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Sport Parenting

Why Should Your Preschooler Do Gymnastics? – Part 2: Behavioral Benefits

Pound for pound, gymnasts are the most impressive athletes in the world, but gymnastics is about so much more than physical activity. The life-skills your child will learn in their gymnastics class will set them up for success in so many other areas of life. We view gymnastics as a way to build not just amazing athletes, but amazing people! Our coaches reward good behavior, praise progress, and positively redirect misbehavior with patience and loving discipline. Your child will learn to walk in line, wait their turn, share, cooperate, respect their coaches and cheer on their classmates in a fun and safe environment. We take an interest in your child’s behavioral and emotional development in addition to their athletic development, because we truly care about the kids we serve.

Some people think gymnastics is an individual sport, but teamwork is essential to success in gymnastics. We structure our classes to improve peer-interactions by including fun games and partner activities, and encouraging students to take turns and share props, equipment, and attention from their coach. These early peer-interactions are the building blocks for future success in friendships, teamwork, and conflict resolution.


While our Tiny Tots classes include parents, and our Kidz Gym classes focus on independence, both programs will enhance your parent-child relationship in their own developmentally appropriate way. In Tiny Tots, you will build trust in a very physical way, by holding your child in the air, lifting them to the bar, swinging them on the rope and helping them across the beam. This shows your child at an early age that they can rely on you for both physical and emotional support. When your child is ready for Kidz Gym at age 3, you are able to step back, support your child’s independence and watch them grow and learn at their own special pace while you cheer them on from the bleachers!


Developmentally, preschoolers are at an age where they have trouble recognizing the wants and needs of others, so patience is not always their strong suit, and that’s perfectly normal. We utilize gymnastics as a way to teach patience in many different ways. First, children will develop patience while waiting for their turn to swing on the rope, slide down the slide or jump on the trampolines. At a deeper level, it also takes patience to learn the more difficult skills in gymnastics class that may take weeks or even months to master.


Educators and child development specialists often stress the importance of resilience in learning and in life. It’s only natural for your child to fall off the beam once or twice (don’t worry, it’s only about 2 inches off the ground!) but the ability to get back on the beam and keep walking will prepare your child to take life’s challenges in stride. The grit and persistence your child will develop in gymnastics is linked to higher achievement in their athletic, academic, and professional endeavors throughout their lifetime.


Some gymnastics programs can be a little disorganized, with subjective standards for class advancement. When we created our skills-based preschool programs, we included a system for documenting which skills your child has mastered, and which skills they need to improve before safely attempting the next level. When you enroll in a class, you get a Skill Poster, which is a list of skills your child will learn. Each week, your child will receive a Sticker Sheet that keeps you up to date with what they’re learning, plus a sticker to place on the Skill Poster at home. As your child sees their Skill Poster begin to fill with stickers, they see what they’re working towards, which helps them become goal-oriented, a skill with serious implications for their future success in life.


Learning gymnastics is fun and engaging, but it can also be challenging sometimes. Some skills will come very naturally, and other skills may take more time to master. When your child finally learns a skill that has given them a little trouble, the confidence they develop from sticking with it is very gratifying. This encourages them to work through challenges and trust in their own abilities and strengths.


Click here to learn about the Physical Benefits of Preschool Gymnastics.

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Sport Parenting

Why Should Your Preschooler Do Gymnastics? – Part 1: The Physical Benefits

At ASI Gymnastics, we believe that every child can benefit from participation in gymnastics. Younger children have the most to gain from starting gymnastics, because they can begin to reap the benefits of this amazing sport at an early age. In fact, we’ve specifically designed our Tiny Tots and Kidz Gym programs to capitalize on the physical, behavioral, and cognitive advantages of early exposure to the sport of gymnastics, because we view gymnastics as a tool for improving children’s lives.

Just like adults, children need to be physically active to stay healthy, and gymnastics is the best athletic development for children, hands down. Our Preschool program will help your child engage their body in a way that no other sport can offer.

The cardiovascular exercise your child will get from bouncing on the trampolines and galloping around the music circle limits body fat and can greatly decrease their risk of developing obesity-related complications like diabetes or heart disease later in life.


Weight-bearing exercises like early handstand and cartwheel progressions will help your child build and strengthen their growing bones and muscles.


Weight-bearing exercises like early handstand and cartwheel progressions will help your child build and strengthen their growing bones and muscles.


The flexibility your child develops while stretching in class helps prevent injuries in and out of the gym.


Walking on the balance beam is obviously a great way for your child to develop balance. Did you know that balance contributes to confidence, concentration, equilibrium, spatial awareness, and even good posture?


Skills like front supports and bear walks on the bars help your child develop impressive upper-body strength, which is essential to success in gymnastics, and most other sports.


coordination. Crawling over different sized mats, throwing and catching soft objects, squeezing the bar, rolling down a mat, and bouncing on the springboard will help your child improve their fine and gross motor skills, which has even been linked to higher achievement in school!

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In The Gym

“Dream Big, and Always Have Fun!”

