Tag Archives: Gymnastics

Summer Gymnastics: Why You Should Still be in the Gym over Break!

As school lets out and the weather warms up, many gymnasts choose to take a break from their sport. This can seem like a good idea, to give the body a break and focus time on more classic “summer activities.” However, for a sport like gymnastics that is so dependent on progression (building up from one skill to the next, more difficult skill) and constant maintenance of strength and flexibility, taking a long break in the summer can really hurt a gymnast’s development in the sport. Gymnastics, like many sports, requires regular practice to maintain and improve your skills and fitness level. However, unlike most sports, gymnastics is more dependent on actually going to a gymnastics-specific facility to get that practice in. Therefore, simply staying active over the summer does not quite do the trick. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. Muscle Memory

A silly picture of a brain with arms and legs lifting a barbell as if to work out.

This brain is working out its memory muscles!

Gymnastics relies on muscle memory, the learning method wherein the brain starts to memorize movements in a particular pattern, allowing a gymnast to perform skills without having to think about them. For instance, a roundoff back handspring would be impossibly difficult if you had to think about every single step of performing the series. Instead, your brain knows how to do the roundoff and can start preparing for the back handspring from the time you start your hurdle. Muscle memory is reliant on regular practice, or else the brain begins to forget the patterns it has learned. A long break from gymnastics can therefore cause the brain to forget much of what it has worked so hard all year to learn, making the process of relearning these skills much harder come fall. Having to spend time relearning what you had mastered previously means you will have less time to spend learning new things!

2. Equipment

A panoramic photo of a gymnastic facility, showcasing the different kinds of equipment important to the sport.

All of this equipment in the gym is crucial for safely practicing.

Another reason to remain in the gym over summer break is that gymnastics, unlike many sports, requires very specific equipment and safety measures (coaches who know how to spot, for instance), which makes it very difficult to practice it at home. While kids can practice many skills for a sport like baseball in their backyard, unless you have proper matting and expensive equipment set up in your house, practicing gymnastics is not really a possibility. Even if you do have some equipment in your home, doing gymnastics safely and correctly often requires the presence of a coach who can correct your form and technique. Practicing a skill at home incorrectly can lead to difficulties in relearning the skill properly when back in the gym, making the progression to the next skill much slower.

Ways to stay involved this summer

A photograph of children running around a floor; a pile of gymnastics mats is stacked in the middle of the floor as part of a game the children are playing.

These young campers participate in a group game of natural disaster.

Viking Gymnastics & Dance makes every effort to provide opportunities for all of our Viking students to continue to improve during the summer months. We have plenty to choose from, whether it be in classes, camps or clinics. Participating in summer camps can really help gymnasts concentrate on specific skills or hone their form, as camps are longer than a normal class period. Camps also include games, crafts, and team building challenges. They are a great way to spend a week (or weeks!) while parents are busy and children are sure to have a blast while maintaining all the skills they have worked hard to learn all year.

Summer training is not only important for gymnasts, which is why Viking’s dance program also has a number of exciting camps and clinics scheduled. Camps range from musical theatre to breakdancing and may be full or half day. Clinics are concentrated lessons in a particular genre and are a great opportunity to try something new or to improve skills in a favorite kind of dance. These opportunities are educational and fun ways of passing those long summer days, and they will help your child stay active and in shape during their time away from school.

A group of children pose for a silly picture after a day of gymnastics camp.

This group of summer campers poses for a silly picture after a day of fun at Viking.

 

For more information, please check out our website, call our front desk at 847-965-2700, or email us at info@vikinggymnastics.com!

Thanks, and have a lovely, fun-filled summer, from the Viking Gymnastics & Dance family!

 

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10 Gymnastics Safety Tips

Technique Tuesday:
10 Important Safety Tips for Gymnasts at any Level

By Ashlyn Kershner

Gymnastics is, by no account, the world’s safest sport. There is all sorts of risk involved when you flip and jump and swing several feet off the ground on a bar or beam, or when you run as fast as you can toward a stationary object, or when you do a front skill with a blind landing (when you can’t see the ground as you approach it). This risk comes with the territory of the sport, but it is also part of why the sport can be so rewarding. The sense of accomplishment that comes from conquering a seemingly impossible skill is indescribable. However, because of the risk of injury, safety measures are absolutely paramount in a sport like gymnastics, and we take your safety very seriously here at Viking Gymnastics and Dance. Here are ten crucial safety tips we practice at Viking at every level of gymnastics, from tots to team.

