3 Ways Gymnastics Helps Littles Discover Their Own Bodies! - October 2025

When people think of gymnastics, 3 main things come to mind - cartwheels, Simone Biles at the Olympics, or doing a flip at your local trampoline park. However, what people REALLY don’t know is how gymnastics can strengthen the body’s development. There are tons of ways gymnastics supports child development, but three big ones are visual tracking, crossing the midline, and limb independence.

Visual tracking is the ability to follow something with your eyes. You might just see cartwheels, but the littles are actually drawing imaginary horizontal lines as they perform the move. They might also be watching scarves or bubbles float through the air. In the day to day, this translates to activities like reading: following words & sentences across the page.

Crossing the Midline is the ability for a child to move a part of their body to the opposite side - for example, the left arm over to the right side. Crossing the Midline helps both sides of the brain to work together! During class, you may see us perform activities such as animal movements (Bear Crawls, Crab Walks, Snake Crawls). Even crawling through a tunnel can improve this area of development.

Finally, limb independence allows kids to understand how to control specific parts of their body. The greatest example of this is one of the most recognizable gymnastics skills of all time - the cartwheel! Fundamentally, the sequence for a cartwheel is hand, hand, foot, foot, and each limb has it’s own job. One hand leads, the other supports, one foot drives the power, and the other finishes the move. Kids learn how each part of their body works together yet independently, leading to increased coordination & balance.

Gymnastics will always be a “fun” sport to participate in, but it’s one of the only sports that can attribute to full body development as well as measurable progress at all ages. At Hop, Skip, & Flip, we don’t just teach “skills”. We’re committed to helping kids grow to stronger & more confident versions of themselves!

#keepcalm&cartwheelon