In the NEWS
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In the NEWS 〰️
CAMPAIGN FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS TO LAUNCH IN 2022-23 School Year
We are seeking Corporate and Individual Partners to help us launch a National Campaign for Movement and Generosity for America’s 87,500 Elementary Schools in 2022. If you would like more information on partnering with Free2Play or if have a great lead to a great partner for us, we are interested in talking to you! Please contact Johnnymac (John Maguire) at (517) 266-4653 or e-mail: jmaguire@grayinstitute.com
Free2Play® programs
If you were to ask a Kindergarten student “Are you an athlete?” The response of every child would be “Yes, I am an athlete!” BUT if you asked those same students just five years later, statistics show that 85% would respond “NO, I am not an athlete!” QUESTION: What happens to kids between Kindergarten and Grade 5 that sets their course of health for life?
Free2Play programs give students a better future by helping them understand that EVERY CHILD is an ATHLETE and specifically that they are an ATHLETE. Free2Play demonstrates and develops the ATHLETE in you by progressing purposefully through physical effort (Perspire.) to grow in your personal capacity to contribute to the wellbeing of others (Inspire.).
Through the leadership of world-renowned Physical Therapist, Dr. Gary Gray, PT at Gray Institute®, a program of Movement Literacy® and Generosity Literacy has been developed for the masses. Based on Applied Functional Science®, Dr. Gray (known as the “Father of Function” in the Movement Industry) has been teaching and training professionals for over 40 years. His knowledge of the body is outplayed by his passion to encourage and empower children through movement. Free2Play® uses the physical to enhance the mental and emotional.
Free2Play® CLASSROOM
In a world – and in school systems – where the term “literacy” is paramount, our children have never been taught how to move and how to give (back). Arguably, these two (2) areas are equally, if not more, important. Free2Play® teaches Movement Literacy® and Generosity Literacy in 6-to-10-minute high-end, interactive, on-demand videos (each one is dubbed a Matrix Play®). While a “Brain Break” would be comparable, a Matrix Play® is more robust, as well as a perfect complement to any and all classrooms. Furthermore, each Matrix Play® is a part of a systematic, sequential library for endless learning and endless application. These allow the children to be successful, the teachers to be facilitators, and communities to be benefactors. The program initially runs for six weeks, and contains Play-it-Forward projects of community service.
Matrix Library with hundreds of Matrix Plays
Free2Play Academy has created hundreds of Matrix Plays for teachers, trainers, and coaches which can be followed to extend the basic Free2Play Classroom program for students. A Matrix Play includes specific instruction and interactive matrix plays for specific actions, attributes, and activities.
Hot Rock Basketball Camps
HOT ROCK CAMP is in its 30th year of operation this year. Through the leadership of Nationally recognized Physical Therapist Dr. Gary Gray, his two sons, and local and national coaches (many coaches who are gifted physical therapists like Dr. Gray), the program has served on average 200 athletes a year. The program runs daily from 8:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and includes a lunch and snack breaks provided by local businesses. While primarily offering basketball stations and training (we call them “opportunity cells”), there are also cells that teach teamwork and encouragement (i.e. the slip-n-slide, “dork” drills, movement literacy, grass court basketball, and more!) One of the cells, “the Rock,” challenges character, life decisions, and encourages and uplifts the athlete’s spirit. We have also been visited at special basketball court talks by professional athletes like Billy Curley and Kirk Cousins in recent years.
Hot Rock Basketball Training Camp Celebrates 30 Years!
HOT ROCK CAMP is in its 30th year of operation this year. Please enjoy the above video narrated by our founder Dr. Gary Gray about HOT ROCK’s history and dreams moving forward!
ARE YOU A HOT ROCK STAR?
(YOU CAN BE)
ADRIAN, MI - - Over thirty years ago when Dr. Gary and Cindi Gray, along with some of their closest friends, started a small basketball training camp at the Gray’s home, they had no idea of just what HOT ROCK TRAINING CAMP would grow to become. Gary and Cindi began the program to better train their young sons and their friends in 1991. They had only 17 boys and one court in their backyard. This year they will celebrate the 30h year with four courts, 11 backboards, a hundred basketballs and over 200 athletes in their back yard. And oh yes, those Gray boys are now Co- Directing the camp – a camp where their own kids are now participating.
But this Basketball Camp offers more than basketball. While primarily offering basketball stations and training (they call them “opportunity cells”), there are also cells that teach teamwork and encouragement (i.e. the slip-n-slide, “dork” drills, Movement Literacy®, grass court basketball, and more!) One of the cells, “the Rock,” challenges character, life decisions, and encourages and uplifts the athlete’s spirit. They have also been visited at special basketball court talks by professional athletes like Billy Curley, Allan Houston, and Minnesota Viking Quarterback Kirk Cousins.
We think thirty years is worth celebrating and so we are made a “call out” to all former athletes, their parents, coaches, and anyone else who has been impacted by HOT ROCK to join with us at the Blue Skies Brewery in the Irish Hills on September 20th at 6:30 pm for a night of celebration and remembrance to kick off this 30th Anniversary year.
WOULD YOU CONSIDER becoming a monthly supporter to become a “HOT ROCK STAR” of HOT ROCK TRAINING CAMP through a regular monthly tax-deductible gift to Free2Play. All monthly supporters will receive a free I AM A HOT ROCK STAR T-shirt in thanks!
