All rights reserved Copyright © 2018 The Yard | Privacy Policy | Liability Waiver | Contact Us 

The Key to Building Strong Future Leaders is… Gymnastics  

What Students & Their Parents Are Saying...

What Makes The Yard Different

Gymnastics is a complex sport. In the course of his or her sporting career, a gymnast will be provided with an educational buffet beyond biology and artistic athleticism: physics, teamwork, patience, nutritional science, physical and psychological toughness, planning, social skills, and work-life balance, to name a few. All these learnings weave together to form smart children and strong leaders.

In fact, in 2015, the Harvard School of Education released a research project titled, “Why Your Kid Should Do Gymnastics if You Want Them to Develop the Kind of Character That Helps Them Succeed at School”. Despite its excessively long title, the outcome was quite simple. The study of more than 4,000 young adults in the UK uncovered the most important characteristic to predict a child’s success: grit.

Grit – or determination, courage and a ‘growth mindset’ – had more bearing on a child’s future success than their general intelligence or exam results, the study claimed. However, it turns out gymnasts are pretty classroom-savvy, too. In the US, an NCAA study found more than 35% of gymnasts at the college level achieved a GPA of 3.5 or better. And more than 90% of college students involved in NCAA gymnastics graduated – a significantly higher rate than those who didn’t participate in gymnastics.

Although to many, gymnastics might just seem like a sport about swinging on bars and doing flips in the air, the best thing your children will receive from being exposed to it is character development. The strong characteristics gained from doing gymnastics lend themselves well to leadership positions.

Unlike typical sports activity classes, The Yard's coaching team goes the extra mile to impart the following life skills onto their students to nurture them into well-rounded adults with leadership tendencies...

Discipline and Perseverance

For many of us, probably one of the biggest barriers to success is our inability to push ourselves beyond our limits. Too often when we fail, we become demotivated. When something is too difficult, we give up or pass the task onto someone else we feel can do it better.

Gymnasts are taught discipline very early on. This doesn’t mean they’re expected to work through pain or suffer – but they understand that in order to achieve their best, they must work hard. Children who focus on gymnastics as a competitive sport will have razor sharp focus. They are aware that success requires setting goals, and they have the discipline to achieve them. Just imagine how productivity would be if everyone in your office had the same level of discipline as the average gymnast!

Harvard Study Discovers that Gymnastics Nurtures the Most Important Characteristic to Predict a Child's Success in Life: GRIT. 

GAAP & IFRS: Misclassified, Misunderstood, Illusion?

Valens Research has shown that even in the most simple examples, that the growing complexity of financial statements has made these issues in earnings quality worse, not better, over time. For instance, “Big Bath” activities are pronounced and increasingly more active. The rules of accounting allow for write-offs at somewhat arbitrary times elected by the management of the company. So, in a bad year of economic activity, companies will take significant one-time charges, write-offs and expenses of various kinds. This makes a bad year look very, very bad, and thereby ensuing years look much better than otherwise.

One of the more popular cases in our seminars has been seen in the big bath charges of 2009. Specifically, in 2009, corporate earnings of large non-financial companies fell by 95%. While the stock market collapsed, it didn’t fall by a similar rate, thankfully.

As aggregate corporate earnings recovered nearly 20X over the next 2-3 years, the stock market recovered, however not by rising 20X.

Some finance practitioners smartly note that the market values companies on many years of earnings, not just one, resulting in the lower volatility of the stock market relative to earnings. This observation is no doubt true. However, we can take a closer look of what kinds of charges and expenses actually drove the big drop in earnings in 2009 and subsequent rise in the following years.

This dramatic swing in earnings was not due simply to poor economic activity. It was the result of a concerted effort by management teams, each following the rules of GAAP and IFRS, to recognize any bad charges, bad expenses, bad investments in one year, even if the actual cash expenditures of those failing activities occurred over several years.

Valens Research specifically targets special items, special charges, divestiture accounting, and other similar “big bath” issues including the ones that flow into the calculation of “operating earnings.”

