Gym Closure

EWA will be closed for Friday Nite Open Gym 4.8.11, Saturday classes 4.9.11, and Gym Rentals this weekend due to the At The Hop TAAF meet hosted at Eagle’s Wings. Please call the office if you have any questions regarding the closure, and good luck to our EWA athletes this weekend!

Make-Up Class This Saturday

Have you missed a class recently?  Did you know there are 2 make-up options for you in case of a missed class?  1 option is to do our scheduled make-up class this Saturday from Noon-1p.  Are you signed up yet?  Reservations are a must, so call the office today {972.727.9911} to save your spot today! As a review, please review our make-up policy below.

Missing a Class - Athletes will be given two options for missing a class. In either case, the office must be notified within two weeks of the absence, and each athlete will only be allowed to make-up 1 class missed per month.

Option 1 is to attend our scheduled make-up class which is typically on the 3rd Saturday of the month {Please check our Calendar of Events for specific times each month}.  This class will be appropriate for all classes and all levels. Please preregister with the office.

Option 2 is to receive a free Open Gym pass allowing the student to attend either preschool Open Gym or Friday night Open Gym for free. This pass is not good for Saturday Night Out. For team make-ups, you must talk with your team coaches.

Dealing With Rips

At our gym when one of the pre-team girls comes to us with her first “rip”, the coaches usually make a big deal about it, letting her know she is now an official gymnast. Seems silly, but rips from swinging bars is part of the sport of gymnastics. But once a gymnast has a rip, how do treat it?

• Have the gymnast go to the bathroom and wash her hands to remove any chalk and surface germs. Yes,it stings, but it still has to be done. Pat the rip dry with a paper towel.
• Have an adult carefully trim any excess skin using sterilized scissors and apply Neosporin or similar antibiotic ointment. Cover with a bandage and then wrap the bandage with athletic tape to keep the bandage in place. This should get the gymnast through the remainder of practice.
• Once at home, we swear by tea bags to reduce the pain and speed the healing of the rip. Prepare a cup of black tea using a tea bag according to the package directions. Remove the tea bag and place it in the freezer for a few minutes to cool. Apply the tea bag directly to the rip and leave it on there for 20 minutes or so. The tannic acid that occurs naturally in the tea is an amazing pain reliever! The tea bag will discolor the rip area, but only for a few days. It also helps speed the development of the new layer of skin.
• Over the next few days be sure to keep the rip area moisturized to prevent cracking and reopening of the wound. My daughter uses vaseline or her favorite lip balm – like Carmex or Blistex Daily Conditioning Treatment.
• During practice, cover the rip with a bandage and athletic tape or make a tape grip so your gymnast can continue training. It really is good practice for gymnasts to learn to swing bars with a rip because undoubtedly at some point in their gymnastics career they will get a rip right before a meet and need to know how to work through it.

The tea bag method is not the only way to treat rips, however, it is the one that most of the gymnasts in our gym use. You can also treat rips with Vitamin E applied directly to the rip, Neosporin + Pain ointment, and some gymnasts will tell you that Preparation H works well (since it contains medication for pain and to reduce swelling).

Once your gymnast is ready for grips – don’t worry, her coach will let you know when – she still may get rips.  For some girls, working bars with hand grips (I only recommend dowel grips) makes a big difference in their ability to swing bars and cut down on the number of rips.

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Getting Past “I Quit”

One of the hardest things for parents and coaches to hear kids say is “I QUIT” especially, when the athlete’s desire to quit is sudden. So, what’s a parent to do?

This is a situation I have found myself in a few times, but most recently with my youngest daughter and swimming. I am actually glad I didn’t post about this as we were going through it as it all makes much more sense now that we have gotten past “I Quit” – at least this time.

In September when the fall swim season started, my daughter was pretty excited. She felt like the girls in her group were all her friends and she called them her “Dream Team,” and this being her second full season on the team she also started with a sense of confidence and knowing what to expect. Because my son is also swimming but in a different group, Nat gets to play with her friend before each practice as A’s sister in also in the other group. The two girls were too much fun to watch as they played, chatted and basically used that time as a transition between school and swim. I felt so relieved and was sure this year would be smooth sailing as Nat had so much to look forward to each practice.

And then she got sick. That nasty, fever raging, energy draining, in hindsight-most-likely-flu thing that took absolutely everything out of her.

She was out of school for a week. The following week when she returned to school I recommended that she go to practice. She immediately said “no” and really resisted the idea. (Clue #1 missed.) She ended up going to practice but really didn’t have her energy back which meant swimming was really hard, which equaled “really not fun” for her. That weekend there was a swim meet and she started telling me how much she hated swimming, didn’t want to compete, and wanted to QUIT.  The day before the meet she said that in a way she wanted to compete, but in the same sentence still told me she wanted to quit.

