​Today is International Handstand Day – a day when people photograph their handstand skills to share with and inspire others on social media. What strikes you when you scroll through #HandstandDay is the variety of people getting involved from the very young to centenarians and from the ‘never tried it before’ to elite athletes from a range of Gymnastics, dance, circus and aquatic disciplines. With no rules beyond the handstand theme, the occasion also encourages creativity through Gymnastics and my favourite examples so far have to be a handstand atop a golden postbox and an entire fire brigade watch performing handstands in unison in full uniform using the fire engine for support. All in all, this day pretty much encompasses everything I love about Gymnastics.
 
In my work this week, I have tried to embrace the International Handstand Day ethos and use it to inspire the content for my extra-curricular Gymnastics club. The session outcome for the gymnasts attending my after school club was to create group tableaus showing a range of handstand progressions/variations in an effort to demonstrate that, whilst very few can perform and hold a technically accurate handstand, there is an accessible level of Gymnastics which is achievable and beneficial for all.
 
Through the pulse raising warm up, we explored a variety of basic straight shape actions because this is the Gymnastics shape that underpins the full skill. The gymnasts then created their own warm up phrases incorporating a dish shape, a frog balance progression, a front support and a shoulder stand. These actions were chosen because they involve inversion, weight transfer and straight shapes whilst also testing/developing the gymnasts body tension and extension in preparation for performing handstand progressions and variations as the session developed.
 
During the main activity the gymnasts swapped between working on their ability to lunge and reach into the kick up action and testing their ability to support their own body weight whilst inverted by ‘moving toward handstand’ using increasingly high flat platform apparatus. With all the preparations explored, gymnasts were grouped into teams of 5 and allocated with a bench, a table and 4 mats per group. The teams were able to arrange their apparatus as they wished and were then tasked to create a Gymnastics tableau (scene) in which all 5 gymnasts demonstrated a different progression or variation of a handstand appropriate to their ability level with at least one gymnast involving an item of apparatus. Having identified that the key to success was to ensure each gymnast selected a progression/variation that they could hold for 3 seconds, the teams got to exploring ideas and it didn’t take long for them to devise successful answers to the task.
 
Among the pictures at the top of this Blog post, you will find the response that one group formed. The range of progressions shown start with a front support on an inclined bench, a 3 point inverted balance with one leg raised on the table top, a ‘moving toward handstand’ using apparatus, a full handstand on floor and a handstand shape variation in which the gymnast has flexed her legs at the knees and arched her back slightly to drop her feet onto the table top. As such, regardless of ability, each gymnast had successfully met the task of showing a handstand progression within a group handstand tableau – an idea which could be transferred to any Gymnastics skill, theme or concept.
 
On my British Gymnastics Award Scheme Coaching for Schools course yesterday, we also took the opportunity to look at how we can make handstand progressions/variations achievable for all pupils in the curriculum and extra-curricular setting. I use the phrase progressions/variations carefully as a means to express that a teacher or coach delivering Gymnastics in schools should never set the expectation of a whole group of pupils achieving a handstand in it’s purest technically correct form simultaneously within any one session. For some in a handstand themed session, the full extent of their success criteria might be to control a front support with feet on a raised platform for 3 seconds whilst a more physically able pupil's success criteria might be to perform a handstand variation such as showing a double stag leg shape in the held handstand position. With this and the International Handstand Day theme in mind, the teachers attending the Award Scheme course set to creating their own warm up phrases which they could take back into their setting to teach pupils in order to develop their body tension and extension as well as their strength and technique with a view to improving each pupil’s proficiency and confidence to perform a handstand progressions/variation applicable to their ability level. The photos above show elements of the phrase that one pair of candidates put together covering lunges, inversion and weight on hands ideas.
 
