Don't mess with a gymnast!!!

[GymDadRadioguy]

We did end up enrolling our daughter in Parizi Speed School to help with her vault. Well last night was her evaluation to determine where she should be placed. During her evaluation she was asked to do as many pull ups as she could and my little 7 year old busted out 10 like it was nothing. Everybody in the gym stopped what they were doing and gave her a standing Ovation including former Oriole pitcher John Parrish. He came over and said "wow that girl is an athlete" Its funny to watch non-gymnast athletes gawk over how in shape our gym kids are. It felt great! I feel a blog coming on!

Dennis
gymdad.blogspot.com

 

[ShadowGymnast]

Lol

(Writes down this account to a long list of story's about me and other people that have owned other non gymnasts!)

 

[MdGymMom01]

Parizi Speed School...for a 7 year old...for vault??? LOL--now I have heard everything!!!

 

[Billy]

Well, I think it sounds great! Knowing these gymmies, it's just more fun time to show off the cool things they can do. LOL

 

[gym law mom]

Parizi Speed School...for a 7 year old...for vault??? LOL--now I have heard everything!!!

MdGymMom---ITA. Paying to have someone teach your 7 yo to sprint? C'mon, there has to be 1 coach in the gym that can work on running drills. Also most kids improve their running ability as they get older and more coordinated. I read the site for Parisi Speed and really it appears they focus much more on what would be needed by a soccer, basketball or football player. This just adds to the chance of overuse/growth injuries.

 

[gymdog]

Actually...while I probably wouldn't do it, if I was going to get my kid involved in supplemental athletic activities I'd pick (in this order): ballet, some kind of track/running, and then the crossfit/supplemental strength stuff. Proper running form is a little beyond me, I'm sure. I was actually trying to watch videos on youtube the other day, and I was AMAZED at all these speed and agility drills that I have never seen in gyms for the most part before. Man! I was getting excited. I need some more things to do. But anyway. There are some clinics out there but a lot of compulsories don't know how to run. And in season there's only so much time you can devote to that. Although I'm planning some kind of full scale offensive in January, perhaps details are to come, I'm gonna use the internet to turn myself into a track coach.

I don't think it's necessary. But to be honest I don't think your average compulsory coach really knows many drills beyond the ladder running thing and stuff. There are a couple that have made the rounds at congress and the optional level regional clinics...but that's mostly what I've seen. I'm sure actual running coaches know a whole lot more than me, much like I probably know more about how to teach bars.

 

[coachmolly]

One of the clubs I trained at regularly brought in a running coach from a different but I would imagine similar school to work with all of the team gymnasts on running. It's definitely not unheard of and something that a lot of gyms are missing. The previous 2 clubs I had attended did very few, if any, running drills. It's probably also just another fun activity for a little one to be involved in outside of gymnastics.

 

[gymjourneymom]

I've never heard of "speed school" but one of our gym's coaches is a former Olympic vault winner(silver, I think) from Romania(?). And he has taught them all how to run, starting with preteam! Our gym has some amazing vaulters at all levels thanks to him! Not only has DD been state vault champx3. She also cleaned up running track in middle school & the track coaches loved her. There is something to be said for learning proper sprinting technique. I guess we are spoiled at our gym by have such a good vault teacher on staff. Yes, it is fun when the girls get to 'show off' a bit & get some 'awe' time in a different venue. My DD really enjoyed running track for that reason. Gymnasts are just good all around athletes(pun intended)!

 

[CoachTodd]

Locally we have "first in fitness" contests at the elementary schools. The gymnasts are always the ones busting out 20 or more pull ups. The other kids don't stand a chance.
We also have a local jr Hockey team condition at our gym periodically. These guys are 14 and older and basically one step below pro. One of our coaches was showing them how to spot each other on pull ups since they couldn't do them. She used one particular girl as her example person to spot. When the coach let go of the girl and continued to talk, the girl kept going with the pull ups. After a few more reps, she let go with one hand and continued to do a few more pull ups with one hand.
It was great to see 15 teenaged to adult guys shown up by an 8 year old girl.

 

[MdGymMom01]

My kids' school has the FitnessGram program twice a year where they are tested on different strength, flexibility and endurance exercises. They send a sealed printed out report home and dd is always off the charts in everything. It's funny because she will tell me that she could have done more pull ups or pushups but she would stop because she was the only one left standing and she "didn't want to show up the boys". LOL--How thoughtful of her not to embarrass the boys!!!

 

[GymDadRadioguy]

You would be surprised how many kids do not know how to run properly. A major problem in this country is that kids are taught skills for the sport they are involved in, however they are never taught how to be a true athlete. Our coaches have been super supportive with our daughter being in this program AND most importantly it's different from being in the gym and it's fun for her

Gymdad.blogspot.com

 

[AdamSvensson]

Runing right is very important for both gymnast and recreative runners to lessen the burden on your knees and hips in the runing seqvens.
But as someone meantion you should really have atleast one coach at the gym that can teach your girl that.
I was an elite junior runner and long jumper when i was a kid, with 1000s of hours of runing i do have some knowledge of runing drills and jumping.
We have teached the gymnast from the earlier begining a good runing technique and compare to the gymnasts clubs around us we have little to no knee injuries.

I would specially lookout on the foot insert the last steps before a jump, the more they press on the heel, the more likely they will get knee injuries in the long run. When you insert your heel first you get effect similar to pull the break and the impact on your knee will be harder.