Educational Gymnastics: Educational Gymnastics started off In Great Britain in the 1930’s to describe a child-centered non-competitive, creative approach to movement/ body movement. Educational Gymnastics is committed to the unique way each child learns and moves. All gymnasts are challenged to solve problems, develop skills and create movements at the appropriate level. The most important thing about educational gymnastics is that all the children achieve excellence. Educational Gymnastics should encourage students to create movements and develop individualized sequences.
Educational Gymnastics relies on a divergent teaching style. There are many ways for learners respond to movement problems. An example of this would include an Olympic Gymnast performing a handstand with fingers spread on a mat shoulder width apart with the arms, head, torso, legs and feet in perfect vertical alignment with the toes pointed. As for in educational gymnastics, learners could respond to the movement problems of taking the body weight on the hands through a wide variety of movements that include taking the body’s weight on the hands and arms and kicking the feet up. In this type of gymnastics students learn how to manage their body rather than perform a skill in a highly specific manner.
Educational Gymnastics have to learn to vary the use of time, weight, space and flow. Teachers should emphasize the relationship inherent in gymnastics. These include the relationship of the gymnast’s body parts to each other, the gymnast to a partner or group or gymnasts and gymnast to apparatus.
Developmental Gymnastics: The developing stages of gymnastics shows the gymnasts pass through a number of physical and developmental stages during their gymnastics careers. These are periods of readiness to learn, physical readiness and physical and emotional maturity. There is an outstanding growth and development in the current affected physically capability during the growth period.
Before the period of readiness, most gymnasts will progress little, if at all with that particular trait. If there is early progress, gymnasts who work on the trait later during the correct developmental period will catch up and there will be no advantage to the attempt to develop early.
The sensitive developmental periods we are talking about are capabilities like timing, speed of movement, balance, loco motor speed, strength and dance. There seems to be little notice taken of these stages in the supposed training programmes in gymnastics. Strength programs, like the TOPS program, are supposedly emphasizing strength development at the ages 9, 10 and 11 with training for the testing of the program necessarily beginning at age 8 or earlier.
Developmental Gymnastics use both direct and indirect teaching approaches; children are encouraged to explore a variety of ways to use fundamental movement skills and movement concepts for the purpose of learning efficient management of their bodies. It focuses on skills within the ability and understanding of the individual student and is consistent with the principles of the developmentally based physical education curriculum.
The teaching styles associated with developmental gymnastics allow children to progress at their own rate. The use of both reproduction and production teaching styles provides children with choices about which movement skills to practice or create. After children have responded to a movement challenge presented by the teacher, the refinement of the skill becomes important.
The practice, reciprocal and inclusion styles of teaching facilitate skill practice. In the reciprocal style the teacher designs a task card that highlights the critical cues specific to the skill being practiced. The teacher or the child may determine the conditions learning environment in which the child practices the skill. The inclusion style of teaching gives children and opportunity to select the skills that they want to practice. Their selection will vary in difficulty but the children soon learn to make decisions.
Exploratory Gymnastics: Exploratory Gymnastics may also be called educational or developmental gymnastics. This approach allows gymnastics to explore the different elements of the gymnastics movement chart such as body awareness, basic body positions, balance, support, loco motor skills and the circular movements.
In teaching gymnastics effectively there are three phases in gymnastics education which include Exploration, Foundation Skills and Formal Skills. All of the phases should be included in the physical education curriculum.
The exploratory gymnastics contrast with formal gymnastics. This allows students to respond to a movement challenge in a variety of ways. An example of this would be “find all the ways you can jump and land on two feet”. There is no one correct way to solve the challenge and there is no exactness expected.
The benefits of the Exploratory Gymnastics is that it allows the learner to explore, discover how their bodies move, and respond in ways that are appropriate for their abilities. Everyone is able to solve the challenge and also that everyone feels successful. Their focus is on problem solving, which allows the learner to develop body management skills as they solve the movement problems. This method also allows for individual differences. When given the opportunity to solve a movement problem, a child will perform what is developmentally appropriate at his or her own stage of development. Children will perform at their own ability levels.