A typical Friday night for senior Maddie Crain involves kids laughing, giggling, and jumping all over the place. They ask a million questions in quick procession and climb on her like monkeys. All this time she never loses her temper or patience and proceeds to instruct the children in their rotations. She spends these evenings teaching gymnastics to three 5-year-olds at her house. She also teaches classes at a gym in Hazelwood, called Kids World Gymnastics.
“Most people complain about having to go to work everyday but that’s something that I look forward to everyday,” Maddie said.
Maddie uses a mixture of mats, balance beams, jump ropes, mattresses and a trampoline or two, to teach the kids. Of all the equipment the students use, perhaps the most interesting is the bar she made herself. With a couple of hours, the Internet, some leftover wood, duct tape and the end of a mop, she created a bar that was safe and strong enough for the kids to learn on.
Maddie teaches levels one and two of gymnastics noncompetitively as well as two through four competitively. She began teaching kids at her house when the O’Neal family, a friend of the Crains, wanted to put their child in gymnastics. They talked to Maddie and her mom about having her coach their daughter, since she had the skills and resources. It grew from there and students have come and gone since then.
“Maddie is phenomenal with the kids,” Chris O’Neal, father of one of Maddie’ students said. “You know you’ve got a good coach when the kids are proud of what they’re doing and they want to share that with other people.”
Family and friends of Maddie can tell she has a passion for gymnastics and working with kids. Maddie hopes to continue coaching while she’s in college
She plans to get a job at a gym closer to her college and after graduating she wants to open up an in-home daycare during the day, while coaching gymnastics in the evenings. Maddie is happy with her decision to teach others and loves what she does. She plans to continue doing so for as long as she can.
“She loves kids and she loves gymnastics and I think this gave her an opportunity to sort of marry the two things that she loves,” senior Brenda Alvarado, sister of one of Maddie’s students said.
