25 fun facts you didn’t know about your favorite teen movies

Bring It On – Illegal cheerleading moves and uniform violations

Speaking of Bring It On, the cheerleading film inspired an endless stream of sequels over the years, but none can compete with the original.

Bring It On is about rival cheer squads from California, the Rancho Carne Toros, and the East Compton Clovers, who go head-to-head to prove which squad has what it takes to be the best. New Toros captain Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) finds out the previous captain, Big Red, had been stealing ideas from the Clovers for years. New Clover’s captain Isis (Gabrielle Union) confronts her and challenges her to be original for once, forcing the Torros to start from scratch.

The stars appearing in cheerleading roles all had to undergo cheer boot camp training to prepare for the film to make it as realistic as possible. Some of the actors, like Union and Dunst, were actual cheerleaders in school. But even with all that training, mistakes were still made.

Actually, the mistakes weren’t made by the cheerleaders themselves, but rather in the research that went into the routines and costumes. First, high school competitive cheerleading squads are strictly forbidden from showing their midriff, yet within the film, all their uniforms show their stomachs.

Also, many of the stunts they perform in competitions would have gotten them disqualified. According to the National Federation Interscholastic Spirit Association, fly-overs, basket-tosses with head-over-heels rotation, and any other stunts that are more than two bodies high are illegal for high school squads.

Like Torrance explains to Missy (Eliza Dushku) in the film, cheerleading is serious business. It involves way more than just cheering at football games!