Here’s a list of places that I know have classes for adults (all levels):
- Southwark Gymnastics Club
- East London Gymnastics Club
- Overgravity gymnastics
- Harrow School of Gymnastics
- Sutton Gymnastics Academy
- The London School of Hand Balancing and Acrobatics
Now, some details. The first time I’ve tried a gymnastics class was in London (and I keep repeating it, with level zero at the age of 27). And the first club I went to was Southwark Gymnastics Club.
I am still in love with that place. Whenever I visit London I like to go there and check out on how it’s doing. If you are someone with loads of experience, requiring special equipment (rings, beam, foam pit, etc.) it’s probably not for you. I know that they’re going to expand and really hope that it will happen soon. But at the moment it’s a perfect place for beginners! The gym has a tumble and fast tracks, a couple of trampolines, floor (that is not a spring floor), trumpets, springboards. And the best coaching team ever!
In my time the classes were lead by a bunch of young, eager, exciting, and quite professional coaches, who were really engaged in teaching us, adults, helping us build up the new skills from the ground up. The classes were mostly attended by the people who were new, like me. So there was absolutely no embarrassment in not being able to do stuff. Everyone just enjoyed getting new skills together, failing, succeeding, cheering, helping, encouraging. But I’ve learned so much there!
In my time they used to have classes almost every evening and in the I ended up attending all of them, the thing is absolutely addicting. It was necessary to book every class in advance.
It was just fun, fun, fun! Lots of fooling around and trying different things!
Southwark gymnastics also offers Aerial Silks classes (that’s where I’ve tried it for the first time). If you want to read more about my Silks, press the button on the right:)
Let’s move on to the next one, East London Gymnastics club. I’ve attended it a lot as well. That is an actual real gymnastics place with all gymnastics equipment and apparatus (rings, bars, beam, sprung floor, tumbling track, foam pits, etc). There are two types of classes: open sessions and taught classes.
Open sessions are usually quite long (I believe that changed a bit in 2020 due to corona). There are no coaches to help, just someone to supervise the gym. Because of it, these sessions are great for experienced people or those who want to practice some move on their own and don’t need help.
I used the open sections mostly to learn beam and bars on my own. The simple moves I was learning (especially for Adult Gymnastics Competitions) required no supervision. But I was kinda afraid of doing much tumbling by myself without someone to break my fall:)
There were also taught sessions, primarily on the weekends. These were quite nice, suitable for all levels, including beginners. The sessions were usually lead by one coach, but the number of places was limited. I was often quite upset to miss getting a spot on Sunday morning:) The coaches here are quite professional and all the equipment makes the classes quite efficient. I would say it was a bit less ‘homely’ than Southwark Gymnastics but allowed to train more skills. That’s why I really liked to combine these 2 places:)
I have not really attended other gymnastics places in London. I believe I visited Harrow School of Gymnastics once, during the summer break at Southwark. I liked it, it was again a large ‘real’ gymnastics gym, but it was quite far from my place. And I’ve been to Sutton Gymnastics Academy for their annual Adult Gymnastics competition.
Still I’m sure other places are great as well! It feels like an adult gymnastics class just can not be bad, and I’ve tried so many:) Hence I’d advice googling for Adult Gymnastics near you and givig it a shot!
The London School of Hand Balancing and Acrobatics is not a gymnastics place per ce. The classes taught there are mostly aimed at teaching handstand (however, I once visited a tumbling class as well, there are an air track and a trumpet). The coolest thing, however, is that it’s held in a church (or maybe it used to be one and still looks it), I mean, check out the pictures! The classes are really good too.
And the last thing here: there’s a Facebook group for Adult Gymnastics if someone wants to share or ask for an advice!