click to watch
Gymnastics Zone posted the best summary of this issue I’ve seen:
Beginner Backward Roll Safety Concerns
Bottom line, … do backward roll activities very, very cautiously. The younger the children, the bigger their heads relative to the rest of the body.
If they need spot, they are not ready for backward roll.
I’ve even seen Adult Recreation gymnasts sore after doing backward roll on a hard, flat surface. 😦
It’s a tricky skill.
Downhill is far safer.
Team Sask is ready.
Check the promo video they put together in advance of the National Gymnaestrada.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Thanks Kara.
You could SPOT a beginner on backward handspring. 😦
Far better is to set-up dozens of progressions without spot. Let the child move step-by-step at their own speed. Have success at each. Dozens of successes.
Let them take ownership of the skill. 🙂
Carrie Lennox:
In last month’s Tumbl Trak newsletter Doug Davis wrote about how progressions build confidence and reduce fear. Just thinking about an athlete “balking” in a round off-back handspring, or other tumbling series is enough to make me shudder.
“Connecting the Dots” is a way to describe all the steps involved in the physical preparation of an athlete and offering an athlete frequent opportunities to feel confident in every step in the process. In a recent video session filming skill progressions, we worked with a young athlete who has good basic training combined with good genes from her parents. The video session focused on cartwheel, handstand, and back handspring progressions from jumping to limbers to fly-backs to work in the pit, (which she had done in many workouts previously).
After filming more than 30 different progressions that lead to a back handspring, our session ended in the pit where we saw in her a confidence and will to move on to her very first back handsprings!! Wooo Hoooo!! We cheered and celebrated with hip-hip-hurray’s and it dawned on me…..we had spent the last two hours “connecting the dots” for this athlete. All the preparation she had done in her classes, put together in a sequence, helped to give her to confidence and success.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
A safety issue in many gyms are the mats used at the END of your tumbling trampoline. Here’s a new alternative that costs less than $2000. What would the equivalent mats cost?
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
While 84 per cent of children who are 3 and 4 years old get the recommended 180 minutes of daily physical activity, the picture changes drastically for older age groups.
Only seven per cent of kids ages 5 to 11 and a mere four per cent of those aged 12 to 17 get the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity. …
Based on nine categories, Canada received a grade of D– in overall physical activity, putting it below Mozambique, New Zealand, Mexico, Kenya, Nigeria and England. …
Access to physical activity in Canada isn’t the problem: 95 per cent of parents report local availability of parks and outdoor spaces; 94 per cent say public facilities such as arenas and pools are available; and over 90 per cent of students have access to a gym or playing fields at school.
(via Lukas Stritt)
2014 Canadian Gymnaestrada – June 29 to July 1, 2014
The 2014 Canadian Gymnaestrada is a performance and educational event. It is a festival of movement involving all gymnastics disciplines and is proudly hosted by the Alberta Gymnastics Federation, in partnership with Gymnastics Canada, at the University of Calgary’s Jack Simpson gymnasium along with several outdoor Calgary venues. …
Doug Davis is energetic in helping instructors teach happy, safe kids. He’s all about building confidence through systematic progression. And repetition.
These progressions are not only for competitive kids. They are for everyone who wants to learn to tumble.
Doug:
“Balking” happens frequently in many gyms across the country. A gymnast attempts a skill, and then STOPS in the middle of the attempt. This can be extremely dangerous with some skills. Or, the gymnast will not go for the skill at all, due to fear. …
One example of a common skill series where students may “balk” is a Round-Off to one or two Back-Handsprings. Students should be taken through a series of progressions …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Keep in mind, these steps are not all linear. Start developing back-handspring skills at the same time as round off skills. …
It is not all about overcoming fear and preventing balking, it is also about setting up all of your students for repeated success. …
read more – How Progressions Build Confidence and Reduce Fear
Catherine T details her struggles to get ready for an Adult Rec Competition:
On Saturday I competed in my second masters meet. Eleven months ago, after my first meet in a decade, I was filled with hope and inspiration and energy. I vowed to train every day, get in shape and not let anything stop me. And then, well, I let things stop me. Things got stressful. Anxiety. Depression. Sickness. I seemed to either have a cold or the flu from basically October to February …
Recreational Gymnastics 
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