Pilates Youth Program - Objectives

PIlates Youth Program (PYP) objectives are reached through a series of active-learning classroom/group sessions where students experience the following:

• Body Positioning & Awareness Skills (focused awareness, attention, and concentration) to shift one's focus from external stimuli to internal awareness of where the body is in space
• Healthful Breathing to promote slowing down, reflecting and becoming present
• Coordinated Breathing to sequence breathing patterns with movement, and then identify how the breath can make movements easier/harder
• Core Strengthening to support healthy growth and development of the trunk and extremities. Core strengthening exercises also provide opportunities for understanding how using the core muscles can assist with a variety of other physical sport and non-sport related activities.
• Flexibility to demonstrate and identify the absence/presence of flexibility in key muscle groups which contribute to a healthy postural balance within the body
• Concentration & Coordination exercises, to assist in the development of focused movement and concentration by means of choreographed movement sequences with changing tempos
• Relaxation to promote balance and calm
• Group discussion to allow students an opportunity for inquiry and comment