Is Your Teen Looking for Something Fun to Do?

Goodness knows how hard it is to find age-appropriate activities for teenagers on Saturday nights. They think they’re too old for those family activities they used to love, and we think they’re not old enough to be out on their own. They’re full of restless energy that can lead to all kinds of trouble if it’s not corralled into something safe and productive.

The good news is that Tumblebees can help. Check out our teen recreational program. Even if your teen is not enrolled in classes at Tumblebees, she’s likely to think our Teen Night activities are lots of fun.

The Hive

Tumblebees’ Teen Night program, known as The Hive, offers kids the chance to work off that excess teenage energy in a safe supervised environment. All you need to do is drop them off at our Team Training Center around 6:30 pm on Saturdays and pick them up again two hours later. During that time, they can use the trampolines, bars, and other apparatus. We have climbing ropes, foam pits and tumbling floors just waiting to challenge and amuse your teens.

The Details

Teen Night takes place every Saturday all year round from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The program is open for ages 12 through 17. There is a one-time registration fee of $35; beyond that each visit is $5 for students currently enrolled in a Tumblebees program or $10 for non-students. Every participant needs a parent-signed waiver as well.

Win-win Situation

Perhaps the best aspect of Teen Night is the independent feeling the kids get when they are out at night without Mom or Dad hovering in the parents’ lounge. They want so badly to be grown up, but they know they aren’t there yet. Our qualified staff fill in for parents by setting limits and watching for problems, so the kids feel safe. All the time they are having fun, they are also learning how to challenge themselves and how to cope if they don’t meet that challenge just yet. Yes, they do this at their usual lessons, too, but there’s an added excitement when it’s Saturday night.

And the benefit for you? You get two hours to yourself!

The Path to Diving

Three divers, three different paths

Diving is a sport that’s not for everyone. Jumping off a high dive or platform can be intimidating, scary and exhilarating, all at the same time. Not to mention the skills needed to flip, twist and turn your way into the water. So how does someone decide diving is the sport for them? Three high school seniors on the Tumblebees Ultimate Air Diving Team all found their way to diving by taking different paths, and all hope diving is part of their future.

Emma McPeeters came to diving because of her love for gymnastics and swimming. After seeing a Disney short featuring a diver nine years ago, Emma knew she had found the perfect sport for her. Now at 17 years old and a senior in high school at Guilford College Middle College, Emma hopes diving can be a part of her future. Emma will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall where she will be on the diving team. She plans to take part in the Olympic trials and one day hopes to coach college diving.

Also a former gymnast, Brigita Burgess is an all-around athlete who just started diving a year ago. Brigita tried diving because it seemed fun and has excelled at it. Even with only one year of experience, Brigita hopes to dive at a D1 college and major in biomedical engineering. As a senior at Grimsley High School, Brigita has participated in many sports and activities including track and cheerleading.

Trent Igoe took a completely different path. Trent is a former swimmer who tried diving after encouragement from his mother. He has only been diving for about a year and a half, but will be diving at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington next year. Trent is a senior at Mount Tabor High School who also enjoys playing other sports (and eating. A lot).

Diving is a beautiful and graceful sport. At Tumblebees, we welcome divers with years of competitive experience or with no experience at all. Diving students learn and train in the gym in the Tumblebees Team Training Center. To make their training as safe as possible, participants learn safe tumbling skills and diving skills through the use of the trampoline and a dry board with spotting belts.

Diving students also learn and train at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, transferring skills from the gym to the pool on 1-meter and 3-meter springboards and platforms. Learn more about our diving program at www.tumblebees.com. 

How Taking Risks Can Help Kids Grow

You’ve probably seen parkour devotees in action, even if you didn’t realize what it was. Over the past few years, several television commercials showcasing athletic footwear or sports drinks have featured young adults running through urban environments, leaping from one structure to another, sliding down stair rails and climbing walls. This is parkour. It looks both fun and risky.

Children love doing these types of activities. They need to stretch their muscles and practice their coordination. Parents are often not so keen about the risks of leaping and climbing, fearing a broken bone or concussion. But what if the kids can do these activities in a safe and supervised environment?

Benefits of Risk

In today’s environment, many children seldom encounter any kind of risk. We’re all naturally concerned about our children’s safety, but it is possible to take these concerns to a point where the child is actually deprived developmentally. According to recent studies, kids need to learn to take appropriate risks in order to be able to recognize a true risk in the course of their day. Taking, and successfully managing, risks also increases a child’s self-esteem and confidence. Even those occasions where it doesn’t turn out quite right can help a child develop resilience as they get back up and try again. There’s even evidence that teens who develop risk-taking skills as children are more likely to avoid risks as adolescents, especially in regard to sex and drugs.

Parkour Classes

One way to give your child the opportunity to meet these types of challenges is through a parkour class. Also called freestyle gymnastics, parkour classes allow a child to learn about risk-taking in a safe environment. He will have the chance to test his strength and coordination on obstacles designed for his size, while you can rest easy knowing that a protective mat will cushion his falls. Once again, critical thinking skills come into play as he evaluates the best way to tackle an obstacle. When he is successful, watch his confidence soar!

If you learned to ride a bike, skate or ski as a child, you’ll remember the thrill of accomplishment when you first succeeded. Parkour classes can give your child the same sense of achievement.

Beautiful Acro: What is Acro Gymastics and Why is it So Popular?

Although most Americans know what acrobatics are, the term acro gymnastics may be less familiar. However, it is just a short form of acrobatic gymnastics, a particular type of gymnastics that is growing in popularity.

Acrobatics has been considered a sport since the 19th century, but it was most popular in Europe. By the 1930s, competitions were organized in the Soviet Union, but American acro gymnasts did not compete until the 1970s. Since then, the sport has been slowly becoming more well known, helped along by the Cirque du Soleil since the late 1980s. However, when the AcroArmy appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2014, ending in third place, acro gymnastics exploded in popularity.

What exactly is acro gymnastics? And why do so many kids love it?

Defining the Sport

Acro gymnastics involves performing routines that focus on balance, stamina, and grace. Acro gymnasts work in pairs—men, women, or mixed—or teams of three or four men or women to perform complex routines featuring acrobatics. Each routine must include three elements: balance, dynamic and combined.

• Balance calls for strength, flexibility and stamina as one gymnast holds another team member in the air, who may in turn support yet another gymnast in static poses.
• Dynamic sections of a routine involve movement, such as somersaults and flips, similar to floor exercise in artistic gymnastics.
• Combined movements involve both balance and dynamics, such as a supported team member performing somersaults during a dismount.                                                                            

Why Kids Like It

If you ask 20 kids why they like being involved in acro gymnastics, you’ll probably get 20 different answers. They like flying through the air. They enjoy the challenge of finding their center of balance. They like giving their body a workout.

But one secret to the sport’s success may be that gymnasts don’t have to go it alone. It’s a lot easier to get out on the floor with the support of a partner or team members. And working in a team builds that spirit of comraderie, a useful skill for kids to develop early that will come back again and again through their school years and beyond. There is a lot of social interaction that goes on between team members who must be closely attuned to each other while learning and performing the moves of an acro routine.

If your child is interested, why not give it a try?