There are a bunch of different aspects of cheerleading, but one of the biggest ones is stunting, aside from tumbling. When you are stunting, there are three different positions, and usually four different people in the stunt. The three positions are: back spot, base and flyer. The different positions will be pictured below.

The flyer is the one at the very top of the stunt, their responsibility is to stay very tight, when doing that, it makes it easier for the rest of the stunt group to transition, if needed. It is critical for the flyer to learn how to hold their own weight properly prior to actually flying. The other important job the flyer has to have is the skill that they might have to pull in the air, such as an arabesque, scorpion or heel stretch. This is just an example of what a heel stretch is:

There are two bases in a stunt group, they have the responsibility of the flyer while holding onto her feet. They are also responsible for the flyers safety from the time her feet leave the ground, until they are back down. There are two different types of bases, there is a main base and the secondary base. If you look closely in the picture above, you can tell the base on the right side, has her hand on the foot along with her ankle so she is the secondary base. The main bases job is to make sure to never take your eyes off of the foot you are holding along with your hands because you will be fully holding the entire foot by yourself, or sometimes with the support of the secondary base.

A back spot is someone who stands in the back of the stunt holding the flyers ankles, making sure she doesn’t fall and if she does, she needs to make sure that she catches the flyer. While holding her ankles, the back spot needs to try to pull up as much weight as possible, to make the stunt a little less harsh on the bases. The back spot needs to be able to drive the stunt up as quick and efficiently as they can, it creates an easier stunt for the bases.

The most important part of stunting in cheerleading, is the back spots and bases need to be as close as they possibly can to each other to have a safe and stable stunt. Everything about a stunt needs to be done neatly and there needs to be a lot of focus from everyone. If there is one person that is not trying as hard as the others, the stunt will more than likely fail.