Acro yoga with, for and by kids. ( Also in Dutch )
I had heard of acro yoga a few times, but every time I thought: all of those crazy poses, I’m not going to start doing that. But then the situation occurred that I had to face it and say yes.
We stayed for 10 days at family, Lance, and Jodi, in Australia, Kurnell. From there we will discover a part of the east coast of Australia. During our stay, it appears that Jodi is totally hooked on Acro Yoga. The first evening she challenges my 3 daughters (Joli 12 years, Juna 10 years and Jessa 7 years) to do acro yoga with her. Joli and Juna find it exciting, but in the end, Joli is the first to do it.
Jodi is on the ground and balances Joli over her in the air in different positions, incredible. I am stunned about how much power Jodi has. Joli is ready and Juna also wants to try. She also likes it. Jessa is all about watching from a distance, along with me, hihihi.
After Jodi has done some exercises with the girls, they start themselves. They lay their mattresses on the ground and the rest of the evening they practice acro yoga. Jessa also joined her sisters. From now on, the girls don’t stop anymore. In parks, on the beach, in the garden everywhere, an acro exercise is done. The kids combine it with some yoga and gymnastics exercises. They invent everything.
Beach day
The next day we go to the beach with Lance and Jodi. They bring a lot of things: paddleboards, fishing tackle, tennis rackets, ball, picnic equipment etc. That promises to be a nice day. Jodi starts working on the beach with the girls. And again new acro yoga exercises to learn. It looks great, but then, mommy’s turn. Jodi calls and asks if I want to practice with her. I find it scary!!! Okay, that Jodi can lift the girls, that’s one thing, but I’m somewhat heavier, hihihi. Jodi wins my trust and I undergo the exercises. She carries me so easy, incredible. But then, well, I have to do it and use/find my strength and balance. I have to admit I did well for the first time.
Further …. now Jodi wants me to lift her, uhhhh, what, but I cannot, I thought. But yes, yes, with some tips and the right balance, I managed to balance Jodi over me. Hey, I was amazed at my skills, hihihi. The day at the beach was super cool and I’m glad I tried acro yoga.
Conclusion
Through YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram, I find fun and challenging exercises that I practice with the kids and some they can practice themselves. Almost every day my girls are doing it and I see many positive effects. It’s good for their bodies, they work together, it’s challenging and last but not least they have fun. What does a parent want more?
Romaine Taihuttu-Smits
P.s.We found a nice book on acro yoga with kids on bol.com
First of all: I love Yoga!!! It’s good for your body, mind and soul.
How did I get in to yoga?
When I grew up I did all kinds of sports. At the age of 5 I started with ballet as I grew older I also got into jazz dance and modern dance (dancing was my life, I loved it and still do) while I was a dancer I also tried tennis for a few years. I did aerobics (I learned it and became an instructor, but only for a short time). I have done fitness and not to forget Tae bo. Do you remember that one or maybe it’s new to you. Well, I really liked it. Billy Blanks was on fire, hihihi. So as you can read I tried all kinds of sports, but dancing was the one sport I never quitted.
At the age of 24 my body was starting to give me signals. I needed to take better care for myself. Ha, that’s what I know now. But when I was 24 I was like:
I am dying, I can’t breathe, something is really wrong with me, am I depressed?, somebody help me!!! and even the love of my life, Didi (now a days he is my husband) couldn’t help me.
I went to my doctor. She called it anxiety attacks and hyperventilation. She advised me to stop working for a while. In the mean time I needed to go to a psychologist, a physiotherapist and she gave me some pills, only to use if I felt really bad. So, I did what she told me. Took time from my work, I weekly went to a psychologist and a physiotherapist for 6 months and once in a while I needed to take a pill, because at some moments I didn’t know what else to do. Sometimes I just couldn’t keep it together and the only way out seemed to take a pill.
I hate taking pills, but if I took one, I calmed down and got tired. I would mostly fall asleep and after I woke up my anxiety attack was over. So the pills helped, but I knew they were not THE solution. The anxiety attacks and the hyperventilation got less. So I started working again and tried to pick up my old life. I thought that I was doing great. I had my job, a boyfriend, a house, a cat. Everything seemed perfect and I would have an anxiety attack or hyperventilation only once in a while. That wasn’t so bad. I learned to live with it.
