Why Gymnastics?

Gymnastics provides many benefits!

Physical Fitness

Gymnastics programs help students gain an appreciation for a lifetime pursuit of health and fitness.

Alarmingly high numbers of pediatric obesity in our children today make it more urgent than ever to offer fun exercise programs that increase physical activity by incorporating strength, flexibility, speed, balance, coordination, power, and discipline into their every day lives.

Gymnastics classes are able to include all of these aspects in a healthy environment and prepare our youth for a lifelong healthy lifestyle.

Injury Prevention

Gymnasts are among the strongest and most flexible of all athletes. Flexibility can be an effective aid to the reduction of injury.

Gymnastics offers a wide variety of stimuli for the body and lays a great foundation for any other sport.

Gymnasts are very good at static and dynamic balance. Therefore, gymnasts tend to develop a higher tolerance for imbalance or disturbances to their balance which is another way of effective injury prevention.

Gymnasts learn early to fall without injuring themselves. Rolling is one of the first basic skills gymnasts learn in their gymnastics classes.

Gymnastics is a reasonably safe sport when taught by properly-trained and safety-certified professional coaches.

Cognitive Brain Development

Gymnastics is a complex sport with many subtle and dramatic nuances. Research has shown neurotransmitter connections are made while participating in gymnastics programs.

Gymnastics programs increase cognitive skills and abilities through listening, verbalizing, memory, concentration and spatial awareness.

Children who participate in gymnastics often tend to learn and perform well in school. They also experience fundamental physics which may provide an excellent starting-point for science discussions and reading.

Psychosocial Skills

Liberty Gymnastics strongly believes in educating children in life skills; not merely the learning of new knowledge, but developing abilities that truly make the most of life - allowing children to interact with, perceive, influence, and relate to others. These psychosocial skills enhance the development of a child's potential, personality, and character strengths.

Gymnastics offers many opportunities for children to develop psychosocial skills. As they learn and grow in the sport of gymnastics, they: explore their behaviors and feelings when they interact with their coach and classmates, challenge themselves to learn new skills, and achieve specific goals. They learn hard work, discipline, and determination through encouragement and observation. They also learn to support and cooperate with others and function well in a socially meaningful context.

In Summary...

Gymnastics is not only a sport for children who want to be gymnasts. Gymnastics can provide a solid foundation for all sports. It develops physical strength, speed, flexibility, agility, coordination, grace, balance, rhythm, and much more. Children who start gymnastics at a young age easily and successfully transition to other sports like soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball, football, swimming, diving, martial arts, and pole vaulting. They often have a greater advantage over children who have not been exposed to gymnastics classes before.

According to our parent survey, focus and time-management are two advantages they attribute to the sport of gymnastics. However, mastering the fundamental skills of gymnastics also requires patience, dedication, perseverance, and hard work – skills and qualities that can take years to achieve. These character qualities are among the most important developments gymnastics can teach our children, especially in today's world of quick-fixes and instant entertainment. Add self-satisfaction, self-esteem, good sportsmanship, team-building activities, and other obvious reasons for gymnastics participation. The physical, mental, and social benefits are numerous - all work together to create a very whole and balanced individual.

We invite new parents to partner with our Liberty Gymnastics staff, coaches, and families to help nurture the whole person – body, mind, and spirit – in all of our children through the wonderful sport of gymnastics.