The Gymnasts Come First!

Program and Facility Coordinator, Mrs. Cindy Furman has been involved in the sport of gymnastics and with the Roswell Recreation and Parks Department almost all of her life. She began taking gymnastics at the age of 9 years old and was the first student in the gymnastics program in 1974. She took classes and competed until she was in high school, at which point she started her instructing career. While in college, she coached all levels of gymnastics and was promoted to the supervisor over the Athens-Clarke gymnastics program in Athens, Georgia. After college in 1988, the Physical Activity Center in Roswell, Georgia was built. Cindy was hired as the supervisor over the preschool gymnastics program, which is a part of the Recreations and Parks Department. In 1996, the Physical Activity Center was expanded to over 40,000 square feet and the Performing Arts program was added to our building. It was at this point that Mrs. Furman was promoted to the Coordinator over the entire dance and gymnastics program. Currently, the registration for the gymnastics program, which includes children ages 2 and up, as well as our competitive program through level 10 and elites has approximately 2000 gymnasts. Our Performing Arts program (Dance) has an additional 1200 participants within the same age range. The Physical Activity Center also houses aerobics for adults.

Cindy has an extensive list of credentials. In addition to her 20 years of coaching experience, she is an AAU co-chairman for the state of Georgia and serves on the board. Furthermore, she is a Professional member of USA gymnastics and a National Instructor for USA gymnastics, who trains and certifies other instructors in the K.A.T. program (Kinder-Accreditation for Teachers). This means that she is able to teach other instructors the proper safety techniques and appropriate developmental instruction methodologies for toddlers up to young adults. Of course, she is also K.A.T. and MELPD certified herself as well as Safety Certified, CPR trained, and certified in PDP I and II.

Cindy's philosophy on the program that she supervises is that through gymnastics instruction we hope to enhance the child's self-esteem. We hope to provide our participants with an experience that will serve as a positive model to be followed as other challenges and obstacles throughout life occur. Cindy likes to teach children that their self-worth is not based on their performance. Winning in sports is about teaching children to do their best, regardless of their personal outcome or the outcome of the competitor. Mrs. Furman also has parent meetings where she encourages parents to allow their children to experience the gift of failure while the child is growing up in the safe environment of their home. Children that are taught how to view setbacks, mistakes and risk-taking positively have the key to a lifetime of success. Gymnastics with the proper instruction, emphasizes all of these important skills while also allowing the child to exercise their bodies, set goals for themselves, make friends and most importantly have fun.

Gymnastics is beneficial to all children regardless of their potential if the process of skill acquisition, mastery and having fun are emphasized rather than the outcome. Cindy says, "too many parents come to me and tell me their child is having fun, but the sport is useless because they are not on the competitive team or their child is not advancing fast enough." She would like to desperately reach out to parents and help them to see the true benefits of the sport that are applied in life. Even the best gymnasts in the world are no longer able to perform this sport after they are in their early twenties. The only thing remaining after 20 hours a week training over a course of many years are the life skills, physical fitness, fun and friendships. She personally believes this is what is most important. Gymnastics provides wings for life.

While the Roswell Recreation and Parks program emphasizes all of the values that she has written about, she does not want to mislead you into thinking that we do not offer top-quality gymnastics training. We have a state-of-the-art facility with pre-Olympic level athletes and fully certified and highly qualified staff members. We have developed many local, state, regional and national champions by emphasizing the correct values. It is Cindy Furman's mission to create a program that can offer top-notch gymnastics while contributing to the overall positive development of the child. The Roswell Recreation and Parks Department does not sacrifice quality to reach its goals and this is what she is most proud of.

Cindy hopes this better helps you understand her philosophy. She works very hard to instill these beliefs in our participants, instructors and parents.