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Question: Why should I (my children)
participate in Gymnastics?
Answer: Gymnastics provides an all
around base for all other sports and activities. Tumbling builds leg strength
and flexibility, Balance Beam builds foot-eye coordination, Bars build upper
body strength, Vault builds speed and power, Rings and Pommel Horse also build
strength and upper body coordination.
Gymnastics also improves self-control, concentration, perseverance,
self-discipline and courage. Gymnastics has also been related to increased
academic performance and cognitive reasoning.
Question: Gymnastics
is just a sport like any other my child is already involved in, right?
Answer: No.
Gymnastics trains children in many ways that most other sports can't even begin
to touch. Because gymnastics is a step-by-step (part to whole) rather than
gross (whole to part) learning process, children gain a greater sense of logic
and problem solving abilities. Preschool Gymnastics has even been directly
linked to with
increased ability to read*. Gymnastics goes far beyond being just another
sport in a child's life.
*Barrett, Does Gymnastics Enhance Reading? Yes!,
Technique, June 2001, pp. 8 - 11
Question: Will gymnastics affect how
tall my child will be?
Answer: No. According to a
research done by Rasmus Damsgaard at the University of Copenhagen (in Denmark),
gymnastics has no negative effect on height. Damsgaard stated that growth
in infancy depends on nutrition and pregnancy factors, but from age 2 on, it is
constant (excluding adverse events). The size difference seen in the sport
of gymnastics is by choice and not by affect.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Vol. 32, No. 10, page 1698
Question: Isn't gymnastics hard on
the bones?
Answer: No. In fact,
gymnastics encourages healthy bone growth and increased bone density. This
increased bone density is suspected to help prevent osteoporosis. There is
no cure for osteoporosis and the only prevention is increasing bone density in
adolescence or younger.