Reigning World All-Around Champion Simone Biles came to ASI Arlington on Saturday evening to meet fans, sign autographs, and promote the 2015 AT&T American Cup, where she will compete against some of the best gymnasts from around the world at AT&T Stadium in March.

Biles lived up to her reputation as a bubbly, effervescent role model. While gymnastics is a sport commonly associated with discipline and composure, Biles is famous for her upbeat approach to competition. She lights up whole arenas as she smiles throughout the duration of her world-class floor routine.

Her down-to-earth and friendly advice for the gymnasts in attendance included “Dream big, and always have fun!” So far, this mantra has paid dividends for Biles, who at 17 is on track to be the most successful female gymnast in US history. If she repeats as World Champion again in 2015, as she is heavily favored to do, she will be the first woman in history to win 3 consecutive World All-Around titles, and will carry that momentum into what promises to be a very successful Olympic Games in 2016.

Behind all of the hype surrounding the teen phenom is a kind, playful athlete who loves her sport, and loves her fans. As Biles was leaving ASI Arlington, a mom and her three adorable daughters rushed up to the front door, asking “Is she gone? Is it over? Did we miss it?” Allison Ford had driven well over an hour from Rowlett, in holiday shopping traffic, to give her girls a chance to meet a gymnastics legend in person. Even though Biles had already gotten in the car to leave, her Mother, Nellie Biles, met the Fords at the door and assured them they hadn’t missed their chance to meet Simone. “I’m the Mom. I’m in charge here! I’ll get her out of the car,” she promised them.

Gracious and very cognizant of her duties as a role model, Biles stepped out of the car to take pictures with the Ford girls and talk to them about following their dreams in gymnastics. (pictured above) The impact that Biles had on all of the girls that came out to ASI Arlington on Saturday pretty much sums up why we do what we do at ASI Gymnastics. When we’re fortunate enough to see the eyes of a child grow wide in amazement as a gymnastics super-girl like Simone Biles answers her questions and signs her grip bag, we recognize how blessed we are to serve the thousands of families that call ASI home.

From all of us at ASI Gymnastics, thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with your children. There is no joy in the world like changing a child’s life for the better, and it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a monumentally blessed New Year. As Simone Biles would say, “dream big, and always have fun!”

News

Meet and Greet with Simone Biles Saturday, Dec. 20 at ASI Arlington

We would like to invite you and your family to come meet Back to Back World Champion and 2015 AT&T American Cup Competitor Simone Biles on Saturday, Dec. 20 from 6:00-6:45pm at ASI Arlington! Simone will be signing autographs and having a short Q&A session. This is a perfect opportunity for your gymnast to meet her in person just a couple months before she goes on to compete at the AT&T American Cup on March 7 at AT&T Stadium.

Autograph cards will be available, however, feel free to bring your own item to get signed. Please allow only one item per child. You will be able to take pictures throughout the event, but no individual pictures will be allowed due to the time constraint.

Don’t forget that tickets to the 2015 AT&T American Cup are on sale today through ASI Gymnastics! Get your tickets early before they are gone!

MEET AND GREET WITH SIMONE BILES

SATURDAY, DEC. 20
6:00-6:45pm
ASI Arlington

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Team News

Meet Season Has Begun

After months of dedicated practice and preparation, meet season at ASI Gymnastics is officially upon us! Last weekend, almost 400 gymnasts from around the Dallas area competed at ASI Firewheel, and this past Saturday, almost 100 gymnasts from the Houston area competed at ASI Cypress. We call this first meet the “Practice Makes Perfect Meet” because it gives the girls a chance to perform their routines in front of the judges before their first official meet in January. It also gives us a chance to make sure our ASI-hosted meets live up to the high quality our families expect and deserve.

At ASI meets, we use a scoring system called Beyond the Scores, which allows us to broadcast your athlete’s scores in real-time, immediately after the judge records it on their scorecard. A volunteer sits at each judge’s table with a tablet, and inputs the scores wirelessly. Then, the athlete’s name and score flash on our flat screen monitors around the gym. As they are recorded, they are also saved into the Beyond the Scores system permanently, which you can access via our website or the free BTS mobile app. You can use the app to track your athlete’s scores throughout the meet and throughout the season. If you are interested in volunteering to score at a judge’s table, please stay tuned for announcements and emails to recruit volunteers. This is a great way to get a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into making our meets so successful!

From ASI Team Director Isis Pochciol:

“The Practice Makes Perfect Meet was a total success, thanks to the hard work and collaboration of so many coaches, athletes, judges, and ASI staff. The kids showed off some pretty impressive gymnastics, and they look great heading into meet season. After this meet ran so smoothly, I am confident that this will be the best meet season ASI Gymnastics has ever seen! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone who worked hard to make this meet such a wonderful experience for the kids. There’s nothing quite as exciting as the first meet of the season!”

TGGA PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT MEET

Hosted by ASI FIREWHEEL
December 6-7, 2014

TGGA PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT MEET

Hosted by ASI CYPRESS
December 13, 2014

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