Our Best Tips for Rock Climbing

Whether you’re trying out one of the gorgeous climbing areas in North Carolina or working in a climbing gym close to home, rock climbing is an exhilarating experience. Climbers challenge their ability to concentrate, their patience, and their physical strength, so a successful climb is something to celebrate. Like any complex activity, there’s a lot to learn about rock climbing. We think these tips may help you focus on the essentials:

Different Types of Climbing

In a good climbing gym, you’ll usually find three types of climbing available:

• Bouldering, where you stay at a relatively low height and climb without a rope or harness. A crash pad sits below the wall to cushion any falls.
• Top-rope climbing with a rope secured to your harness. The rope then runs up through an overhead anchor and back down to your belayer.
• Lead climbing, also with a rope and harness. Here the climber clips the rope into a series of quickdraws on the wall while the belayer handles the free end from the floor.

Climbing Techniques

Reaching the top of a climb takes more than strength and stamina. You’ll best be able to tackle this challenge if you’ve learned about the techniques climbers use in a successful climb. Find out how to choose hand and foot holds, how close to stay to the wall, and how to handle a fall by practicing at a climbing gym before setting out to scale the nearest cliff.

Pre-climb Preparation

It should go without saying that warming up and stretching before beginning a climb is a good idea, but not every climber heeds this advice. Those who don’t, pay for it later with pulled muscles. And learn how to preview and read your route before taking step one up the wall. You don’t want to find out you went the wrong way when you’re 20 feet up.

Partner Trust

One of the most important decisions climbers make is their choice of climbing partner. You need someone with patience to spare, a steady temperament, and a long attention span. Although The Ultimate Climbing gym offers auto belays, it’s good to find a climbing gym that offers belaying instruction for you and your partner, so everyone knows what they are doing.

Finally, relax. Over-tensed muscles tire quickly. Take your time and have fun! 

Next time you’re ready to climb and take action on these tips, try The Ultimate Climbing Gym in Greensboro.  Feel free to come as a group or a single climber.  It’s a very welcoming local climbing community and we’d love for you to be a part of it.

How We Use Movement to Help Students in the Classroom

Movement is essential to the development of young children. They know this instinctively, as you have probably guessed as you watch your preschooler zoom across the room for the eighth time in two minutes. What you may not know is just how movement aids in a child’s development and that those benefits go beyond physical growth.

Types of Movement

While unrestrained running across a backyard is undeniably good for children, at Tumblebees Learning Center we go beyond that joyous expression of freedom. Our preschool teachers integrate movement into the overall learning experience so that the children learn to move with more control. Basic tumbling and sports skills are two of the ways we teach children to use their bodies, along with moving to the rhythms of a variety of music.

Social and Cognitive Benefits

Studies have shown that regular physical activity for preschoolers aids in social and cognitive development. We see these results every day in our Tumblebees Learning Center classes. Movement helps young children to control and express emotions. Responding to the rhythms of music offers opportunities for children to count and describe the patterns that appear in the song. All of this promotes the growth of school readiness for all preschool ages by increasing learning capacity and the ability to concentrate.

Physical Benefits

All types of movement help preschool bodies build strength and develop healthy muscles, bones and joints. In turn, coordination improves so that children can participate successfully in games and sports as they move through elementary school and on into higher levels of education. These benefits are built into our curriculum that includes plenty of gymnastics and other sports skills. An extra bonus is that strength and coordination boost a child’s self-confidence as he finds he can keep up with his friends.

Overall, children who are physically active on a regular basis experience better health and miss less school than their more sedentary peers. In addition, an early foundation in the pleasure of movement and exercise will continue to keep them healthier throughout their adult lives. Too many children, even the very young, spend too much time focused on electronic devices. At Tumblebees Learning Center we give them the chance to experience life in the active lane.

Trampoline & Tumbling vs. Gymnastics: Which Sport is Right for My Kid?

Trampoline and tumbling, also called TNT, is a form of gymnastics that is growing in popularity, while traditional gymnastics, also called artistic gymnastics, remains strong as well. Both offer exercise, social interaction, and a chance to boost self-esteem and confidence. How can you judge which is the best type of gymnastics for your kid?

TNT Explained

You may be less familiar with the details of TNT gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics is featured every four years in televised Olympic competitions, so you may have seen athletes doing routines on the familiar types of apparatus. However, trampoline and tumbling gymnastics, sometimes called power gymnastics, is less familiar to many parents in the US because only the trampoline apparatus is included at the Olympic level. In power gymnastics, tumbling takes place on a long runway which the gymnast moves along while performing various tumbling skills. On the trampoline, tumbling skills are transferred to an airborne setting. The double-mini trampoline allows the athlete two jumps; advanced-level gymnasts perform tumbling skills between the jumps and in their dismount, while lower-level participants may simply jump from the first surface to the second and then perform a skill while dismounting.

Which Is Best?

There really isn’t any best type of gymnastics. Choosing one or the other depends simply on what your child prefers, so be sure to involve your budding gymnast in the decision. Talk about which type or types of apparatus is his favorite. If he yearns to swing around and around on the high bar then artistic gymnastics might be your choice. On the other hand, if he dreams of turning somersaults while soaring high above a trampoline, TNT is probably right.
An extra consideration for girls is the use of dance in artistic gymnastics. Girls and women use dance moves on the balance beam and during their floor exercise routines. Make sure your daughter understands this before making a decision. If she doesn’t want to do those types of movements or thinks they’re silly, she’ll probably prefer the straightforward tumbling and trampoline routines.

See for Yourself


Stop by Tumblebees to see all the types of apparatus up close and maybe watch a class in progress. Talk to us about your dilemma. We may be able to help you decide on TNT or traditional gymnastics for your child.