Our Son has always been an active kid, even as a baby.
We have introduced him to many different sports over the years, but none of them seemed to give him enjoyment or a sense of belonging.

Our daughter had been attending FCGC for about 6 months, when a skills session in the holidays sounded perfect for our son.  
It was amazing to see the excitement and joy in his face.  He talked about it for about 1 hour afterwards.  We spoke to him about maybe a trail lesson, explaining it would be quite different to the very fun skill session he just did.  He didn’t even think about it, it was a solid YES.

His trail lesson was brilliant, lots of encouragement from coaches, small class sizes, demonstrations and best of all fun.  He came upstairs with a new found bounce in his step and the first words he said to us was “Can I keep it?” That was almost 1.5 years ago, and he is still just as passionate about lessons now.

​During this time he has had both male and female coaches.  I personally love that FCGC has so many male role models in such a female dominated sport.  Our son has learnt more than just fitness, strength, and balance.  He has learnt team skills, social skills, responsibility and community spirit.

Both of my boys, Jake who is now 15 and Gus who is 12 have been doing gymnastics since they could walk. Like most boys, they have tried a multitude of other sports; cricket, football and soccer which they enjoyed, but when made to choose have never wavered from their commitment to gymnastics. They love it.
When we started at FCGC 10 years ago, there was an amazing group of young men who were training at a senior level and also coaching the little boys. I am not sure if these boys realised at the time what a huge influence they had on the younger gymnasts. These older boys were idolised by the little boys. They were probably unaware that the boys would watch them performing amazing skills and just want to be able to do them too.
Through their entire time at FCGC, the boys have been surrounded by inspiring older boys that have acted as positive role models and mentors even if they didn’t realise it at the time. I have always found this to be a very special part of being part of FCGC and you don’t tend to see it in other sports where the main influencers are high profile, elite sports-people (who aren’t always positive role models!).
Over the Christmas holidays, my boys attended a BIG training session where they were working on their skills with Thomas. When they were finished, a few little girls from the holiday program presented them with this note:
“You’re good at what you are doing”
When they showed me the note I was very proud of them, but it dawned on me that my boys are getting to the age where they are now becoming the role models, particularly Jake who is doing the leadership program and training to be a coach. They have the eyes of a whole lot of little gymnasts on them, watching and learning from them.
And that in itself is an amazing thing because it means that they will learn a completely different skill….the responsibility of being a role model and coach and understand that they can have the same positive influence on the younger gymnasts that they were blessed with when they started gymnastics so long ago!

​I first started coaching gymnastics in 2016 at a gym that wasn’t FCGC (I still coach there, as well as at FCGC, today). My friend was a coach at that gym and she encouraged me to apply for a coaching position there. But here’s the most interesting part: I had never done gymnastics before that in my life. I didn’t start doing gymnastics until shortly after I came to FCGC in 2017. I knew due to my lack of gymnastics experience that coaching would be a learning curveball but since I started coaching at that gym, and since coming to FCGC as well, my skills and knowledge have only continued to grow, along with my passion for this sport and what I do as a coach.
 
Since becoming a gymnastics coach, my view on the sport has changed completely. I used to think of it as a purely competitive sport, but now I realise that it can also be just for fun and fitness (and that competing can be fun too!). I also used to think that you had to start it as a child, and now I see gymnastics as a sport for all, which it truly is, and it’s never too late to start. In only two years of coaching I’ve been able to work with such a wide range of people in gymnastics, including school-aged children, preschoolers as young as a year old, and even adults with disabilities, and I truly value this experience for helping me to appreciate this sport so much more and opening my eyes to its wide variety of benefits. To tell you the truth, I used to not know how to even define gymnastics, but now I know that it’s simply about learning how to control your body. This can range from anything like walking across a beam to performing twists and somersaults, and it also means that gymnastics has something for everyone.
 
In the short amount of time I’ve been at FCGC, I’ve realized that there is nothing short of the truth in our saying that gymnastics helps with finding confidence and growing in character. Gymnastics teaches so much more than cool flips and tricks. It teaches you to give things a go even though they seem really scary. It teaches you to keep persevering with things even when you struggle, and to work hard to achieve what you want. It teaches you to trust yourself and be confident in your abilities and potential. In short, it teaches skills for life. Not only do I see these things happen in the gym, but I’ve experienced them myself. Being a gymnast and a coach has made me so much more sure of my character, and has shown me that I can make a difference and do great things. This increase in confidence and self-belief is something I didn’t even realise I needed until I got to the point where I could say all these things with conviction. And I think because I’ve experienced what it’s like to find confidence and grow in character through gymnastics, I’m now more equipped to help others do the same thing. At the end of the day, that’s what FCGC Gymnastics is all about, and it’s one of the things I love about being here.