Douglas Gymnastics club has been operating out of the sports hall in Douglas Community School. Our club has developed and grown significantly in the past 30 years.
However, despite our successes, we have known for many years that our lack of a dedicated gymnastics facility has severely limited our ability to develop the talents of our gymnasts to their full potential. In addition, we have not been able to offer membership to many of the young people that have been on our waiting list.
We have advanced plans to develop our own centre, and are in negotiation with several bodies in relation to this.
Benefits of Facility
A new centre would allow us to offer the following additional programmes to the community:
- Recreational Gymnastics Classes – We have nearly 30 years of experience offering recreational gymnastics classes to the community, but we have approximately 100 gymnasts on our waiting list, and this is despite never advertising our services, as we are unable to meet the demand.
- Advanced Gymnastics Programme – our elite gymnasts need to be training 25 to 30 hours a week in order to compete effectively against their peers.
- School Services – In much the same way that schools bus their classes to swimming pools around the county, the same is being done for gymnastics throughout Europe. Having a dedicated facility available to schools for gymnastics would be a valuable addition to the community. Gymnastics is a core constituent of the Department of Educations Physical Education Programme
- Parent and Toddler Sessions – A gymnastics club is basically an indoor playground for pre-school children, and will help develop coordination, spatial awareness and confidence in a pleasant environment.
- Adult Gymnastics – Gymnastics is a sport that can be enjoyed by all, from babies to centenarians, We currently do not offer any adult programmes, despite massive demand from the community.
- Other Groups- Our facility would be open to all other clubs – and would especially suit those such as Karate, Dance, Ballet etc with any ancillary rooms, and floor areas, or indeed many other community groups with meeting rooms etc.
