Gymnastics 101 - By Coach Jill

Advanced Body Shapes - Hollow, Arch and Straight
In Kindergym and classes 1 - 4, we spend a good amount of time teaching students the correct terms and technique for different body shapes - tuck, pike, straddle, etc. A child's ability to change shapes in a technically correct manner often determines how quickly he or she can learn new skills. The shapes that are most important in high-level gymnastics are hollow, arch, and straight. Experienced gymnasts can hold these shapes laying down, standing up, hanging, and in a handstand!
Hollow: Shoulders rounded, abs contracted in, and pelvis tucked under; the back should look rounded and the body forms a "scoop." It takes a lot of ab strength to hold a hollow on the ground!
Arch: The opposite of a hollow, also called a “superman/supergirl” or “banana”; requires lower back and shoulder strength.
Straight: With arms overhead, standing in a straight line from fingertips to toes, with no curve in the shoulders or back. I tell kids to make the seam on the side of their leotard as straight as possible.
Advanced skills like back handsprings and giant swings on bars require gymnasts to quickly change between these three shapes!

Altius Staff Member Profile: Annette Proudian

Coach Annette Proudian has been involved in gymnastics most of her life. She started taking classes when she was 6 years old. “My mom wanted me to take dance, but I had other plans,” Annette relates. That early love of the sport and years of training and competing set her up well for a career at Altius Gymnastics. She has worked here for almost 18 years. Annette coaches all levels of progressive gymnastics and is also a key member of the office staff. Annette enjoys coaching beam the best and her favorite gymnast of all time is Olga Korbut.

When she has a little downtime, Annette might be found enjoying a cozy dinner at home and watching her favorite movie, Sleepless in Seattle. She especially likes Chinese or Italian food or meals made with chicken. Annette says her pet peeve is when people mess with things that don’t belong to them. She gets inspiration from Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

Annette loves working with children and has a big family of her own. She is the proud mother of five kids, including Altius Coaches Maygan and Morgan. She is also the youngest of 6 children. Adds Annette, “When I was young, my parents took us camping for a couple weeks during the summer. We went all over the U.S., and even ventured into Canada. Because of this, I have been in 42 states (and some parts of Canada). Imagine traveling all over the country with a station wagon full of kids!”

Altius Staff Member Profile: Missy Juleen

Missy Juleen is a coach for the Altius Training Squad and has also been involved in the Level 5 and 6 Team program. She’s been in gymnastics in some form for almost 22 years. She says she started taking classes at Altius when she was 7. “I was a baton-twirler and my instructor encouraged me to sign up for gymnastics,” Missy shares. She’s coached at Altius for almost 15 years. “When I was a gymnast, beam my was my favorite event to work on, but now I love coaching my students on the bars,” she says.

When Missy was a gymnast, she admired Ukrainian gymnast Lilia Podkopayeva. “I had posters of her everywhere in my room,” Missy reveals. “But I would say Mary Lou Retton is the best gymnast of all time.”

Missy is a busy first-time mom. Her daughter, Aria, will be 1 in a few months. “I can’t wait to put her in a leotard!” Missy says. She adds that when she has some free time, she enjoys reading Nicholas Sparks books and also looking up recipes for new things she can cook for Aria. Another activity Missy likes is trying to grow different crops in her garden. “I absolutely love pickles,” Missy admits, “especially ones made from home-grown cucumbers.”

Missy is fond of getting away on vacation in warm locations, but even when she’s at the gym, she’s never far from family. Her mom, Nancy Swiderski works in the office at Altius and Missy’s sister, Shelly Schwab, coaches Girls Level 3 Team here, as well. With all that Missy has going on, it’s a good thing her motto in life is, “Never give up!”

Gymnastics 101 - By Coach Jill

What's the Point?
A relatively small number of children in gymnastics actually compete, and only a tiny percentage of those progress to the top levels of the sport. So...what's the point of being in recreational gymnastics classes? I think most kids would simply respond that it's FUN. I hope even Olympians would respond that they do gymnastics because it's fun to defy gravity and push the limits of the human body. From a professional point of view, I feel very strongly that not only is gymnastics fun, but it teaches kids the joy of movement and how to use their bodies--benefits that can last a lifetime.

