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Gymnastics Articles Index



photo of gymnastics in a primary school

Gymnastics 4 Hire is a wholesale educational resource provider for primary schools across Australia.

Our retail partners can provide your school with equipment to hire and access to our online resources to enable your school to run their own challengenging and engaging gymnastics program, meeting PDHPE outcomes.

Please follow the following links for further information regarding:


Teaching Tips


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How your Body Balances


If you were to cut yourself in half perfectly down the middle, from the top of your head to your bottom, then each half would have the same weight (unless you only have one arm or something). Now imagine this in 3 directions, front on, side on, and a...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Monday 13-Nov-2017 10:09 PM
Last edited: Monday 13-Nov-2017 10:09 PM
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Teaching Kids to Manage Risk


As adults, we are expected to manage risk. There are forms to fill out and guidelines we must adhere to. Not only this, we also manage risk on a daily basis; when we drive, when we go out at night, when we travel to unknown places. However, when were...

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Author: Genevieve Gibson
First published: Tuesday 24-Oct-2017 11:05 AM
Last edited: Tuesday 24-Oct-2017 11:05 AM
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Why children love to rotate: Let’s talk about the vestibular system.


One of our most popular lesson plans with primary school children is our lesson centred around rotation. Why is this particular concept so popular? We need to look no further than the vestibular system.

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Author: Genevieve Gibson
First published: Friday 25-Aug-2017 9:18 AM
Last edited: Friday 25-Aug-2017 9:22 AM
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Fidget Spinners: Nightmare trend or fun educational tool?


Fidget spinners are the thing of 2017. You would be hard pressed to find a child who didn’t already have one, and a teacher that is sick to death of seeing and hearing them

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Author: Genevieve Gibson
First published: Tuesday 25-Jul-2017 11:50 AM
Last edited: Tuesday 25-Jul-2017 11:50 AM
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Student designed warm-up games.


For something a bit different, I decided to let the Grade 5/6 students design their own warm-up game that they would run with their classmates over the coming weeks. In a group of 3 or 4, students had to design a game that specifically targeted Fu...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Wednesday 10-May-2017 2:32 PM
Last edited: Wednesday 10-May-2017 2:32 PM
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Adapt the game, change the outcome


In this article, we’re going to look at how to change or modify a basic warm-up game to achieve different learning outcomes.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Monday 19-Dec-2016 10:43 PM
Last edited: Monday 19-Dec-2016 10:46 PM
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Workshop Summary 4-Apr-2016


Summary of professional development workshop held 4-Apr-2016

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Wednesday 06-Apr-2016 12:15 PM
Last edited: Thursday 21-Jul-2016 9:02 PM
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Making Mini-Tramps Safe


So you've got yourself a nice shiny new mini-trampoline, probably from Acromat. But, before you use it, there's a few things that we recommend that you do to make it safe, and reduce the possible injuries that could occur.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Thursday 28-Jan-2016 12:25 PM
Last edited: Thursday 28-Jan-2016 12:30 PM
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How To: Make a Scooter Board


Start with the plywood, use a pencil to mark in 250 mm from the left, at both the top and bottom of the board. Use a ruler or straight length of timber or metal as an edge to help draw a straight line on the timber connecting the two marks.....

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 12-Jul-2015 9:56 PM
Last edited: Sunday 12-Jul-2015 9:56 PM
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Counter Balances


Counter balances are a great way to develop both partner and team work. A counter balance is a balance where both you and your partner are doing an equal amount of work to hold each other up. If either of you let go, then you both go splat.....

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Wednesday 13-May-2015 5:57 PM
Last edited: Tuesday 26-Jan-2016 4:36 PM
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Teaching Forward Rolls (a.k.a. Somersault)


The only equipment you really need to teach a forward roll is a soft surface. Forward rolls can be taught on soft grass, sand, practically anything with a bit of give in it. However, a scatter mat, a 30cm high soft box, and a 30cm high wedge are real...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Saturday 09-May-2015 9:22 AM
Last edited: Saturday 09-May-2015 10:17 AM
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To Stretch or Not to Stretch


With more and more content been crammed into the school day, it seems like our P.E. sessions keep getting shorter and shorter. So, how much extra time could you cover if you could get back the 5 minutes it takes you to stretch every session? Assuming...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Saturday 14-Feb-2015 4:14 PM
Last edited: Monday 16-Feb-2015 10:18 PM
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Super Scooters


Scooter boards are not just for Scooter Hockey and P.M.P. Here's some activities to challenge students from Grade 3 right up to Year 8!

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Saturday 07-Feb-2015 4:31 PM
Last edited: Sunday 31-May-2015 10:02 AM
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Boxes on a Basketball Court


Here is a simple whole group activity you can do with young children - the idea here is to minimize wait time when you have limited equipment. We are going to use the setup to practice our landings, but you could just as easily use the setup for cart...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 4:34 PM
Last edited: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 4:34 PM
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More P.E. Warm-Up Games


More warm-up games, by popular demand - Da Bomb!, Freezers and Melters, Clumps, Rats and Rabbits, Off Ground Tiggy, Chain Tiggy....

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 25-Jan-2015 11:00 PM
Last edited: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 8:36 AM
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Warm-up Games for School Gymnastics


The whole purpose of a warm-up game is to warm-up the participants in you class. A good warm-up game will have all the participants active for most of the time. You can't get warm if you are standing or sitting around doing nothing.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Friday 23-Jan-2015 11:08 AM
Last edited: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 8:36 AM
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Fun with Beams and Benches


We often do some fairly simple things on a day to day basis without even thinking about them. Here are some simple activities using just a balance beam, or some benches / bench seats. You may have some bench seats concreted into the school yard that ...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Tuesday 20-Jan-2015 4:56 PM
Last edited: Monday 26-Jan-2015 11:56 PM
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Teaching Cartwheels Part 2


By now we should have a student that understands the concept of rotating sideways, they can push down on the box, get their feet over and finish in a sideways star shape, using a 'Step, Step, Star' pattern. Their cartwheels will probably be a...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Wednesday 07-Jan-2015 11:34 AM
Last edited: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 8:12 AM
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Teaching Children to Fall safely


Reduce the risk of children hurting themselves when they fall over by teaching them how to fall safely. How to reduce the impact felt during your fall.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 14-Sep-2014 3:19 PM
Last edited: Sunday 01-Feb-2015 10:39 AM
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Reduce the risk of playground injuries with Gymnastics


Most of us have been trained to think of gymnastics as some scary sport where people do amazing crazy looking skills, and try to land on their feet (just like the video to the left). That's a small part of it, but gymnastics is so much more. Gymn...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 07-Sep-2014 5:25 PM
Last edited: Saturday 18-Jul-2015 10:33 PM
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Teaching Cartwheels Part 1


The basics of teaching a cartwheel to a beginner. - I'm going to try and avoid using language that is too technical in this article, as it is about teaching a cartwheel. We don't need to know fancy words, given the age of the students, it is ...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Tuesday 26-Aug-2014 10:47 PM
Last edited: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 8:14 AM

Other


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Other Resource Links


From time to time we come across some useful websites with relevant gymnastics content. If you have any sites to suggest, send us a quick message.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 02-Aug-2015 4:32 PM
Last edited: Friday 29-Sep-2017 10:03 AM
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The Road to Lockington


A short story about my experience bringing gymnastics to a small school in regional / provincial Victoria, funded by sporting schools.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Friday 24-Jul-2015 8:08 PM
Last edited: Thursday 14-Jul-2016 8:37 AM
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Finding the Right Gymnastics Club for You


Gymnastics is a very diverse sport, and is made up of many Gymsports. Not all clubs offer all gymsports, and clubs vary in the facilities they offer.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 19-Jul-2015 4:21 PM
Last edited: Monday 14-Dec-2015 10:07 AM
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5 Simple Gymnastics Activities You Can Do at Home


Following are 5 fairly simple activities that most kids should be able to do at home. Obviously there is a lot more you can do, this is just to get you inspired...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Wednesday 21-Jan-2015 9:07 PM
Last edited: Tuesday 27-Jan-2015 8:37 AM

For Kids


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Gymnastics Colouring Sheets


A collection of colouring sheets that I've collected over time. Most have been modified from the original, where possible I have cited the original work. Click the image to download the pdf for printing.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Thursday 21-Jul-2016 9:19 PM
Last edited: Thursday 21-Jul-2016 9:20 PM
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How do I do the Splits?


Teaching yourself to do the splits will take time. There is no magic spell that will make you flexible enough overnight. Perseverance and correct technique is the key to success. Before you can do the splits, you need to be flexible enough. Flexib...

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 30-Aug-2015 4:12 PM
Last edited: Wednesday 02-Sep-2015 9:54 PM
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How Muscles Work


A muscle contains a whole lot of little fibres, kind of like how a rope is made up of a lot of little strands. When you use (contract) your muscles, these little fibres all get shorter.

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Author: Gary Black
First published: Sunday 30-Aug-2015 11:40 AM
Last edited: Sunday 30-Aug-2015 11:40 AM