Watching acrobats tumbling and swinging on the trapeze at a circus was unreal. I had no idea what it was, until my mother put a name, a magic word, to it: gymnastics.
At eight, gymnastics classes were unheard of in Chennai, but at 13, I found a coaching centre. I was in for disappointment as the coach said gymnasts need to start at 5 or 6 years. Unfortunately, I believed him. After all, a coach should know.
At 36, having settled in Bengaluru with two kids, I was on the lookout for an interesting way to lose the excess weight, like dance or a sport. The word ‘Gymnastics’ on a board at a gym caught my eye, and I was filled with disbelief when Shiva Kumar, who was coaching, offered to take me on. “You are not going to the Olympics,” he said, “but you can definitely learn.” That was the start of my unlikely journey into gymnastics.
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Since my passionate days of playing hockey at 14, and some physical education classes in high school, I had not done any form of exercise for 20 long years. I have always been an active person, ready to dash up and down the stairs 20 times a day, but I had had no form of exercise to give me the kind of fitness gymnastics demands.
Just getting used to warm-up and fitness exercises took a while, and I was a slow learner. Later, I trained with Manjunath N, who patiently took me forward, even as I watched 25-year-old martial arts students pick up skills in two months — skills that I had not been able to do even after a year.
Gymnastics needs a lot of flexibility, stamina, strength and endurance, all of which take much longer as an adult. Younger adults who had been into dance or martial arts already had a certain level of fitness and could easily overtake me in a short while.
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But another magic word that I discovered was perseverance. While I saw those young adults drop out because of education, job, family or other commitments, I was plodding on, out of sheer love for gymnastics. I was running my own business that offered content management services and organised fine arts classes and workshops, so I had the flexibility to set apart time.
A while later, I got restless. I knew artistic gymnastics involved other apparatus like the beam and bars, but I was only doing floor gymnastics. So I moved to Koramangala Indoor Stadium and trained under Mahadev Ghattnitti, and I was just getting the hang of how much strength and stamina gymnastics needed. While many women went to hour-long Zumba and aerobics classes, I went to a morning dance class as a warm-up before my gymnastics class. I was now passionate about it but frustrated by the number of cancelled classes at the Government stadium because of other events. Sadly, being a Government stadium, no one knew why the coach suddenly got transferred, and classes were stopped abruptly.
Meanwhile, my six-year-old daughter, Christina, also started gymnastics and was doing well. I discovered RnR Fit Gymnastics Academy, one of the few places in Bengaluru offering coaching in all the apparatus.
Excited to move onward, I started classes with Kabir Mondal, and later additional coaching by Monojit Ghosh, and learnt much more about the world of gymnastics and competitions. Attending a competition with Christina was an eye-opener to see what was involved in a routine and what the competitive requirements were. Along with another coach, Manju Raj, who also taught me, I started a gymnastics class in an apartment. It began doing well, and the kids loved the classes. More and more of my art class students were asking for classes and I recently started a gymnastics centre, Art Corner Gymnastics, in HSR Extension, Bengaluru.
People keep talking about how risky gymnastics is, but all my coaches focussed on safety. I realised that as long as I followed their instructions, I was safe. A good gymnastics coach always believes in ‘safety first, performance next’. In about five years, I have never seen an injury or accident, and now I understand that ‘risk’ is also a relative thing. Going by statistics, there is far more risk in driving a vehicle or playing football than in gymnastics. Most risky of all: never getting off the couch, and never following your dreams.
Adult gymnastics. Why not?
Kabir Mondal, Senior Coach, RnR Fit Gymnastics Academy, says…
Adults can definitely learn gymnastics, but they may take more time to develop flexibility and strength, compared to children.
Gymnastics needs regular, dedicated practice, which adults often don’t do, because of other commitments.
Gymnastics has innumerable health benefits, so there have been people with asthma and other problems, whose health has improved after getting into this sport. However, each individual’s health condition is different, so be safe and check with your family doctor before starting any form of exercise.
In case of heart problems, or recent injury, it is better to avoid gymnastics.