Lives goes on…..
At the age of 26 I got pregnant. Wow, I felt really good. That’s the first time I went to a yoga class. It was a class full with pregnant woman. I Iiked it and I learned a lot. Especially the breathing part. A few months after I gave birth to my first beautiful daughter I went to a hatta yoga class. I tried it for a few weeks, but at that time it wasn’t my thing. So I kept on dancing, but instead of 5 times a week dance class, I now just went 3 times a week. That was more than enough for me at that moment.
At the age of 29 I gave birth to my second beautiful girl and at the age of 31 I gave birth to my third beautiful girl. Until that point my life seemed perfect. I thought I had it all. But then, when I was 32 years, my hyperventilation got worse again and I needed to quit dancing. Somehow I didn’t have the strength anymore and I had trouble with my breathing during dance class. I tried other sports, but every sport was too heavy for me. So I decided to do no sports at all for I while.
In the meantime I lost a lot of weight, even though I ate a lot, I got cranky (moodswings), I had hair loss, I felt tired, but was restless, etc. Well let’s say: it wasn’t the best time of my life. But still I kept going. I thought: well, I’m a mother of three, I work part-time, I do my housekeeping, etc. Maybe it’s too much for me and that’s probably the reason why I’m feeling so shitty.
What the bleep is a thyroid?
Then, one night, when I was sitting on the couch with Didi just watching a movie, I felt really restless. So I measured my heart rate and it seemed really high. I told didi and we measured it together. It was 130 beats a minute and that just in relax mode when I was sitting on the couch. That didn’t seemed right. I measured it later that evening again and the day after, but my heartrate didn’t get lower. The next day I made an appointment with my doctor. She wanted me to check my blood. So I did.
The result was: an overactive thyroid which is also called Graves disease. WHAT??? Never heart of it. What the bleep is a thyroid? My doctor explained me what it meant; a tiny little butterfly-shaped gland (the thyroid) located in the middle of the neck is overactive and that’s causing all of my symptoms.
My doctor send me to an internist and one thing lead to another. The internist described me some pills and I needed to visit her every month for a year for check-up. After a year of taking pills my thyroid was working again as it should. Sadly A year later I got the symptoms back and my thyroid was working to fast again. I was like, no pills again so I searched the solution in the alternative circuit. I tried a lot of treatments but they all didn’t work and so I decided to try the pills again and start living a bit more relaxed. After a few months I was able to quit taking pills and I just needed a check-up once a year.
In the meantime I started to think more about myself and decided to live my life instead of all the other people’s lives. I also started with Hatta yoga, because I was feeling bored, I needed to do some kind of exercise and a lot of people where telling me how good yoga would be for me. It was no coincidence that one of my best friends is a yoga teacher so when she invited me for her class, I went. This time I loved it. It felt really good doing something for myself, that’s good for my body, mind and soul.
And now ?
Now I’m 39 years and still practising yoga as much as I can. The beautiful part is that I can practise yoga everywhere. There are no boundaries (in my house, in the garden, in a park, on the beach etc.). If I practice yoga it’s about me and exactly that gives me so much satisfaction. I love stretching my body, it makes me agile and flexible. Not only my body, but also in my mind. Yoga gives me energy and
it quiets down my mind. I haven’t used pills for some years now, so I think it’s true that if you just take care of yourself and you listen to your body you will feel better.
By the way: my kids love it as well. At the moment they love acro yoga and often we do the sun salution (sūrya namaskāra) together. I really love that one. So, I used to be hooked on dancing, now I’m hooked on yoga. Yoga is the way of life for me at the moment.
Maybe you are already practising yoga. Maybe you are considering on taking a yoga class. All I can say is: try it!!! If you don’t try it, you don’t know it. If you live in Venlo I would reccomend Yogahuis Venlo.
During all the waiting or doing nothing times Romaine and Juna started to learn solving the Rubiks Cube. At the beginning it was hard but during the last few days they suddenly got better at it.
