5 Amazing Skills One Year Old Gymnasts Learn

Are you wondering what amazing skills one year old gymnasts learn at such a young age?

Amazing skills one year old gymnasts learn won’t make them Olympic ready overnight. But, it can be the first step to achieving dreams as big as the top.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a gymnast. But the opportunities just were not available for several reasons.

So, I’m making the opportunity available for Mylee. And thanks to the local YMCA, there are great classes and coaches to help her learn several skills at an early age. 

The YMCA actually offers a class called parent-tot gymnastics for babies ages 18-months to three years old. When I first heard about this class, you’d better believe I was the first parent to sign up my child for the next session after she turned 18-months old.

And she has learned so much more than just somersaults and cartwheels. Here are 5 amazing skills she’s learned since we started class.

1. Balance

She loves the balance beam. In fact, she is becoming more comfortable to walk the length of the shortest beam all by herself.

In the photo, she wasn’t really too sure about standing by herself on this taller beam, so I couldn’t get her to stand on it. What she can do easily now is stand on one foot and then the other!

2. Upper Body Strength:

Strong woman competition, here is your next competitor. Because gymnastics promotes the development of upper body strength.

Another one of the amazing skills one year old gymnasts learn is to stretch and become more flexible.

3. Flexibility

She learned how to stretch by making a pizza, putting her feet together like a butterfly and flying to Disney World to see Frozen Elsa & Anna, and doing table tops and roll backs. But most importantly, she’s learning why she needs to stress with physical fitness.

4. Endurance

Class is only 30 minutes long, but for a one-year-old, this seems like a lifetime. The obstacle course takes about 5 minutes to go through, so they could potentially go through it six times.

Throw a couple of water breaks and some distractions in there and her little heart is racing by the end of it. There is not much rest in between and she is pretty tired by the end of class.

5. Bounce-a-ability 

I don’t know if this was a word or not, but she is learning to jump with two feet. I thought she would learn this skill quicker. Little legs have a lot of strength to build up before both of them can leave the ground at the same time. We are working on this by jumping on a trampoline in class and at home.

How Parents Benefit, Too

I have benefited from this class as well because it has allowed me to meet some parents of kids her age. You can read here about my transition to the new area.

It also allows for Mylee and me time, which is so important in a world where kids grow up so fast. It is important to me to be able to cherish the time we have together to do something fun and that will benefit us physically.

I don’t know if Mylee will be the gymnast I dreamt of becoming once upon a time but for right now, she is having fun with it and gaining important developmental skills as well. It’s a win-win and we will continue to stretch, bounce and balance until she no longer wants to do it anymore.

~Much Love~