Obstacle courses have been around for ages, providing fun and excitement for kids and training opportunities for adults. At Rebounderz Sunrise, we’re proud of our Ninja Warrior obstacle course that gives kids and adults alike a chance to live out their ninja dreams. Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the ways obstacle courses can help kids learn and develop. Once you’re done reading about the benefits of obstacle courses, why not take a trip over to Rebounderz with your little ones to give them a chance to test their might on our course?

-Sequencing and Memory

An obstacle course by definition has multiple obstacles that must be overcome in order. As such, it gives kids a great opportunity to work on their memory of the obstacles and which sequence they occur in. You can help them out by writing out the different obstacles in order and testing their ability to remember them. Then, set them loose and see how they do with remembering where the obstacles are and how to take them on. Test them on their memory of the course after they’ve run it by having them jot down which obstacles they can remember.

-Sensory Input

Through each activity in an obstacle course, different senses and actions will be involved. Obstacles that require climbing, lifting, running, jumping, and twisting will all engage different parts of the body, as well as the brain. Not only will this keep kids interested in the activity since they’re always doing something new, it will transfer over a better understanding of how to adjust to different situations on the fly.

-Strengthening and Balance

As we grow up, our balance is constantly developing, and it’s something we have to work on regularly. Obstacle courses can contain many different opportunities that require maintaining your balance, such as a balance beam or slanted platform. Other obstacles will increase strength, either through climbing a wall or crossing a set of monkey bars. When kids work on their strength and balance, they’re in a better position to stay physically active and healthy, so this is a great thing to focus on.
The best part of strength and balance is they are two of the easiest traits to track the progress of. How many monkey bars were you able to get past? Were you able to balance all the way down the rope bridge? Kids will love to push themselves and conquer these obstacles, providing a huge sense of pride, confidence, and accomplishment that will keep them working hard.

-Motor Skills

With obstacles requiring a variety of different actions to conquer, your child will be engaging and developing their motor skills throughout the course. Motor skills are broken down into two distinct categories, gross and fine. Gross motor skills refer to all movements related to large muscles, such as your legs, arms, and torso. Fine motor skills are all movements involving smaller muscle groups, like your hands, fingers, and wrists. As someone goes through an obstacle course, they’ll be engaging both gross and fine motor skills. For kids, the development of these motor skills is vital to their growth and independence.

-Bilateral Coordination

While bilateral coordination seems like a mouthful, it’s just a fancy way to describe using both sides of your body to complete a task. It stands to reason that this level of coordination would be required to conquer an obstacle course, but it also transfers over to daily tasks like riding a bike or sweeping the floor with a dustpan and broom. Bilateral coordination even crosses over into smaller tasks like typing or writing, so developing it early on is important to their success in a range of activities.

Obstacle courses are pretty amazing, especially when you consider how unique and different they can be. You can even set one up at home with some couch cushions and other household items. But when you want to give your child a chance to develop these important traits while they live out their ninja dreams, bring them to Rebounderz Trampoline Park in Sunrise to run our Ninja Warrior course. When they’re done running the obstacle course, they can jump around in our safe trampoline park, practice their basketball skills on the SlamBall court, or live like a daredevil with the amazing JumpXTREME tower. There’s something for everyone here at Rebounderz, so check us out today!