Part 2: ENDURING STRENGTH
In the first part of this series, we highlighted how great the sport of gymnastics is at teaching perseverance. Gymnasts learn, nearly by default, to always keep going and to never give up.
Todays Topic: Gymnastics Grows Little Girls into Strong Women.
Read other posts in this series:
- Part 1: PERSEVERANCE
- Part 2: ENDURING STRENGTH
- Part 3: HARD WORK IS ITS OWN REWARD
- Part 4: HARD WORK PAYS OFF
- Part 5: DISCIPLINE
Have you ever tried arm-wrestling a gymnast? If you haven’t yet, I’d like to discourage you against trying!
For example, there’s this story about Rusty – the biggest, baddest dude on my 9-year old baseball team – and how my sister dominated him in an arm-wrestling competition that left him in tears. But then he spent the next 3 years with a major crush on her, so no harm done!
There are countless stories just like this one: for instance, the gymnast who beat the marine in a push-up contest. We drool over gymnasts’ strength, and rightfully so: at the elite level, they’ve got some of the best power-to-weight ratios of any athletes on the planet; and even as 6-year olds, their six-pack abs will make you jealous.
But strength isn’t merely physical, now is it?
Female gymnasts tend to peak between the ages of 16-20, long before they can merely retire and “ride off into the sunset.” So if gymnastics leaves them with nothing more than a set of nice-looking abs and ripped shoulders, I’d say the experience would be lacking.
But of course, there’s much more to it.
Gymnastics teaches a strength that overpowers any human muscle. It’s a strength that endures more than just physical difficulty, or the test of competition.
Gymnasts are mentally strong, emotionally strong, and relationally strong. Gymnasts are strong HUMANS.
The Magnificent Women of the “Magnificent 7”
This strength translates to life success, evident in many of their careers. Just look at a few of the “Magnificent 7” (the 1996 U.S. Olympic Gold Medal Winning Team) as examples:
- Kerri Strug (who most remember as the one who sealed the gold medal by vaulting on one leg) has been a member of the White House Office of Presidential Student Correspondence, the Treasury Department, and now the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- Amy Chow is a Stanford graduate who now runs a private practice as a pediatrician
- Shannon Miller survived ovarian cancer, and now balances being a mother alongside her non-profit work educating women about health and fitness
- Amanda Borden is now a gym owner, helping other gymnasts pursue their olympic dreams
But it’s not just career excellence that follows many gymnasts after their competition years: these ladies become active role models, excellent mothers, and make incredible contributions to our world.
Develop Strength in YOUR Child
Your child doesn’t have to be an Olympian in order to become a strong woman. In fact, little girls in our gym are becoming strong women each and every day.
Enroll your child in a gymnastics class today and see the benefits for yourself!
Photo Credit: Michael Havens