Athlete-Centred Training

Our classes are aimed at children from 4/5 years to 12ish years of age. We try to have good fun and learn lots in each class. The first half of class is focused on core skills: agility; balance; co-ordination; strength and flexibility. This part of class prepares children for the skills they will learn in the second half of class and for participation in all sports.

 

The second half of class is focused on learning and practising specific gymnastics and acrobatic skills and routines. This includes skills on the trampette, springboard, vault, parallel bars, balance beam and the air-track (its like a big long bouncy castle for learning gymnastics on). The most important moves in gymnastics are rolls, handstands, and cartwheels.  These must be mastered before children can safely learn somersaults, handsprings and backflips.

 

Many of the children we teach participate in some other after-school sport during the week and many also train with us twice a week. The Irish Sports Council recommend that children of primary school age participate in 3 different sports outside of school hours for their optimal sporting development. Gymnastics is recommended as a core sport and the other sports would ideally be of different types: athletics; game sports; water sports; martial arts and dance. In secondary school this can be reduced to 2 sports and after juniour cert to 1 sport. (3,2,1)

Our Event Calendar

Our event calendar is designed to foster a positive attitude in children towards assessment, competition and public performance. Our year is divided into 3 parts. The first 12 weeks is focused on the fantastics gymnastics awards:

The Fantastic Gymnastics Awards

Every gymnast has 12 moves to learn in this time and is assessed at the end, receiving a cert. There are 9 levels from complete beginner to competitive gymnast. Beginners = levels 1 to 3; Intermediate = 4 to 6; Advanded = 7 to 9.

 

Competitions

The second 12 weeks is focused on learning routines for our club competition. Every child learns a floor routine at his/her level and competes in a fun mini-competition. In order to encourage a positive attitude towards competition every child wins something. This year we hope to organise friendly competions against other clubs for our intermediate and advanced classes. 

 

End of Year Display

The final 12 weeks of the year is spent preparing for our end of year display in which all groups prepare a routine to music to perform for friends and family. This is the highlight of our year.