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What began with just 30–40 members has grown into a thriving community of over 350 gymnasts, welcoming athletes of all ages and abilities. Armadale Gymnastics Club strives everyday to create a safe and supportive space where every gymnast can shine. Learn more about them in this Club Focus blog, brought to you by The Gym Spot.

1. How did your club begin? 

The club was established in 2015 after PCYC abruptly shut their Armadale branch doors in 2014 despite having a thriving gymnastics program with over 200 members involved. 

A small group of parents from gymnasts who were involved at the club banded together with a goal to reopen the club doors under its own independent non-for-profit name and in October 2015 they did exactly that! 

We held countless fundraising events and fought lots of battles to be able to create the beginning of Armadale Gymnastics Club as its own independent club. There were many hoops we had to jump through, but we managed to overcome every hurdle we were faced with. 

From there, the club began classes in October 2015 with only close to 30-40 members enrolled and it continued to grow each term until we reached the 350 I’m proud to say we have today.

The mission was to provide a community where young girls can come and feel safe and welcome whilst participating in a shared passion for the sport of gymnastics. Their goal was to provide inclusive programs in a club that values family so everyone can be involved. I feel their vision has truly come to life in the club today and I am so proud to be a part of it and continue their legacy.

2. How many students do you currently teach, and what age groups or levels do you cater to? 

We currently have over 350 members enrolled at our club and continue to grow each year. We strive to be a club that opens its doors to anyone who wants to participate in the sport of gymnastics and therefore all age groups and abilities are welcome.

After Covid our classes took a bit of a hit, and we had to close our adults program, but I am very proud to say we will be reopening this in 2026. This class along with all our classes cater from a wide range of abilities whether you are just starting out, you’re an ex gymnast who wants to get back into the gym, a gymnast who just wants to have fun in a recreational environment or a gymnast who wants to compete in a competitive stream, there will always be a place for you. Our club runs the club gym levels program created by Starmites Gymsports as well as the Australian levels program ran through Gymnastics WA and our own recreational programs ranging from level 1 through 10 in each program.

3. Do you offer any inclusive programs for children with different abilities or needs? 

We strive to be as inclusive as possible and our end goal with any child with disabilities or needs is to include them into our mainstream classes with additional help where needed so that they can enjoy the fun with all their friends like any other kid. We have lots of options in place to help these children succeed within our mainstream classes and are more than happy to work with children and their parents to find a level of support that works for them. 

4. What is your club's mission statement?  

To provide the Community with a safe, professional and inclusive program, where members can experience a sense of belonging within the sport. To maximise the enjoyment and longevity in the sport, by delivering diverse opportunities in an accepting environment, that best fosters our members’ well-being.

5. What are some objectives of your club?

As a not-for-profit, Armadale Gymnastics Club's main goal is to keep its fees as low as possible for members whilst still covering all of our operational costs. This is especially important to us during a national cost-of-living crisis as we do not want any of our members to have to leave the sport they love due to financial hardship. Being in a low economic area, it has always been one of our main priorities and we seek to continue finding ways to do this with sponsorship partnerships and fundraising.

Another objective we have as a club is to ensure that every member who walks through our doors feels physically and emotionally safe. We know that family life doesn’t look the same for everyone but one thing we always strive to promote is that anyone who walks through our doors has walked into a second family that will always be proud and supportive of their members. Our hope is that no matter what any of our members are dealing with at home, they can come into the gym and feel a sense of belonging and comfort that every child should experience. 

6. What are you most proud of in your club? 

We have had many significant moments in the past 10 years. Some of the big ones being:

• We have grown our equipment stock immensely meaning we can run more classes and provide more inclusive classes catering to all abilities.
• We have started attending GWA comps and succeeding at these comps despite training much lower hours than our competitors due to the restrictions we have at our premises and within the low socioeconomic area we run in.
• We have had coaches obtain the highest-level accreditations we have ever had including our first ever Advanced Coach last year.
• We have created annual in house competitions such as the faction carnival and our spring into action competition to allow our members more opportunities to compete.
• We currently have our highest ever member numbers at over 350 members.
• We have introduced sponsorships with local businesses to help offer our gymnasts more opportunities as well as promote local community businesses.
• We currently run our largest number of classes we have ever run weekly including the introduction of specialist classes such as a strength and conditioning class and tumbling classes.

But the most significant moments for me personally are the little ones that bring a tear to your eye. The gymnast who has been working towards a skill for years that finally achieves it and jumps with joy. The parent who has tears in their eyes when their little one who has never received a medal finally gets their turn on the podium. The child who has struggled to thrive and find a place they feel comfortable enough to express themselves that finally speaks up and finds their identity. The daughter who gets to watch her mother who started the club sit and watch our 10-year anniversary display with tears in her eyes in awe of what this club has become. Those are the moments that matter most!

7. Are there any goals for your club in the future? 

The future looks nothing but bright for the club! Some goals I have set for us moving forward are as follows...

• I would like to reach 500 members within the next 5 years to be classified as large club by our governing body Gymnastics Australia. This is something that I feel my next goal would truly help with.
• I would like to have a full-time premises so that we can run more classes. At the moment we have to pack away every piece of equipment in our complete gymnasium set up every Thursday night for a 2-hour booking that runs on the court on a Friday night. This costs us an extremely large amount in wages to pack away on the Thursday and set back up until 9pm on the Friday following the booking. Without these added costs we could instead be putting these funds back into the club and providing more for our gymnasts. It also means we cannot have a full sprung floor set up which extremely disadvantages our gymnasts when comparing to other clubs. We are also limited to the number of classes we can provide as we are currently running the max number of classes we can in the times we have been provided to hire the court.
• I would like for our club to be nominated as “club of the year” at the Gymnastics WA Awards night for our 10-year anniversary this year so we can bring pride and honour to those that created the club and celebrate the fact that we accomplished our goals, and our vision has completely come to fruition.

8. Why do you think your club is important to families and your community?

I can’t speak for others but for me, growing up at this club has given me so much more than just gymnastics. It gave me a place I was always welcome when times were tough and a smile that was sometimes hard to find on rainy days. It has given me lifelong friends who I still to this day hold closest to my heart. It taught me life lessons such as resilience, determination, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, perseverance, sportsmanship and most of all confidence in myself.

I hope that every child who walks through our doors has the same experience, and I strive every day as a head coach to do anything in my power to make that happen.

9. What piece of advice would you give to a gymnast/student? 

Never give up on yourself because I can guarantee you with hard work and determination it ALWAYS pays off! Dream big because your goals are never unachievable.

Also to finish, we'd like to thank you to gymnastics Direct for giving us this opportunity! It has been a journey to get to where we are today, and it feels slightly surreal to be featured as a club focus with a company like yours! 

As I mentioned earlier, we are always seeking ways to offset the costs for our members so we can provide classes at as little cost to parents as possible and therefor sponsorship from businesses is a big goal of ours for 2026. If any local businesses are interested in contacting us please email admin@armadalegc.com.au. We have many sponsorship packages and in kind sponsorship is always welcomed also.

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