After 30 years of trying Gymnastics finally finds a home.

At last, after years of fighting to find premises for a purpose built gymnastics facility, The ESPRIT ACADEMY is finally set to open its doors at Unit 3, The IO Centre, Hobley Drive, Stratton. This Saturday sees the first of more that 300 budding young gymnasts take the first steps towards becoming the next Nadia Comaneci or Svetlana Chorkina. “Building work is still being undertaken at the Academy and there is still much more to do” said Katy Smith Head of Artistic Coaching, “but the gym is virtually finished and we can now start everything we have dreamed of, were absolutely thrilled”.

The first class of 30 children start at 10:00am followed by classes every hour until 1:00pm, that’s when the more advanced children take to the floor and they train until 4:00pm, so it looks like being an incredibly busy day. More classes are scheduled in for every day next week, with more and more children starting the first stage of ‘beginners’ gymnastics. “Demand has been so great” said Katy “we could have started double the amount of classes we have, unfortunately there are only 7 days in a week, so we have had to postpone some beginners who are desperate to get going until Easter, but by then everyone who wants a place should have one”.

“To ease the disappointment for those that have to wait we have organised a 4-day intensive course at half term, which will also be a great opportunity for those who want to try out gymnastics, before starting a class, to have a go”.

Despite the fact that the Academy is not fully finished, the staff and coaches at Esprit thought it important to get the young children involved as soon as possible, “it’s not fair that the children of Swindon have had to miss out for all of these years”, said Mark Hows (Manager) “they have been waiting for the Esprit Academy to open for nearly a year and we really couldn’t make them wait any longer, the buildings here and everyone has been so excited about starting the classes we wanted to get straight on with it. The official opening will have to wait for a few months until the place is looking its best, then we will have a massive party and our young beginners will be able to meet some of their hero’s from the world of gymnastics”.

“But at the moment we are concentrating on making sure our future young gymnastic champions are given the very best start that we can give them”.

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