When I, Laura Timmins, began gymnastics at the age of 3, I never thought that it would be the start of a lifelong passion for the sport. After successfully competing from an early age, I earned a place in the national squad at the age of 9. I then went on to become the youngest ever British Champion in 1991 and competed for Great Britain in 3 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. 

Working as a gymnastics teacher in a school for many years gave me the inspiration to open my own gym club and a desire to enable more children to have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful sport.

T30 started as a small recreational club operating within the confines of a school hall. Our membership has now grown to over 500 members and we have the use of a larger leisure centre for 3 days a week and are still looking to expand.

T30 is a friendly place to be; we actively invite parents to come and watch their children and see them develop and persevere with skills they may find tricky. We welcome feedback and do everything we can to ensure that each child is happy and enjoys coming to T30.

We have an amazing group of coaches who share my aims and values. We are just as happy to see a child collecting a gold medal in a competition as seeing a child master a forward roll to stand up for the first time, or land their first cartwheel. Every little accomplishment is a huge win for us.

At the outset, my motto was “more time doing, less time waiting“ and still today we strive to ensure that the children are motivated to keep moving for the duration of their session. Alongside the main skill, we always have smaller set ups where the children practice independently to consolidate their learning and gain confidence.

All children are different and for some, achieving a new skill is more than enough to maintain their drive and enthusiasm. For others, a need to compete and test themselves in a competitive environment is required. The club has recently aligned with the IGA (Independent Gymnastics Affiliation), enabling us to provide our competition squads with lots of opportunities throughout the year to compete against parallel clubs.

We have no more than 8 gymnasts per group and we often have 2 coaches per group.

Gymnastics not only teaches you a skill but it helps body awareness, co-ordination, intrinsic motivation and, being in small groups with a dedicated coach, helps children to grow in confidence, aids social skills and build friendships.

All are welcome at T30.