Cheerleading Rules: Safety Rules by Level and How Scoring Works

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Ten seconds before the music starts, a coach catches her flyer’s eye and taps her own head: chin up, stay tight. She knows the routine is legal for Level 3, every spotter is in place, and the floor is a 42-by-54-foot spring floor, not a gym’s hardwood. Cheer looks free and wild from the stands, but it runs on rules: who may stunt where, how high, with how many spotters, and what each skill is worth to the judges. These cheerleading rules are mostly cheerleading safety rules, and they differ between school, all-star and college cheer. Here’s a plain guide, with the scoring basics at the end.

One note first: the rule books (NFHS, USA Cheer, USASF) are long, detailed and change every season. This page summarizes them in our own words. Coaches need the current book; parents and athletes can use this to know what to expect and what to ask.

Which rules apply where

Setting	Rules	In short
High school (and many middle schools)	NFHS Spirit Rules Book, or USA Cheer school rules, as your state association decides	Safety rules for sideline and competition; pyramids limited in height; basket tosses only on approved surfaces.
All-star (club)	USASF Cheer Rules, Levels 1–7 (IASF rules at international events)	Each level allows a defined set of tumbling, stunt, pyramid and toss skills.
College sideline and competition	USA Cheer College Cheer Rules	The most advanced skills, e.g. pyramids up to 2½ body lengths, with strict surface and spotting rules.
STUNT	USA Cheer STUNT rules (NCAA championship sport from 2026–27)	Head-to-head game in four quarters of set routines.
International	ICU (national teams), IASF (all-star Worlds divisions)	Event rules can add restrictions; check with the event producer.

Safety rules that apply almost everywhere

• A qualified coach: USA Cheer’s guidelines say every squad should be directed by a qualified, knowledgeable coach or advisor who supervises all practices and approves every stunt, pyramid and toss before it’s performed.
• Progressions: skills are taught in accepted progressions, spotted until mastered, and new skills are tried only in supervised practice. USASF requires coaches to see proficiency before moving athletes up.
• Surfaces: no stunts, pyramids, tosses or tumbling on concrete, asphalt, wet or uneven surfaces or near obstructions. USASF adds that carpet over a hard floor doesn’t count as a safe surface.
• Trained spotters: spotting training is mandatory in USA Cheer’s guidelines; under USASF rules required spotters must be your own teammates, trained in proper spotting.
• No trampolines: no mini-trampolines or other equipment that adds height; a spring floor is the exception.
• Nothing in the mouth: no gum or candy during practice or performance (choking risk).
• Shoes, jewelry, braces: USASF requires soft-soled shoes with a solid sole (no dance shoes or gymnastics slippers) and bans all jewelry except medical ID; it can’t be taped over. Unaltered braces are fine; altered ones need padding, and an athlete in a hard cast or walking boot can’t stunt, tumble or toss.
• Props: only soft, light props such as poms, flags and flat signs, never weight-bearing, and set down safely.

Stunts, pyramids and the basket toss

Pyramid height: the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends pyramids no higher than two people, which matches the USASF all-star limit of two high. College rules allow up to two and a half body lengths (for example, a flyer extended on top of a shoulder-height middle layer), with at least two spotters for each top person above two high and only on a mat, grass or rubberized track.

Basket tosses: this is the rule with a track record. After a 2006–07 rule change banned basket tosses on hard surfaces, a study of catastrophic injuries found the basket toss injury rate in high school and college cheer fell from 1.55 to 0.40 per million cheerleaders, and the AAP links the rule to a 74% drop in catastrophic injuries over ten years. Today the AAP recommends basket tosses only on grass, mats or a rubberized track, never on a basketball court or other hard floor. In college, USA Cheer limits basket tosses to those surfaces and bans them during timeouts at basketball and volleyball games.

Sideline rules: college rules also ban technical skills while the ball is in play close to the action, and at indoor games ban the riskiest skills (tosses, one-arm stunts, flips, 2½-high pyramids, twisting tumbling) during timeouts or any performance without mats.

What changed in high school for 2025–26

The NFHS reorganized its Spirit Rules Book into three parts: general risk minimization, cheer and dance. In cheer it approved six changes, including a new exception to the spotter rule for a single-base stunt with a vertical flyer supported at the waist, a ban on a flyer leaving the floor unassisted to land or be caught inverted (such as a no-hands back handspring) and a ban on handling props in a toss to cradle. Ask your coach how your state applies them.