So when we were on the beach they wanted to do a battle. It was a lot of fun and the cube is a great cheap light toy to take during travels and it trains your brain as well. Watch our video now and we will soon tell you how they learned it and tell you the steps you should take to solve it. Have a lot of fun with watching the movie 😀 Want to ask us how to learn it contact us. We are happy to help you.
And if you want to read more about what it does to your brain then look at this page with info about the cube and your brain.
We love to entertain our children with games that are good for body, mind and soul. If you have any suggestions about games please let us know. Better, if you are near us contact us and let’s meet up so our kids can play together.
When we were in vietnam we saw a lot of people of all ages playing a game they called featherball. They were standing in a circle and kicking the featherball. Its really difficult to explain how it looks but is were feathers with a bouncing meganism.
People were really good at it and because i played football all my life and love kicking something I tried to play with them. Yes its possible and they love it when you play with them but it’s not as easy as it looks. I bought one so I can practice a bot more during our travels 😀. Off course I got curious ao I googled it amd this is what wikipedia has to say about it:
We found them cheap on alibaba:
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Jianzi
Jianzi (Chinese: 毽子), tī jianzi (踢毽子), tī jian (踢毽) or jianqiú (毽球), also known by other names,[which?] is a traditional Chinese national sport in which players aim to keep a heavily weighted shuttlecock in the air by using their bodies, apart from the hands, unlike in similar games peteca and indiaca. The primary source of jianzi sport is a Chinese ancient game called cuju of the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. Jianzi’s competitive sport types are played on a badminton court using inner or outside lines in different types of jianzi’s competitive sports, respectively. it can be played also artistically, among a circle of players in a street or park, with the objective to keep the shuttle ‘up’ and show off skills. In Vietnam, it is known as đá cầu and is the national sport. In the Philippines, it is known as sipa and was also the national sport until it was replaced by arnis in December 2009.[1] In recent years, the game has gained a formal following in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.
In English, both the sport and the object with which it is played are referred to as “shuttlecock” or “featherball”.
Game play
The shuttlecock (called a jianzi in the Chinese game and also known in English as a ‘Chinese hacky sack’ or ‘kinja’) typically has four feathers fixed into a rubber sole or plastic discs. Some handmade jianzis make use of a washer or a coin with a hole in the center.
During play, various parts of the body (except for the hands) are used to keep the shuttlecock from touching the ground. It is primarily balanced and propelled upwards using parts of the leg, especially the feet. Skilled players may employ a powerful overhead kick.
In China, the sport usually has two playing forms:
* Circle kick among 5-10 people
* Duel kick between two kickers or two sides.
Circle kick uses upward kicks only for keeping the shuttlecock from touching the ground. Duel kick has become popular among younger Chinese players, using “flat kick” techniques like goal shooting techniques in soccer sports. Therefore, the “powerful flat kick” techniques are applied in Chinese JJJ games as a major attacking skill.
Formal game
Competitively, the government-run game is called “Hackey-Sack ( 毽球)” played on a rectangular court 6.10 by 11.88 meters, divided by a net (much like badminton) at a height of 1.60 metres (1.50 metres for women).[3]
A brand new game of Ti Jian Zi called “Chinese JJJ” has been invented by Mr. John Du in 2009 by video published on website www.100helps.cn, which uses low middle net of 90 cm and inner or outside lines of the standard Badminton Court for different types of JJJ. “JJJ” means “Competitive Jianzi-kicking” by Chinese spelling. 3 Chinese characters”竞技毽” all with “J” as first letter by Chinese spelling. The most interesting & important feature of Chinese JJJ is to applying soccer’s shooting goal techniques for exciting attacking each other over a low middle net, which was unrealized dreams of Czechs & Americans for almost a century since 1920.
The book “Chinese JJJ Rules & Judgement” in Chinese has been published by China Society Pressing House in May 2010, the English version of the book is translating now & will be published before the end of 2018 by author’s plan. In first 2 years from 2009 to 2011, as indicated in book “Chinese JJJ Rules & judgement”, 5 formal events included in Chinese JJJ just similar as in Tennis games: Men’s & Women’s Single, Men’s & Women’s Double, Mixed Double. Then in Oct. of 2011, as a major formal game type currently, Team Game Rules was published on official website www.100helps.cn by Chinese JJJ Association(CJA), having 3 players on each side, and longer court as Badminton Court’s Outside Bottom Line & Inner side lines for wideth.
