Gym Star Classes: Fun Fitness

The Buckeye Gym Star Gymnastics Program offers progressive gymnastics instruction for girls and boys on all the Olympic events plus trampoline Buckeye Gymnastics. For 25 years we have provided our school-age students with an active, safe, and fun approach to learning gymnastics. The goals of this program simple and effective.

We believe that gymnastics should be fun. In order to get children up and moving in today’s world the action in the gym must be at least as fun as the action they see on TV, computer, and video screens. For example, we play very active games during warm-ups to get the kids moving and sweating. We “warm-up” by raising the children’s core body temperature which is what is meant by the term “warm-up”. You can warm-up by jogging or by performing jumping jacks or you can warm-up by playing Lovers Leap or Sharks and Minnows. One approach is boring and the other is fun. We chose fun!

We believe that gymnastics must provide a fitness opportunity for our students. Gymnastics is Fun Fitness. We organize our classes so that the children are constantly moving. When our classes go to balance beam we have many beams for the girls to use so that they spend their time doing beam rather than by waiting in line for a turn. The same is true for bars, tumbling, vaulting and trampoline.

We also believe that gymnastics training should help build a strong foundation of basic skills that can lead to a lifetime of physical activity, sports, games, performing arts, and active play. They also lead to a high level of performance in gymnastics and tumbling if the children stay with it. Our students start at a beginning level in Rolling Stars where the girls learn the basic skills on vault, bars, beam, tumbling, and trampoline. The boys work on rings, parallel bars, high bar, pommel horse, tumbling, vaulting, and trampoline. Once they master the basics they advance to the next level and so on.

Most of our students do not become competitive gymnasts. They take gymnastics because they love the feeling of turning upside down, the challenge of balancing on a high beam, and challenge of running full speed and performing a vault. Gymnastics is fun for sure. But, our students also use the gymnastics training to prepare and improve their physical abilities so that they can run faster for soccer, tennis, or track; perform back handsprings for their school’s cheer squad; jump higher for basketball, dance or volleyball; build strength for figure skiing or rock climbing; or the ability to control their body for sports such as spring-board diving, skiing, or lacrosse.

Gymnastics lays a solid foundation in the early years and provides fun and effective off-season conditioning later on.

And we get our fair share of gymnasts too!

Which is great because we field some of the strongest and most accomplished gymnastics teams in Ohio and the Midwest. Find out more about all of competitive teams by clicking here.

What Makes Buckeye’s Gym Stars Classes So Special?

The first thing you notice when entering either of our gyms is how big, bright, and clean they are. Then you notice the equipment. Buckeye is packed wall-to-wall with state-of-the-art gymnastics equipment. Remember, we do not believe in lines so we do not offer one beam… we will have a dozen. We don’t have one bar… we will have six. Not one trampoline… but two or three! See pictures of our gyms under facilities.

What you might not notice is the safety features built into the design of the gyms. The activity areas in our gyms are padded wall-to-wall. We expect our students to fall. In fact, we train the children how to fall. Then we teach them to get back up and try again. But we have to provide a safe place to fall and we have learned that our students do not always fall exactly where we expect them to. That is why we pad everything! We also provide what seems like a zillion mats that sit on top of our wall-to-wall padding.

Then there are the pits. Pits are holes in the ground filled with foam. Think of a swimming pool with foam instead of water. We make good use of these pits as we teach harder skills or when the kids get up high. Falling into a pit is also great fun.

Then there are the trampolines. Trampolines can be dangerous. However, most trampoline injuries happen when the bouncers fall off the trampoline onto the hard ground. Most of our trampolines are installed in-ground so that the surface of the trampoline is at ground height. There is nothing to fall off of. The few trampolines that are not in-ground have nets or mats around them so that the children cannot fall off of them. Even if the kids somehow find a way to exit the trampoline they do not fall on the hard ground because everything is padded at Buckeye Gymnastics. There is no hard anything. Finally, our classes are small and our teachers are terrific and we teach them to be safe and in control and we watch the children closely.

Parents can watch closely too. Parents can not only watch every class, they can hear every class as well because there are no high walls or windows separating the parents from the children. You see and hear everything.

Buckeye offers a free trial class and a 100% money back guarantee. While the vast majority of our students take to the gym immediately we know better than anyone that all children are different. Every child is unique and special and some are ready for this type of activity and some are not… at least not yet. We want our families to feel confident that they can try gymnastics without worrying about whether their children will like it or not. We are so confident that they will like it that we offer a two-week, 100% money-back guarantee. After two classes (three if you also take a free trial class) you can get all of your money back for any reason by asking for a refund in writing (a post-it note will do).

Finally, our teachers are really what make us so good. Great facilities and top-of-the-line equipment only provide the potential for a great learning experience. It is the teachers that actually provide that great experience. Our staff have experience not only as gymnasts, some are quite accomplished gymnasts, but also as teachers. Almost everyone is Safety Certified by USA Gymnastics and all new hires go through a national background check through USA Gymnastics. They also go through an extensive training period with Buckeye. In fact only about 10% of prospective teachers who contact us ever become employees of Buckeye Gymnastics. We are that picky.