Gymnastic Classes

The Stickler If you can’t keep your legs together try the Stickler. Hook and loop fasteners with an ankle shape block keep this unique product on your ankles, and Velcro between them help remind you to keep your legs together for perfect form.
Customer Review: Stickler
It’s a good tool for someone in cheerleading or tumbling who has problems with back handsprings and keeping their legs together for proper form.

The complexity that routines entail increases the risk of painful injury and fatigue if proper preparations are not taken to ensure all-around safety. The most common injuries to the body are those to the ankles and feet, the lower back, knees, hands, and wrists. These can be due to overuse or simple stress. The lower body injuries are generally because of unbalanced landings, while the back experiences strain when insufficient stretching has been performed. Scrapes and bruises are to be expected, even if your gymnast is properly attired — so simply be prepared. Any injury to a gymnast s body can be detrimental to his or her performance in the future. Stiffness can result from lack of use of a limb or of the back if he or she is put out of the game for too long–that is, if the injury is serious. For the most part, as a parent, you will have to deal with less serious injuries (hopefully), and you will not need to visit the doctor s office to have them treated. In any case, the best c …

Of great importance is the actual footwork itself, which must be clean and precise, the steps being very definite in direction and quality. The ankles and feet should be very resilient, much of the work being performed on the toes, particularly the light and springy types of step. Other steps which are perhaps in the Russian or Spanish style are characteristically required to be performed on the flat foot, but must still show the necessary strength and precision. The importance of ballet training becomes apparent not only for the promotion of leg strength, elegance, and upper body work, but particularly for the improvement of foot work. Toes should be pointed, the feet and ankles stretched for the majority of the time, but equally there must be some give in the foot and ankle to provide resilience and bounce. Many of the steps used are in fact derived from ballet and so the terminology used is the same, i.e. all the names are in French. The following are a few examples of the most com …