Team GIBBON

Nov 10, 2011

GIBBON at Schools:
More Balance for Kids

How is it to compete in a Slackline World Championship? And what is the difference between a tensioning strap and a slackline?

On Tuesday, January 21, 2020, the School Olympics in the Freudenstadt district took place once again. Representing their schools, 1200 students participated, measuring themselves in various disciplines in 10-member teams. A Slackline station was an integral part of the event. Additionally, the region participated in the GIBBON Global City Balance Challenge. Within just 4 hours, 270 students mastered 10 seconds on a Slackrack.

"If they had maintained this frequency throughout the whole day, the Freudenstadt district would now be record-breaking at a level like the previous year's winner, Munich," commented Robert Kaeding, CEO of GIBBON Slacklines.

Over the last 40 years, children's coordination abilities have decreased by at least 10%, and in noticeable cases, up to 30%. For this reason, GIBBON recognizes the need to reintroduce the topics of balance and coordination, especially through slacklining. More information can be found on our website.

"Everyone nowadays takes care of strength and conditioning through fitness and training. However, coordination and balance are often neglected. Yet, these skills enable the meaningful application of trained strength and conditioning," commented Ringo Mosch from Sanogym and Trainingsinsel.

Alongside the event, we had the opportunity to interview Lars Waffenschmidt, Principal of Realschule Pfalzgrafenweiler and initiator of this event:

Mr. Waffenschmidt, what is your motivation for the School Olympics?

I generally enjoy organizing events. About 10 years ago, through my work in the Regional Sports Team at the State School Office Rastatt, we brainstormed on how we could bring secondary schools together for a sports event during the cold winter months. The result was the School Olympics.
 The connection of schools through sports, values education, fairness education, and the execution of the event with the support of our trained school sports mentors are the focus of the School Olympics.

How important is the topic of balance and coordination to you?

As a physical education teacher myself, I increasingly observe that children and adolescents can no longer stand on one leg or perform a forward roll. Due to digitization, the future of tomorrow faces real problems in terms of coordination and physical fitness. Additionally, over 50% of children and adolescents have posture problems. Nevertheless, it has been proven that children's coordinative abilities can be playfully improved. Therefore, the practice and improvement of balance and coordination are incredibly important from an early age and must be regularly implemented in physical education."

Why did you invite GIBBON?

Every year we are looking for new stations for the School Olympics. In the past years, I have wished for a 'Slackline Station' because activity starts exactly where we want to go in the development of children's coordinative abilities. After a very nice and informative phone call with Gibbon, we decided on a 'Slackline Station' for the 8th School Olympics. We are very pleased that Gibbon was personally present in Pfalzgrafenweiler with the Global City Balance Challenge