Monday we held our first ever Gymnastics League competition at Emeth. It was exciting! League is our newest program at Emeth, giving students at almost any level a chance to experience competition. Fourteen gymnasts, ages five through eleven, are a part of our Summer League, and performed the routines they have been practicing for the last month on Monday.

Competing in gymnastics offers a unique set of challenges that can build positive character qualities. After athletes have worked hard practicing their routines they must be willing to perform them in front of an audience and judges, who assess and score how well they complete their skills. We believe that competition in a positive and reinforcing environment can help students prepare for many future challenges in life. All students receive awards on each event during League competitions based on their scores. They are also given the scoring sheet the judge uses to calculate their scores so they can review it themselves.

There is so much that can be learned through competing- from the victory of a first performance under the pressure of a judge’s eye, to the focus needed to improve a specific skill or body position! The scores we hand out along with ribbons, medals, and trophies, are just small symbols of the much more exciting growth in the students. The highest score, while very admirable, may not be the greatest accomplishment on any given day. It may instead be the courage to stand tall in front of an audience after a mistake, or the focus to listen to a coach in the midst of voices and music, or perhaps the courage to leap higher than before even when afraid.

These accomplishments and growth in each student- each athlete, are what we as coaches and parents celebrate. The standards we score by are simply external measures of the internal growth we hope to see, markers we need that will never tell the whole story on their own.

What’s more? League is just beginning! Our fourteen athletes have two more competitions during Summer League, then Fall League will be open to new and continuing athletes.

–  Mr. Judah & Amos Arnold

Want to learn more about Gymnastics League? Check it out here…