Published: 28 February 2020

Last Updated: 01 January 2022

Coaching Qualifications Achieved

In December 2021 we received the great news that Sarah Field and Emma Gregory, both mums to gymnasts at the club, had passed their British gymnastics Level 1 coaching qualification. Passing these qualification has been especially problematic in 2021 as courses were no longer face to face, and the coaches had to be filmed in action for their assessments. These videos are then sent to British Gymnastics to be evaluated by assessors. The results are given during an online discussion with the assessor.

We discovered that it is almost impossible to film the coaches delivering the required skills in our gym during a class, due to noise levels and access to apparatus. The only solution was to 'borrow' time in a friendly large club who operate in their own premises. This meant that both Sarah and Emma had to be filmed in an environment they were not familiar with, so a special well done!

In the spring we will have two of our gymnast coaches starting their Level 1 qualification process, and two more taking their British Gymnastics Helpers Award - we wish them all good luck.

Club 25th Birthday

In November 2019 we celebrated our 25th year as a club.

It all started in late summer 1994 of with a family gathering round the dining room table to discuss whether it would be possible and who would be involved. Andy and Sandy were willing and fortunately daughters Adeline and Naomi were up for it. Naomi later left for son's football (!!) switching with daughter Steph. We brainstormed for a name and Genesis seemed suitable for an enterprise with a new beginning. Sandy and Andy had already been running Acrobrats pre-school classes on weekdays for a number of years and we had some good coaches helping us with those, and a couple said yes to Saturdays.

The Chessington sports hall was completely unused at weekends at that time, so a small team of 8 adult coaches opened the doors for our first sessions to 33 children, mostly 6 - 8 year old. Apparatus was minimal and just two classes ran.

We were lucky in having good coaches at the start and that is still the case today. We now have 22 coaches and 160 children with a 6 month waiting list. The apparatus takes an hour to set up and, with more hands, 45 minutes to put away. While it is difficult to put an exact number on it, we believe that about 30 other coaches have come and gone over the last 25 years - most off to Uni or parents who stopped when their children got older and move into other sports. Many still keep in touch.

So that's a short potted history of the club. We still have ambitions to grow and improve. Ideally this would be in our own premises, and we have been looking, but in this area the costs are astronomical and at the moment we simply don't make that much money.

Here's to the next 25 years!

Attached are some then and now pictures. Enjoy.

Downloads

... And Eat It !.jpg	36 kB	28/02/20
1994 Class 1.jpg	600 kB	28/02/20
1994 Class 2.jpg	519 kB	28/02/20
November 2019 Class 1.jpg	53 kB	28/02/20
November 2019 Class 2.jpg	73 kB	28/02/20
November 2019 Class 3 - In Full Swing.jpg	63 kB	28/02/20
The Young Founders - 2019.jpg	27 kB	28/02/20
You Can Have Your Cake ....jpg	28 kB	28/02/20