JUMP START JOURNAL. Testimonials. In This Issue. February 2014

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February 2014 JUMP START JOURNAL Summer Camp 2014 Registration is Open This year at Jump Start Summer Camps we will be hosting weekly special guests from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, Jason s

2014 Camp Prices: $65/day $260/week 10% member discount (must have paid annual registration fee within 12 months of camp date) 5% sibling discount Testimonials Great going!

1 February 2014 JUMP START JOURNAL Summer Camp 2014 Registration is Open This year at Jump Start Summer Camps we will be hosting weekly special guests from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, Jason s Music Party, Whole World Theatre, Life Martial Arts, Big Thinkers Science Exploration, and Bits Bytes and Bots- check out our website for camp dates and more information on these very special guests! 2014 Camp Prices: $65/day $260/week 10% member discount (must have paid annual registration fee within 12 months of camp date) 5% sibling discount Testimonials Great going! In this day of so many unhealthy choices, it is good to know there are caring people who can offer healthy, positive, life changing choices for our Register by March 1st to take advantage of our Early Bird Pricing. One week of camp: $225 (5% sibling discount for full week of camp only) Members will receive a free camp t-shirt when enrolling for a full week of camp during early bird special. One day of camp: $50 *No additional member discount with early bird special. Any changes in enrollment dates done after March 1st will result in forfeiture of the early bird rate. We will honor the early bird rate for any enrollment changes made on or before March 1st. youth. Good job, good luck! Anonymous *Send us your testimonials to be included on our website/ newsletter! In This Issue JSG Summer Camp 2014 Youth Fitness: Core Strength Important February Dates Coach Todd s Baby Talk Jump Start Party Packages JSG Spring Break Camps 2014 Team Corner See What s Coming Next Month in the Jump Start Journal Coach Todd shows our Level 3 team the correct lunge position.

Important Dates Upcoming Tuition Due Dates Are: March 3rd April 1st May 1st February Class Dates: Mon:2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24 Tues:2/4, 2/11, 2/18, 2/25 Wed: 2/5, 2/12, 2/19, 2/26 Thurs: 2/6, 2/13,

Don t forget, all requests to drop a class must be submitted in writing to the front desk or emailed to info@jumpstartgym.com.

A common misconception is that the core is simply a synonym for the abdominal muscles.

The most important thing to recognize is that the core muscles include those throughout the middle section of your body not just where your six -pack may or may not appear.

For runners, a strong core helps keep the pelvis properly aligned and also improves one s running economy.

2 Important Dates Upcoming Tuition Due Dates Are: March 3rd April 1st May 1st February Class Dates: Mon:2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24 Tues:2/4, 2/11, 2/18, 2/25 Wed: 2/5, 2/12, 2/19, 2/26 Thurs: 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27 Fri: 2/7, 2/14, 2/21, 2/28 Sat: 2/8, 2/15, 2/22, 3/1 *Deadline to drop classes for March with no penalty is 2/17. Don t forget, all requests to drop a class must be submitted in writing to the front desk or ed to info@jumpstartgym.com. Page 2 Youth Fitness Classes : The Importance of Core Strength For a term as popular as core strength, it is surprisingly difficult to find a definition for what exactly the core is. A common misconception is that the core is simply a synonym for the abdominal muscles. While they are certainly an important part of the core, it also includes the pelvis, flank (basically the sides from armpit to hipbone), back, spine and hips. The most important thing to recognize is that the core muscles include those throughout the middle section of your body not just where your six -pack may or may not appear. Increased core strength leads to increased balance, something especially important to those whose sport involves kicking such as soccer or football (for kickers and punters). For runners, a strong core helps keep the pelvis properly aligned and also improves one s running economy. But the importance of core strength extends far beyond increased fitness and athletic prowess. Regardless of your child s interest or participation in group sports, a strong core will improve motor skills, and posture which can lead to increased academic success. Occupational Therapist, Stacey Neill-Wiseman (MA, OTR/L, SIPT) states,... upright posture is essential for concentration and reading comprehension. Helping your child to improve their core strength can help them in all aspects of their lives, from preventing potential sport injuries, increasing concentration and ability to focus, minimizing those nagging growing pains, and improving reading comprehension. Sign up for a trial class today to see how our Youth Fitness classes can benefit your child! Coach Todd's Baby Talk Climbing Crabs a class developed for those babies who are early walkers and trotters, is the next step here at Jump Start Gym for our littlest ones. As with the Monkeys and Caterpillars, classes the warm up is very similar: songs, parachute, musical instruments, and sensory balls. This class is very exciting because we start to see the children remember the warm up and order of the class and even begin to do it on their own. Also with the Crabs, we move to the bars and beam obstacle. By holding on to the bars we help babies strengthen their grip and arm strength, which are keys to learning to write. We swing on the bars, with a spot, again developing the vestibular mechanism in their ear canal. As discussed in previous issues, this is the mechanism we use for balance, back/forth, up/down, and around- another reason gymnastics may be the perfect sport for complete mind and body development, just don t tell Coach Courtney I said that! Along with the bars, we also start walking on the balance beams, developing balance and fine motor control by placing one foot in front of the other on a 4 to 6 inch wide beam. The kids have help, but come on, how many of us as adults could do that today without help? Our children truly are amazing! Stay tuned, next month we discuss the corpus callosum. Till next time, Coach Todd

Page 3 Jump Start Party Packages Jump Start has four birthday party packages to choose from for our birthday parties: Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond.

We provide the gym, tables, chairs, and enthusiastic party staff to help make your child s birthday as special as possible.

We will provide table cloths, balloons, paper plates (for a meal or light snack and for cake) napkins and plastic cutlery.

Our Gold Party Package includes all of the items from the Silver Package, as well as pizza, snacks, and either a juice box or a bottled water for each child.

3 Page 3 Jump Start Party Packages Jump Start has four birthday party packages to choose from for our birthday parties: Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond. Our Bronze party package is the same Jump Start Birthday Party our families have loved for the last two years. We provide the gym, tables, chairs, and enthusiastic party staff to help make your child s birthday as special as possible. Our Silver Party Package adds themed tableware in either Sports, Princess, or Happy Birthday Balloons theme. We will provide table cloths, balloons, paper plates (for a meal or light snack and for cake) napkins and plastic cutlery. For our Silver Package and higher each birthday child will also receive a special color changing t-shirt! Our Gold Party Package includes all of the items from the Silver Package, as well as pizza, snacks, and either a juice box or a bottled water for each child. Our top tier Diamond Party Package includes all items from our Silver and Gold party packages, as well as a customized cake from Little European Bakery and party favors for each child. All items included in our party packages are also available to be added on to any party A La Carte; so you have the option of adding cake to a Bronze Party Package, pizza to a Silver Party Package, or mixing and matching as much as you would like! We unveiled our new party packages in September 2013 and have had a great response so far, but we always welcome feedback. We would love to know if there are other items or choices we can provide to make our parties even better. Our goal is to give your child the best birthday possible while taking as much of the stress off of you, the parent, as we can. Contact the front desk at (404) JUMP (5867) for more information on our party packages or to book yours today! Color Changing Shirt: Inside Color Changing Shirt: Outside Princess Themed Cake Table Decorations Spring Break Camps 2014 Registration for Spring Break Camps is now open! We will be offering Spring Break Camps on the following dates: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3* Week 4 March 3rd-7th March 10th-14th April 7th-11th April 14th-18th *We will have a preview of our Summer Camp Specials during Week 3 of camp ONLY: Monday April 7th: Life Martial Arts Tuesday April 8th: Atlanta Ballroom Dance Wednesday April 9th: Big Thinkers Science Thursday April 10th: Whole World Theater Friday April 11th: Life Martial Arts Camp Hours: 10:00am - 2:00pm Pre Camp: 9:00am - 10:00am Post Camp Movie: 2:00pm - 3:30pm $50 deposit due at sign up $60/day: non-members *$10 off a single day if you are signed up 2 weeks prior to camp $222/week: non-members *10% OFF: Enrolled families/siblings

Page 4 TEAM CORNER See what s going on this month with our Jump Start Competitive Teams! This Month In Team Practice Our Level 3 s had a great first meet of 2014 at Winter Blast!

Optional Team Coaches. Introducing some of the warm-up and drills that our Level 3 s do now, it is our goal to have these young ones a step ahead for the coming months.

4 Page 4 TEAM CORNER See what s going on this month with our Jump Start Competitive Teams! This Month In Team Practice Our Level 3 s had a great first meet of 2014 at Winter Blast! Hot Shots: As the Hot Shots begin to train more and more under Coach Taylor and Coach Courtney, they have begun to get a true indication of what it is like to be coached by the Compulsory and Optional Team Coaches. Introducing some of the warm-up and drills that our Level 3 s do now, it is our goal to have these young ones a step ahead for the coming months. Having the involvement of these coaches early-on will help set the tone for them as they transition to the team in the future. You can never start too early! Level 3: The Level 3 team has shown a large amount of progression within the past few weeks! We have had many of our kids get skills for the first time in competitions as well as clean-up some of the skills they already had! It is so important that these kids learn the correct technique the first time around so that we can build the strongest team possible in the coming years. Lately, Coach Taylor has been doing a lot more hands on technique with tumbling, hoping that overtime the technique will stick. The girls really wowed the crowd at Paws for a Cause and even earned 2nd place as a team! Level 4/5: Congratulations to McKaya Fofana, Reagan McGurk and Monoma Fofana! These three ladies are now moving onto training Optional Gymnastics! For our entire Level 4/5 team, we have seen many of our girls make small but sure improvements getting them one-step closer to the next level of competition. One of the more challenging aspects the past couple of weeks has been getting the girls to understand the spatial awareness of their bodies on the event. With some different techniques to coaching, we are hopeful it will make more of a difference. Congratulations to our Level 5 s on a 1st place team finish at Paws for a Cause and best of luck as they continue on the journey to optional gymnastics! Level 7: Our first group of Optional Gymnasts have been handling the rigor of training and Optional Competition quite well. Much like our younger batch of kids, they have added in new skills to their routines and the transition is going great! As they prepare to enter a much more demanding workout schedule in the months approaching summer, we are hopeful these Level 7 s will be the ray s of hope to our younger generations! We are so proud of our Level 7s as each of the girls showed improvement during the Paws for a Cause meet this weekend! Routine of the Month: Shannon Miller: 1992 Olympic AA Vaults v=1t_qnxhsaoc In 1992, the most decorated Female Gymnast in American History, Shannon Miller, wowed the crowds of the Barcelona Games as she propelled her way onto the Olympic Scene by claiming five medals (two silver, three bronze)! In the All-Around competition Miller performed back-to-back near perfect vaults to grab the silver medal in the All- Around competition. Though many speculated (with sound judgment might I add) that Miller s first vault should have received a perfect 10, she nevertheless went on to bringing home honor to our country by placing in nearly every event possible. Before the 2000 Games, women were able to perform the same Vault twice. Shannon performed a Yurchenko full twist, involving her doing a round-off onto the springboard, back handspring onto the table and a straight-bodied flip with a 360 twist. Enjoy! Skill(s) of the Month: The Shaposhnikova For this month s Skill of the Month, we go back to my favorite apparatus to coach and watch, the Uneven Bars. One of Russia s most famed female gymnasts, Natalia Shaposhnikova, was a two-time Olympic Champion at the 1980 Moscow Games (Team Gold, Vault Gold). Known for her explosive power on the Floor Exercise and Vault, it is odd that a gymnast of her nature engineered one of the most popular bar releases that are still practiced today! A Shaposh as it is nicknamed, is essentially an extremely aggressive free-hip where the body is released from the handstand position, dropped down below the bar and then tossed with extreme force back over the low bar to grasp the high bar. Shaposhnikova first invented the skill with the legs straight and completely absent from the bar. However, years following it s introduction into the Code of Points, gymnasts have re-invented variations involving the toes swinging around as well as the legs swinging behind the head in both the pike and straddlelike position before grasping the top bar. The link above shows the original skill performed by Shaposhnikova herself in the 70 s as well as the variations throughout the years! Enjoy Gym Talk Yurchenko: This skill is solely performed on the Vault. It involves the gymnast running down the runway and completing a round-off onto the springboard followed by a back handspring onto the table. The back handspring is then typically followed by any number of flips and twists before the landing.

Scoring How It Works In last month s edition of Scoring: How it Works we took a look at the requirements that the J.O. Code of Points put together for Level 7 gymnasts on the Floor Exercise.

0. Now that we have looked at the different requirements needed on each event, we can now look at the requirements needed of each skill!

