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In the new millennium, we’ve got vinyl strips!

GET STUCK

In the 1980s it was the trapezoid.

The 1990s brought the introduction of the back handspring trainer,

AKA Pac Man mat.

Left to Right: Seal Drag; Tip Up: and Rely races pattern with crab walk

By Jeannie McCarthy

A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 • T E C H N I Q U E 7

skill specific, imaginative play, games, locomotor skills, crowd control, educational and warm-ups.

IDEAS FROM THREE OF THE CATEGORIESLocomotor Skill Ideas

With a single vinyl strip on the floor, perform ski jumps side to side as you travel forward or backward. Use six vinyl strips to create a zigzag pattern for the children to move through to reach the next station within a circuit or to circulate the students back to the teacher-spotted skill. Set vinyl strips on the floor to leap over. As students move from one piece of equipment to another in a circuit, use vinyl strips as markers. For example, place a single vinyl strip on the floor. Perform the “Broken Leg Walk,” also known as “See Saw Walk.” With your hands on the floor to either side of the line, hop one foot forward along the vinyl strip as you reach and move forward. This skill builds strength in the deltoid area aiding in the learning of handstands and cartwheels. Create a pathway with two vinyl strips parallel to one another with a space of two feet between them. The students can move along the open floor space to get to the next station. Providing the children with a defined area within which to move creates a higher degree of task performance. If you request that the locomotion include hands in contact with the floor, for instance doing the Seal Drag, you

USA Gymastics has dubbed 2006 as the year of fitness, and many of us are adapting our existing programs to put more emphasis on fitness. While we need

to provide our students with a fun gymnastics experience, keeping them in perpetual motion is important for building their stamina in the areas of cardiovascular fitness, strength and flexibility.

Our goal is to provide 80% of the gym class experience as fully active time, with 15% of the remaining time for formal instruction and the last five percent split between managing the children and waiting in line.

To keep the children moving, open gym space is required and additional apparatus is helpful; however, budget constraints usually limit our search to inexpensive props to boost our abilities to keep the children active 80% of their gym time.

Every decade the equipment manufacturers create an object that becomes indispensable to coaches and instructors. In the 1980s it was the trapezoid. The 1990s brought the introduction of the back handspring trainer, AKA Pac Man mat. In the new millennium, we’ve got vinyl strips!

A myriad of activities can be performed with vinyl strips! With this document as a launching pad, be prepared to gather ideas from your fellow staffers and those precious, spontaneous students! For more ideas, a longer version of this article appears at usa-gymnastics.org/publications/technique and scroll down to the August 2006 issue. This article has ideas in the following categories:

GET STUCK On The Vinyl Strip Craze!

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now are adding “joint compression” into the equation. With weight applied to the elbows and wrists (joint compression), the resulting effect is soothing. Research concludes that compressing the joints with weight bearing exercises calms hyperactive children. Bonus! Use the same set-up but place the lines closer to one another. Similar to moving along low parallel bars, have the students attempt varying animal walks forward, backward or sideways. To help the students to remember the suggested locomotor skill, simply place a “Doggie Dash” or “Bear Walk” digitally printed on the Activity Strip across the opening of the pathway.

Sample Games with Vinyl Strips Keep the vinyl strips rolled up. Set them on the floor. Arrange the students into partners. The object of the game on the “Go” command is for each person to pick up one vinyl strip and make a solid, connected line with their partner. This takes cooperative play skills. Next, encourage Ski Jumps and other explosive activities to be done with their partner along their line. To challenge an advanced group, see if all of the children can create one long uninterrupted line on the vault runway. Do Line Touches. Arrange a starting line of one color of vinyl strips. Set a second colored line 20 feet away. And a third colored line 35 feet away from the first line. Simply put, you start on the first line, run to the second line. Run quickly back to the first line. Continue running to touch the third line. Run back to the start. Dissuade the students from racing. Change the locomotor movement to backward

jumping or squatting bunny jumps to slow down the activity. This activity increases aerobic fitness and agility.

Sample Warm-Up IdeasVinyl Strips Arranged Like A Flower - Place the vinyl strips on a

large open space in a petal formation. With older students use two strips end to end per petal. Begin the activity with the children running around the outside of the flower. Next, place one student on the far end of each petal. If the class is large, pair up the students. Perform locomotor movements along the petal to and from the center of the flower. The emphasis is on staying on the petal, not touching the carpet. Next, explain about working on higher balance beams. It is necessary to learn how to fall properly. Teach the children how to jump off of their petal and land in a Safety Stop pose. Remind them not to touch the floor or their “beam” as they fall to the ground. To end the activity, run in a circle leaping over the vinyl strips.

Sidewalk Relays - Create a starting line for the students to stand upon side by side. Place numerous vinyl strips perpendicular to the starting line to create a bowling alley effect or parallel sidewalks. Establish one sidewalk per child. Place a marker (cone or hoop) at the end of each sidewalk so that the students do not run past the space and into another area of the gym. Line the students up at the starting point. Be specific about self space, “This is Billy’s sidewalk. This is Amanda’s sidewalk.” Establish a “Go” command. Call out various locomotor movements to perform down the sidewalk and back again. Once the kids have the hang of it, require a skill or movement at the marker, “When you get to your hoop, do three straddle jumps.”

It’s a sure bet that you’ll use vinyl strips for Tip-Ups, Tripods, Back Handspring Drills and more. Include these activities as part of classes, birthday parties and summer camps. (below)

Get ‘stuck’ on the vinyl strip craze! This handy, inexpensive training aid will drastically increase students’ activity time. The results will be improved fitness. Let’s keep our kids moving! We are mentors to the young children in our charge. Inspire them to be active children in the hopes that they will continue a lifelong love of physical expression and the joy of movement!

Jeannie McCarthy is an award winning National KAT Instructor. Mrs. McCarthy works at Double ‘D’ Gymnastics in Media, Pa., as a Curriculum Consultant and Program Designer. She enjoys raising the standard of preschool gymnastics instruction through consulting and training clinics. Her two day Gym Jam workshop attracts teachers nationwide. Contact Jeannie at gymtastics@comcast.net.

Note: Vinyl strips can be found through Ben Edkins of Carolina Gym Supply, 877-496-7883, and Michelle Robinson of Artistic Coverings, 877-599-9343, to name two suppliers.

Vinyl Strips arranged like a flower

Left to Right: Vinyl strips creating a zigzag patern for children to move; a child doing the tripod; and Doggie Dash