Sports Day/Athletics Festival: Crowd-Pleasing Cheer Battle Ideas and Performances
Speaking of school sports days, there’s an event that’s almost as big as the competitions themselves: the cheer battle! Each class or team usually puts on a performance, but many people find it hard to decide what to do.
So in this article, we’ll introduce ideas for skits and performances that really hype up a cheer battle! There’s plenty to choose from—dances and songs, of course, plus cheers using props and classic ideas from sports cheering.
Be sure to showcase a unique, original performance that’s just for your class or team!
- [Sports Day Cheer Songs] A roundup of classic cheer songs and recommended tracks for parody versions
- [Dance Songs] Recommended for school sports days and athletic festivals! A curated selection of popular tracks that are fun to dance to
- Let's send our teammates a powerful cheer! A roundup of cheer calls for sports day.
- Top Songs to Hype Up Sports Day and Athletic Festivals [2026]
- Elementary schoolers can dance to it! Recommended dance songs and choreography for sports day
- Cheer songs to hype up the sports day! A collection of motivational tracks recommended for kids
- [Boost Your Energy] A Collection of Cool and Funny Team Huddles
- [Sports Day] Get Fired Up! Cool Phrases Recommended for Cheer Squads
- Get hyped! A collection of Vocaloid songs to energize your sports day and athletic festival
- Get Fired Up! A Collection of Anime Songs to Hype Up Your Sports Day and Athletic Festival
- Songs that hype up Sports Day and Athletic Festivals: Japanese Music / J-Pop Artist Rankings [2026]
- Recommended Songs for Group Gymnastics: A Collection of Tracks to Elevate Your Routine [2026]
- Songs that hype up the athlete entrance at school sports festivals
[Sports Day/Field Day] Hype-Creating Cheer Battle Ideas & Performances (1–10)
Bring the flow! Don’t let the flow rise!
@kochigakuen_kochichukou Baseball Club vs Soccer Club with high trash-talking power#Kochi High SchoolKochi Junior High SchoolKochiKochi GakuenSports FestivalSports DayBaseball ClubSoccer ClubHigh school studentyouth
♪ Original Song – [Official] Kochi Gakuen Kochi Junior and Senior High School – [Official] Kochi Gakuen Kochi Junior and Senior High School
Here’s an idea for a cheer battle showdown.
Two teams fire each other up while keeping each other in check with the chants “Bring the momentum our way!” and “We won’t let it shift!”—each side declaring that they’ll seize the momentum.
Everyone holds megaphones, banging them in rhythm and shouting in unison as they repeat after the leader’s calls.
If you get creative with the lines, it can turn into a cheer battle that also gets laughs.
Why not use this idea to showcase your team’s spirit? Adding drums and other percussion could make it even more powerful.
haka
Compared to other sports, rugby often draws attention to the entrance and pre-game moments.
Among these, the New Zealand national team’s entrance performance stands out as especially popular.
The performance they do as they enter is the haka, a traditional Māori dance from New Zealand, and it’s incredibly powerful.
In settings like school sports days, it might be a good idea to perform the haka before events that promise intense action, such as relays or cavalry battles.
Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara
How about incorporating the classic “Thousand-Armed Kannon” performance into your cheer battle? Cheer routines often showcase various formations and poses, so consider adding this as one of them.
When everyone lines up in a single row and countless ‘arms’ form beautiful shapes, it’s truly mesmerizing to watch.
The more people you have, the more challenging the performance becomes—but it also grows more powerful.
Dazzle the other teams and the audience with a perfectly synchronized Thousand-Armed Kannon, and make your cheer battle an unforgettable memory.
[Sports Day / Athletic Festival] Crowd-Pleasing Cheer Battle Ideas and Performances (11–20)
Parapara
Thanks to Thelma Aoyama’s 2018 release “Sekai no Chushin ~We are the world~” and the success of figures like model Yukipoyo, parapara has once again come into the spotlight in recent years.
How about performing this parapara dance to liven up your school sports day or athletic festival? It would be great to show it at a typical school, but performing this kind of parapara at a girls’ high school with lots of gyaru would probably get the crowd even more excited!
support live show
The idea is to stage a variety of acts as part of a cheer battle, creating an atmosphere as electrifying as a live concert.
By mixing genres—powerful performances by the cheer squad, vocal cheering through song, and stylish dance—the fun really stands out.
How you structure the program is also key: starting with something calm and gradually building to more intense performances will better convey a sense of excitement.
For the finale, it’s recommended to present a piece that fuses all the performances to showcase a strong sense of unity.
Japanese taiko drum
When it comes to cheering at sports events, using noisemakers really boosts the excitement, doesn’t it? How about taking it up a notch by energizing the pep rally with a performance on Japanese taiko drums? The deep, resonant sound of the taiko that you feel in your gut will lift the team’s spirits and get everyone fired up.
You could stay in your gym clothes, but why not get a bit fancy and beat the drums in matching outfits—happi coats and hachimaki headbands? It’ll look incredibly vibrant, too!
Yosakoi
Yosakoi is a dance that originated from the folk songs of Kochi Prefecture.
Its popularity has spread beyond Kochi to become a nationwide phenomenon.
Many people have likely seen it at cultural festivals or school events during their elementary or junior high school years.
Yosakoi is also a perfect performance for cheering at sports days.
Since it isn’t exactly the type of performance that interacts directly with the audience, it works well when presented by an organized group like a cheer squad.
There are many Yosakoi videos uploaded online, so be sure to check them out.