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Jump around
Trampolining is a great sport for learning discipline, improving co-ordination and making new friends. Lizzy Adams explains how her teenage stepson and her twin daughters have found a love of trampolining through joining their local club.
Two years ago, my stepson, CJ, showed an interest in trampolining. He was 13 at the time and would be in the garden for hours on our trampoline doing twists, turns and always practising. He also competed at school and loved it. I decided to look for somewhere he could learn how to develop his skills and I found Aire Trampoline Club in Canterbury, Kent.
Each week, I would take CJ and my twins, who were three at the time. They would watch and cheer him on. I saw CJ’s confidence grow as he trained hard and took part in competitions, with great success.
He then got the opportunity to be part of the Squad Team and was over the moon. His face just lit up and he kept pushing himself more and more to get better. He loves the sport, he loves the feeling of progressing and has made many friends at the club; he is so happy, it is truly lovely to see.
A FAMILY PASSION
My twins were shy, clingy and wouldn’t say ‘boo’ to a goose. But they loved watching CJ and how much fun he was having. They would cheer him on at competitions and kept asking to join in. When the twins turned four, they joined the club. They were hooked as soon as they started. Liz, a senior coach, made them feel so welcome and they loved learning from her. They have come out of their shells so much. They overcame the fear of meeting new people and their motor skills have improved, along with strength, coordination and confidence. What is not to love about the sport!
LEARNING NEW SKILLS
The benefits of trampolining are multifaceted, from learning discipline to being part of a team and making friends. There are also many health benefits, such as improved balance and coordination, improved bone density, better circulation, enhanced motor skills, and cardiovascular benefits.
The coaches at Aire Trampoline Club are down to earth and make learning fun and enjoyable – a year on and my twins are still loving the club. We go twice a week and every badge and certificate they achieve just adds to seeing them light up. They look at the older gymnasts and they tell me they want to be like them when they grow up.
ROLE MODELS
All three kids look up to the coaches. In 2019, the head coach of Aire Trampoline Club, Dexter Millen was officially recognised by the British Gymnastics National Awards for his outstanding contribution to gymnastics. This was an amazing achievement for not only Dexter, but the club and sport. The children even watched the trampolining when Bryony Page, Kat Driscoll and Nathan Bailey went to the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Seeing the children do these incredible twists, turns and somersaults, all the while smiling away is the best feeling. If you are looking for a fantastic allround sport for your child, find your local trampoline club and see for yourself just how great it is.
For more information on Aire Trampoline Club, tel: 01227 471744, email: enquires@aire.tc or visit:
www.aire.tc
Let’s hear it for the girls
Noticing a lack of engaging stories and strong female role models for young girls who like sport, entrepreneurial mums Caroline Kings and Jo Wimble-Groves launched We Are Girls in Sport to inspire and encourage girls to find a sport they love.
It goes without saying that sport benefits both boys and girls mentally and physically. However, statistics for girls in sport – particularly during the early teenage years – reveal that teenage girls are significantly less active than teenage boys and are more likely to drop out of sport than boys.
Founded in November 2019, We
Are Girls in Sport (WAGIS) is on a mission to improve coverage of girls’ and women’s sports, to help girls find a sport they love and persevere through adolescence. From interviews with female Olympians to up-and-coming stars in all kinds of sports – from shooting to squash – the WAGIS blog highlights the stories of inspirational girls and women around the world.
Georgina Probert speaks to
WAGIS’s founders, freelance writer Caroline Kings and parenting blogger ‘Guilty Mother’ Jo WimbleGroves, to find out how parents can encourage their daughters to take up a sport.
What was the inspiration behind WAGIS and why is it so important to encourage girls, in particular, into sport?
Caroline: I have two boys who both love sport and enjoy reading sporty stories at bedtime. I noticed that, although they are not exclusive to boys, the books we were reading were certainly targeted at boys and featured male sportspeople. I started to think about what was out there for girls and realised that when you walk into any book shop or look at a rack of magazines, the majority feature traditionally boys sports. Jo: I’m all about female empowerment and about building confident, strong and resilient girls. I have a daughter of my own who is very sporty. It is really important that Caroline, as a mum of boys, was able to notice the lack of representation for girls. When I read to my daughter at night, we don’t have any books that show sporty role models that she can relate to. There are athlete autobiographies, but they are not suitable for her age group. Nor are there any magazines she can pick up that would really inspire her.
WAGIS aims to open up the conversation around women and girls in sport and share the hundreds of sporting activities out there. If we can show girls all the different types of sports, they might feel inspired to go and do something they hadn’t thought of.
What are the benefits of sport?
Caroline: Something I think many people have discovered during lockdown is that exercise, or lack of, impacts your mental health. Doing any kind of exercise gives you a sense of achievement and an endorphin rush, as well as keeping your body fit and healthy. We want to emphasise that doing sport is not about being thin or about the size of your body, it is about feeling great. Sport gives you confidence. We know that the feeling of belonging from being in a team or a sports community/club really empowers kids. And that will help children in other areas of their lives.
