Gymnastics At Home!

Ways Your Gymnast Can Safely Practice At Home

Picture this: your child just finished their class and as they’re gathering their belongings to head home, they’re telling you all about wanting to keep practicing. I’m sure all you can think about is the danger that could come of letting your child do this.

As coaches, we often get the question, “What are some things my child can do to improve at home?”. Some homes don’t provide safe areas to perform many of the skills a child desires to, while others have at-home equipment they are able to utilize. Even if your home has limited space and equipment, your child can work on many things that will help them succeed in the gym.

I will share some ideas on how you can allow your child to safely improve at home, while still adhering to any boundaries you set concerning safety. Whether your child is a beginner or training more advanced skills, practicing the basics is always helpful, being that those skills are the building blocks for more difficult ones. 

        Flexibility

• Splits demonstrate outstanding flexibility. They are used during warmups to stretch the leg muscles, but they are also used to perform many other skills as well: leaps, jumps, kicks. Working on your splits at home is a simple and effective way to improve, without use of much space or risks of injury.  Stretching other parts of your body will also lead to skill improvement. The more flexible a gymnast, the greater range of motion their bodies have. You can have your child repeat the stretches that they perform during their class warm-up. Practicing bridges is also a good way to increase back and shoulder flexibility, if your child has the capability of doing so safely.

        Strength

• Gymnastics uses most of the muscles in your body and performing skills properly requires certain strength. This is another component of gymnastics that students can work on at home, maybe even alongside a parent or sibling! Basic strength exercises will help children thrive in the sport. Some common ones include push-ups, planks, sit-ups, leg raises/lifts, squats and pull-ups (if a pull-up bar is available).

        Balance

• Balance is another key to success in gymnastics, and not just on the balance beam. Learning how to hold one’s weight in different positions takes time and practice, whether it be standing on one leg or upside down in a handstand. Simple ways to improve balance at home can be doing jumps (stretch, tuck, straddle, etc.), turns, scales, and different walks on a flat surface. Practicing walking in a straight line on tip-toes (relevé), while doing kicks and jumps will also benefit your gymnast when training on the balance beam. These skills can be practiced on the floor, outside, or on a balance beam.

        Specific Skills

• The skills taught in class are usually the ones a child desires to jump right into at home as well. If a home (and parent) permits - high ceilings, clear spaces and soft flooring - some skills are relatively safe to perform at home. Supervision is suggested when a child is performing any of these skills. Practicing rolls is a good start to training at home; a few ways rolls can be performed are forward, backward, and in a straddle position. Handstands and cartwheels require a bit more space, but can also be practiced outside. “Spiderman handstands” are a great way to work on the skill without the full risk of a freestanding handstand. This drill is performed with a child’s feet up against a wall, the front of the body facing the wall and using straight arms for support.

  

While some homes provide safe places to practice more complex skills, not all do and that is okay! Strength and flexibility training at home will go a long way in the gym. Repetition is also a large factor in becoming a better gymnast. Anything that can be done to retain skills until the next class is a great way to see quicker improvement. 

Confidence is an integral part of gymnastics - this is something that can alter the outlook of students and instill in them the desire to keep working, no matter how difficult a skill seems at first. As a bonus, encouraging confidence and courage requires no physical space at all!

#Gymnastics #Splits #Flexibility #StrengthTraining  #BalanceBeam #Balance #Handstands #Cartwheels #Recreation #Confidence #HeadOverHeels

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#2 Reason Why Gymnastics is a GREAT Sport!

We know you've been waiting for reason #2 why Gymnastics is a great sport....it teaches and increases the life skills of persistence and mental toughness! Everybody gets a trophy - sound familiar? This isn't how it works in the real world and it isn't how it works in gymnastics. Gymnastics is a TOUGH sport, you can work so hard and a single tiny mistake can be the difference between placing and going home empty handed. You CANNOT give up in Gymnastics, persistence is EVERYTHING! Mental toughness is the ability to focus, blocking out everything around you and doing what you've trained to do. The crowd, the multiple other events going on around you at the same time, the nerves, the risk of injury - and gymnasts MUST be able to block all of this out to perform their best, and they do! If you want to raise tough kids, start them in gymnastics!  Stay tuned for reason #3, or follow our Facebook page where we post our content first!  https://www.facebook.com/hohgym/

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Gymnastics Lingo 101

Handy Gymnastics Vocabulary

Do you ever get confused when your gymnast comes home from class telling you all about his/her new skill? If your go-to response is “wow, that’s amazing!”, yet you don’t have the slightest idea what he/she is talking about, you are not alone. Gymnastics skills and vocabulary may seem complicated and difficult to understand if you’ve never participated in the sport yourself. That’s why we’re here to help!

Some people may be aware of the basics, such as: forward rolls, cartwheels and handstands, but what we teach your children goes beyond that! To begin, let me start by introducing the equipment in the gym, also known as apparatus. Girls learn skills on Floor, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam and Vault. The two apparatus that are shared between boys and girls are Floor and Vault; however, boy’s gymnastics also includes use of the Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Parallel Bars and Horizontal Bar. Two more pieces of equipment that your gymnasts are likely to talk about are Trampoline and Tumble Trak (more info on this wacky-sounding contraption to follow down below). These bouncy surfaces are usually a class favorite and with them comes even more skills (and probably even more peculiar sounding phrases).

To list every gymnastics related term would bore even the most enthusiastic parent. The main body positions vital to the sport are tuck, straddle, pike, arch and hollow (as pictured). However, the skills your gymnast is most likely to boast about are listed below.

Bridge: Arranging your body to create the shape of an arch, or essentially a rainbow, by lying flat on the floor, then pushing up so that you are supported by your hands and feet.

Backbend: A bridge that is performed by beginning in an upright position, with your hands raised above your head, then arching backward until your arms reach the floor.

Cartwheel: A circular movement in which you rotate sideways, bringing your hands to the floor, swinging your legs over your head, and then landing with your feet on the floor one at a time.

Pullover: A skill on bars that consists of pulling oneself up and over the bar, feet first, in a circular motion, then straightening the arms to support oneself on the bar.

Seat Drop: A trampoline skill in which one drops to a seated position with straight legs and then rebounds back to a standing position. 

Seat/Doggy/Belly: A seat drop, followed by bouncing to hands and knees, then to your stomach (rather than rebounding immediately to your feet).

Split: Legs extended in opposite directions, ideally forming an angle of 180 degrees. 

Tumbl Trak: a long, trampoline type surface that is more tightly woven to create less bounce, used to transition skills between trampoline and floor.

Walkovers (Front/Back): a vertical rotation of the body from a standing position, through a brief handstand.

Front: Starting upright, one would lunge (lean forward with one leg in front), kick to a handstand with legs in a split position and continue in a forward rotation to the floor, landing one foot at a time.

Back: Starting upright, one would arch backward into a handstand, legs in split position, then return feet to the floor one at a time.

Limbers (Front/Back): Similar to walkovers, except each skill is performed with legs together in the handstand position and feet landing at the same time.

This is just a small sample of what your child is taught by their amazing coaches at Head Over Heels. Hopefully this information can help create dialogue amongst your gymnast(s) and yourself regarding what they practice each class. The more engaged you are, the more enthusiastic your child will be about sharpening their skills!

#HeadOverHeals #Gymnastics #Skills #Fun #Flips #Flipping #Tumbling #Trampoline #Exercise #TumblTrak #Recreation #RecGymnastics  #USAG #Xcel #Joga #PreSchoolGymnastics #YouthSports

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