So last Wednesday, October 17th was my gymnastics midterm, which marked the end of the gymnastics unit in my KIN 115 course. It makes me a little sad to think that we won’t be doing gymnastics anymore. I’d never done any gymnastics before, so it was a totally new learning experience for me (as it was for most of my peers).
Instructor: Jennifer Dober. She’s actually a gymnastics coach, so she knows her stuff. She does awesome demonstrations (because it’s gymnastics) and you can’t really help but be amazed. We called her by her first name, as is usual in an athlete/coach relationship.
Time and Place: This class was only on Mondays and Wednesdays, from 2:00pm-4:00pm. It was good, because by that time I was awake enough to function properly. Our classes were in Gym B East in the Osbourne Centre. The facility has all the proper gymnastics equipment for youths. However, sometimes there were problems with using the equipment, because there were guys as tall as 6’4 in my class. They managed to get around it okay, though.
Prerequisites: None, although I’d say you’d have to be moderately athletic to complete the gymnastics section of the course. I’m not particularly strong—especially in my upper body—but most of the time I could make up for my weakness with flexibility. The same can be said in reverse for many of the guys in my class; although they were not flexible, they had enough strength and power to cover their inflexibility. For sure, though, you absolutely cannot be injured to take part in the course.
Textbook: You wouldn’t think that a gymnastics course would have a textbook, but no. We had to buy a gymnastic coach’s manual directly from Jenn, which was $45. You needed it for the midterm, but unless you’re planning to be a gym coach, it’ll be useless in the future. I’m hoping to sell mine to another student taking this course.
The Marking System: Apart from the midterm, all the tests were done in class. Basically, we learned each skill set within one or two classes (examples: forward rolls, headstands, cartwheels) and then we would be tested on whether we could do them or not. If you could do the skill with proper technique, you got the mark—anything else, you failed that particular test. The focus of this class was mainly on being able to teach developmental gymnastics, though, so our two big projects were more based on that. The written midterm was harder than I expected, but I feel like I did reasonably okay on it. We will have to see!
I can’t actually recommend this course to anyone outside of the school of kinesiology, as it’s a faculty-only course. But for those who are in kinesiology, I can say that if you can, take it! It’s an elective course, but even now I feel like I wouldn’t have had as much fun this term without it. Plus, I’ve gotten to know the people in my class pretty well already because it’s such a small group! For a university class, we’re pretty tight 😀
In any case, that’s a wrap for this part of the course! I’ll be posting a review on the second half later this term, as well as reviews for my other classes (check my About page).
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