All-star levels 1–7 in plain words

USASF levels build on each other: every skill legal in one level is legal in the levels above. A simplified view of the 2025–26 rules:

Level	Tumbling (simplified)	Stunts (simplified)
1	Skills that stay in contact with the floor (rolls, cartwheels, walkovers) plus round offs; no flips	Two-leg stunts to prep level, single-leg only at waist level; spotter for prep level and up; no tosses
2	Back handsprings, including series; still no flips	Single-leg stunts at prep level, two-leg extended stunts; simple tosses
3	Back tucks and other single flips with no twist	Extended single-leg stunts
4	Layouts and more flip combinations, no twisting flips	More twists and release moves
5	Twisting flips such as a full	Up to 2 twists in some stunts
6–7	Up to two twists (Level 7 is the international open level)	The most difficult stunts, pyramids and tosses

Youth and younger teams can’t do single-base extended stunts at any level. Levels written like “4.2” use one level’s building rules with a lower level’s tumbling rules. Routines are capped at 2 minutes 30 seconds (2:00 for prep and non-tumbling teams, 1:30 for novice). The full detail is in the USASF rule book, which coaches get as members.

Scoring basics in cheer competitions

Each event producer uses its own score sheet, but the idea is similar. In Varsity’s United Scoring System, a building judge scores stunts and pyramids, a tumbling judge scores standing tumbling, running tumbling and jumps, and an overall judge scores dance and formations and transitions. Each skill earns points for difficulty and for execution (clean, tight, together), and the three judges add scores for routine creativity and showmanship.

Then come deductions. On Varsity’s 2025–26 deduction sheet, an athlete fall in tumbling or jumps costs 0.15, a building bobble 0.25, a building fall 0.75 and a major building fall 1.25. USASF’s own 2025 scoring system uses a larger scale (1.0 for an athlete fall, up to 4.0 for a major building fall) and adds deductions for illegal skills, going over time and stepping out of the 42-by-54-foot performance surface. Either way, a hit routine with zero deductions beats a harder routine with falls more often than you’d think.

STUNT works differently: it’s a game. Two teams perform the same set routines head to head over four quarters: partner stunts, pyramids and tosses, and jumps and tumbling (30-second routines that get harder as the quarter goes on), then a 90-second team routine that combines them. Points come from objective scoring of how well each skill is executed, so coaches match their best stunt groups and tumblers against the other team’s.

Gear the rules care about

Two rules shape the gear bag: real cheer shoes and no jewelry. Cheer shoes are light with a solid rubber sole and grip for stunting. The Nfinity Vengeance has an open mesh upper, three rubber pads in high-wear areas and bubble laces that stay tied, at about $130 (the listing says it runs small: order a size up). The chassé Apex is a lower-cost option with a lace system and gripping panels for stunting, about $53–68. If your athlete braces an ankle, an unaltered brace like the ASO EVO needs no extra padding under USASF rules. More in our cheerleading gear guide.

Back to the cheerleading hub, or see leagues and associations, youth cheerleading, cheerleading injuries and, for comparison, gymnastics rules.

Cheerleading rules questions

How high can a cheer pyramid be?

Two people high in all-star cheer under USASF rules, and the AAP recommends no higher than two people for youth. College rules allow two and a half body lengths, only on a mat, grass or rubberized track and with extra spotters.

Can cheerleaders do basket tosses on a basketball court?

No. Basket tosses belong on grass, mats or a rubberized track. The ban on hard surfaces is linked to a big drop in catastrophic cheer injuries.

Can cheerleaders wear earrings?

Not under USASF rules: no jewelry of any kind, and taping it over isn’t allowed. Medical ID tags are the exception. School rules are similar; check your state.

What’s the difference between Level 1 and Level 7?

Level 1 is basic tumbling with no flips and low stunts; each level adds skills until Level 6 and 7, where teams do twisting tumbling, the hardest stunts and tosses. Level 7 is the international open level for athletes 18 and older.

How long is a cheer routine?

Up to 2 minutes 30 seconds for USASF all-star teams, 2:00 for prep and non-tumbling teams, and 1:30 for novice. Timing starts with the first movement, voice or note of music.

How do judges score a fall?

As a deduction, sized by how big the fall is. On Varsity’s 2025–26 sheet, a tumbling fall costs 0.15 and a major building fall 1.25; USASF’s scale is larger. Falls also lower the execution score.