Your child seems to have the right skills for gymnastics or has expressed a desire to go to gymnastics classes. Is gymnastics suitable for children or is it a purely female sport? This article explores the pros and cons of practicing gymnastics as a child. First, we will consider the pros.

1. Gymnastics creates incredible core body strength. You just have to look at the physiques of men competing on the rings in any major gymnastics competition to see that male gymnasts have muscles other men can only dream of!
2. Doing gymnastics can improve coordination and body control. This is useful for all sports, so gymnastics can be a stepping stone to perform other sports at a high level.
3. Urban street dancing is one of the latest youth trends and is regularly seen on our televisions. Street dance groups are becoming famous and street dancing takes place around all the pop ‘in’ acts. Therefore, it is natural that boys aspire to become street dancers. Gymnastics is an essential part of street dance with many movements that require gymnastic skills, such as the plank which is a semi-horizontal handstand.
4. Since the ratio of boys to girls is likely to be very much in favor of boys, gymnastics classes can be a great way to find girlfriends with similar interests.
5. Gymnastics is a must for anyone thinking of becoming a stuntman. Doing stunts can be an exciting career, with participation in television and movies in different parts of the world.
6. Gymnastics is extremely important to anyone considering a career on stage or in the performing arts. Cirque de Soleil is full of talented gymnasts who push the boundaries of gymnastics with their death-defying feats and artistic performances. The fame and success of Cirque de Soleil show how popular gymnastics is, even outside of traditional competition-based training.
7. The popularity of gymnastics acts at talent shows like ‘America’s Got Talent’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ shows just how useful it is to play the sport. In fact, a gymnastics act titled “Spellbound” won the 2010 Britain’s Got Talent series. Interestingly, the company has more boys than girls.
8. In the US, some colleges offer gymnastics scholarships that could help tremendously with the high costs of earning a college degree. With fewer men doing gymnastics, men would have an advantage over women to get one of these scholarships.

So what are the downsides to enrolling your child in gym class?

1. Your kid might be the only kid in gym class. Don’t assume that this will automatically be the case. You will only find out by going to one of the classes yourself to see it or by contacting the gym trainer by phone or email. You can request that your son do a free tasting to see if he likes it and if he feels comfortable if there are not many other boys. If your child is reluctant to go alone, a gymnastics-related gift might cheer him up, such as a handguard, a keychain, or some gymnastics jewelry. Gymnastics jewelry comes in different types of metals, such as silver and gold. Be careful with gym jewelry made of base metals, as they can cause skin allergies. Alternatively, your child could bring a friend with him, if he has someone suitable. Talk to the parents of your child’s friends to see if any of his friends might be interested in joining him.
2. Your child could be teased at school. However, once you demonstrate how you can do backflips and hand jumps, your classmates will be in awe! Alternatively, your child could take street dance classes at the same time and argue that he does gymnastics to improve his street dance. Everybody knows that street dancers are cool and they get respect!
3. Your son may not have time for more traditional men’s sports, such as soccer and rugby. It is true that no one can do everything, so you always have to choose which hobbies to pursue. However, it is possible for your child to play traditional sports at school and therefore be able to use his free time for more specialized sports, such as gymnastics.
4. Some parents may be concerned that doing gymnastics may make their child too feminine. However, men’s gymnastics has different disciplines than women’s gymnastics. The apparatus of men’s gymnastics is floor, jump, parallel bars, high bar, rings and pommel horse. Women have 4 devices: floor, vault, beam and bars. However, even where women and men intersect, namely on Floor and Vault, the disciplines are different. The women’s floor routine is done to music and is generally performed in a ballet style. The men’s floor routine is not performed with music and is done in a masculine style. The vault is also different in that the horse is positioned horizontally for women and longitudinally for men.

To conclude, the advantages of children doing gymnastics significantly outweigh any disadvantages. Parents should not stop placing their children in gym class, but should embrace their talents. Gymnastics is useful in a variety of different fields and can make a child stand out as “cool.”