Statement regarding Timetable changes from September 2023 onwards

We have made a number of changes to our timetable for September 2023 and our new timetable can be viewed in full HERE.
If you would like further information on the changes we are making to our timetable & session structure and the reasoning behind them, please see below statement from our Head Coach Bobby:
Hi everyone

We have spent a lot of time recently discussing ways in which we can improve the recreational side of our club (that being our General Gymnastics, Tumbling & Advanced Tumbling classes).

Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey we sent out a little while ago, this was really helpful for us to gather feedback on certain ideas and alterations we’ve been working on.

It will be 5 years this October since we set up the club and in that time we have gone from 7 gymnasts to around 350+ members. We feel our existing timetable/structure no longer matches the size of the club, and that it is restricting the standard of gymnastics we pride ourselves on offering.

Our main goal has been to work out a way to make class sizes smaller so our coach to gymnast ratio is lower allowing us to work closer with developing each gymnast and better cater classes to specific ability levels and age groups.

The problem with this has been that we have a growing waiting list, so we are simultaneously trying to take on more gymnasts whilst making class sizes smaller, both of which are quite contradictory.

We have worked out a timetable that will now allow us to make class sizes smaller, whilst also running more classes to take on more members than before.

Things you will notice from the new timetable:

- Our weekday General Gymnastics classes, primarily for younger gymnasts, are now 50 minutes rather than an hour. Whilst the classes will be shorter, the sizes of these classes and the number of gymnasts per coach will be considerably smaller. The warm ups in these sessions will be condensed and catered to the appropriate age group to make them shorter, more engaging, but still as effective. The shorter warm ups will allow for the same amount of time on equipment as gymnasts currently get.

- Our weekend General Gymnastics classes will remain an hour for the time being. The class sizes for these sessions will still be reduced (and still have a lower coach to gymnast ratio then they currently do), but these class sizes will be larger than the weekday sessions: hence the longer session time.

- Our Tumbling classes will also remain an hour. As with the Saturday General classes, the group sizes in these sessions will still be less than they are currently, but not quite as small as the weekday General classes.

- We are reintroducing an older General Gymnastics session on a Thursday 16:30-17:20 for ages 7-11. We stopped doing older General sessions as we had far more demand for additional Tumbling classes but we have now had a renewed interest in older General classes so we are adding them back to the timetable.
This session will be ideal for any older gymnasts wishing to continue with General Gymnastics rather than move to Tumbling or any gymnasts who would like to do a General Gymnastics session as well as a Tumbling class.

- Age ranges in many of our sessions will be smaller so we can better cater the session to specific ages, but some sessions will maintain a larger age range.
We’ve had a huge amount of mixed feedback regarding our age ranges: a lot of members appreciate the larger age ranges, particularly those with siblings who can enroll in the same sessions. Some, however, have requested smaller age ranges so each session can be more age appropriate. With our new timetable we’ve tried to offer options for both as best we can.

- 50 minute or 1 hour sessions will still be priced the same due to the difference in class size and coach to gymnast ratio mentioned above.

- We will be implementing some form of grading/badge testing to monitor gymnasts progressions & achievements for next term but as this is purely ability based we needed to find a way to make classes smaller and more age & ability based beforehand.

I hope the above explains the changes we’ve made and the direction we are hoping to go in to anyone wondering but if you do have any further questions please email the office at admin@phoenixtumbling.com and we will provide you with any further information.

As ever we’d like to thank everyone for your continued support. We hope you all have a lovely summer and we look forward to seeing you in September!

Many thanks

Bobby Montague
Owner / Head Coach
Phoenix Tumbling & Gymnastics