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

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

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

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.

 

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!