There’s more to gymnastics than handstands

We all know how amazing gymnastics is at improving physical health (better mobility, flexibility, and increased bone health and strength to name a few!) but did you know there are loads of other benefits to gymnastics for your little one?

As a parent, it might feel a little tricky to see the full range of benefits for your child at first when they disappear off with us each week, but you’d be amazed at the incredible progress our coaches get to see in them!

That’s why we’ve put together this list of our top 3 long-term benefits that gymnastics will bring for your little one:

1. Gymnastics builds a positive mindset and healthy habits

Gymnastics helps to create loads of healthy habits and skills such as goal setting and self-motivation.

As your little one progresses through their classes, they will see that exciting routines and skills are often the hardest to complete. This will help them aspire to improve their skills, and with the help of their coaches, they can set realistic goals and work through to achieve them.

Gymnastics is one of the easiest sports to track your improvement as your little one sees themselves progressing onto progressively movements, which is super rewarding!

With their coach’s approval, your little one will be able to go away and practice their new skills at home, helping them improve faster and instilling the importance of self-motivation and practice to achieve their goals.

The idea that ‘practice makes perfect’ is an important lesson that your little one will learn as they develop in our classes, and a mindset that they will be able to transfer to other areas of their life.

This notion that ‘practice makes perfect’, goes hand in hand with developing perseverance.

One of the most important life skills that your child can learn from a young age is to push through even when things get hard. So even if your little one leaves class one day feeling disheartened that they didn’t manage to complete the skills they hoped to, you and their coach can help encourage them if they work hard and practice, they’ll eventually achieve it. When they get there, the sense of achievement will do wonders for their confidence!

You may have noticed that when your little one comes out of gymnastics class they’re often in a good mood - that’s thanks to the endorphins that are released in the brain when we exercise! Not only do we get to see short term benefits, but when we exercise regularly, we can see that overall mood is improved. Plus, our classes are super fun – who wouldn’t come out with a huge smile on their face?

2. Gymnastics helps your little one develop social skills and form life-long friendships

We’ve seen our students come along leaps and bounds not only in their performance, but in their social skills too with us!

Gymnastics classes are a great place for your little one to form life-long friendships with other kids with similar interests to them.

We’ve seen our sessions be very useful for children who struggle socially because of our friendly atmosphere, approachable coaches, and structured, fun sessions. Often, this combination of experiences helps to reduce some of the anxiety that children can feel around socialising, allowing them to create new friendship bonds more naturally over time in a setting that feels familiar to them.

Additionally, being part of a group can help little ones feel a sense of belonging gained from being part of a shared activity. It’s very positive for their developing self-identity and can combat feelings of isolation they could otherwise experience.

Gymnastics has also been shown to help young people become more conscientious and empathetic as they learn to share equipment and become aware of the safety of others in the space around them. And with coaches giving lots of important instructions to help them perform skills safely, gymnastics also helps with listening skills, something very important as they move through the school years.

3. Gymnastics improves mental health

One of the biggest benefits of gymnastics is the positive effect on your little one’s mental health. Once again endorphins are at play! As well as improving mood, when we exercise the endorphins released in the brain can reduce our stress and help to maintain a positive outlook.

Gymnastics is also really effective at improving sleep efficiency (i.e. the amount of time your little one spends in bed). This in turn also helps boost their mood and improve brain function, and hopefully improves your sleep as you won’t be kept up all night trying to get them back to sleep!

Your child will also find that their self-esteem growing as they continue to develop through their classes!

Gymnastics provides them with an incredible sense of achievement when they’re finally able to complete skills that had previously felt impossible. Furthermore, your little one will become used to performing their skills in front of coaches, peers and family in our events and competitions, so they won’t as be phased performing under pressure in future. Plus, our coaches are super encouraging and will be celebrating with your little one every step of the way as they reach their goals!

You’ll also find that as your little one continues to attend classes; their focus and cognition can start to improve. Gymnasts are required to overcome mental blocks to complete difficult moves, this requires a lot of attention to push through and focus on all the different elements that need to happen to help the skill come together.

If in doubt, we’re sure your little one will tell you how much fun they have in their sessions, and you may have even noticed some of these incredible benefits in them yourself!