Brother and Sister Authors, Week of March 21

Informational Text DRAFT

Audience: Middle School Students

Kendall Huff- Gymnastics

Have you ever wanted to know how to do certain tricks in gymnastics? Flips, handstands, splits, and handsprings? They make me feel like I can fly. Let me tell you about some skills that make you feel like you can fly and more!

According to the Webster dictionary the meaning of the word skills is to be capable of doing something that takes training, experience, or practice. In order to have these skills you need to have confidence and to work hard. You can do this by practicing gymnastics at home or in a gymnasium. You can do gymnastics anywhere SAFE!!!!!! You can do it at home, outside in a open field, and a gymnasium, etc. Just remember to be in a SAFE enviorment and place. For example you do not want to do gymnastics in a small area with glass vases and furniture. This will cause your parents to get mad cause they spent all this money and you broke it !!!! Also the glass will break  and it will cut you.

You need special gear for gymnastics like leotard, wristbrand, no shoes , and hair tied up.

You need a leotard so you can actually be comfortable and not rip your pants or clothes. Leotard are used because they have this special latex so it makes the leotard stretch. But if you do not have a leotard then get some gym shorts that are not tight and a short sleeve shirt.

If you are worried or wondering if you can do gymnastics well to answer your question, you can! Anyone can do gymnastics just remember to have confidence and work hard. Gymnastics specialist recommend that kids under 5 years old should have adult supervision.

You can start gymnastics at 3years old but can start earlier for fun or something.

If you cant go to a gymnastics class how can you learn? Well don’t get sad kids you can go on youtube and watch videos or ask a friend . For example if you want to know how to do a handstand just go on Youtube and search “how to do a handstand for beginners.” If you need help doing some kind of skill in gymnastics ask a friend, siblings, or a parent to help spot you.  According to gymnasticszone.com , spotting means for someone to assist you while you are doing a gymnastics skill so you wont hurt yourself.

Here are some steps I can teach you to do. The 1^st thing you need to do is stretch your legs and your arms so you won’t pull a muscle that’s not supposed to be pulled.

Cartwheels: The first thing you want to do is put your hands up and leap on the floor and kick your legs over side ways and then your feet are going to touch the ground sideways and the way you are going to know that you did the steps right is that when you flipped doing your cartwheel your body will be sideways instead of straight .

Handstand: A stand handstand is simple all you need to do is put your hands on the ground and push your self off from the ground and then kick your legs half way over then keep them in the air and then when you are done you can ethier flip all the way over or just come down.

Round off: A round off is easy if you know how to a handstand and a Cartwheel then you know how to do a round off. All you want to do is do a cartwheel but land with your feet together and not apart. So what you want to do is put your hands on the ground and then kick off from the side and the turn your waist to make your feet land straight and together.

Back Handspring:  A back handspring is a little difficult for some people. What you want to do to complete a handspring is try to practice on something bouncy first to try to get the feeling of you springing back up like a bed or a trampoline. But make sure that it is safe first cause I am pretty sure your mom does not want you to get hurt. The first is to practice doing a handstand on a trampoline or a bed and when you do the handstand add a flip over all the way with your handstand so when you do your handstand flip all the way over. Then, practice that over and over and over again until you feel secure moving into a little bit harder challenge. When you feel more secure do your handstand backwards then after that jump into your backhand spring 

and then put all of those steps together.

Front Handspring: A front hand spring is just adding a jump force into a handstand. So just run and then do a flip that goes into a handstand then just land with your feet coming together.

Split: How to do a split: The way how you do a split is stretch your legs and your arms out so you won’t pull a muscle and then just lower legs down little by little and then keep on stretching everyday you will be able to do a split but it takes time so it probably won’t happen in 1 day.