Gymnast Moving To China...Gyms In China?

[JBS]

I have a Level 5 boy on my team who is moving to China. He is moving do to his Father's job transfer. Can anyone tell me about gymnastics in China? Are there clubs in China just as the US?

 

[Empowered]

Champions Academy was founded by a former Chinese Olympic gymnast. Might be worth it to send him an email and ask your questions if no one else knows. I know they have had several other coaches from China over the past few years as well. Some have stayed, some have gone back to coaching in China from what I understand.

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[wallinbl]

A good place to start is with the ex-pat community there. There will be an American community within any major Chinese city that will send their kids to the same schools and will have their kids in other activities together. If his father's employer is moving him there, the company probably has other ex-pat employees there that will be familiar with the ex-pat community in the city where the employer has employees. In some regards, it's like Chinatown in New York or San Francisco, or the Italian/Greek/Irish/etc communities within major cities.

If your question is about Chinese gyms, I don't know, but I'd bet the ex-pat community has something.

 

[BlairBob]

One of my friends ended up coaching (maybe even starting) gymnastics while she worked over as a teacher over there. This was for the foreigner community. I was in correspondence a long time ago with someone who was looking to start a gym over there (no idea what city) so they are probably out there. No idea if they do anything besides just train though.

 

[JessLW]

I live in China! What city will he be in? That will make a big difference. If he's in Beijing or Shanghai he should be able to find something. If he's in a 2nd tier city (Xian or Chengdu or Qingdao or someplace)

In Beijing gymnastics is offered through Multisport and one other group, I think they're called Sports Beijing maybe? They cater to expats and have a "Western" approach. They do do team gymnastics, but I think they are fairly limited as far as competitions and such go. The practices are held, as far as I know, in the gymnasium of one of the international schools. So we're not talking state of the art, but better than nothing. If the child doesn't speak any Chinese this would probably be his best bet. I think a Chinese gym with a Chinese coach would be a big culture shock. I know they have a girls team, not sure about boys.

Then there are local gyms. Almost any gymnasium here will have gymnastics classes but competitive Chinese gymnasts are usually chosen quite young and the training is extremely intense from an early age. They're not necessarily plucked from kindergarten like everyone thinks, lots of them have parents who bring them to these gyms and insist on training (Chinese parents are extremely competitive), but lots of the gyms will only seriously train kids with the "right" body type, no tall parents, etc. There are local competitions and "clubs" but most of the gyms in China are not private and they aren't solely for gymnastics, they're these big sports complexes. Recreational classes are fine through these though. In Beijing the most well known gym/sports complex is Shichahai, which is where a lot of Olympians have trained. They do recreational sports of all sorts. I have my son in a recreational class at another local gym and it is fine so far (but my son is half Chinese -- my husband is from here -- and speaks the language), but I don't think I'll even try anything competitive until we're back in the States.

 

[JBS]

He will be in Shanghai.

 

[JessLW]

Shanghai has more options for expat gymnastics than Beijing.

One guy has gotten some local coaches together and arranged training for expats. I'll PM you the contact info and maybe you can question him a bit more.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

hey there, JessLW. your tag line says ex-gymnast. no. we are never ex's. we are either former or retired.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Just be aware that gymnastics in China is very different to gymnastics in the USA. There is no such thing as recreational gymnastics, people just don't do it. And what a lot of Americans think is competitive gymnastics as actually recreational.

China's gymnastics system is about developing elite gymnasts. Parent don't spend their money on gymnastics if their kid doesn't have a shot at the olympics so the programs for it a few and far between.

 

[JessLW]

hey there, JessLW. your tag line says ex-gymnast. no. we are never ex's. we are either former or retired.

Is this sort of like how old sailors never die, they just fade away?

I wouldn't call myself retired, to me that implies some degree of professionalism. Or something more than what I achieved in gymnastics anyhow. Former then, for the sake of semantics. Does have a nicer ring to it than ex.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Retired does seem a ridiculous term when so many retire before they even see their 12th birthday.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i was thinking more along the lines of thru college.