PDST Professional Learning Community (PLC) Workshop
Junior Cycle Gymnastics
1st Oct 2015, 4.30 – 6.30 in BCS
Presented by: Emer Gallagher, Marian Carey & Ivan O’Mahony
Aims /Objectives:
1. To promote the effective teaching of gymnastics through an integrated delivery that combines the Thematic
and skills based approaches
2. To emphasise the importance of safe practice with specific attention to :
Environment
Apparatus
Class organisation
Skill progressions
Supporting techniques
3. To consider the junior cycle programme of study and to promote ideas for lessons based on the themes and
skills of travelling, statics and flight and rotation
4. To consider the promotion of planning, performing and evaluating in gymnastics lessons
5. To demonstrate progression from floor to low apparatus to full apparatus in the different themes and skills
6. To focus on the factors that promote quality in gymnastic performance including body tension, extension,
clarity, precision and fluency
7. To promote an understanding of compositional variety in gymnastic sequences including changes in speed,
direction and level
8. To encourage the development of a delivery technique using a variety of teaching approaches and a focus
upon differentiation within lessons
Workshop/Course Outline
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Individual floorwork – Travel
Individual & pairs floorwork – Balances and travel
Individual & group floorwork & apparatus – Flight
Trampette work & vaulting
Group sequences on large apparatus
Ballincollig C.S. 2015
Workshop Content
Intro
Introduction to course content
Themes & ideas for each theme on skills & types of movement
JCPE guidelines – HRA integration
Teaching styles & resources
1. Travelling (20mins)
Warm Up – Commands, Travelling Variations on floor: feet – walk, run, hop, skip, twist, jump, leap, step,
step combinations; feet & hands; dynamic stretches mirroring/matching
Animals – Galloping dog, crab walk, elephant walk, donkey, snail drag, HUNTER
Mat work – explore first (feet only,hands & feet,other parts), rolls, cartwheels – reciprocal cards
Individual sequence – Starting position, 3 different types o f travelling; feet, hands & feet, rolls, pair workleapfrog
Log (pencil) rolls, judo rolls, teddy bear rolls, shoulder roll
Level, Speed & direction
PERFORMANCE QUALITY & SKILLS - Control, tension, extension
Introduce benches – explore travel along, on off, over & around benches
Bench between 3 or 4 - Adapt sequence to include bench & mats
Plan, Perform & Evaluate sequences
(Give feedback to partner on skills and sequences using skill cards and criteria from teacher for quality of
performance and sequence composition)
SPECIFIC GYMNASTIC SKILLS – Forward roll, backward roll, log roll, teddy roll, shoulder roll, judo roll, catspring.
2. Individual balances (20mins)
Warm Up – Follow the leader, A chase B, body parts on floor, points & patches,
Stuck in the mud – v-sit if caught, lower feet into pencil roll to be free, jump over roll.
Dynamic body stretching sequence in 2’s – matching & mirroring.
SPECIFIC GYMNASTICS SKILLS – front, side & back support, shoulder stand, V-sit, Arabesque, one foot stand,
Y balance, Froggy balance, tripod (head on floor with knees on elbow) Explore point balances 1,2,3,4,5.
Matching and mirroring balances explore from worksheet (#4).
Moving into & out of balances – starts & finishes, linking balances
Sequence – Matching & mirroring plus timing – 3 balances & different ways of travelling in between – Pairs
& feedback from another pair
PERFORMANCE QUALITY & SKILLS – tension, extension, control, fluency
COMPOSITION – changes in speed sheet 12, level, direction
Add benches & box tops and adapt sequence to apparatus
Plan, perform & evaluate
Ballincollig C.S. 2015
3. Partner balances (20mins)
Warm up – Side to side synchronisation & canon. Arch tag, running in pairs LINKED ARMS, when caught
makes an arch (counter tension balance)
Fundamental movement skills, shoulder stand with partner, lifting one foot. Pull balance, squat with one
hand, stand up switch,
Counter balance/counter tension, push & pull, link 3 together (task cards 31, 32)
Video clip from mens GB pair
Specific partner balances –body tension development, task cards 22, 23, 24
Shoulder stand partner balance (26B), use press up position partner holding legs
Knee support, feet support, shoulder support, back support
Balance to forward roll for pupils that are ready (task card 27), Points & Patches
Counter balance/counter tension
Sequence- Unison & Canon, Over & Under – starting position into individual balance, travel into partner
balance with support and finally into a counter/tension balance
PERFORMANCE QUALITY & SKILLS - Body tension & extension, control & fluency, clarity of body shape,
muscular endurance
Plan, Perform & evaluate
4. Group balances (use as progression from partner balances depending on the ability of your
group, or as a 2nd block of gymnastics)
Use task cards to explore group balances ¾, choose cards that play to the strength of your group and
challenge the group without being unobtainable.
Plan a sequence with starting position, 2 gymnastic floorwork skills, 2 balances to be performed in 2’s and 2
balances to be performed as a whole group, link movements and have a finishing position
Performances to be watched by an audience wither whole group or one group.
Give feedback, 2 positives & one thing the group can work on to improve its next performance
5. Flight – Jumping & landing (20mins)
Warm up – Co-ordination star jumps, jumping & landing toe- heel. Which group can do it the quietest? Pogo
& frog
Estimation & Measurement, half turn broad jump, one foot →two feet
Backward broad jump, two feet →two feet, task card 48, 49
Benches – along, over, on& off benches: feet only, hands & feet, other body parts- shapes, landings
Introduce springboard/trampette work – takeoffs/shapes/landings
Sequence – Pairs / 4’s using benches, springboards & mats:
Direction, level, pathway, speed
Ballincollig C.S. 2015
5. Vaulting (20mins)
Warm up – stuck in the mud, leap frog or face vault (52) to free each other
Introduce partner & group vaulting (4’s), Through Vault 1, Task card 53
Adapt the through vault to a bench, base supports straddle bench
Leap-frog with Support 2, Task card 57, progress off benches, over 2 backs (58)
Flight – Strong approaches, take off from springboard, land on knees/feet, and shape off
Jumps shapes – pencil (narrow), Star (wide), Pike, straddle, tuck (curled)
Progressions & differentiation straddle through, cat spring vault, Squat through, squat & half turn, straddle
flight
Neck spring, headspring off box, headspring with support
6. Group Sequence
Group sequence to include flight, travel, twisting & turning, & balances
Use of music?
Synchronisation & canon
Group relationships
Performance quality – tension, extension, control, co-operation, fluency
Compositional elements – level, speed, direction, pathways
Evaluate others/self-evaluation
Video Performances - Pupils watch back their performance. Final performance should include all elements
from previous week to build up to rich task. Invite class teachers, Principal & parents to watch. Class can
make invites to hand out in advance. Job of the class reps.
Ballincollig C.S. 2015