The result is a far cleaner, more accurate view of corporate profitability and earnings quality and balance sheet quality. Valuation measures and discounted cash flow analyses are far more reliable when using higher quality inputs of actual economic activity of the firm.

The distortions include the decision of the four of seven members of FASB at the time to not classify interest expenses or leasing expenses as financing activities.  To any student of finance this has to appear either terribly confusing or downright laughable.

Over the years, with many FASB statements, a major problem has continued in FASB members’ individual understanding of who the user of the financial statements might actually be.

Banking and leasing industries might consider interest expense and leasing part of operations as they are in the business of providing financing as part of normal operations. No other industry group would see interest or leasing cash flows as anything other than financing, right beside dividends paid or debt repaid.

Since then, IFRS accounting rules have sought to remove many of the misclassifications in the Statement of Cash Flows. The failure of US GAAP to have such similar improvements has created even more inconsistency across financial reporting analysis. Valens Research restates the Statement of Cash Flows, accurately categorizing cash flows, consistently and comprehensively. 

The Yard - Jurong Branch

10 Science Centre Road, Jurong East, Singapore 609079

The Yard - Dempsey Branch

72 Loewen Road, Dempsey Hill, Singapore 248828

No Fear of Failure

Failure is a scary word for many of us. We have been raised in a society that discourages mistakes and berates those who don’t succeed the first time around. Thankfully this is changing – especially with the influx of the ‘startup mentality’ that encourages agile thinking and learning from mistakes – and our children know that failure doesn’t equal the end of the road.

Gymnasts are familiar with failure. It can take weeks or months of failing to land a move or achieve a new skill before they succeed. Gymnasts are used to falling down and getting back up on their feet again. And even once they nail their routine, it doesn’t mean they’re going to be the one walking home with the gold medal. It can get frustrating at times, but they are hyper aware that failure is part of the process. No one gets everything right on the first try – and this is an exceptionally strong mindset to instill in young children as they grow.

Work Ethic and Time Management

The average tech CEO works roughly 14 hours per day and 300 days per year. That comes to about 4,200 hours every year. But 30% of that time is spent on emailing, and another third is spent jumping from meeting to meeting. With the final third of their day, they’ve got to actually do their job.

Now look at a gymnast. A gymnast training for a competition might be in the gym for about 15-20 hours per week – sometimes more. That’s on top of a full day of school, homework, and social activities with friends. Some gymnasts are managing this delicate balance from a young age – but it’s what young athletes do. And it moulds incredibly capable and efficient adults who understand the benefits of planning, prioritising and working smart. I’d bet any CEO would have loved to learn those skills from the age of 10.

The Importance of Teamwork and Individual Accountability

Gymnastics is an individual sport, but teamwork is also necessary for the overall success of the school, club or country they are representing. During training, gymnasts work alongside a group of people who become their friends, mentors and benchmarks for success. They learn how to balance the need to lean on their teammates for support and advice with their drive to perform individually and show what they are capable of. Their tolerance levels are higher because of this, and it helps them to strive for perfection.

This level of self-awareness instills accountability, self-reflection and the ability to absorb critical feedback – all useful skills in the ‘real’ world, beyond sports.

Resilience and Determination

Success takes time. While some people are naturally talented in certain areas, even the best still need to practice and hone their craft. An expert chef will cook until the recipe is perfect. The top performing salesperson in your company likely took years to polish their technique. And gymnasts, well, they truly know that the road to gold is paved with practice – and delayed gratification. In today’s world of quick-fixes and instant results, gymnasts learn to work hard towards achievements that can take years to reach.

In sports and in business, there is always competition nipping at your heels just waiting to steal the limelight. Just because you’ve won before, doesn’t mean you’ll win again – and if you’re only as good as your last win, then you need to constantly work to be at the top of your game.

This resilience and determination to constantly succeed is part and parcel of gymnastics – and they know how to have a good time while doing it, too. Their competitive edge always comes with a side of fun!