Young Gymnasts Tumble Into The Future

    What do you do if you are from a small town, have young daughters who love gymnastics but find traveling to a bigger town to help foster that interest prohibitive? That is the position that some parents in Britton have found themselves in. While some parents take their children to Aberdeen for lessons, that can turn into a lot of travel. Faced with that quandary, three local moms put their heads together and came up with a plan that would instead bring the gymnastics right to their children. 
    Andrea Rabenberg, Kelli Erickson and Michelle Peters, all of Britton, are the three women who decided to take matters into their own hands. Rabenberg explained that all three of them have two daughters who love gymnastics. They all describe their daughters as ones who enjoy cartwheeling around the house and practicing moves with friends on the playground at school. 
     Girls like their daughters can participate in a youth camp locally, but other than that, have to travel to train. “We have been taking our girls to the Next Generation Performance Center in Aberdeen for gymnastics,” said Rabenberg. There, the pint size gymnasts benefit from the instruction of Jen Deutsch, a Britton native and former local gymnast. 
    Yet, the moms acknowledge that carving time out of busy schedules to take a two-hour round trip every week is not always convenient. And for some it is not feasible at all. That’s when the women came up with the idea of approaching Deutsch and assessing her interest in coming to them.
    “A lot of older girls now in high school gymnastics here took lessons and private classes with Jen,” said Erickson. “We were interested in giving our daughters plus other girls that opportunity locally.” 
    The trio reached out to Deutsch with their idea of bringing somewhat of a structured youth program to Britton and the coach was indeed interested. 
    In addition to being a native of the area, Deutsch has years of experience under her belt. A BHS gymnast from 1991-1996, she helped the local team to many runner-up State Championships. In college, she would start a coaching career in Marshall, MN. Later, she became involved in youth gymnastics in Aberdeen and coached at Central High School. After a stint as Director of the Aberdeen Gymnastics Association, she made the decision to open Next Generation Performance Center in 2015.  Since then, she has worked with many Britton girls in Aberdeen and was excited by the prospect of taking the show on the road. 
    Deutsch described how she works with youth. “My focus is recreational gymnastics. I work to prepare youth in a non-competitive setting on skill development.” She explained why starting the sport early is essential. “If girls don’t have a recreational background in gymnastics and they join a team in sixth or seventh grade, it can take them four years to become competitive. It can take that long to develop the necessary skills.” 
    When she works with young gymnasts, Deutsch says she strives to “shape the body.” She added that she finds that many girls have “backyard or YouTube gymnastics” skills, yet she works with students in a way to foster muscle memory, flexibility and strength. “We learn in a way that will prevent injury and set a foundation for further skills,” she explained.  
    That is just the type of teaching Deutsch and the local moms were excited to bring to Britton. They laid out a plan of what they would offer. They would break elementary girls into two groups based on age and offer four weeks of classes in two sessions, one that took place in the last several weeks and one planned for January. 
    Not knowing how the classes would be received, the organizers opened registration up quite far and wide. They were soon overwhelmed by the positive response and interest. Peters said they were getting inquiries from people in North Dakota and as far away as Webster. “We didn’t think we’d have that much interest,” she stated. 
    In the end, they decided to offer the program for youth in the Britton-Hecla and Langford Area school districts. They had to shuffle some of the age groups around but ended up with about 25 girls in each of the two groups. 
    During each of the four hour and a half sessions, Deutsch puts her young athletes through three to six drills for each of the gymnastic events. They train at Britton-Hecla’s gym and use their equipment. Deutsch adds that she has also been in close communication with B-H high school coach Ang Grupe in an effort to foster the same type of skills and prepare gymnasts who may be interested in joining the school team. 
    “I’m excited to see a youth program getting started here in Britton,” said Grupe.  With the school being the only connection in town with gymnastics equipment it has always been a time crunch to get the elementary aged kids involved more during gymnastics season.  It takes a dedicated group of parents to get something like this done and I’m very happy to have them growing the interest of gymnastics in Britton. Gymnastics has always been special in Britton and by the looks of it I will have strong numbers for years to come.”
    In addition to gymnastics itself, the moms are pleased that the classes are fostering a great team atmosphere. “Gymnastics is a pretty individualistic sport,” said Rabenberg. “But when you can be part of a big group of girls you know doing it together like this, it gives that sense of team.” 
    Deutsch adds that they are also learning skills that transcend gymnastics. “Some of the girls will go on to be competitive gymnasts, which is great, but having coordination, balance and these other skills will benefit them in so many other areas and sports as well,” the coach emphasized. 
    All involved also stressed that it is exciting to be able to grow a sport and promote its longevity, especially when the future of school gymnastics throughout the state is uncertain. “It’s great to know that because of these young girls, the sport will be strong in our area for a while,” said Peters. “Whether its in a club or school setting, gymnastics will be alive and well for Britton girls.” 
    As the last class of the first session wrapped up this past weekend, the organizers are happy with the program so far. “We’ve gotten  great feedback and the kids are really having fun,” said Erickson. 
    Erickson, Rabenberg and Peters confirmed that the January session is full. Because the youth gymnasts are dependent on the B-H school equipment, when that comes down, so does their space for classes. The organizers do note though that they look forward to offering the classes again in the future.
    To learn more about the program and see more photos from the classes, visit their Facebook page, “Britton Youth Gymnastics.”