Gymnastics - General

When I am not running around after my own children I can very often be found running around after other peoples.For the past 3 years I have coached Gymnastics, both with elite boys, and on a recreational level. If you have read my P... is for Pressure op you will know that my Son James is a great little gymnast and it was through and for him that I got involved. I have been at the gym today, helping to make a video that will be distributed to schools as a teaching aid and I thought while I have a little time to relax now I might tell you a little about the sport and give you a little advice if ... more

...not really nasty, but it's what my Nanna used to say when I turned up happy but exhausted at her house on a Saturday afternoon after 6 hours in the gym. I went to my first gymnastics class when I was 4 years old, and took part in my first competition at age 6. I was hooked and even though I haven't been to a gym class since I was 14, I'm still into it. Women's artistic gymnastics consists of 4 main disciplines : bars, beam, floor and vault. As well as these, some comps include conditioning routines, which is basically a short music-less floor routine which focusses on control. As with many ... more

At the age of four I started gymnastics and soon became very good. At it at the age of 8 I was club champion and was the Scottish under nines champion. I felt proud of what I had done. I moved house however when I was 10 and joined a new club who were much stricter and more disciplined. The summer holidays consisted of training for 10 hours a day and sleeping from exhaustion for the rest. When I broke my thumb (nothing to do with gymnastics) they still had me in training, doing sit ups the whole time instead. I finally got into the Scottish squad (training sessions) aged 11 which meant during ... more

Did you know that you cannot buy leotards in a sport shop?! I have hunted and hunted for a site and have finally found Milano.co.uk They have a very wide range of leotards and although they may seem expensive, if you have a child doing gymnastics you will know that it involve expense and the range of gymnastics clothing from Milano is very good quality. I found that if you want a catalogue then phone them, don't email them as they take too long (either that or the bloke in charge of passing on the requests is a bit slow). The site is a bit bland but the on-line catalogue is definately a winner ... more

Gymnastics has been part of my life since 1976, where I watched the wonderful routines of Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian who score seven perfect tens during the Montreal Olympics. I was 6 years old. I started doing gymnastics myself and only gave up training, once I had children of my own. Now my eight year old daughter (named Emilia, after famous Romanian gymnast, Emilia Eberle!) is also a gymnast. I think gymnastics is a great sport to do and to watch, especially as there are several branches of the sport to suit any fan - rhythmics, sports acro, etc. as well as associated sports such as ... more