Balance and Falling
Happy Fall! Our theme this week is falling.
I often get the question, “why should I put my child in gymnastics? We’re a basketball family”. I love basketball too (I was raised by diehard Laker’s fans but it’s forever GO KNICKS!) and I get it! Gymnastics at Ita starts as early as 2 years old. Gymnastics will enhance any future athletic endeavor through: a) strengthening their balance b) teaching them how to fall. In every students first class they will learn how to safety fall and safety freeze as well as why we teach that technique.
How do you strengthen their balance?
We practice activating all 3 systems of balance: proprioception, vision, and vestibular.
Proprioception: Your body’s ability to sense it’s own position and movements in space. Muscles, joints, and inner ear send info about where you are to your brain.
Vision: Your brain helps your eyes perceive the surroundings and predict how you will need to move/adjust.
Vestibular: Your inner ear systems working to help with acceleration, spatial awareness, head position + more.
My philosophy: I want to challenge and enhance your child’s balance, while preparing them to fall and get back up.
We will do a range of consistent kinesthesia exercises with corrections and modalities so everyone learns how to improve on their proprioception. I want to help your child’s vision processing be safely integrated into their developing way of moving in the world.
Most of my students are quite fast when it comes to their vision processing. What they are not as experienced in is factoring in other humans into that equation. There can be a lot of bodies going a lot of diffferent directions in a gym.
Students have to slow down, look where they intend to go to make sure it is clear, look both ways in the gym for any other gymnasts, communicate to the other gymnasts if needed, and then they are allowed to take their turn. Taking the time to teach gymnasts how to move through a gym and account for other people helps everyone stay safe and courteous while strengthening their predictions of how to successfully move through the world.
Vestibular disorders make you use lots of energy to stay upright increasing the possibilty of fatigue. Ita can help you child practice going every direction, learn greater spacial awareness, and landing on the floor from any angle without a trip to the hospital.
For anyone working on these skills, they will also improve in: soccer tricks, bouncing a basketball, playing instruments, riding a bike, and lifting large objects.
What are some examples of how it’s done in class?
-rolls
-going upside down
-swinging
-turns/pivots
-balancing
Help your child learn to fall this Fall at Ita!
Remember: GYMNASTICS IS FOR EVERYONE!
Join us ITA to learn more about balance and falling!