With students off for winter break Calico Gymnastics Club hosted a pair of drop-in days Feb. 16 and 18 for kids aged 3-7 and 8-14.
Coach Emma Hergott said that it was important to hold the drop-in days because it allows kids to experience gymnastics and is a good teaching tool.
“Gymnastics is a sport that teaches you a whole bunch of different life skills.”
The Club was able to attract a number of kids over the two days, with the second day being more popular than the first.
The first day saw between 13 and 16 kids take part in the four hours while the second day saw between 34 and 40.
Hergott said that the rise in participants for the second day was largely due to kids returning from the first day.
“The kids did really good, they had a lot of fun and they ended up actually coming back.”
Participants got to try different gymnastics events and have fun. The different events taught kids different skills and worked on different areas of their bodies.
Some of the disciplines the club did with the kids included swinging on the bars, which improved grip strength, walking on and jumping off the balance beam, which worked on kids’ balance and safe landings and they got to bounce on the trampoline, which improved their spatial awareness and body control.
The kids also got to do some activities like rolls and working on motion, which improved their motor skills and they worked on conditioning to help build muscle, which would allow them to do all of the gymnastics disciplines more safely.
They also played games, including a ninja game were the kids struck a ninja pose and were required to one at a time try to hit the arm of the person next to them and then they had to leave their arm where it landed afterwards. If they were successful in hitting their neighbours arm then their neighbour put their arm behind their back and were down to one arm. Once both arms had been hit they were out and had to wait until the next game started.
This improved their speed and reaction time, which would come in handy during various disciplines.
Hergott said that the day was fun for all involved including the coaches.
“It’s fun to work with the kids, it’s fun to teach them new things, it’s especially fun when they learn new things and they’re proud of themselves when they do something cool,” she said.
