Scene: Sault Ste. Marie Gymnastics Club. Early July 2009. 25 kids, aged 4 to 10, are crouched at one end of the big blue floor, carefully keeping themselves tucked behind the white starting line.
At that moment, the room is dead silent. All eyes are on 'Coach' – a lone figure in the middle of the floor. Tension builds. Little muscles coil like springs. Kids twitch, but stay behind that magical white line.
"3, 2, 1…GO!" yells 'Coach'. The room explodes. Kids sprint across the floor, and drop to their bellies. They spring upward as high as possible, then quickly return to the floor. "Yay, burpees!" they chant over and over, every time they do a burpee, as per the coach's instruction. The fastest flip over into a crab walk, and hustle back to the starting line. The smaller kids gut out the burpees and try not to stumble on their way back to the start.
40 seconds later, it's over. Kids are panting. Little girls compare sweat on their brows. Little boys argue over who finished first. All are ready for more. They quickly go silent, waiting for the next challenge.
Across the room, a small band of teachers, off for the summer and trying to get an extra teaching credit, are taking a five-day course in basic Gymnastics. They go still while they watch the kids, so rambunctious in school, calm, poised and ready here. Listening to 'Coach' while he explains the next challenge: squats, followed by a hard-labour wade in the foam pit, hands on heads. Anticipating.
After 45 minutes, a teacher comes over. "How did you DO that?" he asks me. Kids are scattered all over the floor, tired but glowing with achievement. I'm smiling too. It's just as much fun to be 'Coach.'
There's good research supporting the notion of keeping your kids active, not just healthy. For one, they'll always be better at sports if they learn basic skills as young kids. That will help in a large way later on: in social settings, for health reasons. But it will also help much later: Kids who play actively before they're age six suffer less depression as an adult. Girls who are active in sports at a young age are more likely to leave a man who abuses them. Boys who learn to interact in a competitive way through sports, gym, or martial arts are far less likely to be arrested when they're over 18.Some skills, too, are better learned while young: if your sense of balance isn't developed by age 12, forget it.
Our philosophy: teach a wide variety of activities. Mix and match running, jumping, tumbling, gymnastics, plyometrics, climbing, and calisthenics. Combine exercises in a game-like format to keep them fun. Balance things out to keep them injury-free and better at ALL sports. Challenge kids and watch them excel!
We put our 45-minute Catalyst Kids sessions together in a fun, play-centred way. Yes, they're exercising. Yes, it's challenging stuff. But we play it like a game. Though big kids and little kids do the same basic workout, it's always scaled to ability level, just like the adults. We keep groups small (6 or less) and we do them in a private environment (our Queen Street location.) We hire only the absolute best Coaches. We keep it safe and fun. We let the kids become excited about exercise.
Registration for our first Fall session (10 weeks, from September 12 until November 14) opens September 1. Registration fee: $99 per child (plus gst.)Groups and Times:
Age 10-12: Saturday at 8am – 8:45am
Age 7-9: Saturday at 9am-9:45am
Age 4-6: Saturday at 10am-10:45am
Note: group times are subject to change.
Call 253-0011 or 256-1344 to register!