T&T preschool T&T?

[dani4]

My 4 year old daughter has been in gymnastics since 18 months, she has been on the pre-team track for the last year and seems to have good potential to be a team gymnast someday (according to many coaches)...

But over the last few weeks she has been refusing to go to gymnastics (I posted about this in the parents forum), and when her coach mentioned that there's a new T&T class for 3-5 year olds I asked her if she wanted to try it and she said yes.

She has always loved bouncing on the trampoline, and jumping around in general, so this may be a good fit for her. In any case I'm happy to let her try something different for a while. She can always go back to gymnastics if she wants, it's in the same gym.

In any case, is there anyone out there with preschoolers in t&t? I just wonder what that is going to look like. Unfortunately the class will be during my work hours so it's unlikely that I'll get to go and watch. What do they do with 4 year olds?

 

[MaddieLynn]

I've been a preschool T&T coach for almost 4 years now. Here's what I do with 4 year olds:

Warmup:
-bear walk
-crab walk
-running
-skipping
-hopping on one foot and two feet
-scissor feet
-feet out/together (jumping jacks drill)

Stretching:
-Pike
-Straddle to sides and middle
-Butterfly

Tumbling:
-Front rolls on floor (both tucked and piked)
-Straddle rolls on floor
-Back rolls on a wedge, moved to floor as they advance
-Handstands: both against a wedge & hand spotted (advanced may do spotted handstand forward rolls)
-Cartwheels
-1 hand cartwheels (only if very advanced & competent at regular cartwheels. I've had a few 4 year olds who could do it.)
-Rebound drills
-Level 1 passes (possibly level 2 for advanced 4 year olds)

Trampoline
-Jump with arms held straight up, down, and out
-Tuck, straddle, and pike jumps
-Half and full turns
-Seat drops
-Straddle to seat
-Pike to seat
-Front drop progressions (knees to tummy first)
-Seat drop-knee drop-tummy drop connected (seat to tummy if advanced)
-Begin working back drops
-Backward rolls
-Begin working 3/4 fronts (just front rolls while holding knees at this stage)
-Level 1 pass (level 2 if advanced)

Double Mini
-Drill mounting with 2 feet (at this stage they are still usually short enough to be using a wedge to mount)
-Drill 3 bounces
-Tuck jump off (ideally with just 3 bounces)
-Straddle jump off (ideally with just 3 bounces)
-Pike jump off (ideally with just 3 bounces)
-Jump, tuck, tuck (level 1 pass 1)
-Jump, straddle, straddle (level 1 pass 2)
-Jump, tuck, straddle (level 2 pass 1)
-Jump, straddle, tuck (level 2 pass 2)
-Jump off backwards
-Forward roll off with or w/o wedge mat
-Forward roll on top
-Backwards roll on top, landing feet on ground
-Drill stuck landings

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, and again, a lot depends on how advanced a particular child is. We have even had a rare few who could back handspring at 4. I'm betting that if your daughter has been in all around gymnastics for a while she will be fairly competent.

 

[coachmolly]

I used to coach a pre-school class at a T&T gym, though we would use the women's equipment as well to help build strength and body awareness. Our program was very similar to MaddieLynn's- lots of rolls and cartwheels on floor along with some general jumping/punching type stuff and learning basic body positions.
Lots of basics on trampoline, there it really depends on the kid. Some 4/5 year olds are still very floppy and lacking in body control while others can move along to much more advanced things. Lots of simple combinations.
Some of our T&T kids really amazed me at how quickly they progressed and we had little ones (5-6) move up to the level 4/5 classes in some cases.

 

[High Energy Tumbling]

Its funny. Alot of parents are coming in and asking about T&T and we started to get some equipment together specifically for it. Its great for preschoolers and particularly boys as it seems most of the good Parkour guys were excellent tumblers.
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