For example, the gymnast learning to ski for the first time is more comfortable than her peers because of time on the balance beam. Rock climbing instructors have reported that they can always pick out the gymnasts because of their great upper-body strength. Kindergym students learning to swim can be more willing to jump into the pool because of their experience jumping into the foam pit. Gymnasts in many cases are able to pick up golf easier than others because they have learned body awareness and mental focus from their gymnastics training. Another benefit that comes from this sport is knowing how to fall safely, which comes in handy in team sports when you’re sliding into home base or being tackled on the football field.

Altius Staff Member Profile: Jill Schrimpf

Coach Jill Schrimpf started gymnastics at age 2-1/2 when Altius Owner Mike Robb was coaching out of Franklin High School and she’s been involved in the sport ever since. Jill started coaching at Altius in 1995 when she was in high school. While attending UW-Madison where she majored in History and Marketing, Jill worked at a local gym. She came back to Altius after graduating from college and a brief stint working for Wells Fargo.

“My favorite events as a gymnast were vault and beam, but by the end of my career I could pick out skills on each event that I really enjoyed practicing and performing,” Jill says. “I currently coach mostly beam and floor. I can't choose a top event--it would be like picking your favorite child. I like them equally for different reasons!”

Over the years, Jill has had an opportunity to see some exciting gymnastics competitions and see some star national gymnasts achieve glory. “I went to the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis with my family and a friend when I was 10 years old,” Jill reports. “I will always remember seeing Kim Zemeskal win the all-around gold medal with her signature 3 whip back to double back tumbling pass.” This Altius Director also attended the 1994 National Championships in Nashville where Dominique Dawes swept the gold medals on every event and the all-around.

Her most memorable gymnastics competition moment was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics gymnastics team final. Her seats were in the last row of the Georgia Dome. “Kerri Strug's final gold medal winning vault was amazing,” Jill recalls. “The energy in that building was indescribable!”

At home, Coach Jill hangs out with her cat, named Jack Nicholson. She considers herself an avid, but slow, runner, as well as an avid, but inconsistent, golfer. “I also like to water ski, wakeboard, and downhill ski when I get the chance,” she adds. “I have also been skydiving and surfing.” Jill enjoys eating raspberries, Kopp's turtle sundaes and Ricardo's cheeseburger pizza. Her pet peeve is narrowmindedness.

Says Jill, “After hearing that I was a gymnast, many people are surprised to discover that I cannot touch my toes. That’s my 2012 New Year’s Resolution.” At last check, she was still working on that goal...just 3 months to go!

Gymnastics 101 - By Coach Jill

The Relationship Between Gymnastics and Academics

Many activities in gymnastics classes prepare children for early success in the classroom. Listed below are just a few of the relationships between gym activities and behaviors in school.

Activities requiring deep pressure to the joints as in mat and bar work provide joint sensation adequate for correct pencil grip, and the pencil tension needed to form letters properly.

Listening to a coach and processing multi-step directions for gymnastics skills including sequences and complex motor patterns gives children practice in listening to a teachers instructions, following multi-step directions in school assignments and understanding complex math patterns.

Gymnastics students that enjoy warm-up routines with music and keep a steady beat/rhythm with ease are better at understanding the rhythmic nature of reading and speech, leading to strong fluency skills.

Students that learn directional terms at the gym including over, under, next to, and between are better at distinguishing between the letters b/d/p/q and writing with no reversals.

Altius Staff Member Profile: Natalie Lipka

Natalie Lipka is a girls coach at Altius has been involved in gymnastics for 22 years--since she was four years old. She coached at Altius from 2003 to 2009 and then took a break to begin her teaching career. She now teaches 6th grade. “This past winter I realized how much I missed coaching gymnastics so in January 2012, I came back to Altius,” says Natalie. Her favorite part of the sport is working on skills for floor routine and the Olympic gymnast she most admires is Kerri Strug. Natalie is married and has a black lab named Jett. She enjoys watching the movie The Wizard of Oz and any Mexican or Italian foods. Her pet peeve is loud noises. Coach Natalie is strong in lots of ways, especially when it comes to bouncing back from injury. She has dislocated both her right elbow and her left ankle, had surgery on her right hip and also tore a major ligament in her knee by flipping her ATV!