Gymnastics is probably not being taught enough in our schools, but there a lot of benefits to practicing gymnastics. It is fairly obvious that gymnastics will improve physical condition, but there are psychological and emotional benefits too. If you start learning gymnastics in school and if you like it, it could also provide you with a job.
There are quite a few exercises that the novice gymnast can practice, whilst gradually adding more difficult trials as the gymnast’s body becomes more and more supple and fit. This is a quite slow process, but it is a highly worthwhile one.
Learning how to raise one’s goals slowly but surely is very good for the mind and physical stamina. Stamina is more useful in daily life than strength, although gymnasts have to be strong as well.
This continuous improvement and sense that you can do something that most individuals cannot is very important for confidence. Children, especially girls, frequently lack confidence, so practicing gymnastics would help bring them out of themselves.
If the child enters competitions like representing the school or the town, they will meet numerous strangers in a safe situation which will further enhance their confidence and social skills, This is an area that many other children find a problem until they are more than fifteen years of age.
The young gymnast may even be taken abroad to compete or compete against visiting foreign teams. Making foreign contacts like this and perhaps staying in touch by letter or email with a gymnast friend from the other side of the world will widen the child’s horizons significantly.
Raising one’s degree of skill and competence requires planning by the athlete and his or her coach. When the blueprint to success has been made, the gymnast will be expected to abide by the goals they have planned together. Learning responsibility like this is a very worthwhile thing for an adult leave alone a child. The child will learn self-discipline in training, diet and exercise.
Gymnasts are also judged by people they frequently do not know and in quite a public manner. Many people would resent this type of public criticism and find it difficult to bear, however the gymnast should learn to take the criticism as it was meant – not as an attack, but as a functional tool for advancement. This is another hard lesson to learn for much of the general public.
It is easier to hide oneself in a team. If a football team loses a game, some might blame the defence and some may blame the forwards, but if it is just you on the mat, everything that is said is to do with you and just you. This hurts in the beginning, but it is character and confidence building when you realize that not all criticism is meant spitefully. It can be used to your advantage too.
If the student gymnast actually likes gymnastics, he or she may go a long way in more senses than one. Even gymnasts that are not the best get to travel, take part in competitions abroad and take sponsorship. After all, not every company can afford to sponsor the top athletes, most are happy to sponsor a pretty good athlete who works hard.
If you make it to this stage, your advice will become sought after and there is a job waiting for you once you are too old to take part in competitions yourself – you can pass on your experience to other youngsters as their coach.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on lots of topics, but is currently involved with London Olympic dates. Click a link to find out more 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.