Strength and balance through tumbling

Classes are all filled up for an engaging and exciting opportunity for children wanting to dip their feet into the world of tumbling locally.

Sami Harris, who is a Greenfield native who teaches physical education at Nodaway Valley High School, has two classes she’s teaching coming up on the next eight Mondays at the Adair County Health and Fitness Center.

Harris held an open house for those in the classes Monday, Jan. 10.

During their time together, she was able to show them all of the different stations they’ll learn to maneuver over the next eight week, such as cartwheels, headstands, back bends, round-offs, balance beam, and more.

Tumblebugs is for 4 to 6-year-olds and will include 20 participants while Tumble Basics is for 7 to 10-year-olds and will include 20 participants. There is a waiting list for those who still want to sneak into the classes, but there are no guarantees.

Harris explained that she wanted to create an opportunity for kids to come and have fun learning skills that will benefit their overall growth in a non-competitive environment. Other tumbling opportunities for kids in this area are in Creston, Corning or Winterset, so she knew something based in Greenfield would fill up quickly.

“A lot of the skills they’ll do will require them to have good strength and good balance. It’s also going to help improve their coordination. You think about that we have a low bar where they can hold their body weight and so some flips and rolls over the bar, that’s a skill that really requires your muscles to work,” Harris said. “You think of the monkey bars at recess, and they’re using the monkey bars to hold their body weight. That’s really a crucial skill for kids to have.”

Though there may be several youngsters who weren’t able to get into these two classes, Harris said this won’t be the only opportunity for them to learn tumbling and gymnastics skills. She’s hoping to utilize summer day camps she usually does at the fitness center as another avenue to teaching some of these skills.

“I’m super thankful for our community and the grants we access to in this community because a lot of the equipment we purchased was purchased completely with grants the fitness center applies for every year,” Harris said. “We would not have been able to have this type of program if we didn’t have all sorts of people supporting our community.”