Are you running out of ideas for the kids over the summer school holidays? Not sure how a school holiday program works, or how your kids would enjoy it? Did you know we run an extensive school holiday program right here at FCGC?! Trying to keep the kids entertained and active over the holiday period can be a challenge, especially if you have to return to work before the youngsters go back to school. We all want to keep our kids happy, healthy and engaged! One of the best ways we can initiate this, is to allow them personal time to develop and explore in a safe environment. Allowing a child to participate in a school holiday program, can boost a child's learning capacity in nearly all aspects of the social, personal, physical and emotional development. A child participating in our program will develop communication skills with others, leadership skills, group interaction skills, safe play skills as well as confidence and many more important skills for life! FCGC's school holiday program has been created with an array of participants in mind. We truly believe we offer a unique program for all those involved. Each day of FCGC's school holiday program has been designed so all children will get the most out of their experience. Our weekday programs offer multiple different themes, all with new exciting activities! From arts & crafts, to science experiments, food creations, brain teasers and more. Each individual experience should be special, fun and over all educational in many ways. The best part is, they will be having so much fun they will hardly notice they are learning as they play and create! Our gym time and free play sessions will also allow them plenty of time to get all their sillies out - so to speak! Movement is the biggest facilitator for learning, for all gymnasts big or small, new or experienced. Rest assured your little gymnast will have plenty of opportunities to practise new and old skills, run, jump, climb and more! Does this sound like the perfect program for you? I think it does too! Check out our School Holidays Program tab on our website or click HERE for more info. We can't wait to see you over the holidays!
Signing off for now, Coach Maygan.
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Yet. It is such a small word, with such a big impact.
There are two very common forms of mind set we often see. A “Fixed Mind-Set” and a “Growth Mind-Set”. The way we view ourselves and our achievements can be reflected back to either of these two forms of mind sets. Having a fixed mind set can mean you think of yourself as is, without much room for growth. A growth mind set can mean you think of yourself as changing, and believe your skills will change and grow as you learn. The use of our language can directly impact others, and ourselves when it comes to our developmental learning and our motivation! Using phrases like “yet” or “not just yet” can really set a goal and boost ones motivational levels. If a gymnasts says “I can’t do that!”, it’s best to encourage them to say “I can’t do that - yet!” It also means that with guidance they will continue to learn, and persist in their journey to succeed. This simple change of language shifts their mindset from fixed, to a growth mind-set. Which will encourage them to learn over time. It is very important we are helping our gymnasts to keep in mind that every attempt they make, will contribute to their long term learning and their goals. Sometimes it can be challenging for our gymnasts to understand this concept. With help from their coaches and their trusted adults, we can guide them to the understanding that patience, persistence and perseverance in our actions and our words will set them up for success! What do you think about today’s blog post? Please comment any of your experiences with positive language, and the power of “yet” below, we would love to hear your stories. Signing off for now, Coach Maygan. We all want to get the most out of our training! Even if we do all have some off days occasionally. So here is some advice from other gymnasts on how to make your personal training great, BEFORE you even enter the gym:
Signing out for now, Coach Maygan If you have ever considered trying out Adult Gymnastics, this post is for you!
I am certain you always hear people talk about the physical benefits of gymnastics, or any other sport. I am also almost certain you could name many benefits yourself. So what else could be a benefit of gymnastics that you may not have considered? Mental Benefits. The way you approach new challenges will be a true determining factor for most things in your life. Especially so with Adult Gymnastics. If you haven't come from a gymnastics background it can be daunting! Even if you used to partake in gymnastics as a child, it can be overwhelming returning to an activity after many years. Studies have shown that being involved in regular physical activity is beneficial for improving your focus, learning and concentration capacity. With these natural added benefits on your side, your attitude and mental toughness will be ready to be tested. The only thing really stopping you from learning that back tuck is, well your own thought process. The ability to maintain focus and determination to complete new skills - despite how scary, is a mental skill of its own! Your discipline can be trained, just like your muscles. It is something we all struggle with in our daily lives. Through gymnastics, you can learn to push yourself beyond your ‘giving up’ point. You will learn to succeed in the face of adversity. However, your mentality to never quit, despite the results... is what makes Adult Gymnastics special. These important skills will carry over to your everyday life. Gymnastics will really teach you, “Skills for Life”. Of course, there are other numerous benefits such as:
Have you considered Adult Gymnastics before? What is interesting to you about Adult Gymnastics? Leave a comment, let us know! Signing out for now, Maygan Term 3 is competition season for FCGC with many opportunities for our gymnasts to participate in various competition formats. Competitions are a fantastic way to challenge gymnasts and provide many opportunities to develop skills for life.
