How do I know if my athlete is progressing?

It’s gotta be the number one thing you look for as a parent of a gymnast, right? You are paying the bills and want to know your child is progressing. But what does that mean, what does it look like and how do you know?

But I can’t even cartwheel!

It’s true that a cartwheel is one of the most universally recognised gymnastics skills. So it is natural to base some kind of progress on this skill.

But cut your child (or yourself!) some slack. It may be one of our ‘basic’ gymnastics skills but have you ever stopped to think about what a gymnast has to do, in order to do a successful cartwheel?

Why I am not telling you to point your toes

Wait, but isn’t pointing your toes the whole point of gymnastics? Don’t you have to do that all the time to be a good gymnast? Well, yes it does make everything look nicer. But when it comes to effective learning, it’s actually the last thing on my mind as a coach. I’ll explain why.

Where does it all go?

We’re asked this question a lot – where does this all go? Where will my gymnast progress to within the sport or what does it all lead to? Our founder, Jennifer, explains how we do this at Affinity with squad gymnasts that enter competitions and do displays, and the progression opportunities within our class system.