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From recreational tumblers to competitive squads, manage ability groups, track badge progression, take bookings and payments, and keep parents informed at every stage.
AMES keeps coach qualifications, ability groups, badge progress and day-to-day club operations in one platform. Whether you run a single-venue recreational club or a programme across several sites, coaches, parents and administrators work from the same record, from pre-school tumblers through to squads.
UK Governing Body
British Gymnastics
Typical Pricing
£7-£14 per session
Class Size
8-16 students
Assessing new gymnasts, placing them in the right group and moving them up as they progress requires constant coordination between coaches that often falls through the cracks. Taster sessions need careful evaluation against clear criteria, but coaches often rely on instinct rather than documented standards. New gymnasts may wait weeks for a suitable group to have space, and during that time parents hear nothing. When abilities are misjudged, a young child can end up attempting skills they are not physically ready for, which is a genuine safety risk. Different coaches assess differently, leading to inconsistent decisions that frustrate parents who compare notes at the door. Without one shared record, promising gymnasts stall in the wrong group while less ready children are pushed up too quickly.
Rotating groups through vault, bars, beam and floor within a single session needs precise timing, and competitive squads needing extra time make the timetable fragile. Apparatus set-up and teardown eat into training time, especially when groups move between equipment that needs safety mats reconfigured. Different ability levels need different apparatus set-ups: adjustable bars for juniors, full-height equipment for advanced gymnasts and pit access for squads learning new skills. Equipment needs regular safety checks, and if you share your facility with other sports or community groups, your window for set-up shrinks further. A single overrun can cascade through the whole evening's sessions.
British Gymnastics awards, in-house badges and competition results all need tracking, and parents want to know where their child stands and what comes next. British Gymnastics publishes several award schemes, each with its own levels and skills that coaches assess individually. Ordering badges and certificates in bulk means predicting how many gymnasts will pass each level, then getting the right badge to the right child without mix-ups. Presentation ceremonies need coordinating with parents, and getting a gym full of families together at the same time can rival the complexity of a competition. When records are scattered across spreadsheets and coaches' notebooks, badges get lost, duplicated or awarded at the wrong level.
Running recreational classes and competitive squads in the same facility means juggling different schedules, coach-to-gymnast ratios and pricing. Squad gymnasts can train for many hours a week compared with a single hour for recreational participants, and they expect priority access to apparatus and floor space. Competition travel needs entries, transport, accommodation and parental consent organised for every event across the season. The funding model differs too: squad families often pay monthly plus competition levies, kit and training camp fees, while recreational families pay termly. Balancing the cost of a competitive programme against the steady income of a large recreational base is a strategic challenge that spreadsheets struggle to model.
A full class is a sign of success. A poorly managed waitlist is a sign of lost revenue. This guide covers how gymnastics clubs can manage waitlists effectively through age and ability matching, sibling priority rules, automatic allocation, timed acceptance windows, and capacity planning strategies.
Most gymnastics clubs run both recreational and squad programmes, but balancing the two is a persistent operational challenge. Squads demand more hours, more coaching resource, and more facility time, yet recreational classes typically generate more revenue. This guide covers practical strategies for scheduling, pricing, and managing both programmes sustainably.
Parent communication is the invisible infrastructure that holds a gymnastics club together. A dedicated parent portal transforms how families interact with your club, from checking badge progress to viewing competition results. This guide covers what to include, how to implement it, and the impact it has on satisfaction and retention.
Compliance management in a gymnastics club is complex because coaches need to maintain multiple credentials simultaneously. British Gymnastics membership, coaching qualifications, DBS checks, safeguarding certificates, first aid, and insurance all have different renewal dates and requirements. This guide covers how to track everything systematically and never let a critical credential lapse.
Badge and award tracking in a gymnastics club can quickly become an administrative burden if managed manually. From British Gymnastics proficiency awards to club-specific achievements, this guide covers efficient tracking systems, bulk ordering strategies, and presentation approaches that keep gymnasts motivated and parents informed.
A well-designed progression system gives every gymnast a clear path forward and every parent a reason to keep investing. This guide covers how to build visual progression charts, manage bulk ordering efficiently, create digital certificates, and integrate the entire system into a parent-facing portal.
Chasing payments is one of the most time-consuming and uncomfortable tasks in running a gymnastics club. Automating payment collection for squad subscriptions, termly fees, competition levies, and uniform purchases transforms your cash flow and frees up hours of administrative time every month.
Gymnastics is one of the most equipment-intensive sports you can run. Managing apparatus rotation timing, setup and teardown logistics, safety inspections, and shared facility constraints is a daily operational challenge. This guide covers practical scheduling strategies that keep sessions running smoothly and safely.
Placing gymnasts into the right ability group is one of the most important operational decisions a club makes. Get it wrong and you risk safety incidents, disengaged children, and frustrated parents. This guide covers structured assessment workflows, taster session design, and communication strategies that build trust.
A well-designed ability group management system transforms how a gymnastics club operates. This guide covers structured criteria frameworks, video-based assessment, trial session workflows, and automated promotion notifications that keep gymnasts progressing and parents informed.
Gymnastics is one of the fastest-growing children's activities in the UK, fuelled by Olympic success and growing awareness of its benefits for coordination, strength, and confidence. Here is how to start a club that thrives.
Organise gymnasts into ability groups as classes with their own levels, skills and capacity, with age ranges set on levels. Coaches record skills and notes in AMES Teach, so placement and promotion decisions rest on a shared record rather than memory, and the dashboard highlights gymnasts who may be due to move up. New gymnasts can book a trial session online, free or at the price you set, and full groups offer families the waiting list.
Import the criteria British Gymnastics publishes for its Rise awards and its Core and Trampoline Proficiency Awards, or build your own club badges, or run both. Coaches mark skills in AMES Teach, and families see their child's current level, the next one and the badges and certificates they have earned in AMES Connect, so the badge conversation happens in the app rather than at the door.
Collect monthly squad fees by GoCardless Direct Debit and termly recreational fees by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through AMES Pay, or use credits for pay-as-you-go sessions. Sibling discounts follow the rules you set, failed payments are retried automatically with the parent told, and families can buy kit and leotards from your shop in AMES Connect, with every payment kept beside their bookings.
AMES Connect gives parents their child's group, badge progress, upcoming sessions, payments and messages in one app. They can report an absence and book a replacement session, keep health and medical notes up to date, read noticeboard updates and message your team. Push notifications and automated messages keep families informed without the office sending each one by hand.
Each group has a capacity that bookings are checked against, so a full group stays full and families join the waiting list instead. When a place frees up, AMES offers it to the next family automatically with a time limit to accept, and moves on if they do not take it. Age ranges on levels help families find a group that suits their child before they ask your team.
Record each coach's qualifications and documents, such as British Gymnastics coaching awards, DBS checks, safeguarding and first aid, with expiry dates and the certificate uploaded as evidence. Require a qualification for the groups that need it, so an assignment without it is blocked or flagged, and see everything that has expired or is due to on one page. Coaches take registers, clock in and pick up open shifts in AMES Teach.
See how AMES can automate bookings, payments, and communication for your gymnastics business.
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