Gymnastics Is a Sport That Essay

Of course competition at the major university level, and in the Olympic Games, is also important in terms of national pride and individual achievements for elite athletes. But at the community level, gymnastics is also important because it provides a way for young people to learn about -- and pursue -- practices that promote healthy living.

The correlation between components of physical fitness and gymnastics: an article in the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (Donham-Foutch, 2007) asserts that training in gymnastics is "an excellent means of teaching basic motor skills, as well as health-related fitness" (Donham-Foutch). The point of the article, in addition to making clear how components of gymnastics training relates to keeping fit, is that gymnastics programs for children are being developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP). In the first and ninth weeks of continuing-education gymnastics classes, college students (trained to work with young kids) teach children "objective skill measures" by observing and assessing basic body positions, "nonlocomotor and locomotor skills…and gymnastics skills" (Donham-Foutch). Children are placed in small groups based on their level of skill, and in the fifth week class work is dedicated to "an aerobic circuit-training arrangement"; this allows children to develop endurance and gymnastic skills.

The gymnastic classes (some for three-to-five-year-olds; some for five-to-14-year-olds) focus on body positions ("arch, tuck, pike, straddle and layout") and the six basic locomotor skills ("running, galloping, sliding, hopping, jumping and leaping") (Donham-Foutch). Gymnastic skills such as those developed on balance beams, ropes, rings, vaulting horse, a mini-trampoline and tumbling mats provide great fitness opportunities for the children (Donham-Foutch).At the conclusion of the ten-week gymnastics training program, the college students who led the children reflected that "they felt more skilled and confident" because they went through the program of teaching children basic movement and gymnastics skills" (Donham-Foutch). Moreover, the college students said that teaching gymnastics to children helps prepare them for other physical activities and other sports; the gymnastics training also helped children "develop a foundation for confident and coordinated movement" and reinforced the commitment to help children "continue a lifetime of physical activity" (Donham-Foutch).

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Donham-Foutch, Shae (2007). Teaching skills and health-related fitness through a preservice gymnastics program: preservice students learn by doing, as they teach gymnastics to community children. The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. 78(5), 35-40.

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