Kyle Shewfelt, a Canadian Olympic Floor gold medalist continues his quest of inspiring the next generation of gymnasts. However, Shewfelt doesn’t really mind if they’re aiming to hoard medals, his primary goal is for them to have fun
Yesterday, as a part of the gymnastics club's 2nd birthday celebration, Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics offered a "$2 per person" training session for the kids aged 6 years old and under. There was a morning and an afternoon session, and both sessions were filled with young students together with their parents.
According to the parents, encouraging their child to do gymnastics will not only benefit their child, but will also benefit them. “I have three very energetic kids. So it’s just a place where they can burn off some energy.” Kendra Trim said.
They said that they’d rather see their child spend all of their energy learning gymnastics than to waste it by playing at home and messing up with the furnitures.
“Jumping on the couch and jumping on the bed and yeah, it at least gets her to get rid of some energy here for sure,” Joey Hands said while talking about her daughter.
Gymnastics is a sport that has been existing for more than 2000 years, but only a few number of gymnast have been able to surpass Shewfelt, an athlete considered as the most successful Canadian gymnast in history.
Despite having a competitive blood running through his veins, Shewfelt’s facility primarily focuses on the fun side of the sport.
(Photo Credits: Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics)
“In order to get someone to the high performance level of sport, they have to fall in love with the sport at a young age. So for us, we thought…‘We’re going to focus on that foundation. We’re going to get as many kids as we can involved in the sport of gymnastics,” Shewfelt stated.
Joey Hand’s daughter has been a regular student of the Kyle Shewfelt Gymnastics, primarily because her daughter has been always an active and energetic kid.
“So she’s been climbing and climbing since she was really small and gymnastics is just such a good all around sport for coordination and body awareness,” said Hands.
“There’s so many kids that are static,” said Shewfelt, “that are just sitting on their Ipads, watching television and that’s just the nature of our world today. But the reality is that kids and people need to move their bodies.”
It is very important for any person, regardless of their age, to exercise and to continuously move their bodies. Besides, who doesn’t love to jump and play on the trampoline or the foam pit?
Yet, if Shewfelt sees that a child has the talent and the potential to be a great gymnast in the future, there is always an option to advance to the competitive level.
“We’ll gladly pass them along to someone else, where the coaching and facility are really catered to the high-performance side of the sport.”
Whichever path the kids take, whether they’re just doing gymnastics for fun or working to be a competitive gymnast, Shewfelt believes it’s all a swing to the right direction.
”I hear their laughter and their joy and the celebration when they learn something new and it really resonates with me. I can see a lot of myself in a lot of the kids that I see that walk through the doors.”
Following his retirement in the competition, Shewfelt dreamt of building Calgary’s leading non-competitive gymnastics club where everyone, regardless of their age and level in the sport, could enjoy and reap the benefits of training gymnastics in a fun, nurturing and supportive training environment.
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