For the next two weeks, any talk of swim became a battleground. She didn’t want to go and if she did, she wouldn’t put her head under water, wouldn’t do the whole workout, and generally was miserable. She would scream at me and tell me she hated swim; she would make excuses for not wanting to put her head under water; and she was generally grouchy. (Clue #2 missed.)

Finally after really stepping back, talking with her coaches, listening to what she had to say, I figured something out – she was still recovering from her illness and being the perfectionist child she is, she thought it was easier to quit than to get back in the water and rebuild her stamina.  After more discussions, we also realized that it wasn’t until last week that she was really back to 100% .

Last week my Nat returned. After a few days of talking, confidence boosting and some distractions from her coaches, she is back in the water, excited, confident, motivated and ready for her meet this weekend!!

PARENT TIPS FOR GETTING PAST “I QUIT”

1. Look at your child’s health. Has she been sick or is she getting sick? Is she dealing with an injury?

2. Have there been any changes or dramas at school or home?

3. Stop asking “how was practice?” A very wise coaching mentor told me this once and while it is hard to do, it is a habit parents MUST break! Instead, let your child direct the conversation.

4. Listen to your child away from the sport. Is your child interested in how her teammates are doing? Does she still consider herself part of the team? Does she give you clues as to what the root of the problem may be.

5. Communicate with her coach. With the right information, the coaches can help re-establish expectations, get your daughter involved and make your daughter find her spark again.

6. Take it one step at a time. Try setting intermediate goals and praising her for reaching them. For us, it was getting Nat back in the water – even if it meant all she did was kick or swim her strokes with her head out of the water.

7. Remove unnecessary stressors. If you daughter isn’t ready to compete or to play in the game yet, then sit one out. I do encourage going to cheer on teammates still as that serves its own positive purpose, too. If you need to reduce her practice times temporarily, then do so.

8. Remind her of her commitment. Organized sports usually have some sort of commitment attached to them. By saying you need to finish the season and then you may quit, gives her the time to reconnect with her sport and decide if it is what she wants to do, and it encourages positive work ethics, too. As in, you need to finish what you start.

9. Use distractions. For example, my daughter loves it when her coach plays the Skittles game. So one thing that helped get her back to the pool was a suggestion to stop at the store and buy her coach a bag of Skittles for practice. She was so focused on buying and delivering the Skittles that the swim issue was secondary. (More tips for keeping workouts fun)

10. Be positive!! Remember that your child is a child first and an athlete second. The sport does not define her success or worth as a person and it shouldn’t define yours either. Keep your eye on the BIG picture.

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Ribbon Week

It’s Ribbon Week at EWA, and we are excited to see what these kids can do!  Since our theme this month is “Fall Kick-off” for football season, we will be testing the kids on how fast the kids can run through an obstacle coarse!  Remember that all ribbons are good, and we should be encouraging to our kids and friends no matter what color ribbon they receive.  Good luck, and run fast!!

Wednesday 4 Girl’s Level 1 - Coach Melanie

Congrats to Coach Melanie’s Girl’s Level 1 class on Wednesdays at 4!  Every girl got their bridge kickovers on the wedge mat this past week!  Way to go girls!  Keep up the hard work!

Boys Classes - Coach Schram

Our boys class program worked hard on strength and body positions for a couple weeks, and now we are doing many skills, drills, & sequences in our “backwards” theme for the next two weeks.  Naturally, the boys will do many skills forwards too, but they will focus on backwards elements while also doing the usual flexibility, strength, & basics.

Boys Team - Coach Schram

Coach Schram just got back from the Region 3 Clinic in Oklahoma with several team boys where they had a great time and learned many things!  The team is having fun now in their “PreSeason” phase preparing them for their meets coming up.  Another cool thing…the boys have earned many incentive points based on great gymnastics skills attained, along with several life skills demonstrated.  SO,…they get two pizza parties (one for Oct & one for Nov).  Great job guys!!

Congrats!

Congratulations to level 4’s Sophia H. and Pricilla R. for making their front hip circles on bars this Wednesday!  You girls are awesome!  Keep up the hard work ladies!!

Coach Kassandra

TAFF Team

TAAF Team - Coach Alan

What a great week the TAAF optional gymnasts are having.  They are working hard learning new skills and combinations.  I love it when they are doing so well.  Keep it u girls!

Alan Kirby
EWA Program Manager
972-727-9911

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