Hairstyle, Footwear and Clothing for Gymnastic Activities in the Primary-School Setting

Year 2015, Volume: 6 Issue: 3, 29 - 45, 08.09.2015

Syed Kamal

Abstract

The authors recommend gymnastic kits for primary classes, while considering drawbacks of existing clothing choices. Safety, ease of changing, cost, weather considerations and social constraints were put together to propose a practical gym kit for school-based gymnastic activities. Age-wise recommendations are given for activity-appropriate hairstyle, footwear and clothing for primary classes for both indoor and outdoor sessions. Gymnastics should be done barefoot (indoors) and in pure-cotton socks and plimsolls (sneakers) outdoors, where barefoot exercises are not possible, with boys, unclothed from waist up, in briefs, legs uncovered from upper thighs to feet, or figure-hugging half pants, reaching just below knees; girls, unclothed from waist up, in knickers (panties), legs uncovered from upper thighs to feet, or leotard (with stockings, if desired). Girls should tie their long hair in the form of (hair) bun to expose the upper-neck area. Boys should be required to wear athletic supporters under briefs For training sessions, students are grouped in sections A, B and C — small children (sum of percentiles of height and mass below 50) placed in section A, children of medium built (sum 50 or above but below 150) in section B and big children (sum 150 or above) in section C.  Within a section and its sub-sections, a uniform dress code should be implemented for participating in gymnastic practices.

Keywords

Age-wise recommendations, activity-appropriate kit, safety, physical training

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• Authors’ Note: The authors are indebted to Laura Clinton, Physical Education Teacher in East Anglia, England for
• extensive discussions regarding teaching of gymnastics in the primary-school setting of England. Thanks are, also,
• due to authorities of Army Public School, ‘O’ Levels (serving children of personnel of Pakistan Army), Bahira
• College, NORE I (serving children of personnel of Pakistan Navy), Beacon Light Academy (serving children of
• civilian population) and Fazaia (PAF) Degree College (serving children of personnel of Pakistan Air Force), all of
• them located in Karachi, Pakistan for allowing the NGDS Team (http://ngds.uok.edu.pk) to collect data on their
• premises. No potential conflict of interest is identified for this work.