If you are considering introducing your children to acrobatics, this is the article for you.
Acrobatics encompasses total body health the similar way gymnastics does. It involves strength, stamina, flexibility, coordination, balance, control, discipline and focus.
Is Acrobatics Good for Kid?
Introducing your child to acrobatics at an early age will not only prepare them to excel in many other sports, as well as acrobatics, but it also encourages the importance of flexibility and maintaining a healthy body into their adult years.
What makes acrobatics unique, is that it is not only athletic, but it is also performance based.
So, not only do you have to master your acrobatics skills technically, but you also have to make them look appealing to an audience. Because of this duality, your child gains a broader range of skills.
Acrobatics Training for Kids
Young children’s bodies are still very flexible as their bones, muscles, and tissue connections are still developing, so getting a child involved in acrobatics at a young age makes the most sense.
Acrobatics training will not only help your child develop physical skills but will also help them develop life skills, such as communication, teamwork, perseverance, trust, independence, and confidence.
How to Teach Them at Home
Children should start from the absolute basics.
As with any sport, the body must be conditioned. The best place to start is basic stretching and limbering.
From there, basic acrobatic exercises like handstands, limbers (or bridges), pullovers, and walkovers start to develop a strong core, flexibility, and balance.
As your child is starting to learn these acrobatic tricks, it is essential that they have an experienced spotter to help guide them, correct their form and posture, and to help them avoid injury.
Acrobatics instructors and coaches also have a number of other tools at their disposal, including foam rollers, wedges, trampolines, foam pits, harnesses, and tumble tracks.
These are often used to help a child develop a new skill.
The Advancement
Along with the basic acrobatic skills listed above, introducing coordination drills such as leaps, grapevines, spins, etc. will push your acrobat to evolve into a graceful athlete.
Eventually, your child will, naturally, progress to harder skills, such as handsprings, tucks and other aerial tricks, as well as partner acrobatics and prop acrobatics, such as fabrics and trapeze.
Practicing acrobatic skills in a sequence down a mat helps to connect one skill to another. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to perform a routine, so it is important to learn to connect skills seamlessly, creating a beautiful work of art.
The Suitable Age for Acrobatic Training
Children can start learning acrobatics as young as 2 or 3 years old.
Acrobatic training starts simple and becomes more complex after each skill is mastered and as the child gets older.
2-4 Years Old
The acrobatic class starts at the age of 4. However, starting acrobatics training when your child has learned to walk is completely acceptable and has many benefits.
Your child may start in a Mommy-and-Me type class and progress to a regular training atmosphere.
During this time, your child fine tunes their motor skills and becomes more aware of their body. Between 2 and 4 is a good time to learn basic acrobatic movements such as somersaults, limbers, cartwheels, and roundoffs.
5-10 Years Old
Between 5 and 10 years is where your child will start to improve on skills, learn harder skills, and begin to work with partners and props.
This is where your child may start working toward a team or, even a possible career in acrobatics.
Safety Concerns
As with any physical activity or sport, there is always a possibility that your child may get injured. For instance, common injuries in acrobatics such as sprains, pulled muscles, fractures, breaks, and even concussions.
Therefore, your child should always be conditioning for acrobatics. This means cardio, stretching, and repetitive practice. Strength and flexibility are important in making sure you can perform a skill safely.
Also, your child should not attempt to perform a skill he or she is not ready for.
Their instructor or coach will let them know when it is time to safely progress to the next skill. Any new skill should be done with a trained and experienced spotter.
No matter how good they are at a skill, they should still be supervised when training, as injuries can happen regardless of skill level.
The best thing to do is to follow the basic safety rules to avoid injury as much as possible, and react quickly and appropriately if there is an injury.
Feel free to ask me any questions or share your story in the comment section down below! 🙂
Sources:
