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What if there was a way to have your cake and eat it too as a parent? That’s exactly what you get when you enroll your child at U.S. Gold Gymnastics. Your cake is a fun and healthy activity for your child and getting to eat it is the proven fact that gymnastics enhances the academic performance of elementary students.

If you’re interested in improving the success of your student at school while also providing safe, entertaining and beneficial extracurricular activities, read on.

Gymnastics helps elementary students to improve their academic performance in five ways:

• Improving the focus and concentration skills in your student
• Increasing memory and cognitive function
• Aiding in the improvement of grades and standardized tests scores
• Providing a much needed release from academic pressure
• Increasing discipline, confidence and problem solving skills

How gymnastics helps improve your elementary student’s focus and concentration skills

Imagine your student trying to perfect the latest move they learned in gymnastics by putting their mind and work together toward a singular focus. Such a feat requires quite the focus and concentration skills. Add to that other gymnasts flipping, turning and jumping all around them, music blaring and their coach instructing them. You can almost imagine the smoke coming out of their ears!

When your student is enrolled in gymnastics, they have to learn to block out distractions and focus on the move or technique at hand. And they have to do it over and over again. This allows them to flex and grow those concentration skills more often and in a different way than they might in school.

How gymnastics is proven to increase your child’s memory and cognitive function

Memory and problem-solving are super important in the classroom! Fortunately, gymnastics allows students to develop these skills in a fun and engaging way. Gymnastics is also great exercise which has been shown to stimulate growth in the brain.

Children enrolled in gymnastics tend to have better memory retention, cognitive processing speed and information processing according to a study from the American Heart Association.

Gymnastics students have better grades and test scores

One study showed that students who were in gymnastics at an early age (aka, your elementary student’s age) were more likely to have better grades, higher test scores and an overall better academic performance than students not involved in gymnastics.

In another report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), physical activity was shown to improve grades and standardized test scores in elementary school children.

How gymnastics provides an escape from academic pressure for your child

Speaking of test scores, being a student can bring with it a lot of pressure. Gymnastics provides your student a time to let all of the pressure and responsibility of being a student go and just let loose on the gym floor.

Not only can gymnastics be a creative release for your child, exercise on its own is a proven stress reliever. That means that your young gymnast is learning a healthy method to deal with stress from a young age.

Finally, gymnastics provides another arena for your child to grow and succeed that isn’t based on their academic performance. This is important because having more than one area of focus creates a well-rounded child whose identity does not rise and fall solely on one thing.

How gymnastics helps students increase discipline, confidence and problem solving skills

Gymnastics requires discipline from its young athletes in order to master new moves and techniques. The continued application of self-discipline to improve in one skill can translate over to other things such as improved study habits and following through on projects and homework at school.

Likewise, the confidence a young person gets from trying and learning something new, especially something that requires such focus and discipline, will also bleed over into other areas of their lives.

As a parent, we know you’re always looking for ways to help your kids stay active, healthy and social. Gymnastics and improved academic performance also go hand and hand. It’s a win-win as a parent! If you’re considering signing up your elementary student for gymnastic classes and you live near Destin or Santa Rosa Beach, contact us at U.S. Gold Gymnastics today.

More than 55% of elementary school students participate in organized sports activities. Gymnastics is one of the top five and has been growing in popularity in recent years. Why?

Parents like you are looking for activities that provide an opportunity for their child to be physically active and develop healthy habits. They also want a way to develop their child’s social and emotional skills. And, any way to reduce screen time is a win for most parents.

Enter gymnastics! There are several reasons that more and more parents are turning to gymnastics as their activity of choice to do all of these things and more for their child. In this article, we’ll cover:

• Physical development in gymnastics
• Gymnastics, coordination, and spatial awareness
• Why individual progression is good and how it compares to teamwork

Physical development in gymnastics

Gymnastics offers your child the opportunity for full-body development. Unlike other sports that focus on repetitive motions and more specific muscle groups, gymnastics engages and involves the entire body every session. Whether your child is working on floor movements like cartwheels, rolls, and flips, or working on a particular apparatus like the vault or balance beam, or even working on strength and conditioning, you can rest assured their entire body is involved. That means they are building a strong core and a strong foundation of health and wellness.

Gymnastics, coordination, and spatial awareness

Spatial awareness refers to your ability to move and position your body in relation to other people and objects. This body awareness is a key concept to learn for elementary students. Most parents will know this after having tried to explain “personal space” to a knee-hugging toddler.

In gymnastics, your young athlete will get a healthy dose of spatial awareness and coordination as they have to run, jump and move while judging distances, angles, and objects at the same time. The amount of coordination and body awareness they learn continues to grow as their mastery of gymnastics grows. These skills are important and can also translate elsewhere in life.

Why individual progression is good and what it has to do with teamwork

Many times parents choose sports as an extracurricular activity because they are counting on teamwork to be a key concept their child learns. Gymnastics does offer the opportunity for team competition and learning together. In most cases, your child will warm up with other participants and work on conditioning as well as perfecting technique and movements together.

While you can count on your child learning about teamwork, you can also look forward to their individual growth and development. Gymnastics gives participants the opportunity to develop their own skill, ability, and performance based on their own strengths, weaknesses, and goals. They also receive their own personalized feedback, encouragement, and plan for improvement.

Individual progression means your child can work at their own pace and make progress based on their own effort on a timeline that works uniquely for them. This is helpful since in so many other arenas, such as school and team sports, your child is expected to keep pace with their peers. Gymnastics gives them the opportunity to focus on their own personal improvement as they refine their skill, practice, and grow as an athlete. Individual progression can help students build confidence, resilience, and a growth mindset.

“Gymnastics taught me everything – life lessons, responsibility, perseverance, friendship, and so much more,” said Dominique Moceanu, Olympic gymnast and gold medalist.

Gymnastics lessons are a great way to help your child build a foundation for the mental, physical, and character skills you can’t wait to see flourish in them as an adult. If you’re considering signing up your elementary student for gymnastic classes and you live near Destin or Santa Rosa Beach, contact us at