Fun Gymnastics Games For Kids [Top 10 Exciting Activities]

Joining gymnastics has a lot of benefits that make it a worthy sport to introduce to children. You can teach your child about several essential life skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. Listed below are the top 10 gymnastics games that you can enjoy with your kids, no matter their skill level.

Contents

1) Active Warm-Up Game

If you’re going for real games, then consider starting from the warm-up. The Active Warm-Up activity can be a great session starter or great final activity to end the day. Its mechanic is quite easy:

Declare an area inside the gym
Each participant must run into that area
Declare a skill (bunk beds, a lover's leap, etc.)
The participant must perform the skill successfully to continue

2) Adventure Trail

Adventure Trail is another great group game to improve the companionship among the students. It’s an ice breaker that let players know the weakness and strengths of each team members. To start, divide your students into groups with at least six players.

Choose activities and set up “stations” for it.
Number all the stations
The students must finish all the stations to complete the trail
The quickest team to complete this challenge will be the winner

3) Pretend Animals

With this game, you can prepare your students for exercises and lessons that need flexibility improvement. Besides, you can jumpstart their focus by following the game mechanics. This game's mechanic is simple: when you declare an animal, students should mimic it.

First, you have to show them the form of the animals they need to mimic. You can make your own set, but here’s an example:

Crabs - crawl using hands and feet with the stomach face up
Rabbit - try hopping from a squatting position

4) The Castle Game

This is an easy and cool gymnastics game, as long as you have building blocks readily available. The rules to win is simple: build the tallest castle. First, divide the students and the blocks into two equal groups.

Each group will need to build a castle using their blocks. Since the blocks are divided equally, it’s up to the players’ strategy on how they can get the tallest castle.

5) The Bridge Relay Race

In this game, you can form several groups, but two groups are ideal. Each group member should line up in a corner and do a backbend except one person, who will crawl underneath the tunnel created.

Once outside of the tunnel, that member will take backbend and make a new part of the tunnel, which will then move forward. The first team that has all its members crawl the tunnel wins the game.

6) Beam Ball

If you’re looking for gymnastics beam games, here’s an easy one. Make groups that consist of 4 members and let them stand in the beams. Then follow the instructions below.

Each group should have its balls
The member holding the ball should pass it in the next member
Then, after passing the ball, he or she must fall off the beam
Climb again and catch the ball thrown by other members
Do this until a team drops the ball or fall off while catching it

7) Stick-It Game

The Stick-It game is ideal for smaller groups and jump practice. The mechanics of this game is to declare jumping exercises each turn. Each participant should have his or her mat, and the mats should form a circle.

Each player should be able to see each other. For each turn, players need to perform the current jumping exercise and land on their feet. If a player falls out or failed to do the jumping exercise, he or she is out.

8) Coach Says

Coach Says is a game similar in vein with Simon Says. All the participants will line up in the corner of the gym. The coach will then declare a skill that each participant needs to follow. Those who successfully performed what the coach says will take one step.

After several skills, the first one who will reach the other side of the room will be the winner. To add a twist, if the coach declared a skill without saying “Coach Says” first, all the participants who performed the skill will go back to the start.

9) The Lilypad Game

This game is a modified version of The Boat Is Sinking. But instead of grouping themselves, participants should jump in the mats to proceed to the next round. Each gymnastic mat has different sizes and height.

All participants should cross the gym first before finding a mat to jump on. Players who failed to hop on a mat will be removed from the game.

10) Backhandspring Races

For coaches who are looking for tumbling games, the Backhandspring Race is an excellent choice to consider. Declare a number of back-handsprings, as well as the starting parameter.

Each participant must do the set and the number of back-handspring as fast as they can. The first one should be the winner of the race.

Conclusion

Before a gymnast can take on other skills, specific skills should be mastered within a level. Practicing is the only way to get the mastery, but doing the same things all over again can be boring over time. To make practicing more exciting, why not use fun gymnastics games for kids during the session?

Aside from fun, other benefits include teamwork and listening skills, as well as working with pressure and accepting criticism. Not to mention the development of a strong and lean body that exhibits strength and flexibility. It's all about discipline, learning new skills, and honing the execution over time.

Using warm-up exercises, group games, and competitions is a great way to bring the boredom out of practicing.

Last but not least, we hope you enjoyed this list of fun gymnastics games for kids that you can do within your class. Make sure to set the gym properly to avoid injuries and heated arguments within your class. Check out more of our gymnastic-related articles for more content.