With more than 350 kids, it’s the largest indoor rec program on the island –– and with a raft of coaches with familiar names and faces, gymnastics offerings at Salt Spring Circus and Gymnastics are poised to expand even further.
If “island-grown” is how you prefer your programs, the gymnastics program features plenty of it. Coaches Nayani Catry-Bauer, Darby McIntyre, Kristi Reynolds, Sarah Robinson and Leticia Taylor are all alumni of Salt Spring Gymnastics and are today bringing back their years –– often decades –– of experience to a new generation of island kids.
“It feels really special to be able to be a part of a kid’s growth,” said McIntyre. “To help them achieve their goals, and really pass along our knowledge.”
And there’s a good bit of knowledge –– wisdom, even –– in the room among the coaching staff; it’s hard to overstate, according to Reynolds, how much value there is in coaches having so much history in the sport.
“We’re all pretty ‘tenured’ gymnasts,” she laughed. “Darby was literally my neighbour, I’ve known her since before I can even remember; Sarah’s mom and her family were there when I was born! We literally go back to the beginning. So to have an environment where we’re all basically coaching like sisters, it’s really special.”
“We all share knowledge, we all have experience, and we all coach differently,” said Robinson. “It’s awesome to be able to give each kid what they need because we have the coaches who can do that.”
Robinson said while there is currently a comfortable number of coaches, based on their waiting list in September it is likely they could’ve added a few more classes; a “fair few” number of kids simply didn’t get into the program, she said, and other coaches agreed that between coaching availability and scheduling at the Salt Spring Island Multi Space (SIMS), demand was still exceeding supply. Coach and registrar Vanessa Todrick said private classes would be opening up to meet some of that demand shortly.
“It’s an opportunity for kids in homeschool, or kids with autism service and support funding,” said Todrick, “or for anyone who just wants to up their skills or learn to do cartwheels better.”
And that’s not excluding adults; Todrick explained kids start gymnastics pretty small –– from age one, she said –– but that there has been a lot of demand, often from parents of participants, for classes for older age groups. The progression of sports medicine –– and attitudes on health generally –– has shifted the average age of competitive gymnasts upwards slightly. That trend, the coaches said, has started to influence the recreational component of the sport as well.
“If you look at Olympic gymnastics, you’re seeing a lot more high-level gymnasts in their mid-20s, where previous to that 20 was probably a cap for peak performance,” said Reynolds. “But the sport, and sports medicine, has changed so much over the last few years, you’re starting to see those gymnasts stay relevant later in life.”
“For adults, it’ll be more of a strength and flexibility-style class, and we’ll build from there,” said Robinson. “Like if you haven’t done a cartwheel since you were 15, we’ll work on our cartwheels!”
Reynolds explained the gymnastics program is only able to secure time Wednesday through Saturday, and since they were sharing with other SIMS users, much of that time was necessarily spent setting up and taking down equipment.
“Any gymnast that has grown up in a gym that doesn’t have a permanent setup –– we call it a ‘tear down gym,’” said Reynolds, “meaning we have to tear everything down once a week and set it back up –– if you asked what they would do if they won the lottery? They’d all say, ‘I’m gonna build a gymnastics gym!’”
And not all gymnastics and circus classes are truly compatible to run at the same time, Robinson pointed out.
“We’re sort of Tetris-ing classes together in this space,” laughed Robinson. “And there’s only certain classes that can happen at the same time –– like a teacher with the one-year-olds can’t always keep their attention if the older kids are across the floor practising!”
New this year is a pre-competitive program, which –– as you might expect –– the coaches hope can be used as a springboard toward the return of competitive gymnastics to Salt Spring. McIntyre said the “pre-comp” track was about teaching fundamentals but also about correcting skills –– to a stricter degree.
“So we’re not just doing cartwheels, we’re doing cartwheels to perfection –– creating a base of skills which we can build towards doing them at a higher level,” said McIntyre. “We’re prepping children to be ready for competitive events.”
The problem right now, Robinson said, is one familiar to youth sports enthusiasts on Salt Spring: at some point, she said, if a student athlete is interested in working toward a higher level in the sport, they need to head off-island to pursue it further.
“That’s so hard to say as a coach,” she said, “to tell them you don’t have the resources they need.”
The “three Fs” of gymnastics, according to the coaches, are fun, fitness and fundamentals; the pre-competitive track changes the balance of the three a little –– still having “fun,” they stressed –– to work harder on fitness and fundamentals. Robinson said they had found some of the kids in the recreational program had the drive, strength and attitude –– and wanted to push themselves, learn new skills and progress.
“They don’t just want to be playing octopus tag,” she laughed. “They’re like, ‘No, can we do more sit-ups?’”
Reaching higher levels in any sport requires time, and gymnastics is no exception; one or two classes a week, according to the coaches, won’t get you there.
“Darby and I used to train three, four, five hours a day,” said Reynolds. “And then competitions every weekend.”
With a gentle bit of nudging from her colleagues, McIntyre shared her successes in gymnastics –– and beyond –– fully crediting the rigour of the competitive sport. She was on Team British Columbia for six years, she said, winning Western Canadian championships when she was 14.
“I went to nationals twice,” said McIntyre. “And I went from gymnastics to playing volleyball and soccer in high school. I tell parents that gymnastics is probably the best sport you can put your kid into, regardless of whether they continue to do it in their life.”
When she made the decision to try out for cheerleading while at the University of Victoria, she said, the transition was easier because of her gymnastics experience; indeed, in 2023, her cheer team delivered a technically perfect routine at the University World Cup Cheerleading Championships –– earning them the gold.
“When you’re a gymnast, all eyes are on you,” said Reynolds. “The ability to handle criticism and failure is a very big part of gymnastics –– in one competition, you might get a 13 on your floor routine, and the next one, you’re gonna fall on your face and come in last place! But you have to be able to accept that, and learn from it.”
From the perspective of the broader gymnastics program, a net positive for a competitive track is that historically it’s been those student athletes and their parents who have fuelled fundraising to support the sport, bringing along its recreational programs.
“Just keeping the lights on and keeping the program running means any fundraising you can do keeps costs down for parents,” said Reynolds. “And that’s helpful, because it can be an expensive sport to be in, especially if you’re going to competitions. Our moms helped us do a lot of the fundraising to get the equipment you see in the gym now –– we sold so many chocolate bars, ran so many fall fair fundraisers.”
“We’d love to be able to offer better times, more classes,” said Todrick. “If we can get into comp and having more classes each week, if we have the space, the community would love it.”
As would the coaches.
“To come back 15 years later, and be able to see that history, all the work that our parents put in to make a suitable space for us and our gymnastics careers?” said Reynolds. “Yeah, it’s definitely a passion.”
“We work with such awesome tiny humans,” said Robinson. “It’s really cool to see them flourish and thrive and want to be here; that’s pretty special for us.”
For more information about the program or to register, visit ssicircusandgymnastics.com.
