Uckfield Gymnastic Club

Club history & 25th Anniversary

The Gymnastic Club celebrated 25 years old on 1st December 2007. 48 of our gymnasts demonstrated their skills on the apparatus as well as dance routines to more than 200 invited guests including 8 of the original gymnasts, as well as the coaches and officers from 25 years ago.

In 1977 Derek Ashdown took his, then 8 year old, daughter Debbie to Bevendean Gymnastic Club in Brighton, and as he waited for her to train he got involved with helping, then did a coaching course and became qualified. When the Uckfield Leisure centre manager found out he was a qualified gymnastic coach he persuaded him to help with some courses at the centre because the former British Gymnastic Champion, Suzanne Dando, who had started taking them, was now becoming more and more involved in Television presenting and kept missing sessions.

Derek eventually took over and when a competition was offered to him at the local Crowborough Leisure Centre, the group of budding gymnasts said they wanted to do it so a team of 10 gymnasts was entered and they won it! On the strength of this a committee was elected and the club was registered on 1st December 1982. Derek was assisted with the coaching by his daughter Debbie, Nicky Fowler and Robin Burchett, the club went from strength to strength and finally as the centre was unable to give them more training time, Wealden District Council offered them the lease of the former Army training camp building at Maresfield and after extensive work by the dedicated parents the club moved in on 1st September 1989 under the direction of Head Coach Janice Binder (nee Till) a former Great Britain gymnast.

In 1996 the club was successful in obtaining a lottery grant of £42,000, £7.000 from the Town Council and extensive fund raising by the club made it up to £70,000 it needed to enable it to extend the building, and this established it as one of the top venues in the South East, and thus making it the success it is today.

Welcome to Uckfield Gymnastic Club

Success is achieved through effort, hard work, loving gymnastics and having fun

Consider for a moment what we achieve from gymnastics - the sheer fun of competing - the building of a healthy and alert mind and body - stamina, courage, perseverance, dedication, commitment, selflessness and most importantly, the will to excel."

World Bar Champion Elizabeth Tweddle on how she discovered gymnastics: “I started doing gymnastics when I was seven because I had far too much energy for Mum and Dad to cope with. They tried me with swimming and ballet and all the usual stuff, but a couple of my friends did gymnastics, so I gave that a go.”

In January 2007 Uckfield Gymnastic Club received accreditation of GYM-MARK. This is an assurance of quality tested by British Gymnastics on behalf of Sport England and gives parents & gymnasts the reassurance that the club is nationally recognised as safe, effective and child friendly.

With 25 years of experience, Uckfield Gymnastics Club can offer the most comprehensive service for gymnastics in Sussex. It caters for children from walking upwards, starting with a Gym-tots programme for the under three’s, through to the International competitor, whereby specialist facilities and coaching expertise are offered.

Located on Batts Bridge Road in Maresfield, Uckfield Gymnastics Centre has a Continental 12m x 12m sprung floor with two 24m sprung tumble tracks, seven beams, three sets of asymmetric bars, table top vault with 25m run up, trampoline set into the floor and a 35 sq m, below ground, foam filled training pit which is essential for producing champions, as well as all the climbing and play equipment.

WEIGHTS AND FITNESS TRAINING

There is also an independently run fully fitted weight training room, run by Peter Wickham and Stephen O'Halloran for adults only. Be it for general fitness, circuit training or body building with full supervision.

If you wish to find out more you can e-mail, phone or write to us, and of course, you are always welcome to come and visit. There is a description of our location including maps and contact details on this site.