The story of pompon... for real this time.

It usually starts when someone sees one of my many pieces of MSU Pompon apparel.

'Pompon?! Isn't it... pompom?

I usually make some witty comment about how 'Oh crap!! they spelled it wrong on my shirt! Thanks for letting me know!!' in order to enforce the idea that in fact it is pompon, despite what they might have thought.

Unfortunately, the nomenclature is not the only problem one is faced with when trying to explain what pompon is. Once you explain the correct spelling, you are faced with an even bigger challenge... explaining what it actually is.

Usually this is a futile endeavor. No matter how I try to explain it, it never seems to do it justice. The conversation typically goes like this:

Confused Person: So wait... its like Cheerleading?
Me: No, we don't actually cheer at all, and we don't do stunts, but we do hold poms like cheerleaders.
Confused Person: Oh... okay, so what do you do?
Me: Well, we do a kickline, and the whole thing is very visual and focused on transitions and being really precise with our movements.
Confused Person: So... like dancing?
Me: Well sort of, but its a lot less individual than dance. Its more focused on the bigger picture of what the group is doing and less on individual moves. But we do do jumps and things like that that are dance-like.
Confused Person: Uhh okay... I don't really get it... can you show me?
Me: Definitely not.

As you can tell, after this conversation the confused person is left thinking that pom is something that doesn't do cool stunts like cheerleading and doesn't do any cheers, and includes people who wont even show you what they are talking about, so generally they are left with a poor impression of what pom really is. 'But it really is cool!' I try to explain... but at this point, it is really too late. Enter, the video below. The video was put together by a Michigan State student and she did a really great job of explaining what pom is. The video shows the current MSU pom team practicing their kickline routine along with some nice commentary by some of my old teammates. This should make my life a lot easier... :)