Get Ready To Tumble

Former Olympians unite on Tyneside to inspire the next generation of gymnasts and their families to be active and get tumbling

Over 500 supporters turned out on Sunday 5th January to mark the opening of Tumble Gymnastics & Activity Centre in Benton, Newcastle. Special guests included World Champion Gymnast Beth Tweddle, the greatest GB female gymnast to date and North East Paralympic Champion Stephen Miller, who cut the ribbon and officially opened the family friendly facility.

Owned and managed by Newcastle based retired Olympic Gymnast Craig Heap, Tumble Gymnastics & Activity Centre not only meets the growing demand for gymnastic based activities for all abilities but also encourages families to get fit together offering a range of activities from babies through to grandparents.

Managing Director Craig, who has captained the England team to a gold medal twice in his professional career, said: “Gymnastics is an amazing sport for development of fundamental movement and my original vision was to have a place where young people can have a taste of gymnastics which was centred around fun rather than performance. “As a new parent I quickly realised that the time to be physically active becomes less to none existent and so my vision was not only around the young people but to provide a space where parents and grandparents can take part in physical activity whilst their children take part in Gymnastics.”

The centre includes a fully equipped fitness suite which is designed to ensure that parents/carers and anybody else who may spend their time chauffeuring their children to and from sports classes are given the opportunity to get active without leaving the building. There is also a baby and toddler area offering a range of groups and activities to support the development of the whole family.

To cater for the competitive side of the sport, Tumble Gymnastics & Activity Centre will be home to a brand new TeamGym competitive squad. The centre is staffed by a highly experienced coaching team, led by former Olympic Gymnast Paula Thomas as Head Coach. The TeamGym programme is split up into development pathways and competitive squads and focuses on routines being performed on three pieces of apparatus; tumble, trampette and floor.

Supported by Sport England and part of the British Gymnastics Foundation‘s Love to Move programme, the new facility has already created a number of new jobs (10) and aims to be a true community hub. It also features a coffee shop in partnership with the popular Oats & Eggs Pantry, providing locally roasted coffee and fresh healthy food. Based on North Tyne Industrial Estate, customers are also welcome to drop in to use the café or the fitness centre facilities during opening hours.

Since retiring from Gymnastics in 2002 Commonwealth Games Craig became a high performance gymnastics coach and mentor working in education and is now using all this experience to create TUMBLE! He has commentated on gymnastics for BBC radio 5Live and BBC Sport covering World championships, 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Craig was also a Judge on BBC One’s Saturday night Gymnastics entertainment show “TUMBLE” in the summer of 2014.