If you watched the Winter Olympics or
any sport, you can quickly see where gymnastics took a great part in the
athletes development. Did you have a chance to watch things like Shaun White
in Snowboarding, Ski Acrobatics, etc. Twisting and turning is a very important
component to their athletic abilities. Ice skating, ice dancing, cheerleading,
etc. everyone has to learn how to throw their bodies up in the air and land.
This takes lots of conditioning, but it also takes gymnastics training.
Why gymnastics - because it is
composed of - Spatial Awareness - which means where you are in space with your
body during rotations. When you watch a gymnast twist or perform tumbling
maneuvers - they are trained to avoid bad landings by learning the proper
techniques of moving their bodies in co-ordination with the skill. Walking on
a balance beam may look easy - but it takes learning how to hold your body in
a proper alignment with the beam in order to flip, turn, twist, elevate and
still stay on a 4 inch platform. The same is on the high bar or parallel bars,
uneven bars when gymnast perform hand stands or giant swings and still able to
hold on or swing from one bar to another, turning and twisting then grasping
with a hand hold. Tumbling on a floor - which requires propulsion from a
running start and rotating in the air two or three times before landing to
propel the next flip action.
Now you can take these same skills acquired learning
gymnastics and put them in context with other sports. It’s called
co-ordination, hand-eye reflexes, self confidence, improving self esteem - no
matter what the age. Hand eye co-ordination between a bat and a ball, between
a foot and a ball, between a stick and other flying objects, between a ball
and a hoop, all are benefits learned from the littlest thing in gymnastics,
gaining balance, climbing, crawling, jumping, pivoting, etc.
As body parts learn
to move in harmony during gymnastics - the reflexes come into play. Big things
start with the little things, like walking up an incline with a parents
assistance to running on the floor at full speed with complete balance,
turning in mid-air and landing on both feet with out hurting the body. The
maneuvers your muscle learn in small steps, expand as you require more
intensity in movements in your body as you strive to new heights - whether on
a skateboard or handstanding on one set of parallel bars, twist and turn, fly
off and land.
As you can see - gymnastics is the basis of all sports
and is extremely helpful in dance.
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