V’s, lunges – so that when they are older, they already have the stance, they know how to hold themselves which also allows them to hold other people on top of them," Jackson said.

This is Jackson’s third time to administer a cheer camp in the country and so far, he says Filipinos have only been able to emulate what cheerlead-ing is in the United States.

NCC national director Paula Dela Llana-Nunag says, "We wanted to bring that knowledge on the basics here, since they have a long cheerleading tradition already, and in essence make it our own and with the creativity of the Filipinos as well as passion for performing and dance, we can further enhance that."