BtGB as a teaching resource

Hi,

I'm coming at this gymnastics stuff from a bit of a different angle I suppose. I was wondering if the book would work as a guide by which I might be able to teach my kids the fundamentals of gymnastics, and impart the benefits of lifelong physical fitness. I'm a 37 year old father of 6, soon to be 7, and my wife and I home-school our kids. Currently I'm in need of some physical fitness myself. I'm embarrassingly underweight, and the gymnastic movements shown on this site are very appealing to me. One reason is because they do not require any expensive weight lifting equipment. After viewing the videos on this site, particularly the videos of young gymnasts, my kids became very excited about trying gymnastics themselves. I bought a pair of rings and installed a pull up bar. I also made a set of parallelets out of PVC pipe. The kids have been having a fun time trying to do what they've seen here. What is especially motivating for them is the fact that certain movements are easier for them than they are for a grown up, like me. L-sits, for an example. All of my kids seem to take after me, and my wife, in that they are not overweight. We live in a rural area, and so they are extremely active outdoors for several hours per day.

So I'm wondering...

Can I use the progressions and exercise descriptions, along with the WOD published here, to teach my kids the basics? I do not have the book yet, but I'm planning to buy it in the near future.

Also, are all of the exercises useful for both male and female? I know that girls don't complete on rings in the gymnastics...does this mean they should stay off the rings if our goal is all around fitness?

My goal here is not that my kids be competitive in gymnastics. For that, I realize that they would need a professional coach, and many hours of dedicated training. I'm interested in the life long physical abilities that gymnastics seems to provide its practitioners. Your replies are very much appreciated.

It doesn't really cover basic skills for all the different apparatuses, but that isn't what it supposed to be about. So, I don't think I would go as far to say it teaches the fundamentals of gymnastics per say, just the fundamentals of bodyweight strength and conditioning (which is needed for gymnastics and is beneficial for general fitness purposes).

It will teach you many cool gymnastics moves, along with making you strong, flexible, and healthier, but again, I don't think I could go as far to say it is an overall guide to basic gymnastics. For that, you many want to look supplement BtGB with some instructional DVD's on tumbling. In fact, BtGB + tumbling DVD will probably get you mostly what you want.

I've never viewed the following DVD, but it looks pretty good.

http://www.stadion.com/acrobatic_tumbling.html

With that said, for anyone that has any sort of interest in gymnastics whatsoever, BtGB it is a 100% must have.

And yes, rings are ok for girls.

Hmm, I'm much more impressed by the DVD trailer than I thought I would after I saw the beginning part. Mainly the spotting portion is what gives it legitimacy.

BtGB and the daily WOD could be very useable as Homestudies PE. Now, getting gymnastics to cover the PE portion of Homestudies can be very difficult in some areas. I just know that often, we cannot get gymnasts, who train from 10-15 hours a week to forego their PE requirements from school. Yes, silly I know.

I have used the DVD's to show my guys how to perform said movements and I have copied some of the youtube material to my Ipod to reference to them. Kind of handy to show them versus handspot them through it.

Something that reminds me as similar would be CrossFitKids as well as the Tyson (the chicken supplier and supported) Fitness Program. It is a rudimentary fitness program that USA Gymnastics somewhat espouses. It's available but I don't think it's very popular all in all. I do like it based on when I read over the program materials. The TysonFitness Program by USA Gymnastics uses very little equipment and is similar to BtGB in the sense they are using gymnastics for fitness. However it is a very simple program that is not focused on building strength for gymnastics but is more of a blend of gymnastics and fun for recreational gymnastics. CrossFitKids is something of a junior program for CF but of course, this means they use equipment in their program and use a more focused approach for teaching youths. There is some rudimentary gymnastics in their program. To note, CrossFitKids uses CrossFitGymnastics for either gender. Most of their gymnastics centers around the parallettes/Parallel Bars and Rings and basic tumbling. They are NOT as in depth as BtGB when it comes to Physical Preparation and Conditioning. From what I have seen and heard, it is more preparation to do what gymnastics is used for CrossFit tailored to MU, HeS/HSPU and other HS and parallette HS stuff.

Anyways, using BtGB you could use it as it builds the basics. While the other books are not out yet, there is a lot/some of the future material detailed in the forum or youtube channel.

As well, my friend's site does have a few articles that cover basic rolls, cartwheels, and Handstand. http://drillsandskills.com/articles/. There is some event information and an archived forum that goes far more into the skills per event.

Two videos from GymSmarts come to mind as well:

http://www.gymsmarts.com/gs_prsearch.cgi?action=DispPR&pid=9 relatively inexpensive@$30 that goves over basic tumbling

There is another on GymSmarts by Paul Hall that goes over a lot more material including events for both genders, but is 2.5x the price. I think it is goes into beyond just basics.

For a basic fitness program for children, regardless of gender, they should work some balance beam,imo. Basically balance stuff like walking in all directions, kicks, walking on releve (forefoot), balance positions such as arabesque and scale, and basic jumps. A mere line works and it is easy enough to make a BB at home out of some wood that is only 4-6 inches off the ground. I try to work in some of this stuff with my boys because I still find these basics of value and necessity besides it is a little bit of fun.