When I was a kid, gym class resembled a free-for-all rather than an organized learning session. I played
a lot of tag while avoiding the flying dodgeballs, leaping over the kids playing board games, and avoided the flying basketballs from those playing HORSE.
It was fun, but I wasn’t learning anything about fitness, and it certainly wasn’t as helpful as our new Youth Programming.
Our after-school classes have been revamped to help students explore fitness through coordination-building exercises and athletic skill sets.
In the past, our Youth Fitness Supervisor Seth Ogden developed a program to help kids get active and to teach them good sportsmanship and team play. These are still emphasized, but with a different twist.
This year’s curriculum is taken from the International Youth Conditioning Association, the premier international authority for athletic development and youth participant-based conditioning. The IYCA program is a fun way to safely teach today’s youth the skills and habits needed to live a healthy and athletic life.
This year’s Youth Program at the club is divided into three divisions by age group:
Guided Discovery Group: for children ages 6-9 and meets on Mondays and Thursdays. Primary emphasis is on coordination development and secondary focus on strength and speed. Coordination is discovered through balance, awareness in space, force production, rhythm and reaction exercises.
Learning Exploration Group: for kids ages 10-13 and meets on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Primary emphasis is building on some basic techniques that have been taught in the past while adding more advanced coordination and exercise skill sets.
Circuit Training Group: for kids ages 12-14 and meets on Saturdays. Primary emphasis is on applying form to exercise. Group circuit training is introduced to develop strength, speed and better athletic performance.
The goal of our Youth Programming classes is to teach the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle and to encourage the development of new athletic skills. More information is available at the Front Desk, or you can contact Seth Ogden at Seth.Ogden@midtown.com.
Are your kids involved in our Youth Fitness Programs? What do they think of the classes?
