Gymnastics Term of the Day

Back Walkover:
Back walkovers can be performed on floor or beam.  It is taught in the lower levels of gymnastics on floor and in the higher levels of gymnastics on beam.  There are many progressions before performing a back walkover (e.g. bridge, bridge kick-over, back bend, back bend kick-over)

In a back walkover, the gymnast starts in a standing position, then:

• Lifts one leg up and arches back until his/her hands touch the ground
• Pushes off the leg on the ground and shifts his/her weight to his/her hands
• Passes through a handstand position, with legs close to or in a split position
• Steps down from the handstand

(courtesy of about.com)

Here is video from YouTube that shows you how the back walkover is performed on floor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIzCqy-R9oo (courtesy of expertvillage).

Gymnastics Term of the Day

Cartwheel:
a gymnastics skill in which the body makes a revolution sideways supported on the hands with arms and legs outstretched.  A cartwheel is a basic skills in gymnastics and can be a progression (lead up) to round-offs and aerial cartwheels (a cartwheel with no hands).

View this video (courtesy of EHowSports) on how to do a cartwheel http://youtu.be/97RVWQ7FBt4

Top Reasons To Take Gymnastics

Physical activities for children becomes more and more important as the rate of obesity in children rises.  "In the United States, childhood obesity affects approximately 12.5 million children and teens (17% of that population)" - Center for Disease Control and Prevention.  In the sport of gymnastics, there are many physical benefits as well as non-physical benefits that can aid in your child becoming happy, healthy and confident throughout their childhood and adult life.

Benefits of Gymnastics

1. Great physical benefits: performing basic gymnastics skills/movements one can benefit in the areas of building muscle strength, healthy bones and flexibility (which can aid in other sports).   
2. Builds balance and basic motor skills:  Gymnastics benefits both gross motor and fine motor development.  Gymnasts are not only developing strong legs and arms through balancing, jumping, climbing and swinging, but they are also developing fine motor skills in which they learn to manipluate their fingers and hands.  Gymnastics also aids in developing hand and eye coordination and focus.  Mommy and me programs are great starter programs for children to build these basic skills at an early age.
3. Teaches a love for exercise at an early age: having an appreciation/love for exercise at a early age can promote trends that children can continue throughout their lifetime and into adulthood.  Exercise at any age also helps with fighting disease and keeps our kids healthy. 
4. Builds confidence and improves self esteem: Studies have shown that children involved in sports gain confidence in their achievements, are able to learn independence and improve problem solving skills.
5. Encourages healthy brain function: when they are exersicing their bodies they are also exercising their brains. 

Here is a great article by livestrong.com about the benefits of gymnastics and all the sport has to offer for your child to become happy, healthy and confident. 
http://www.livestrong.com/article/142195-what-are-benefits-gymnastics-kids/

For more information on Olympiad Gymnastics, visit our website at www.olympiadgymnastics.org

Team Central Trivia Night

Team Central Gymnastics is hosting its annual Trivia Night & Silent Auction on October 22, 2011 at the St. Ann Community Center in St. Ann, Missouri.  Team Central is a 501-C-3 not for profit organization that provides various different opportunities for children interested in the sport of gymnastics.  They offer recreational classes to children ages toddler throught teen.  Team Central also provides instruction for competitive level team athletes who are striving for National level or collegiant level gymnastics.  Team Central is also home to the "Cardinal Power Kids" which provides instruction to children with developmental and physical disabilities. 

Team Central's annual trivia night & auction raises money to provide for the Regional/National travel fund, general operational costs as well as new equipment for all programs and gymnasts scholarships.

The Trivia Night/Auction runs 10 rounds of general trivia.  We offer a 50/50, silent auction, games between rounds, costume contest (Halloween) and LOTS of FUN!  The tables are $160.00 for maximum of 8 players.  The price includes beer, water and set ups.  If you are interested in attending Team Central's Trivia Night, contact Team Central at 314-291-0101 or visit their website at www.teamcentral.org to print the registration form.   It is sure to please all that attend. 

Our Staff is "Good For Kids"

How do we become "Good for Kids"? We take opportunities to feed our staff member's desire to learn.  By providing our staff with the means to learn in arenas such as training clinics, seminars and training videos we give them hands on experiences to develop and build on their teaching skills. This knowledge in turn contributes to our programs and the children we teach.

