Gymnastics program starts at Chelsea Community Center

Sara Beth Gilbert is bringing gymnastics closer to home for kids in Chelsea who want to learn tumbling, balance and more.

In January, Gilbert started Sara Beth’s Gymnasts at the Chelsea Community Center to teach beginning gymnastics to kids up to 13 years old. She said the idea started while teaching swim lessons over the summer, when her students’ parents said they would like more gymnastics options in their area. 

Gilbert, who moved to Chelsea in June, began learning gymnastics at age 5 and began teaching younger kids at age 12. She continued as a gymnast through college and then began coaching and teaching recreational gymnastics and cheer classes. She achieved her USA Gymnastics Professional Coaching certification and safety certification, and she coached routines and skills for gymnasts competing up to Level 9 on uneven bars, floor and balance beam.

“I know how much gymnastics did for me. It helped me build my own integrity and set my own goals and motivate myself. All those really powerful things you need to just survive in life and do well, I feel like I developed most of that in gymnastics, swimming and Girl Scouting,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said she knew gymnastics was something she wanted to keep teaching throughout her life. She left the field for a few years to pursue technical writing, but decided she wanted to get “out from behind the desk” and return to more physically active work when she had her twins, Zachary and Victoria. This led to teaching swimming lessons and now gymnastics, where the 4-year-old twins are among her first students.

Gilbert has set up mats, a low balance beam and spring board in one room of the Chelsea Community Center. They’re limited on space for now, but Gilbert said she wants to expand in the future and add more apparatuses, such as a high beam or bars, if interest grows.

“I know that it’s small, but we have to start somewhere. I want to make sure that we’re able to grow our program so we can keep adding to it,” she said.

The high beam, Gilbert said, builds confidence, coordination and balance as students learn to perform routines about 4 feet in the air.

“That’s tall. Once they learn they can walk and jump and spin on that, and handstands and cartwheels, it builds a lot of confidence,” Gilbert said.

She also plans to renew her USA Gymnastics certification if Sara Beth’s Gymnasts is successful.

Gilbert said her approach to teaching young gymnasts is to be “gentle but motivating” as she teaches them new physical skills as well as the confidence to try new things.

“I learned at a very early age that the pace and skill level is determined by the students, and the best way to get them to learn new things and expand their opportunities is to build their confidence first,” Gilbert said. “They have to believe in themselves before they’re going to take any risks or try new things.”

Learn more at facebook.com/SaraBethsGymnasts.