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Most of the younger ones were gung ho and thought it was the neatest thing in the world to lift weights. Some of the older athletes, especially the female gymnasts, either had a fear that they were going to look like men if they weight trained or believed that weight training wasn t important. <br><br>Flipping for the Program<br><br>Once the new strength program was underway at Sandhills and the positive results rolled in, enthusiastic support replaced the former resistance. In his current program, Ayars introduces weight training to athletes as young as seven years old, having them do squats with a light bar, or even a broomstick, to teach theATTING ALIGNMENT:</U> </STRONG>I like to sit all my athlets in the bleachers. Their hips should be at least one foot apart in order to be unrestricted in assuming a correct alignment squatting position. Tell them to get their feet in a squatting stance or as we say at BFS, "Get into an Athletic Stance." The athletes may turn their toes out slightly for balance. Have them "sit tall" and "spread their chest" which will get their backs and upper body into a correct squatting position. (See Figure 1) In this photo, I am checking Luther Elliss' knees for correct alignment. (Luther is a 6-5 300 pound star Defensive Tackle for Detroit) My finger is pointing at the middle of his knee. If I were to drop a string straight down, where would it land? In this case, in this photo, the string would land in the middle of his foot which is perfect. (Photos will be added at a later date)&nbsp; If you had 50 athletes in the bleachers, it would take less than two minutes to identify all the athletes who would not fit this perfect alignment format. It would also only take about two minutes to correct any alignment problems. There are three ways to look at knees for correct squatting alignment: Knees out, in or forward.</DIV> <DIV align=left>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV align=left><STRONG>Knees Out: </STRONG>(See Figure 2)&nbsp; You will be able to see this problem easily whether the athletes are in the bleachers or actually squatting.&nbsp; The knees-out problem can easily be corrected by just widening out the athlete's stance.&nbsp; Widen out the stance until the knees are aligned directly over the toes.&nbsp; Squatting with the knees out will put unwanted pressure on the lateral collateral ligaments.</DIV> <DIV align=left>&nbsp;</DIV> <DIV align=left><STRONG>Knees In: </STRONG>(See Figure 3)&nbsp; This problem is quite coat the elite level. Truthfully, the sport that I hear receiving the most criticism for pressuring girls about their weight is cheer-leading. <br> If you look at the gymnasts who compete at the junior Olympic level, continues Ayars,  the problems described in that book really don t take place with any greater frequency than they do in other sports. And if you look at college gymnastics, you re not going to see a bunch of emaciated little girls they re athletic, healthy-looking young women. Further, Ayars believes that all athletes can benefit from participating in the sport at some level.  It doesn t matter what sport somebody plays, gymnastic training will help them be a better all-around athlete. <br>The Sandhills Academy of Gymnastics offers a variety of gymnastic programs, holding classes for those as young as 16 months all the way up to competitive junior Olympic teams. They also have popular recreational and tumbling classes. Ayars says that gymnastics usually costs more than most other sports, which he attributes to a lack