Nine major events were played between 2009 and 2015, including 4 “CJA Chinese JJJ Beijing Invitational Tournaments”, 3 CJA Grand Prixs(2012–14). The first Invitational Tournament(2011) participated by 14 teams & “German JJJ King” Martin, a former professional Soccer player from city Potsdam & student of Beijing Language & Culture University(BLCU). The 2nd one participated by 28 teams & Mr. Gabriel Patin, Vice Secretary General of American JJJ Association(AJA), a Soccer fans, either. In Dec. 2012, “The 3rd Beijing Invitational Tournament” was played & participated by Swedish JJJ Team “North Pole Panda”, organized by Swedish Soccer fans & bought Jianzi & Net kit from CJA by mail. on June 4, 2016 CJA will hold CJA 5th Beijing Invitational Tournament, amybe “CJA’s 1st Simgapore Invitational Tournament” instead due to Shuttlecock Association(Singapore)’s big efforts to spread JJJ in Singapore since oral agreement reached by its leader & JJJ’s inventor in 2011. As an average player’s tournament, “Chinese JJJ Beijing Invitational Tournament” is widely opened to all JJJ fans of china & the World, limited by capacity of Gymnasium only.
The first 8 winner-teams have rights to register to next Chinese JJJ Grand Prix with cash awards. Referring to General Administration of Sport of China’s official website, on May 13, 2012, in city JinZhong of Province ShanXi, named by General Sports Administration as “National Shuttlecock Model City”, successfully held “The First JinZhong JJJ Invitational Tournament” , as the first JJJ tournament hosted by local government & sponsored by a big local enterprise.
In 2015, CJA held “CJA 2015 Inter-city Duel Tournament” played by Beijing, Tianjin & Province Hebei’s Langfang. On Oct.2, CJA held “CJA 2015 First Women Tournament in Beijing Bird Nest Club” by strong calls of female fans of Chinese JJJ. There will be 2 CJA big events in June & Oct. 2016. A Invitationa Tournament & a Grand Prix.
The informal game
Jianzi as folk sport. There are several variations of the game, such as trying to keep the feathercock in the air until an agreed target of kicks (e.g. 100) is reached, either alone or in a pair. In circle play, the aim may be simply to keep play going. In all but the most competitive formats, a skillful display is a key component of play.[3] There are 2 informal games in Chinese JJJ games using the same middle net: “Team game” having 3 players on each side & “Half court game” using just a half court for double player game only.
Freestyle
Freestyle discipline is very similar to freestyle footbag, where players perform various kicks, delays and other dexterities without touching the shuttlecock with their hands. Many footbag tricks were initially inspired by Jianzi, but later it turned the other way around and Jianzi freestylers seek inspiration in meanwhile more developed sport of footbag.
History
The first known version of jianzi was in the 2nd century BC in China’s Han dynasty, called cuju, which was called as “Primary Source of contemporary Soccer Sport” by FIFA’s former President Blater at a press-conference of his visit to China in 2004. Then in the 5th century BC, The name da cau was used in Vietnam, meaning simply to “kick shuttlecock”. The game is believed to have evolved from cuju, a game similar to football that was used as military training.Over the next 1000 years, this shuttlecock game spread throughout Asia, acquiring a variety of names along the way.
Jianzi has been played since the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), and was popular during the Six Dynasties period and the Sui and Tang dynasties. Thus the game has a history of two thousand years. Several ancient books attest to its being played.
Modern history
Jianzi came to Europe in 1936, when a Chinese athlete from the province of Jiangsu performed a demonstration at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. In Germany and other countries people began to learn and play the sport, now called “shuttlecock”.
In June 1961, a film about the sport called The Flying Feather was made by the Chinese central news movie company, winning a gold medal at an international movie festival.[2] In 1963, jianzi was taught by teachers in elementary school so that it became even more popular.
Well known in Asia, the game has been gaining popularity in Europe. The International Shuttlecock Federation (ISF) was founded in 1999. The first world championship was organized by Hungary in Újszász in 2000. Until then, various countries took turns organizing championships. The sport continues to receive greater recognition, and was included as a sport in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games and in the Chinese National Peasants’ Games. Among the members of ISF are China, Taiwan, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Laos, Vietnam, Greece, France, Romania, and Serbia.
