The influence of cheerleading extracurricular activities on the motor behavior of middle-school pupils

Thinking that cheerleading presents certain advantages than other leisure activities, considering its form, content, and effects, we chose this theme trying to analyze how it can be integrated into the middle-school extracurricular activities. The aim of this paper is to bring to the attention of specialists/teachers the effectiveness of certain new strategic models for education, by presenting one of the most dynamic branches of extracurricular activities - cheerleading. The cheerleading extracurricular activities are modern, attractive, complex pedagogical applications that can help attain, simultaneously, multiple formative and educational objectives. Cheerleading offers modern, operational alternatives, influencing the motor behavior in middle-school female pupils, creating an agreeable working environment, which confirms the hypothesis formulated in the beginning of the research. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.