The Stunt Gym!

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Physical development is as important as mental development

My school is a Christian Stunt Gymnastics School.  All my customers are Christians, and 99% of them are home school families.

I got this from one of the home school parents deliberating on the change of schedule that her daughter as an intermediate needs to attend 2 hours in September. She said:

We would love for [our children] to continue their gymnastics training, but we have to view it as an elective - we can’t let it dictate our more basic
study schedule.

At first I agreed with her, because I understood what she meant. However, as I meditated upon it further, then later discussed this with her husband, I saw a fundamental error in her thinking.  The education of children is to prepare them to be godly adults equipped to face whatever the Lord may have for them later. The natural thought is in the education of their minds, equipping them to be competitive in the adult world. But this is where I realized the mistake in this narrow view.

Full education of your children is in body, soul and spirit, not the mind (or soul) alone. Physical education is just as important to the education of your children as their minds. Of course, I have a self serving interest in this, so I am making the distinction of physical education and gymnastics. Gymnastics is the elective but physical education is not. Your children can be physically trained in many other sports, too, although I am convinced that gymnastics, swimming and dance are the three best activities for gross motor movement development.

It is a statistical reality that obese children continue with obesity in adulthood. Many health problems of adults today are directly related to obese, out of shape bodies. Heart disease, organ failures, joint problems as well as sleep apnea and even cancer have a direct connection to obesity. Furthermore, it is just as true that children who are athletic in their youth tend to be slim and athletic in adult hood, having more vigor in life, which directly relates to their mental capacities.

Every child has a primary learning language. Some are visual learners, others are auditory learners and some others are kinesthetic learners. The kinesthetics especially need PE activity since they are physically orientated. Kinesthetics that are allowed to engage their bodies in physical challenges study better and learn more then they would if deprived of PE activity. But even though everyone has a primary learning language, we all need to learn through each medium. So when I teach gymnastics I try to show a skill, explain a skill and physically carry them through the skill to ensure the maximum learning experience.

I am convinced that the body and the spirit are directly connected, too. What we usually think of as spiritual discernment is often the intuitive reading of body language in other people we see. It is no wonder that so many “spiritual” people are in the performing arts. Yoga combines physical exercise with meditation, and the pagan Baal worship employed temple prostitutes for “spiritual” experience of their religion. Of course, none of these examples are spiritual connections to God, but they are examples of people sensing their human spirits or demonic spirits physically. Gymnastics training develops this intuitive movement because the skills happen so quickly they can not be performed by thinking about the skills while doing the skills. They are done reflexively.

I believe that my gymnastics training is the best physical education that your money can buy, and I hope all will stay in my program. But if not, home school kids need some kind of PE program for their overall preparation into adulthood.  Training their bodies is not an elective.

The 40 x 40 is too large for most places

It’s about time this issue has been addressed.   There is no logical reason on Earth to have the floor exercise routine performed on the 40 x 40 floor.  As far as I can tell this is a throw back to the old days when gymnastics was performed on the wrestling mats because of the shared gym space in the YMCA’s, Sokols, Turnveriens and school systems where sports education was a multi-sport training facility.

There is no artistic benefit in having the floor be 40 x 40.   Routines should be composed for one side view.  Of course for judging panels, two sets of panels can be placed on two sides to speed up competition time.  But aesthetically, the 40 x 40 is awkward.  Cheerleaders have floors  that are 42 x 54 rectangles which provides a more pleasing performance area and more space for tumbling.

Tumbling, in my opinion, should be removed from the floor exercise routine altogether, except the gym acro combinations that flow better with dance.

And, frankly, schools are closing down because of one main reason: too much overhead.  The high expense of overhead is increased because of the size of the floor area which makes finding warehouse space with the room for a floor hard – and costly – to find.  I have actually seen gyms with support pillars in the floor that athletes have to perform around because they could not get a space large enough for the floor.

So, the FIG needs to consider the cost of the industry and remove those things that are cost prohibitive.  The 40 x 40 is one of them.  It would be much easier to have a 25 x 40 floor fit in most spaces than the 40 x 40.  It has got to go. It is a dinosaur that needs extinction. Good riddance to the 40 x 40.