Vietnam and China are generally considered best, while in Europe, Hungary and Germany are strongest. On August 11, 2003, delegates from Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia founded the Shuttlecock Federation of Europe (S.F.E.) in Ujszasz (Hungary).
After being invented in 2009, Chinese JJJ got much faster spreading all over China due to its techniques similar to soccer sport, its simple skills friendly to beginners and its fun for skilled players. In June 2010, Chinese JJJ’s “The First Beijing Invitational Tournament” held successfully, having participation by foreign players such as “German Shuttlecock King” Martin, who was a former professional soccer player before studying in Beijing. In 2 years till May 2011, there were foreign players of more than 10 countries played the game, proving firmly the game’s attractiveness to soccer players. In 2011, the first formal Chinese JJJ Championship will hold in province ShanDong, and a couple of other provinces are planned to follow.
In August 2011, an American company released a toy called Kikbo based on jianzi.
In 2013, a patented invention, KickShuttle, was introduced to the public by a Hong Kong company. KickShuttle is a revolutionary form of jianzi that is not made with feather. Yet it is similarly light-weight and easy-to-maneuver, and more durable, versatile, and hygienic.
Health benefits
Playing shuttlecock is a vigorous aerobic exercise, and provides the health benefits of any active sport. It also helps to build hand-eye coordination.
Official jianzi for competitions
The official featherball used in the sport of shuttlecock consists of four equal-length goose or duck feathers conjoint at a rubber or plastic base. It weighs approximately 15-25 grams. The total length is 15 to 21 cm. The feathers vary in color, usually dyed red, yellow, blue and/or green. However, in competitions a white featherball is preferred. The Official Jianzi for Competitions The shuttlecock used in Chinese JJJ games weighs 24-25 grams. The height from the bottom of rubber base to top of the shuttlecock is 14–15 cm, the width between tops of two opposite feathers is 14–15 cm.
Other names
* Israel – נוצה or נוצ
* United States – Chinese hacky sack or kikbo[7] or KickShuttle
* Hungary – lábtoll-labda
* Canada – kikup
* Vietnam – đá cầu
* Malaysia – sepak bulu ayam
* Singapore (and SE Asia) – chapteh or capteh or chatek
* Japan – kebane (蹴羽根)
* Korea – jegichagi or jeigi (to most Koreans known as sports only for children)
* Indonesia – bola bulu tangkis or sepak kenchi
* Philippines – larong sipa
* Macau – chiquia
* India – poona (forerunner of badminton) (unknown to most Indians)
* Greece – podopterisi
* France – plumfoot or pili
* Poland – zośka
* Germany – Federfußball
* The Netherlands – “voetpluim” or “voet pluim” or “jianzi”
* Cambodia – sey
* México – gallito
* Sweden – spunky or adde-boll
* UK – featherdisk
* Ireland – kickum[9]
* Mongolia – teveg – тэвэг
* Central Asia – Lian-ga (ru:Лянга)
* Russia (CIS) – Zoska (ru:Зоська)
Related games, derivatives and variants
Sepak takraw is popular in Thailand, using a light rattan ball about five inches in diameter. (Sepak means “kick” in Malay, and takraw means “ball” in Thai.)
Indiaca or featherball is played with the same shuttlecock as jianzi but on a court, similar to a badminton court, and played over the net using the hands.[10]
Kemari was played in Japan (Heian Period). It means “strike the ball with the foot”.
Chinlone is a non-competitive Burmese game that uses a rattan ball and is played only in the circle form, not on a court.
* Cuju or tsu chu, the possible forerunner of both football and jianzi
* Myachi
* UKick
* Sipa
* Ebon (game)
* Footbag and footbag net
* Hacky Sack
* Footvolley
* Bossaball
* Basse
Where to buy them ?
We found them very cheap on alibaba but maybe you can buy them somewhere local too.
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So in short it’s a really nice historical game to play informally and healthy for the kids because of moving instead of playing compurergames. Thanks for reading this article and don’t forget to like us !
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