Club of the week Dynamic Gymnastics
We caught up with the club’s safeguarding officer Suzy Miller to find out more about what has made the club so successful over the years. Tell us a bit about the history and background of the club. The club was started in October 2010 by Sarah Scott and Julie Graham. Both were coaches with the club Astra based in Wishaw.
When Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility was being built, Sarah approached North Lanarkshire Leisure about moving the club over there.
Alexis Mackintosh, head coach of Astra at this time had been thinking about retiring from coaching and was not interested in moving. Sarah and Julie decided to start their own club named Dynamic Gymnastics Academy and the gymnasts from Astra would move to the new facility and become a part of Dynamic.
It started off as a club for artistic gymnastics, but they branched into the acrobatic side in the summer of 2015.
We have gymnasts coming from all over the central belt of Scotland coming to our club.
We are now one of the largest gymnastics clubs in Scotland. Both our artistic and acrobatic sections are going from strength to strength competing amongst the best in Britain. How many members does your club have? We have around 1,200 active members just now and around 200 on the waiting list. The club now has 25 coaches and numerous young volunteers. We have taken students from the local college on a volunteer basis and progress them onto level 1 coaching.
Many of our gymnasts have went on to become coaches when they retired from the sport.
Children can start in our club from 18 months onwards.
We have different classes for different age groups and hold assessments throughout the year. Those who show potential are moved to a more advanced class.
We also get other gymnasts enquiring from other clubs. Our elite gymnasts train 19-24 hours a week. Recreational classes are 45 minutes and other levels train between three and six hours a week. Tell us about the leagues you compete in. We compete in national and international competitions throughout this year.
Our elite gymnasts have represented Scotland on numerous occasions, both nationally and internationally. Recently representing Scotland, we have had our three acrobatic squads in Budapest, two level 4 gymnasts in Guildford and Ellie Patrick in Paris with Sarah Scott as a Scotland coach. Is there a social aspect to the club as well as a sporting side? We have fun events within the club for the gymnasts.
We get together for movie nights, fun days and displays to show skills. It’s like a big gymnastics family.
Each squad get together and have their own fun days also.
Many gymnasts socialise with each other out with the gym as well.
Many have known each other since they joined at a young age and progress through the levels together. What principles do the club represent and promote? Our principles are to get as many kids as we can to get healthy and fit through gymnastics. Studies have shown that being physically healthy has an impact of your mental health.
We like to promote that gymnastics is a place where you can have fun and get fit, make new friends, build up confidence, a place to relax and de-stress from school. Are there any particular difficulties the club faces? We do not have any particular difficulties. Our main priority just now is to raise funds to install our new purpose built gymnasium.
This new gym will allow us to put on more classes to reduce the waiting list and reduce the bottleneck of groups using the different apparatus.
We are continuously looking for sponsorship for the club and individual gymnasts. Travelling to competitions can be expensive for the club and the parents. How can people get involved with the club? Anyone can get involved. If you wish to either become a volunteer or helper in the gym or fundraise we are appreciative of any help we can get.
We have a strong social media presence. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram andyoutube or email enquiries@ dynamicgymnastics.co.uk