The end of today will mark the end of International Handstand Day for another year but it won’t mark the end of my effort and the effort of many others working in Physical Education and participatory Gymnastics to expose the ethos that this is a sport for everyone. I look forward to continuing to turn the reluctance with which many teachers approach the delivery of Gymnastics in schools into enthusiasm by sharing the message and demonstrating the fact that there is a skill level achievable (and therefore fun) for all but, in the meantime, I’ll be spending the rest of today enjoying the range of #HandstandDay contributions…

Today the summer edition of the PE journal “Physical Education Matters’ dropped onto my doormat. As a member of the Association for Physical Education this is not an unusual occurrence although I was particularly excited to receive this edition as it featured my article ‘A philosophy on teaching Gymnastics in Primary Schools’.
 
The article presents an ethos that I have developed over the course of the various teaching, coaching, mentoring, tutoring and consultancy roles I have undertaken during the past 18 years. The ethos is that high quality Gymnastics in Primary schools is not dependent on the delivery or achievement of any ‘recognised’ Gymnastics skills. By recognised Gymnastics skills, I mean those actions that immediately spring to most people’s minds when they visualise Gymnastics e.g. forward roll, backward roll, headstand, cartwheel and handstand.
 
Having presented the ethos, the article goes on to reflect upon the wording in the National Curriculum PE Programmes of Study before introducing a model for progression and differentiation that is specific to Educational Gymnastics. The picture accompanying the ‘Principles of Progression’ section shows 6 pupils performing 5 varied and differentiated versions of a v-sit involving wall bars in 3 different ways to demonstrate the range of movement vocabulary that can be generated as a result of exploring just a single basic Gymnastics action in depth.
 
Before reaching a conclusion, the article also addresses the wide spread lack of confidence among teachers to deliver Curriculum Gymnastics but also my belief that they are the best people for the job. Appreciating that training is therefore key to overcoming the resulting reluctance, the final section details my recommendations for the nature of Gymnastics professional learning that teachers should seek.
 
My purpose for writing the article was to express the huge potential for learning that exists in Curriculum Gymnastics. By recognising that potential and viewing skills acquisition as only a small part of it, achievement in and through Gymnastics becomes considerably more accessible to teachers and pupils alike.

​Gymnastics, as seen on TV, is very much presented as an individual sport. The fact that Great Britain came away from the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships with a Women’s team bronze medal and a Men’s team silver medal might begin to suggest otherwise but the reality is that the gymnasts making up those teams do not perform or compete any routines together and largely train apart in their own respective Gymnastics clubs. Although there are some tactics involved, the ‘team’ element of Artistic Gymnastics really boils down to the fact that the gymnast’s individual scores are combined. Gymnastics, however, comes in many more forms than the widely profiled Artistic Gymnastics and the British Gymnastics disciplines of Rhythmic Gymnastics, Aerobic Gymnastics, Trampoline Gymnastics, Acrobatic Gymnastics and TeamGym all entail activities and competition elements that involve pair and/or group performances. This means that effective teamwork is actually key to success in certain aspects of the sport and should, therefore, feature as a focus for development alongside skills etc. in the recreational Gymnastics club setting. Further to that, in the curricular and extra-curricular school setting, teachers can use Gymnastics activities as a means to promote and develop teamwork skills that all pupils, whether they intend to participate in the sport in the long term or not, can transfer to and utilise in everyday situations.
 
As Gymnastics isn’t the most obvious sport through which to develop aspects of teamwork, coaches and teachers have to work particularly hard to identify activity ideas that will challenge participants to work collaboratively, co-operate, communicate, problem solve, resolve conflict, identify roles and responsibilities etc. Accordingly, I hope to use my Blog page as a way to share a variety of teamwork based activity ideas as I come across/develop them starting with an idea that randomly popped into my head whilst doing my best to relax on a spa break! I knew I wanted to devise an extra-curricular session based on hoop work and, for some reason, the ‘buzzer game’ that often features as a school fete stall came to mind. It led me to wonder if gymnasts could successfully explore the idea of creating various ‘wire’ shapes with their bodies’ for others to guide a hoop along whilst trying to avoid making contact.
 
