About us

Kendal School of Gymnastics is a women’s artistic gymnastics club, currently based on Mintsfeet Industrial Estate, Kendal. Unfortunately, at present, we cannot offer gymnastics training for boys.

The Club offers gymnastics training at a variety of levels to young girls from the South Lakes area. Everyone at the Club is a volunteer. We are run by a small executive committee and our coaching team. Our head coach is Peter Blake who has been with the Club for over 25 years. We have eight level 2 coaches, all qualified in women’s artistic gymnastics, many of whom also have general gym qualifications. We also have seven level 1 or assistant coaches. All of our coaches have British Gymnastics coaching qualifications and are CRB checked.

Our club premises are not large; indeed, we would very much like to move to larger premises in the not too distant future. We are a woman’s artistic gymnastics Club and therefore have the equipment to train girls in this form of gymnastics, i.e. floor, bars, beam and vault. We have a fully sprung floor area that is only slightly smaller than a full sized floor. We have a vault and associated run up area. We have a set of asymmetric bars and several beams. We also have a variety of other equipment and all the safety matting etc that is required in the sport.

Safety is extremely important in all of our activities, and gymnasts are constantly supervised. The club fully adheres to all the recommendations of British Gymnastics and has comprehensive safety, child protection and disciplinary procedures in place.

In December 2007, we were awarded GymMark (and ClubMark)and we retained our accreditation in 2008 and 2009 . GymMark is BG’s club accreditation scheme that recognises a quality club. The key phrase for British Gymnastics is “safe, effective and child-friendly”.

Gymnasts are coached in groups of similar ability, the Club atmosphere is very friendly and supportive and girls are encouraged to their best and try hard but without being forced. We are a competitive Club and currently enter girls in a variety of competitions. These include W.A. National, County and Regional competitions and General Gymnastics floor and vault competitions. As we are part of British Gymnastics North region this can mean several trips to the north east; to South Tyneside, Newcastle, South Durham and Redcar, as well as more locally to Furness and Carlisle. We have a very special friendship with Redcar Gymnastics Club and have visited them for Summer Camps two years in a row.

We run recreational classes on a Sunday afternoon and these classes are the feeders for the main Club. Girls showing potential in the recreational classes may be invited for a trial with the senior coaches with a view to being invited to join the main Club.

The gymnasts range in age from 5 to 17 and gymnasts compete at county, regional and national level and in British Gymnastics grades events. The senior gymnasts train for 9 hours per week plus extra training in the run up to competitions. Others train twice a week for a total of five hours and hope to enter general gymnastics competitions, which focus on floor and vault. The youngest Club members train for between 2 and 4 hours a week.