There are several pieces of gymnastics equipment that you need if you are going to be working on your gymnastics at home. One piece of gymnastics equipment that you will need at some point is a gymnastics air track.
Gymnastics air tracks can vary widely in size, but the average air track takes up about 60 square feet of floor space. This is because the average width and length of air tracks are around 3 feet by 20 feet. This is just an average though.
Some gymnastics air tracks can take up a lot more space, while others take up much less space. Picking the right size for your air track is one of the most important factors in finding the right air track for you.
Size Differences And Why They Matter
Since gymnastics air tracks are inflated, there are literally three different sizes that you should consider: the width, the depth, and the length. Each of these three measurements is important to picking the right gymnastics air track.
The Width
The width of a gymnastics air track has only a little variation. Almost all air tracks are between 3 to 3 ½ feet wide. This is just the right width for a lot of things. For starters, many home gymnastics bars need a mat that is this width to go underneath them.
Three feet wide is also wide enough to make doing tumbling passes perfectly safe. When you do tumbling passes down the middle, you have enough room on either side of you so that if you fall over or fail on a skill, you should not fall off the side of the track.
If you roll when you fall, you may still end up off of the air track a little, but the important thing here is that the air track is there for you to take the brunt of your fall. This is why wider gymnastics air tracks can be preferable, especially once you get to the combinations that get more momentum going.
More momentum makes you slightly more likely to end up off of the edge if you do something wrong. Plus, it can be harder to keep yourself in a straight line when you first start doing a sequence of skills, so a little extra width is needed for you to stay on.
A gymnastics air track that is 3 feet wide is more than wide enough when you first start working on your gymnastics skills at home. However, later on you will probably want more square feet, and you should go with a wider track then.
The Depth
Since gymnastics air tracks are inflated, the depth that you see on the dimensions is most often how deep it will be once the track has been inflated. This depth is usually between 3 to 8 inches. While you do not have to air it up all the way to use the track, you should do so for the best effect.
Thinner air tracks are adequate protection in most cases. Deeper air tracks offer more cushion, but this extra air can make it so that your hands sink into the track a little. This can interfere some with you doing your gymnastics skills on it if the track is not aired up properly.
However, on the plus side, an air track that is deep and aired up correctly it can give you a bit of bounce. This bounce can help your momentum when you do your combined skills on your air track.
The depth is also important when your weight is taken into consideration. If you are older and bigger, or simply if you weigh more, you should have more air to cushion you. A bad spill may still hurt a little, but you should not be really injured if you are on a gymnastics air track.
Therefore, the depth is a very important part of the room that a gymnastics air track takes. When fully aired up, it will take up more space than then when it is deflated. A deflated air track can be rolled up to be put away, thereby taking less space.
Folding an air track might seem to be a more efficient way to conserve some of the space when the track is not in use. However, folding leaves creases, which will eventually lead to damage, so rolling up an air track is best.
The Length
The length of a gymnastics air track is where the greatest difference in size is found at. A few air tracks are pretty much square, being only a couple feet in length. On the other end of the size spectrum, there are the extremely long air tracks that are around 40 feet in length.
Once again, the length will depend on what you intend to use your air track for. Single skills such as walkovers and round-offs can be done safely on an air track that is 10 feet in length. Combining skills will need more space.
An air track that is 20 feet long is usually long enough for two, sometimes three, skills in combination. Tumbling passes and longer sequences require you to have an air track that is 30 to 40 feet long so that you have enough length without going over the end.
This is, of course, partially dependent on your height, since the taller you are, the more space you will need for many of the gymnastics skills. You do not want to have to pull up from the next skill in a combination because you are out of length on your air track.
Pulling up like that can form a very bad habit that will then have to be broken. However, continuing on and going off the end of the air track can be dangerous. More often than not, combination skills often end on a difficult note after you have gotten your momentum going.
The end is, therefore, the part of the tumbling combination that you need the protection of the air track the most. This is both because of the momentum you have already gained and the fact that the hard skill means you are most likely to make a mistake here.
Final Notes
Different sizes of gymnastics air track take up different amounts of space, of course. The smaller air tracks are cheaper overall. However, when it comes to the price per square foot, longer gymnastics air tracks can be a little cheaper.
Longer air tracks have more places where they can be punctured though. When an air track gets too badly damaged to repair, there is no choice but to replace it with a new one. Because of this fact, it can sometimes be more cost-efficient to get more than one smaller air track.
It is entirely possible to get gymnastics air tracks that have a Velcro attachment to them. This feature lets you take your air tracks and attach them together securely to make your total length longer. This can be more cost-effective if you have a lot of household items that are prone to puncturing your tracks, since replacing one smaller air track is cheaper than replacing a long one.
As mentioned, an air track is obviously going to take up led room when it is deflated and rolled away. Some of this space will depend on what the air track is made out of. Air tracks can be made out of different materials, some of which are thicker than others.
The thicker the material that is used, the more space the air track will take even when it is rolled up, but the more durable it will be. If you will be taking your air track places with you, you may need this extra protection. However, the extra weight may make it harder to carry around.
There are pros and cons to the amount of room a gymnastics air track takes. Never forget that it is far better to go with an air track that takes up more room than it is to go with one that is too small. So, do you have enough room for an air track?