Our program provides a gradual introduction to competition from participation, to competing to achieve a score, to competing as part of a team, to competing individually against others. FCGC supports gymnasts through the competitions creating the opportunity for positive competition experiences that develop skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. Some parents are concerned that competition may place too much pressure on kids to be their best and can cause unnecessary stress and leave children feeling disappointed if they don't measure up. To shield kids from disappointment, many well-meaning mums and dads avoid competitive situations altogether. Child development experts point out that positive competition experiences are good for kids. Besides setting them up for wins and losses later in life—hey, they won't always land that big promotion—competitive activities can help them develop important skills they'll use well into adulthood such as: 1. Following rules 2. Performing in public (dealing with nerves and distractions) 3. Empathy (being able to win and lose gracefully) 4. Dealing with disappointment (especially publicly) 5. Develop tenacity and persistence (not giving up when things get tough) 6. Value of hard work and the understanding that sometimes we have to work harder the others. 7. Focus and concentration (especially when there is a lot going on around us) 8. Accountability, Independence and Responsibility 9. Perspective (this is something I do, not who I am) 10. Positive attitude towards competition (it can be fun and challenges us to be better). This will open up opportunities for them in the future. Entires for all competition are taken via our Customer Portal - https://app.iclasspro.com/parentportal/fcgc1/camps?camptype=161 What do you think of when someone brings up elite gymnastics? Young, petite girls who have dedicated their youth to gymnastics? They have to look a certain way to be good at gymnastics right? Think again! We have seen some excellent results from the Aussie gymnasts at these Commonwealth Games and we are so proud to have them as role models within our sport because they are true examples of how gymnastics has evolved. The average age of the Australian Women's Artistic Gymnastics Commonwealth Games team in 20.2 years. Everyone of these amazing athletes is an adult and still training at the highest level on competition possible. The average height of the team is 162cm (5'4"). How much shorter is a gymnast than the general population? Only 2cm!! The average height of an Australian women is 164cm. There are no rules on how you need to look to be a gymnast. Gymnasts are not born they are built!Gymnastics teaches children skills for life. It is a sport the teaches self confidence and determination. Gymnastics takes away instant gratification and shows children that hard work pays off. Why would you limit a child's access to these life long learning opportunities based off their physical appearance? Help us change the general populations ideas about what you "need to be" to be a gymnast. The only thing you need is to walk through the front door of a gymnastics club. GYMNASTICS TEACHESOur Son has always been an active kid, even as a baby.
We have introduced him to many different sports over the years, but none of them seemed to give him enjoyment or a sense of belonging. Our daughter had been attending FCGC for about 6 months, when a skills session in the holidays sounded perfect for our son. It was amazing to see the excitement and joy in his face. He talked about it for about 1 hour afterwards. We spoke to him about maybe a trail lesson, explaining it would be quite different to the very fun skill session he just did. He didn’t even think about it, it was a solid YES. His trail lesson was brilliant, lots of encouragement from coaches, small class sizes, demonstrations and best of all fun. He came upstairs with a new found bounce in his step and the first words he said to us was “Can I keep it?” That was almost 1.5 years ago, and he is still just as passionate about lessons now. During this time he has had both male and female coaches. I personally love that FCGC has so many male role models in such a female dominated sport. Our son has learnt more than just fitness, strength, and balance. He has learnt team skills, social skills, responsibility and community spirit. At FCGC we provide opportunities for people to develop skills for life. An important part of this is ensuring gymnasts own their experiences. Parents are an important factor in ensuring gymnasts develop the ability to own their experiences, which will enable them to make better decisions on their own and accept the consequences of their choices.
So what can parents do to help? Anne Josephine from JAG Gym suggests the following 12 ways to let your child own their sport experience. 1. Drop WE for HE/SHE. Watch what pronouns you are using when you are talking about your child’s sport. Unless you are your child’s coach, WE do not have practice or a game, HE/SHE does. Pronouns are the part of speech that indicates possession. Let your child possess their sports experience. 2. Don’t keep up with the Jones’. Just because the Jones’ hire a private coach, send their child to an expensive sports camp or begin home-schooling so little Janie can train more, does not mean your family needs to follow suit. 3. Sole expectation: character counts. The only expectations you should have of your child is that they treat their coaches, teammates and opponents with respect, and that they give their best effort. 4. Little gymnasts have big ears. Be careful of your comments around your child regarding the coaches or the abilities of other teammates. Critiquing the coach can disturb the bond between the coach and athlete. Comparing your child’s performance to a teammate’s can create jealousy and weaken friendships. If you have a problem or question, speak directly to the coach. 5. Take a break from the bleachers. Watch how much and how intently you watch practice. Give your child some space to have the experience to themselves. 6. If you can’t say anything nice… You have two options on the sidelines: cheer or be silent. 7. No comment. Don’t comment on refereeing or judging. 8. Goals are between coach and athlete. Let your child and your child’s coach set the goals related to the sport. If asked about your goals for your child your answer should be for them to have fun. 9. Don’t process your feelings with your child. Your feelings of inadequacy from your own childhood sports experience, your frustration with your child’s coach or your feelings of disappointment with your child’s results; are not things to talk about with your child. Instead, turn to your partner, friend or therapist for support, but do not make your child responsible for your feelings. It is your job to help your child with their feelings not the other way around. 10. Don’t use the car ride to coach. Talk about mastering skills, how good it feels to exercise or be part of team instead of win/loss records, missed plays or how the child can improve his/her performance. 11. Let your child experience logical consequences. If your child violates a team policy and has to miss a game, breaks a rule and has a consequence or forgets a necessary piece of equipment and cannot play, don’t rescue them. Sure, if they are very young, they need parental help to keep their gear together, but by 8 or 9 years they should be responsible for their own items. 12. Encourage your child to communicate directly with their coaches. Again, as reasonably expected given the child’s age, the athlete should take responsibility in communicating with the coach. There is a saying that if we are lucky we will have two chances at the parent-child relationship. First, as the child, then as the parent. It is important to remember which role we are playing and whose sports journey this is. |
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