Jo: The skills you learn on the
If we can show pitch from such a young age must never be undervalued. girls all the When I give talks in schools, different types of sports, they might we speak a lot about those times in sports at school that you don’t realise are so feel inspired to do important when you are 13 something they years old. For example, as an adult in the workplace when hadn’t thought of a project has gone wrong, you can compare it to sport when you are losing in the first half. How do you come together and regroup? What are you going to do differently? All of those skills are easily transferrable into the workplace.
How can parents encourage their daughters to take an interest in sport from a young age and find the right one for them?
Jo: Everything starts with a willingness to try. Yes, some sports you have to pay for and some parents can’t afford that. In most cases, clubs and organisations will give you a free trial, which is a great way to discover new sports. In my experience, local clubs’ doors are always open and are always welcoming kids to come and try it out. Team games are brilliant and are great for building their confidence and for communication, on and off the pitch. Building new friendships is a massive part of my daughter Erin’s life.
Caroline: I come from a sporty family, but I was the anomaly, as I never found a sport I loved. My parents tried to help me find a sport but they didn’t necessarily have time to take me to lots of different clubs or activities. Also there was nothing for
me to read to inspire me to say, ‘Do you know what? I think I might enjoy this!’ Often a love of sport does begin at home and it is due to having role models. But you don’t have to come from a ‘sporty’ family to enjoy sport. What do your kids see their parents doing? Even if it’s just going out for a walk at weekends, or running for a minute and getting your kids to join in. Or them seeing you practise yoga or pilates at home. WAGIS is all about being active. If they see you doing sport, they think this is what normal life is like. Judy Murray famously started with her boys at home patting a balloon backwards and forwards; a fun game that honed their hand-eye coordination.
Jo adds: My husband’s favourite phrase is: “As long as you’ve got your trainers on, you’ve already won.” If you got your trainers on you are committed to doing something. Being a role model is important. Even if you are the slowest or least fit member of the family!
What advice would you give to parents of pre-teens or teenagers who want to give up sport?
Jo: I think it needs to be discussed. Erin did taekwondo for a number of years and announced one day that she wanted to quit. She said: “I just want to have a break.” The coach said to her that the door is always open and you are welcome back any time. That was the right decision for her, as she still enjoyed that experience. But what she has done is decided to take up cricket, so she has replaced it with something else she had fallen in love with instead.
Caroline: I think this applies to both girls and boys. My kids have quit clubs before. I agree with Jo, if you can have that healthy discussion and say if you are going to quit that, what might you do instead to keep yourself active? Understanding why they want to give up is important, especially when they are pubescent. Is it something that can be fixed? Is it something simple like wearing the right sports bra? Having the right kit is really important, as teenagers often feel self-conscious.
MISSION STATEMENT The inspiration behind We Are Girls in Sport is to achieve the following:
1. To improve coverage of girls’ and women’s sports across all types of media, particularly to give young girls role models. We believe that the women’s coverage is still not as widespread as men’s and only focusses on certain sports such as netball, cricket and rugby. We want to showcase the other sports out there.
2. To help girls find a sport they love. When you go to school, your idea of sport is framed around PE lessons from a very early age. If you don’t like those sports, and if you don’t have the right role models, you could decide you don’t like sport based on those early experiences. We want to say there is a sport out there for everybody and it can be accessible. Although with some sports you do need a lot of kit, you can just put on some trainers and go for a brisk walk or a run. We are trying to showcase more niche or minority sports.
3. To help girls persevere through adolescence.
While it is slowly improving, there is a drop off rate as girls hit puberty, for a myriad of reasons. We want to showcase girls and women who have pushed through those tricky teenage years and come out the other side. They might be Olympians, but they might be women and girls who like sport for exercise’s sake. We want to ask them: ‘How can teens push through that awful time when your body is changing and you get your period and you don’t feel like doing sport?’, ‘How can sport make you feel inside?’. CASE STUDY:
GIRLS AND RUGBY
MY daughter Erin started playing rugby when she was five years old. It really improved her confidence and she enjoyed playing as part of a team. By the time she was seven and playing for her local rugby club, they finally had enough girls to put a squad together – they hadn’t had enough girls for a team for 100 years!
Erin is now in under 11s rugby and they’ve only got three girls left, so not enough for a squad. So where are these girls now? Where are their role models? How can young girls see the new wave of amazing talent, like the Rachel Burfords and Sarah
Hunters of this world, who play for England Rugby? Or the women who are playing for Harlequins or
Saracens?
One thing that’s really brought home to me when I talk to Erin about rugby is that she says, when she plays it makes her feel like herself. When we interview sportswomen, no matter how old they are, we always ask them the question: how does sport make you feel? Because that’s how powerful it can be. We want to bring through more girls so they can experience that feeling.
Read more inspiring stories from girls and women on the We Are Girls in Sport blog. WAGIS is always looking for stories about girls in sport. If you have one to share, please email:
