Leotard Design Contest for the first Singaporean to qualify for the Olympics!

Singapore, April 20, 2012 – Singapore Gymnastics (SG) invites all interested individuals to take part in the Singapore Gymnastics Leotard Design Competition to design the leotard for Lim Heem Wei for the Olympic Games, London 2012.


Head over to their website for further details!


Leotard Design Contest

Post on GymMomentum.com

Shoot on over to GymMomentum, I've written a quick one.

Reflection

Only One Minute

In Open Gym last week, we decided to complete 800 cartwheels in only one minute! As you can see, we've got some practicing to do.


Yes, I participated too!

This was a fun collaborative effort and everyone was involved. I walked around and had each kid whisper their numbers so they wouldn't feel as if they were competing.

ADHD/ADD vs. Gymnastics

As an advocate for children living a drug-free life the topic of ADHD/ADD hits close to home. I've heard many children say they are on medications for this "supposed" disorder. I don't think that the parents really understand the risks. The Innovative Educator has been a great resource for parents looking for the truth on ADHD/ADD.

Interestingly, these are symptoms found from webmd:

• fidgeting, squirming when seated
• getting up frequently to walk or run around
• running or climbing excessively when it's inappropriate (in teens this may appear as restlessness)
• having difficulty playing quietly or engaging in quiet leisure activities
• being always on the go
• often talking excessively

This describes EXACTLY the type of kids I want in the gym! 

Happy Holidays!

Perfecting the basics is one of the highest priorities for me as a coach. I spend 70% of my pre-teams' work-outs on conditioning & flexibility, which is closely monitored like a hawk. The rest of the time is on basics, footwork, arm positions, etc. It's hard at times to keep them motivated but they are a fun group and we come up with ways to work on our skills and stay focused.

One way we work footwork on beam is by doing zig-zag walks in 5th position. More than half of these girls walked into the gym with that silly pigeon toe and these are helping establish a good turnout. We zig-zag forwards and backwards. Another way of mixing it up is by adding a relevé to change the levels and we add tendu to 4th position, lunge, etc. I'll let one of them pick out a sequence of 3 or 4 and we'll work on that for a pass or two then give another teammate a chance to come up with a sequence. 

On our last practice for the year, they came up with something even better...

As a coach I'm holding back as much as I can to stick to these basics, get it right and not to rush skills. These little ones make it easy for me because they enjoy doing it as long as I make it seem like we are doing different things every day. We have lots of work to do in 2012, but we're ready to go and I'm hoping I'll keep coming up with more fun and effective ways to teach them how to use their bodies like a gymnast. 

Open Gym, not just for the kids!

It's a great time for me to play with the kids, experiment with props and stations. I find most of the greatest ideas from my kids or just seeing something from a different view. Open Gym at our gym can get quite messy, balls, noodles, mats and equipment everywhere! In this case, I saw a Theraband hanging on the balance beam and there goes the light-bulb switch.

At first I thought of using an incline, but then I thought of the tire tracks that the wheels could roll on. This also makes them keep super tight! Wish we had more spring boards and more Therabands so I could make them roll under all 3 of our high beams.

I also use Open Gym to test out new ideas. In this next drill, I wanted to add a little more for my tactile learners. Most of the time, I'll just have the kids make fists and call it a day. But I find that they'll usually just open their hands & lose that sense of keeping tight the whole time. I made pairs of different textures for them to fit in their hands.


The girls really likes doing the sponges, I'm thinking there's more to the average dish sponge than we thought.

Making Conditioning Fun!

More than half of the Pre-teams practice is strength and conditioning based gymnastics, yet we have so much fun. Earlier in the term, I made bingo cards for each of the girls. One for each event; vault, bars, beam, floor. I asked them to take it home and color them however they liked and bring them back. Then I laminated them and keep them for the girls. As I do my lesson plans, I make sure there is at least 1 or 2 sticker opportunities for our events for the day. They are totally motivated & for me its fun to see them working so hard to get conditioning with good form. I'm pretty tough on these little ones when it comes to good form for a couple weeks it seemed like we couldn't get it right!

Week 12 seemed to be the magic number when we started to get BINGO! 

I'm happy to see the girls getting so strong and excited about body shapes, conditioning and flexibility. It's easy for all of us to track our progress in a fun way. They are even starting to cheer each other on and show great sportsmanship by congratulating each other for good efforts. They are learning so much more than just gymnastics skills here in the gym and it is such a joy to be apart of it!