Why Free2Play?
According to the Center for Disease Control “Today’s generation is the first generation of Americans in 200 years NOT expected to outlive their parents! To be told that you as a parent will outlive your child should be a wake up call. If a change doesn’t happen soon, the statistics are going to go from ‘1 out of 4 children are clinically obese’ to 3 out of 4 children are clinically obese. The change must happen at a young age; not later in life. (CDC, 2016)
This reality is not the legacy we want to leave our children- - we have a better idea through an educational program called Free2Play that teaches movement and generosity for life. Dr. Gary Gray, PT the project creator says, “The end game is healthy kids - - healthy kids live better lives and help others live better lives!” We say it like this…perspire to inspire.
Since 1956, the President’s council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition has “created and promoted programs and initiatives that motivate people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to be active and healthy.” Most public schools have encouraged participation and promoted physical activity for over 70 years. Yet according these things will impact the health of our our children in 2020…
OBESITY - The center for Disease Control identifies 32% of children are overweight or obese . . . and it’s getting worse. CS Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health (2013) revealed that the #1 problem of US health concerns was childhood and youth obesity at 38%.
INACTIVITY - Only 1 of 3 children in the US are physically active evry day and currently, 71% of girls and 58% of boys fail to reach the CDC recommended 60 minutes of daily activity. And according to the Kaiser Family Foundation study the average child spends eleven hours a day multitasking on entertainment media like television, computers and smartphones even though the the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 2 hours per day.
OPPORTUNITY - Budget-limited schools add to the problem, recent trends show programs declining… ”Almost half of Detroit district schools don’t have a full-time gym teacher,” according to to data obtained by Chalkbeat, a Detroit web-based education news source (March 20, 2018). And according to the Kaiser Family Foundation the trend is away from healthy movement . . . “since No Child Left Behind” the amount of time given to recess and PE has decreased from 60 minutes per day to 42 minutes per day.
POSSIBILITY - If you were to ask a Kindergarten student “Are you an athlete?” The response of every child would be “Yes, I am an athlete!” BUT if you asked those same students just five years later, statistics show that 85% would respond “NO, I am not an athlete!” Greater still, a child begins to question “Who am I?” Free2 Play believes they need to know that they are amazing and that can make a difference in the lives they touch. . . that’s possibility!
Free2Play programs give students a better future by helping them understand that EVERY CHILD is an ATHLETE and specifically that they are an ATHLETE. Free2Play demonstrates and develops the ATHLETE in you by progressing purposefully through physical effort (Perspire.) to grow in your personal capacity to contribute to the wellbeing of others (Inspire.). Free2Play addresses the issues of Obesity, inactivity, opportunity, and possibility through a program of movement and generosity
Free2Play History
Founded by Dr Gary Gray PT
Dr. Gary Gray, is the Founder and President of Gray Institute, and is the originator and developer of Applied Functional Science® (AFS). Recognized as the “Father of Function,” he is a leading pioneer and authority on rehabilitation and training. Dr. Gray has transformed his functional and bio-mechanical understanding of the body into the most effective performance enhancement, injury prevention and rehabilitative application in the industry. His passion for education and sharing, along with his commitment to innovation allow him to translate the complexities of human function into simple and effective techniques for children of all ages and abilities, professional athletes across major sports, the U.S. Navy SEALS and Special Ops Forces, and trainers and coaches the PGA, the NFL, the NHL, MLB, and with Olympic teams… AND his passion to teach children also puts him in a chicken suit every once in a while to teach movement through egg tossing.
Powered by Gray Institute
For more than 40 years, Dr. Gray has helped more than 150,000 professionals find the missing piece in traditional education for movement professionals. Through National Training Seminars and Clinics, and through his own Gary Gray Physical Therapy Clinics.
Training and education, took a bold step with the creation of Gray Institute® in 1981. Gray Institute was established to equip students with comprehensive knowledge in the principles of Applied Functional Science® (AFS) to you can be the BEST for movement professionals in their chosen field.
For 20 years Gray Institute® has continued to empower amazing people in the areas of Prevention, Performance, and Rehabilitation.
Today, those professionals are trusted practitioners in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, PGA, and – most importantly – home towns across the world.
Gray Institute® is internationally acclaimed for its innovation, development, mastery, and delivery of Applied Functional Science® (AFS). AFS is based on scientific truth – not theory – of how the human body moves in all three planes. AFS allows movement professionals like you to apply the best, most effective, and most efficient movements to any individual, based on specific needs and goals.
Free at Last: Stories of Impact
CHRIS VIPOND, PE TEACHER
CLEARVIEW ELEMENTARY in WAuKEGAN, IL
“I would like to share with you just a few of the things the 5th graders were able to do through Free2Play. They knew that the Matrix Plays . . .
ABC 10 NEWS
FREE2PLAY IN THE NEWS
Students with their teacher share just what the Free2Play program has done for them in a news report from ABC News10 - Ishpeming, Michigan.
ANDREA WAYLOW, PT
How To Move
Physical Therapist Andrea Waylow shares how she was motivated to get her local schools involved in Free2Play and what happened at a Concert of Movement event!
