Becca, Adele and Ceri trained together at Park Wrekin Gymnastics club in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.

Between them they competed at County, Regional, National and International levels during their gymnastics careers. Between them they were British Team Silver medallists in 1992 and also travelled to compete in the United States. Averaging upwards of 20 hours a week in the gym, gymnastics was their life and everything revolved around it.

Back then the competitive life of a gymnast was a lot shorter than it is today with them all retiring from the sport in our mid to late teens. In the days before mobile phones, social media and email they went their separate ways, moved on and over time lost touch.

They all followed very different paths but thanks to the joys of Facebook they found each other again. However, it wasn’t until we received some awful news over 8 years ago that we actually met up in person. One of our team mates passed away and when we heard there was no discussion as to if we would go to her funeral, it was how we would all arrange to go together. During the service they spoke about her spending her childhood walking on her hands and how important gymnastics had been in her life too. It really demonstrated how much of an impact the time we spent doing the sport we loved had on our lives and how in many ways it shaped the people that we had become.

This meeting led to a lot more ‘get togethers’. One of which was to their old training gym in Lilleshall. It was a great day. They met up with their old coaches, Christine and Colin Still, who spent time in the gym with them and ‘encouraged’ their efforts and they had the best time.

They started adult classes which were so much fun. It felt great and even tho there were limits to what they could do they just loved being back in the gym together.

Over the many ‘get togethers’ they spoke about coaching and having our own gym. We all have very different careers and it seemed like it would be one of those conversations we’d have over and over again. We’d talk about how amazing it would be, what brilliant ideas we would have, how we would make it that little bit different and special if it was our own but it never seemed like it would ever be real.

But then in November 2016, Becca, Adele and I met up and were talking about it again but this time it was different. Adele really had the bit between her teeth and was adamant that she was going to make it happen. It was infectious and that night, or should I say in the early hours of the morning, we planned it all and decided that it would start our own club. Becca, who is now a personal trainer in London, obviously couldn’t physically be involved on a regular basis, but it was important for her to be in the mix as it were.

From then on, Adele was right on it and the planning began. Back 2 Back Gymnastics was then ‘created’ to include ‘B’ for Becca, ‘A’ for Adele and ‘C’ for Ceri – The word ‘Back’ being chosen to symbolise us all being back together again.

Gymnastics is a sport that is accessible to all – more so now than ever before. There is a lot of coverage of elite level gymnastics and the success British Gymnastics is now having is immense and a world away from the achievements of the British Teams of our day.

Elite gymnastics gets most of the press and it’s something that we are all passionate about. However, we feel that pre-school, recreational, disability and adult gymnastics is just as important. We feel that everyone can benefit from the sport at whatever level they choose to take part. The benefits are many, namely fitness, co-ordination, balance, strength, flexibility, self-confidence, self-discipline, self-responsibility or team work, there is something that everyone can take away from the sport.

We have started this club because gymnastics is our passion – we love the sport, always have and always will.

Our aim is the take the dream we have had for many years now and make it a reality, a success and something that we are all really proud of. We want Back2Back Gymnastics Club to be accessible to all and to ensure everyone who comes through our door enjoys themselves and has the opportunity to be ‘the best they can be’.