  1. Use correct matting!  

    Mats are so, so important in gymnastics. They cushion falls and lessen impact on joints like knees and ankles. Without mats, gymnasts would have to land on hard surfaces, and that would be infinitely more dangerous! Whenever practicing any gymnastics skill, make sure you are over a mat or gymnastics carpet.

Panels

Mats are super important; they line the floor under all apparatuses!

  1. Always have an instructor present!  

    Coaches and instructors are here to keep you safe when practicing gymnastics, not just to critique your form and technique. Even when they are not spotting you directly, coaches have an eye out to make sure you are practicing skills safely.

Kerry

Coach Kerry helps a friend with some leg lifts, so our friend doesn’t fall down!

  1. Never try a new skill without supervision!

    In addition to making sure you practice the skills you already know safely, coaches can tell you when it’s time to make a skill harder or work on a new skill. You should never try a new skill by yourself without a coach’s permission. If you attempt a skill that you are not yet prepared to do correctly, you risk hurting yourself or others. Trying new things is of course one of the biggest ways you can improve your gymnastics abilities, but always make sure to do so with the A-Okay from your coach!

  2. Don’t run around the gym!

    Obviously, a lot of gymnastics, especially tumbling and vault, requires running. But when you’re not running for a skill or because a coach told you to, running around the gym (from event to event, for instance) can put you and your friends at risk. There are lots of obstacles in the gym, from mats to walls to bar supports. If you are not paying enough attention, it is easy to trip on things and fall or to run in the way of someone who is about to do a skill, causing a collision. Luckily, these are super avoidable issues that we can prevent by simply walking safely around the gym when going from one place to another.

A gymnastics coach leads a line of five young children across a colorful gym.

A class of young friends safely follows Coach Maythe in a nice, straight line to walk across the gym.

  1. Watch out for other gymnasts!  

    Always, always, always keep your eyes open and stay aware of your surroundings in the gym. There are people everywhere in the gym, and even the most careful of us can sometimes fail to notice someone about to tumble where we’re walking. The best way to prevent this is to be responsible for your own awareness. Always assume that other people do not notice you, so that you always notice them. This stops all sorts of accidents and collisions!

Six young gymnasts sit waiting to take their turn on a tumble trak at Viking Gymnastics & Dance.

This class is waiting patiently for their turn on tumble track!

  1. Listen to your coaches!  

    Coaches have already been mentioned twice, but it cannot be stated enough that listening to your coaches is one of the most important parts of your gymnastics education. Your coaches are experts in safety and proper technique and are always looking out for their gymnasts’ safety. If they tell you not to jump up and down, it’s to protect you from accidentally jumping on someone. If they tell you to talk more quietly (or not at all), it is so that they (and you!) can pay better attention to their (and your!) surroundings. If they tell you to tuck your head in, it’s so that you do not rest all of your weight on your head.

A gymnastics coach talks to a class of three toddler-aged children.

Some young friends listen as Coach Carly gets ready to explain their stations in the tots area.

  1. Stay off your head!  

    Speaking of tucking your head in, this is an important safety rule all on its own! Going upside down is a key part of gymnastics, but if you support all your weight on your head, you are putting too much pressure on your neck, and neck injuries are no joke. Even if it is just a bridge where you can’t quite push your head off the floor, it is important to ask a coach for help. That little bit of pressure can make your neck surprisingly sore, which at the very least, is unpleasant and at the most can cause lasting damage. Whether it is bridges, handstands, or even headstands, always make sure you’re supporting the majority of your weight on your hands.

    Four gymnasts doing headstands.

    Even when doing headstands, gymnasts use their hands to support the bulk of their weight, protecting their necks.

  2. Stretch before practice, warm-up before stretching!  

    This seems like a minor one to a lot of people, especially because young children are often so active that they can just jump in and do a cartwheel or a backbend like it’s nothing, but warming up and stretching are super important at the beginning of practice. Without proper stretching, the muscles may be too tight to perform certain skills, which can lead to strains or pulls, and without proper warm-up, the muscles may be too tight even to stretch. Getting our blood flowing through warm-ups allows us to stretch as effectively as possible, which enables us to perform our skills without hurting our muscles!

