How To Be A Gymnast

Hi. My name's Desmond Aspill, and I've been teaching gymnastics for 20 years. And today, we're going to break down some of the difficult elements of gymnastics so that it's more approachable.

With Tekne Gymnastics, we try to make things more approachable, building confidence and making gymnastics fun. Now, people often ask me, how do you become a gymnast. I often tell them that it's about confidence.

A lot of gymnastics is confidence tricks, if you like. In fact, you don't need to be particularly flexible, you don't need to be that strong. You do need to know where your body is, and you need to be able to break down those progressions, and just have fun doing it.

Yes, it's hard work. Yes, it's lots of stretching. But, I would say more, it's about confidence.

A backflip is not a particularly difficult move. It does require a lot of confidence. It doesn't need a lot of strength, it doesn't need a lot of flexibility.

The reason I became a gymnast is because it's fun. I love bouncing, I love jumping, I love doing forward rolls and somersaults. So, how do you become a gymnast? Well, I think you just start.

You start rolling, you start cartwheeling, and if you're no good, go to your local gymnastics club, and really get them to help you. And I would say practice, practice, practice. And a lot of it is confidence.

I think if you have a teacher that builds your confidence, then you are onto a winner. If you have somebody that's not helping you, and not making you feel good about what you are doing, then really, you are not going to try your best, or have the confidence to do quite dangerous moves, I think. So, I would say, think about where you want to be, and what kinds of things you like doing.

Trampolining, somersaulting, and then go from there.