The Gymnastics Advantage
- 04 Jan, 2022
- Posted By : Kristel Suess
- Comments : 0
BODY MOVEMENTS
Most sports use a small number of body movements, these movements are repeated over and over until perfected. Gymnasts learn hundreds of different skills on floor, beams, bars, vault, trampoline, rings and pommel horse. They use a great variety of different movements and movement patterns. This allows gymnasts to develop superior coordination and agility, which can be transferred to any sport they chose later on!
Gymnastics develops coordination, agility, strength, flexibility, brachiation, spacial awareness, confidence, self esteem, focus and so much more!
STARTING SCHOOL
Gymnastics is incredible for building kids core strength, giving them a great start to their eductaion.
LEARNING SKILLS
Gymnasts build their hand, wrist and grip strength through work on bars, rings etc. This strength helps them to be able to write and type and develops their fine motor coordination for activities like playing a musical instrument and tying their shoelaces!
Research has found the key to developing great reading skills is actually physcial activity in young children. Different types of physical movements, create new neural pathways in the brain and strengthen existing pathways, improving reading, language and cognitive skills.
SPORTS ADVANTAGE
Research has also shown that Gymnastics is the perfect launchpad for all sports. It has shown that children who participate in gymnastics at younger ages (3-10 years), have a massive advantage in any sport they choose later on. The types of movements used in gymnastics such as locomotion, rotation, spring, land, swing, statics, balance, strength, flexibility, safe falling and landings are the keys to all sports. Children with a background in gymnastics will often take up a new sport later and outperform their peers, who have been doing the other sport much longer.
FEAR
Gymnastics teaches children and teenagers the incredible life skill of being able to break down fear and challenges. Each new skill can be either scary or difficult at first, we break it down into small manageble steps, the kids see those steps come together and see the result of themselves doing things they never imagined possible. Being able to break down fear and doubt, gives kids an incredible future! Imagine an adult that never lets fear and doubt stand in their way, there is little they can't do!
SAFE DEVELOPMENT
Do you know why most sports are played in seasons? The reason is because those sports use the same repetitive body movements over and over again. If those movements are repeated for too long in young developing bodies, they can pull their bodies out of alignment, developing muslces on one side or in some areas and not in others. Gymnastics uses every single muscle in the body in a wide variety of movements. It is safe to do year round (and encouraged to do year round as it supports growth). The movements work with the growing body to develop a strong and healthy physique and good posture, these benefits last for a lifetime.
DELAYED GRATIFICATION
In the 21st century kids are getting less and less opportunity to learn the skills of patience and hard work. Everything is available at their fingertips, and they never have to wait. So they lose the ability to set and work towards a goal and the resulting self esteem and self confidence boost they get when they acheive that goal.
There are no short cuts in gymnastics, to learn a new skill the children must first develop the strength, flexibility and prerequesite skills, then they do drills to learn the new movement patterns, then they practice the skill until they have it. This is one of the most important life skills they will ever develop!
When kids just get something, it does little for their development. When kids work hard to apply themselves and achieve something, they truly get a boost of self esteem and it helps them to grow into confident adults who can take on the world
TEAM & INDIVIDUAL
Gymanstics is both a team and individual sport. Gymnastics is learned in a group situation, they develop a strong bond with their team mates and help each other learn. Our classes are full of cheers and applause as team mates cheer each other on as they master new skills. The bonds developed in the gym, tend to remain bonds for life. But at the same time it is also an individual sport, if a gymnast finds a skill more challenging it is their journey, it does not let other team mates down, aleviating that pressure! Everyone is allowed to be on their own journey.
LIFE LONG LOVE OF MOVEMENT
Children and teenagers who do gymnastics become confident movers. They learn how to use their body and develop confidence to try different things with it. As they get older it allows them to step up and participate in a variety of different sports and activities because they trust their bodies and know how to use them.
Many people become inactive and stop doing sports as teens or adults, but not usually gymnasts. As confident movers they will usually stay active and enjoy participating in sport for life, leading to a longer and healthier lifespan.
SAFETY
Gymnasts learn how to use their bodies in a safe way. They learn to land safely and to fall safely as well as to use equipment like trampolines safely. Just like learning to swim, helps prevent drowning. Learning gymnastics significantly reduces injuries in children. The spacial awareness, landing, falling and safety skills they learn are not just for the gym, but keep them safe in all sports and play!
Gymnastics also strengthens their joints, while developing flexibility. A strong and flexible body is highly resistant to injury!
FUN
The most important thing of all about gymnastics, is that it is lots or fun! Kids want to work hard, build their strength, take on new challenges and push themselves because they just love it. Gymnastics lets them feel like they can fly!
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