What Is a Score Sheet in Cheerleading?

Quick answer: a score sheet is the official document a governing body or competition provider uses to score a routine - breaking scoring down into defined categories such as difficulty, execution and deductions, each with its own points and criteria.

What's On a Score Sheet

While exact layouts vary, most score sheets break scoring into separate sections - commonly difficulty across stunts, tumbling, pyramids and jumps, execution quality, synchronisation, and a separate list of specific deductions that can be subtracted for particular errors.

Why the Score Sheet Matters

The score sheet is the actual standard judges score against - it defines exactly what earns points, what loses them, and how heavily each category is weighted, rather than leaving scoring to general impression.

Why Score Sheets Differ Between Events

Different governing bodies and competition providers publish their own score sheets, with different categories, point values and terminology. This is a major reason two competitions can score the same routine differently, and why this site avoids stating specific point values as universal.

How to Use a Score Sheet as a Parent or Athlete

If you want to understand exactly why a team scored the way it did at a specific competition, the event's own published score sheet is the definitive source - it will explain precisely what was being measured, in a way general cheer knowledge alone can't replicate.

Related Terms

See Judges for who applies the score sheet, and How Is Competitive Cheer Scored? for the general concepts most score sheets share.