Gleasons.com
Title
Welcome to Gleason's Gymnastic School!
Description
For 35 years, children, and their children, have been coming to Gleason's Gymnastic School. The school and its gymnastic curriculum was founded in 1967 by Larry Gleason, a former competitive gymnast for the U of M team. Before starting the gymnastic school, he had been teaching gymnastics for several years in community recreation and YMCA programs. Realizing that he enjoyed teaching and had an aptitude for it, Gleason started GGS to offer a recreational program for children who wanted to do gymnastics for fun. He also realized that gymnastics was a discipline that could help children develop good listening habits, could help improve their attention span, and could have positive effects on their self-esteem. With this in mind, Gleason structured the curriculum at GGS to maximize these benefits. He also realized that the sport had to be taught in such a manner that the majority, if not all, the children saw their experience in gymnastics as a successful one. The teaching had to be done in such a way that it would challenge the children mentally as well as physically; it must involve their minds in the physical learning process.
Now after 38 years, these ideas are still central to the program at GGS. Although the school now has many successful competitive programs, the recreational programs and the average boy or girl in it, receive serious attention from the school and its instructors. The instructors are selected by Larry Gleason first on the basis of their personality and their ability and desire to work with children in a positive way. Each instructor is then trained through the schools own apprenticeship program. In addition, they receive safety training from US Gymnastics Federation as well as First Aid and CPR from the Red Cross.
GGS offers several different programs to meet different needs. The majority of the students are in the recreational program, which is non-competitive in nature and has separate classes for boys and for girls 6-18 years old. The school also offers recreational trampoline and tumbling classes, a pre-school program for children 2-5 years, USAG competitive teams for boys and for girls, a boys and girls Trampoline Team, and a boys and girls All Star competitive cheer leading program. Members of the competitive teams have competed in local, national, and international competition. The schools Trampoline Team has had 6 members compete for the US Team and has recently traveled to France, Germany, and Canada for World Competition.
