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Some things are easier to learn when you're a kid, like an instrument or a sport. NPR's Avery Keatley visited a gymnastics class outside of Washington, D.C., to find out why it's important to keep learning new things, no matter your age.
AVERY KEATLEY, BYLINE: On a dark, rainy Tuesday night, the Barcroft Sports & Fitness Center in Arlington, Virginia, is brightly lit and absolutely buzzing. The gymnastics floor is mobbed with kids wearing bright leotards, taking turns on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. It is loud as the kids tumble across the floor and parents wait in the bleachers overlooking the gymnasium. But as the kids' classes begin winding down, a different group files in.
GAELEN WOOD: (Inaudible) forward rolls, so arms up.
ERIN WEISENBERGER: This is the worst one because it really hurts your head. When I was a kid, this didn't hurt, but it really gives me a headache doing it. I don't know why.
KEATLEY: That's 32-year-old Erin Weisenberger. She's warming up doing somersaults across the gymnastics floor along with the rest of her class. It's a group of nearly all women ranging in age from their late 20s to their early 40s, and they're all here trying something a little different.
WOOD: So we're going to learn something new today.
KEATLEY: They're part of an adult beginner gymnastics class. It's a bit of a rarity in the gymnastics world, where most classes are geared towards kids and teens.
WOOD: And if you're lefty, you're going to jump, land on your right foot, extend your left foot into your lunge.
KEATLEY: That's Coach Gaelen Wood. Tonight, they're learning how to power hurdle. It's a move that helps generate momentum for tumbling, and the footwork is a little complicated.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: So think about jumping off of two feet and just land on your right foot.
WEISENBERGER: Just land on my right foot. Just land on my right foot.
(LAUGHTER)
KEATLEY: While Erin tries to master the power hurdle, classmate Shateela Winters has a simpler goal in mind.
SHATEELA WINTERS: So my goal is to not injure myself. I have a bad back amongst other things. But if I could pick the dream thing that I had learned to do, if I could just do one back handspring, I'd be incredibly happy.
WOOD: Awesome.
KEATLEY: After warming up on the floor, the class files over to a trampoline that stretches almost halfway across the gym.
WOOD: All right, we're going to straddle jumps. So remember, either straddle jumps can go out to the side or straddle jumps can come up in front of you, OK?
KEATLEY: Gymnastics program supervisor Alex Asante-Dean says that for adult beginners, breaking out of their normal patterns of movement, like jumping really high in the air on a trampoline, can be uncomfortable.
ALEX ASANTE-DEAN: When we start, some of the things are really jarring 'cause you're moving your body in ways that hasn't been done before.
KEATLEY: And it's not just physical movements.
ASANTE-DEAN: When we get older and we have, you know, routines that we're used to, gets hard to break those habits.
KEATLEY: That's an observation backed up by research.
RACHEL WU: Adults might have a more fixed mindset in terms of thinking, if I'm not good at something now, I'm never going to be good at it.
KEATLEY: Rachel Wu is an associate professor of psychology at University of California, Riverside. She studies the way children learn and how those patterns might help adults learn too. She says that in some ways, learning is easier as an adult. Adults generally grasp concepts more quickly. They're less distracted, and they have better motor control than kids. But learning as an adult requires time, money and quality teachers, which can all be harder to find. She also says adults are often convinced they simply lack a talent for something.
WU: I've never been good at languages, or I've never been good at art, or I don't have a musical ear or something like that - that kind of, like, very fixed mindset. So you're either born with some talent or you're not.
KEATLEY: But continuing to learn as an adult has serious brain benefits.
WU: You will increase a lot of different types of cognitive abilities - your attention, memory. You have existing neurons that can be strengthened and existing pathways between neurons that can be strengthened as well.
KEATLEY: She says physical activities can be especially helpful in growing new neurons, which help the brain remain healthy and flexible later in life. Community can also play a big role in supporting adult learning.
WU: Learning new stuff is really hard, and if you're doing it with other people, it may be less depressing (laughter) in some ways because those people can help hold you accountable. You can see through how other people are struggling that you're not the only one struggling.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There you go. Yes. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Good.
KEATLEY: Back in the gym, the class is practicing on the uneven bars.
WEISENBERGER: The Olympians make it look so smooth and so easy and just like a walk in the park. But it is not (laughter).
KEATLEY: Erin Weisenberger says that even though class is challenging, she gets a lot out of it.
WEISENBERGER: Just proud of myself for trying something that I thought I would be really bad at.
KEATLEY: Coach Gaelen Wood says that for him, seeing adult students achieve something new is one of the best parts of the class.
WOOD: I love when people are nervous of something, and they finally take that step forward, and they're like, I can do this.
KEATLEY: As class winds down, one of those moments unfolds as Erin successfully pulls herself all the way over the uneven bar for the first time.
WEISENBERGER: I did it.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: There you go. Yay.
KEATLEY: Avery Keatley, NPR News.
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