Jen nifer
May 19, 2018 13:22
About 13 minutes into my 8 year old's trial class, we almost pulled her and knew we'd never be enrolling. My wife and I have a combined 30 years connected to developmental gymnastics, USAG and the like and were able to identify at least a dozen safety challenges within minutes of observation.
1. A significant portion of children were being directed to do skills well beyond their ability without having mastered the person progressions leading to the skills. We saw many children resting their weight on their neck, bending their arms when inverted, twisting incorrectly, etc. The coaches were not spotting these children and in many cases barely watching.
2. When coaches were spotting, their tactics were incorrect and can actually cause injury.
3. They spent the first 15 minutes stretching cold muscles. This is a very old way of thinking. It's been provenin recent years that stretching BEFORE activity causes injury as the muscles begin to shorten afterward.
4. I love hip hop and R&B. I shouldn't have been able to sing along to Ludacris, 50 Cent, etc. - in uncensored versions no less - with a gym filled with children as young as 4.
5. The highest level gymnasts in the gym were doing various drills and it's clear they aren't coached effectively based on the finer points of detail in their execution.
Needless to say, this was a frustrating, stressful start to a Saturday morning.