24 years ago (1984), I noticed that my daughter, Tanya, then 3yrs old, was constantly on her head watching T.V.; hanging precariously upside down from the side of the settee and flipping herself over to her feet or rolling around etc! She was extremely supple and strong. I realized she'd probably make a good gymnast, so I looked for a local club for her:

One club only took children from 5yrs old and had a massive waiting list; all others took them from 6yrs old! So I got to thinking that it can't be too difficult to start up a club of my own!?

Having 2 toddlers and knowing virtually nothing about gymnastics, unperturbed, I set about finding out how to start up my own club, I got together with another mum/friend of mine & after much deliberation, we set about hiring halls and qualified coaches; buying equipment and advertising.

At the end of an extremely manic year where we'd been absolutely deluged, we had over 750 pupils of 4-7yrs old; 13 branches covering Leytonstone to Loughton and Chelmsford and 21 staff!!!! We were probably the fastest expanding club and possibly the largest in this area at the time.

By this time other local clubs recognized a good thing and now opened their doors to 4yrs old too! Dramatically our numbers dropped to 450 pupils as parents found clubs closer to home now open to their little ones.

During this time I worked flat out; 16hrs a day on average, to keep up with the demand. However, my friend and I seemed to be working in different ways, so the club was split in two: Gym Juniors and Gym 4 Juniors. 18 months on ‘Gym 4 Juniors' closed – leaving us still running.

Over the next 2 yrs I took courses and became fully qualified. I've since taken about 8 courses, they get tougher all the time.

A couple of years on I had the brainwave, why limit ourselves to 4-7 yr olds only? I'd had so many enquiries about younger and older children, so we expanded from just 4-7 yrs to 1 yr right through to 16 yrs! Again it didn't take too long for many of the local clubs to adapt and take in toddlers too. Other clubs have since opened meaning more competition for us but we're still here aren't we?

Gym Juniors is now 24 years old and still gives me great pleasure and still loads of work!

We must be doing something right as we often now have ex-pupils bringing their babies or coming back to coach for us. It seems that we have a brand all of our own and when kids do eventually leave us, they've had fun and have learnt all they can with us to the best of their individual ability.

Tanya - my daughter? She was doing back flips at the age of 6; won many cups and medals over the years (and no, I never did any judging!), she also coached for a long time and now fully grown, has 2 youngsters of her own, both doing gymnstics too. (That's my grand kids!). Tanya now works part time in a local hospita and still helps out, but only at the annual club competition, as she's most happy being a mum to Rya and Max.

My son Aran also attended classes for a few years and was surprisingly supple, especially for a boy. The first year we did a competition, he almost won a cup, but was pipped at the post by an 8 yr old - Aran was 5! Subsequent years we changed the organisation so that 5 yr olds were never pitted against 8 year olds again. The first competition was really a case of trial and error I suppose.

My life nowadays….apart from having taken umpteen gymnastics courses to date, not only do I still run the club - with the occasionally grueling 16 hr day - but I teach too & still feel privileged to have seen and still see so many smiling happy faces making all the hard work very much worth it over so many years.

I've also since qualified in Swimming Teaching and taken many different courses in various subjects....as well as, you might have noticed, several in holistic therapies - which are incredible in themselves. :)

Lastly, thanks for reading this and hope to see you all soon.

I also teach in schools and nurseries; I've been studying and have qualified too as a swimming teacher (don't teach swimming much these days – keep getting wet J ); learnt deaf sign language; qualified in Reflexology, do Healing – amazingly brilliant stuff and qualified in Indian Head Massage….., running yet another business in Holistic therapies to your door be it work or home! See bottom for details.

I find studying and learning new and interesting things keeps the brain going…although senility seems to be creeping in now…or is that purely the ravages of teaching for 22 years! J

So…my advice to you is keep drinking the water, smiling, eating healthily and studying – oh and don't forget to have a good laugh as often as possible – I do…especially when I fall over trying to show the kids in the classes how to do something! Doh! What a way to make a living eh? Rolling around the floor! J

Byeeeeee,

Michelle M. Rees