5 Scoring How It Works In last month s edition of Scoring: How it Works we took a look at the requirements that the J.O. Code of Points put together for Level 7 gymnasts on the Floor Exercise. It explained that for every event that an Optional Gymnast competes in, they are required to fulfill certain skill requirements in order to start their routine from a Now that we have looked at the different requirements needed on each event, we can now look at the requirements needed of each skill! For this edition of How it Works we will be looking at the Uneven Bars and observing the Cast to Handstand requirements. The Cast to Handstand is a skill involving the gymnast leaning far over the bar while kicking their legs behind them and over their head to end up in a controlled handstand atop the bar. For all Optional Levels of USA Gymnastics, the Cast when completed to Handstand is awarded B value, or 0.2 of a 1.0 toward their Start Value (S.V.). However, let us take a look when a gymnast would and would NOT get value credit. In the example of our Level 7 gymnasts here at JSG, they are required to have one cast at least above 45. If a Level 7 does complete a full cast to handstand, then she receives the awarded value part of a B, one of two she will need to complete her routine. As you can see in the picture, the gymnast will not receive the B value part if she does not at least get her handstand to finish no more than 20 from vertical. The further she is from the handstand, the more tenths judges can take for lack of amplitude and she is awarded no value part. JSG, STICK! Page 5 Our skill for our February STICK! contest will be a bridge/table. Take a picture of your child doing their best bridge or table and post it on our Facebook page. The most creative picture will be our Facebook picture for a week and the winner will receive $50 off of their March tuition payment. winner based on location and creativity. How to Win: In order to enter the contest, simply post your wackiest, most creative picture of your child doing a bridge or a table on the Jump Start Facebook page. The Jump Start Staff will then select the When: All applicants have until February 21st to submit their photos to the above address. Winners will be announced in our March Newsletter. Don t miss out on this month s contest, post your pictures to our Facebook page today! JSG Is On A Roll! What a great start to the competition season! I think I can speak for the entire coaching staff when I say that these girls have truly showed their maturity and poise at our first in-state and out-of state sanctioned meets. Speaking for solely myself, this is my first experience coaching at competitions; it has been interesting to observe how each girl reacts to the competitive setting. Watching the girls closely in the meet setting, I am slowly but surely picking apart what works best for each gymnast. Whether it involves me saying, You got this, this is easy for you! with a big smile or telling them, Turn it on, and do your job with a stoic face, I am confident I have begun to dissect the mind of the 5-12 year old girl. At this point, the girls have had plenty of opportunities to experience both the small stage of competition and the grand stage. While many of our Level 3 s are new to the setting in general, for the remainder of the year I expect my veteran athletes to start going for hit percentages. At my alma mater, University of Iowa, my head coach would give us an assignment of routines to get done during workouts that had to be not only completed, but in a row. In this instance, a gymnast had to complete a set number of routines per event with sufficient form and execution. Foe example, for an assignment of 3 routine, if the first routine was completed, the gymnast would not be finished until he completed the last two routines in a row, no exceptions. The goal of this challenge is that if a girl can successfully commit and pressure herself mentally to complete a number of routines in a row, days in a row, then when competition comes, the chance of only having to do 1 routine should not be much of a challenge. It is my hope that these pressure-sets will strengthen their mental game and toughen them up for the remaining season. As we move further into the year, I want to stress that it is important for the girls to take care of themselves not only in the gym but also outside of the gym. Eating the right foods by minimizing treats such as candies, ice cream and replacing them with proteins and veggies will allot for a stronger athlete both in practice and on the competition floor. With the Georgia weather always shifting, I want to have these girls as healthy as possible. Please make sure the girls are dressing appropriately for the weather. Growing up in gymnastics and understanding how difficult it can be to arrange your entire life around this sport, you parents are awesome! I understand the sacrifices that your daughters and even the parents must make. They are lucky to have parents like you all. Go JSG! Coach Taylor

or the appropriate department lead: Special

com Stay Tuned for Next Month s Issue Check

Coach Todd s Baby Talk, the winner of the

6 Page 6 Questions? Comments? Concerns? We want to hear from you! Please send any feedback on your experiences at Jump Start to the front desk or the appropriate department lead: Special Events/Birthday Parties: specialevents@jumpstartgym.com Camp/Mighty Mites: camp@jumpstartgym.com Gymnastics/Tumbling: gymnasticsandtumbling@jumpstartgym.com Team: JSGteam@jumpstartgym.com Front Desk: info@jumpstartgym.com Stay Tuned for Next Month s Issue Check back in next month s issue for more from Coach Todd s Baby Talk, the winner of the February Stick! Contest, and much, much more! Can t wait until next month to hear more about what s going on at Jump Start? Like us on Facebook for daily updates!

June Summer Camps. Tumbling Camp (6/13-6/17) 9:00am-Noon. Cheerleading Camp (6/13-6/17) 9:00am-Noon

June Summer Camps. Tumbling Camp (6/13-6/17) 9:00am-Noon. Cheerleading Camp (6/13-6/17) 9:00am-Noon June Summer Camps Tumbling Camp (6/13-6/17) 9:00am-Noon This camp is designed for boys and girls, ages 5 and older looking to improve their tumbling skills. They will focus solely on tumbling skills and