As soon as I was back to work, I set to making a plan in which this idea featured as the main activity and then had to wait patiently until the day I’d get to try it out. In practice, the gymnasts enjoyed it so much that I decided to ditch the development activity planned for the latter part of the session in favour of discovering and exploring a range of further learning opportunities and challenges inspired by the ‘buzzer game’ activity. This is the series of challenges that transpired during that session:
 
Challenge 1:
 
In pairs, swapping between the roles of performer and hoop controller, explore individual body shapes to come up with a range of ‘wire’ shapes along which the controller can successfully manoeuvre the hoop without making contact with the shape.
 
Example: Front support ‘wire’ shape with hoop starting around the feet and finishing around the hands (see photo 1 above).
 
Score a point for every new ‘wire’ shape along which the hoop is moved successfully.
 
​Challenge 2:
 
In pairs, swapping between the roles of performer and hoop controller, return to the individual ‘wire’ shapes along which you could not successfully move the hoop from one end to the other. Explore ways of adapting/changing those ‘wire’ shapes as the hoop is moved along to make an impossible ‘wire’ shape possible to negotiate successfully. The only rule is that the ‘wire’ shape is the same at the start and end of the hoop transfer.
 
Example: V-sit ‘wire’ shape adapted to a back support at the mid-point of the hoop transfer.
 
Score a point for every previously impossible ‘wire’ shape along which the hoop is now moved successfully.
 
Challenge 3:
 
In groups of 4, swapping between the roles of 2 performers and 2 hoop controllers, explore basic contact pair shapes in which both performers show the same shape to come up with a range of longer symmetrical ‘wire’ shapes along which the controllers can successfully manoeuvre the hoop without making contact with the shape.
N.B. The 2 controllers can either move the hoop together with one on each side of the shape or one can start the hoop transfer with the other taking over at the mid-point.
 
Example: The performers create a standing arch shape by touching palms above their heads with one performer standing in the hoop (see photo 2 above).
 
Score a point for every pair ‘wire’ shape along which the hoop is moved successfully.
 
Challenge 4:
 
In groups of 4, swapping between the roles of 2 performers and 2 hoop controllers, explore basic contact pair shapes in which both performers show a different shape to come up with a range of asymmetrical ‘wire’ shapes along which the controllers can successfully manoeuvre the hoop without making contact with the shape.
N.B. Group members can collaborate to adapt/change the shape as the hoop is moved along to increase the range of responses and chances of success as long as the shape is the same at the start and finish and the basic contact between performers is not broken.
 
Example: One performer shows a standing straight shape whilst holding the legs of the other performer who is showing a shoulder stand.
 
At the venue where this extra-curricular session occurred, I had access to three different sized sets of hoops. As such, I was able to develop a tactical element to the latter challenges. Gymnasts had the option to use a large hoop and score 1 point for a successful hoop manoeuvre, use a medium hoop and score 2 points or use a small hoop and score 3 points. This added to the decision-making element and also gave groups the opportunity to be successful with a challenging ‘wire’ shape or further challenge the hoop and body shape control by trying a previously successful ‘wire’ shape with a smaller hoop.
 
The fact that success across these four challenges depended on a combination of effective communication, collaboration, co-operation, the identification of roles and responsibilities according to individual strengths, decision making, problem solving and tactical thinking (not to mention a bit of creativity, ability to balance and overwhelming positive vibes from the gymnasts too) leads me to believe that it’s worth continuing to explore the full scope of teamwork skill development opportunities that lie within the ‘buzzer game’ alongside other routes for developing teamwork skills through Gymnastics activities. I look forward to sharing what I come up with in future Blogs but would also welcome hearing from coaches, teachers and PE colleagues about their exploration of the ‘buzzer game’ and any other Gymnastics activities that have the development of teamwork skills at their essence.