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FAQ

What is gymnastics?

Gymnastics is much more than what you see at the Olympics. Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of sequences of skills requiring physical strength, flexibility, and kinesthetic awareness. As such this sport provides the basis for a child’s fundamental physical ability and skills.

Anyone from walking to adulthood can join in gymnastics and benefit from balanced physical development as a foundation for all sports, not just the sport of gymnastics. All gymnastics skills can be broken down into the dominant movement patterns of spring, landings, static, rotation, swing, locomotion and hand held apparatus. In fact the German word for gymnastics is used to describe all sports.

There are actually seven Gymsports:

  • MAG (Men’s Artistic Gymnastics)
  • WAG (Women’s Artistic Gymnastics)
  • RG (Rhythmic Gymnastics)
  • GG (General Gymnastics – including Display Gymnastics and Kindergym)
  • AER (Sports Aerobics)
  • ACRO (Sports Acrobatics)
  • Tramp (Trampoline Sports)

What qualifications do your coaches have?

All of our Gymnastics Instructors have passed a minimum Level 1 Coaches Course run by Gymnastics Tasmania and are registered with Gymnastics Australia and the Australian Coaching Council.

Our coaches are required to complete a minimum of 6 points (approximately 6 hours) of gymnastics related workshops each year for their accreditation to be maintained. In addition Gymsports operates in-house workshops for coaches and also has Interstate coaches to teach at our annual clinic.

Is gymnastics safe for my child?

We believe that gymnastics at our centre is a safe sport for your child. In fact we believe that your child’s involvement in gymnastics will improve their spatial and body awareness.

In addition to learning and increasing body awareness, control, balance and strength your child will learn safe landing and falling techniques. These skills may decrease the incidence of injury when your child is performing gymnastics, other sports and doing physical activities.

Whilst there is always a risk of injury we have put in place measures to make our sport safe including:

  • Basic skills are mastered prior to teaching harder skills
  • All of our coaches are accredited and receive ongoing training
  • Our club regularly undergoes risk management audits and equipment safety checks
  • We are involved the Club 10 Quality Assurance Program

In the Australian Sports Medicine Federation Sports Injury Survey gymnastics had a risk factor of only .01. This is significantly lower than other sports including hockey .15 and netball .11. The risk factor was determined by the number of injuries admitted to hospital x100 divided by the average hours trained times the number of participants.

Is gymnastics expensive?

At Gymsports we believe that the cost of our programs are very competitively priced. Cost for classes is often cheaper when compared to other activities in our region such as swimming, dancing and music lessons.

We aim continually to give our customers quality service at a reasonable price.

What is Club 10?

Club 10 has been developed by Gymnastics Australia. This scheme is an accreditation system that provides a framework for continuous improvement across ten key club operational areas.

The Club 10 vision is “An accredited network of vibrant and successful affiliated Clubs providing a comprehensive range of Gymsports, to Australians of all areas and abilities”.

A Club achieves a Star rating, from 1 to 5 (5 being the highest), through and comprehensive auditing scheme. Australia wide in 2004 only 5 clubs where awarded a 5 star rating.

Does it matter if my child has never done gymnastics or struggles with sport?

All of our introductory classes are designed to cater for children of varying ability, whether they have participated in gymnastics before or are just starting.

All of our programs have been designed so skills and activities build on the fundamentals. Activities are adaptable depending upon the child’s individual ability and can be made easier or more challenging to ensure a positive learning experience.

In fact we believe gymnastics frequently benefits those most, who struggle with aspects of physical activities or development. We have also received feedback of increased self confidence for children who have previously struggled with sports.

The programs have also been designed to provide children with fun activities, which promote achievable challenges in a safe environment and build upon the fundamental skills of gymnastics, whilst also developing skills pertinent to other sports.

At the end of each term our Programs for Children over the age of 5 have a Certificate Week. Each program has progressive coloured certificates. There are 10 skills on a certificate and for each skill the children will receive a coloured sticker for good, very good or excellent. If they are unable to achieve a skill it is left blank. The children do not fail a certificate and have something to take home and show for their participation. We have received strong positive feedback to this system of recognizing achievement in a non competitive manner.

Does my child have to do competitions?

None of our introductory or educational programs have competitions. When children progress from these classes their coach will suggest different options for them which may be one of the non-competitive programs such Girls, Boys, Tramp or Tumbling Club Badges, Cheerleading, Circus etc. These programs are award based programs where skills are learnt and reviewed.

If you accept a place for your child in a Development Program or a Competitive Team Program, then your child will be expected to be involved in competitions.