In the next few months Olympiad will be hosting several skill building clinics for our staff.  They will be focusing on the following:

• Tumbling progressions
• BHS diagnosis
• Vaulting skills & drills
• Handstands & progressions
• Cartwheel & progressions
• Spotting & drills for bars
• Beam skills
• Tumbling & trampoline

ON OUR WAY!  At the beginning of August, Olympiad Ellisville hosted a clinic that focused on tumbling progressions and BHS diagnosis.  The clinic also focuses on bars for the first hour and spent time on teaching handstands and progressions for handstands.  This was a great opportunity for the staff to learn basic skills as well as the progressions for advanced skills.

SKILL BUILDER CLINICS – Other Continuing Education Clinics being offered at Olympiad Ellisville

October 1 1:00 - 3:00

You will learn spotting, drills and stations for Bars.  We will go over reaching cartwheels and cartwheel progressions.

December 3 1:00 - 3:00

This will be a beam clinic.  We will also breakdown the backward roll for teaching and progressions.

February 4 1:00 - 3:00

We will use the full 2 hours on Trampoline and Tumble Trak skills and drills.

To learn more about Olympiad Gymnastics you can visit our website at www.olympiadgymnastics.org

SPECIAL KIDS NIGHT OUT

Olympiad Ellisville runs a lot of special events; from birthday parties on the weekends to Kids Day Out on weekday mornings.  We also have a Kids Night Out program once a month on Saturday nights where parents can drop off their kids, enjoy a date night, and we’ll ensure their children have a blast in the gym!

We recently ran an event that we were very passionate about and very excited to offer to the community.  It was different than our regular Kids Night Out’s – for this special event we wanted to honor a gymnast that we recently lost.  Macy Tolbert, age 7 passed away unexpectedly from suspected meningitis.  Macy, a triplet, took classes alongside her sisters Ella and Sydney, and we’ve also been able to get to know and love her parents, Shelly and Christian.  Macy's family has been active in our gym for the past several years.  The staff decided to hold a Kids Night Out to benefit Macy’s memorial fund.  Staff right away jumped in to volunteer their time, and we worked to secure food donations from the community so that all profits could benefit Macy’s memorial to assist with medical bills and funeral expenses.

Macy’s Kids Night Out ran last Friday, August 5 from 6-10pm.  We had 64 kids in attendance and a great staff that volunteered their time for the event!  The children enjoyed gymnastics rotations, group games and everyone’s favorite- fort building!  With great support from our customers and community, we were able to raise about $1500 for a great purpose.  Seeing so many happy and smiling faces running, flipping and cartwheeling was a fantastic reminder of why we do what we do everyday.

Olympiad would like to thank everyone who took part in the event!  Also, a special thanks to the Woodford, Duggan, Sabados and Bouras families for their donations of food and supplies.  Pizza Pizza was kind enough to provide us with some tasty pizza pies, and Gulf Shores Restaurant donated a very yummy salad.  We are incredibly blessed with a caring staff who gave their time on a Friday night for a superb reason: Kelly Blanner, Darcy Bates, Jamie Spies, Amanda Major, Morgan Kapp, Jennifer Duggan, Amy Bell, Will Stokley, Sarah Trice and Joy Ordaz.

View this very touching tribute to Macy Tolbert, she will be missed by many http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlKh36TYKQc

If you would like to learn more about Olympiad Gymnastics in St. Louis, please visit our website at www.olympiadgymnastics.org

Gymnastics Terminology

Gymnastics Term of the Week:  Compulsory Vs. Optional

Compulsory Routines:
Compulsory routines are routines where the elements/skills, music and length of the routine are established by USAG or FIG. All gymnasts competing compulsory routines must perform specified skills in a specified order. Compulsory routines is considered levels 1 - 6  & prep optional

Optional Routines:
A routine in which the gymnast may perform skills of their choosing under the constraints of special requirements. The skills can be performed in any order but must fit the requirements as specified in the FIG code of points.  Optional is considered level 7 and up.

Learn more about Olympiad Gymnastics in St. Louis.   Visit our website at http://www.olympiadgymnastics.org/