A group of young gymnasts stretches in a straddle position on a gymnastics floor, overseen by a number of purple-clad Viking coaches.

A group of gymnasts stretches before one of Viking’s day camps..

  1. If something hurts, tell your coach!

    One of the easiest ways to turn a minor injury into a major one is to ignore it. If something hurts a little doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Something, like an ankle, that hurts “just a little” is likely in a weakened state. Without realizing it, you could favor one ankle and end up putting too much weight on the other side and injure that one too. Or you could land something like you normally do, but your already-weakened ankle can’t take the pressure, and ends up in an even worse state. I use ankles as an example because this is particularly true for them (a previously-sprained ankle is much more likely to end up sprained in the future), but it’s true about all pain or discomfort. While often, something minor that hurts really isn’t a big deal and your coach will tell you to work through it, sometimes it may warrant more attention or rest. To be safe, always make sure to inform your coach.

A gymnasts's injured elbow and ankle, both braced, shown on a chalky floor.

Injuries can worsen if not treated properly. Braces like these can sometimes help! Always talk to your coaches to figure out how best to deal with an injury.

  1. Have fun!  

    This may seem like a silly rule for an article about safety, but a positive attitude is actually very critical to safe gymnastics. If you are feeling discouraged or unhappy, it is possible you will not put your whole energy into a skill, which could cause you to fall. While you certainly cannot be expected to be happy all the time, it is important to try to harness all the positivity you can muster when you are doing gymnastics. Having fun will help you to achieve your biggest goals even faster, because it will help you put everything you have into getting better and better! 

    A purple-clad gymnastics coach gives a big thumbs up and a smile alongside her bespectacled gymnasts on the bars.

    Coach Angie gives a big thumbs up and a smile alongside her gymnast on the star bars.

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WGN Stops By Viking Gymnastics and Dance!

WGN Stops By!

By Ashlyn Kershner

 

WGN Van

The WGN van pulls into the parking lot first thing in the morning.

Back in November, WGN Studios dropped by Viking Gymnastics and Dance for their “Around Town” segment. They visited the week of Thanksgiving, when we had many camps and other fun things taking place. Correspondent Ana Belaval spoke to Charlie about her roots and her vision for Viking as well as to April about our thriving tots’ program. Ana was able to observe our gymnastics day camp, team practices, and dance classes, even participating in some!

 

Why did WGN Choose to Visit Viking?

WGN is a leading news network in Chicago’s, and “Around Town” is one of their more popular segments. In “Around Town”, Ana visits places of interest around the city, reporting on their history, mission, and other fun things about the place. For Viking, that meant talking about our wide variety of programs with lots of fun footage of gymnasts and dancers and Ana having fun with the classes! The segment aired on Tuesday, November 28 during several news hours throughout the day, each covering different bits of footage from the network’s visit.

Ana in dance class

Ana joins in a hip hop class!

 

 

 

What Happened during the Visit?

Charlie gets a mic

The WGN crew hooks Charlie up to a microphone.

In the clips from the segment, you can see Ana in full Viking attire swinging on a high bar and sticking her landing with a big gymnastics stretch, footage of the boys’ and girls’ gymnastics teams practicing on floor, beam, and the boys’ events, Ana’s interview with Charlie about Viking’s story and mission to be inclusive to every possible entry into the worlds of gymnastics aand dance, and her interview with April about the importance of mobility training like our tots’ classes to early childhood development in all areas, not just mobility. We then see Ana participating in a hip-hop class and talking to Charlie about the Viking’s dance program, while Viking Dance director Lynn’s classes practices in the background. Finally, Ana reluctantly climbs into the giant hamster wheel in the gym to be rolled back and forth by Dan and Angie, everyone laughing delightedly, with our gymnastics day camp hard at work and play in the background. It was truly a delightful morning with WGN, and hopefully it’s led more people to check out our facilities and programs. As Charlie says in the clip, we’ve got something for everyone at Viking!

Ana and Charle

Ana and Charlie pose for a picture after their fun and successful interview.

 

Check out the full series of clips!

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