Picture this. Your giddy child runs up to you one night while you’re watching ‘Greys Anatomy’, they’re complimenting you and being overly nice (this isn’t usual what do they want now) eventually they spit it out. They’d like to start gymnastics. Your mind begins to wander; I thought they wanted to start piano lessons? What about injuries? What about the classes? Where do I get the kit from?
Don’t worry, believe me. Gymnastics is such a wonderful thing for your child to get into. Not only will it keep them fit, concentrated and give them a good social life, but theres also so many benefits of gymnastics that will help your child throughout their life.
Resilience
Children who join gymnastics clubs and practice gymnastics often tend to be more resilient. Gymnastics takes a lot of concentration and precision; moves can take hours to craft to perfection and it takes a strong willed person to achieve the moves. Children continue gymnastics because of the feeling of accomplishment it gives them after nailing a key move; this will follow them throughout their life - that ‘I can’t give up’ attitude. If you learn a skill from a young age such as a musical instrument or gymnastics, you come to learn that one of the greatest things to take from your ability isn’t the jazzy moves or the long note, it’s the tough thick skin that comes along with finally achieving that move, and that’s a key ‘side effect’ of gymnastics – resilience.
Sportsmanship
Everyone wants their child to be that kid in class that other parents talk about and say “Isn’t ____ so nice” or “isn’t ____ so kind”, the ‘Luna Lovegood’ of your school (but without the magic powers). A big part of being a nice human is learning know how to win well and how to lose well. With gymnastics there are times when your child will win and times when your child may lose, but it’s about how to deal with the winning and losing that helps your child throughout their life. Children who do gymnastics can win well, they understand that people in losing teams have worked as hard as them and they won’t want to gloat over their victory. They accept their win (they’re normally over the moon for days which is always good), and with a ‘can do’ attitude, they try and do even better next time. And if they do lose, they normally don’t let it defeat them, they want to do great the next time and just keep continuing to practice their skill.
Teamwork
Whether we like it or not we have to often deal with people every day of our life, and when you get a job you have to often work as a team to achieve certain goals. This is the same in gymnastics. Your child will work in a team, they’ll craft their skill individually but ultimately they’ll be in a team and they’ll rely on each other. Teamwork is a brilliant skill for your child to learn, it really does help them throughout life. They need to communicate effectively and trust each other properly in order to achieve the best out of their performance. If they can work with other people effectively, they’ve nearly got this whole life thing sorted out (and they’re only a kid!).
Health
Health is very important to us all and ultimately there are tons of health benefits of gymnastics! If your child practices gymnastics, they’ll be working their muscles and keeping fit (which will save you trips to the doctors). It helps burn calories, tones their muscles, promoting a healthy lifestyle from an early age. Gymnastics also helps your child become more flexible, and improves strength due to it being such a muscle oriented sport!
Social Skills
It can sometimes be hard for children to make friends, we’ve all been there, we were an awkward child once and we know how mean kids can be. But if your child starts gymnastics, they can make friends almost instantly with their gym class. If you put a
group of people together in a room that all have a common interest the likelihood of them becoming friends is very high. This is because we create friendships through shared interests and shared experiences. Children who do gymnastics share the interest and share the experience of competitions and training which means the children will communicate about this, leading to their social skills improving.
With all these benefits and more that your child will gain from gymnastics, why not let them join. Ultimately they will end up more resilient, better at working in a team, a better sportsman and will gain key social skills. Gymnastics is a great sport for your child to become involved with, and to see them smile out of utter joy and happiness from their accomplishment after they do their first big move on the high beam, it’s worth any time spent taking them to classes.
So, what now?
Let your child become involved in gymnastics! Help them grow into a wonderful human being and help them grow their passion. Get your essentials for the first ‘big class’ from our range of gymnastic leotards on The Zone. We personally suggest picking the ‘Sparkle’ for the first lesson it’s easy to wash, comes with a bit of glittery pizzazz (which is always a bonus) and is kind to the wallet! Discover more gorgeous gymnastic wear on our website.
Picture this. Your giddy child runs up to you one night while you’re watching ‘Greys Anatomy’, they’re complimenting you and being overly nice (this isn’t usual what do they want now) eventually they spit it out. They’d like to start gymnastics. Your mind begins to wander; I thought they wanted to start piano lessons? What about injuries? What about the classes? Where do I get the kit from?
Don’t worry, believe me. Gymnastics is such a wonderful thing for your child to get into. Not only will it keep them fit, concentrated and give them a good social life, but theres also so many benefits of gymnastics that will help your child throughout their life.
group of people together in a room that all have a common interest the likelihood of them becoming friends is very high. This is because we create friendships through shared interests and shared experiences. Children who do gymnastics share the interest and share the experience of competitions and training which means the children will communicate about this, leading to their social skills improving.
With all these benefits and more that your child will gain from gymnastics, why not let them join. Ultimately they will end up more resilient, better at working in a team, a better sportsman and will gain key social skills. Gymnastics is a great sport for your child to become involved with, and to see them smile out of utter joy and happiness from their accomplishment after they do their first big move on the high beam, it’s worth any time spent taking them to classes.