Gymnastics Clubs Australia National Congress being held at crucial time for the sport

The conflict has seen young gymnasts barred from competing in various levels of competitions - including the recent national championships on the Gold Coast.

At the heart of the dispute are the sport’s layers of administration and the sport’s federated model of governance, where state bodies elect the majority of the national board, effectively controlling its strategic direction - matters explored in a feature in the latest issue of Australasian Leisure Management.

Underpinning Australia’s system of sport governance, the federated model, which has not changed significantly in over 100 years, is a hierarchical but semi-autonomous system of sport organisations at the national level (national sport organisations [NSOs]) and state and territory bodies (state sport organisations).

One gymnastics facility advised that affiliating with her state body, Gymnastics Western Australia, could cost her up to $100,000 a year, a sum that makes the difference between a profitable and sustainable business and one that is not.

Across the nation, similar narratives echo dissatisfaction with state entities that fail to align with a unified national vision with the core issue revolving around how state associations aim to treat and financially categorise toddlers, preschool programs, and recreational gymnasts alongside competitive participants.

These groups, who are clients of gymnastics clubs, typically attend weekly hour-long classes without competing in national or state-sanctioned events.

Gymnastics club owners argue this approach is akin to charging non-competitive swimmers the same as competitive racers in learn-to-swim programs.

Consequently, many clubs organise their operations accordingly, establishing distinct business entities for each category. A young child starts in ‘fundamental movement education’, progressing into ‘recreational gymnastics’ - with the pathway opening up into the sport of gymnastics or the likes of ninja and parkour.

RGA Disruption
Belgravia Group, owners of Belgravia Leisure, Belgravia Health and Fitness and JUMP! Swim Schools has operated fundamental movement education and recreational gymnastics programs across Australia for many years, via their BK Kids Gym and Swim division.

Two years ago, the Geoff Lord owned business set up Recreational Gymnastics Australia (RGA) to offer essential services at much lower fees than those charged by state associations.

Bassett likens this disruption to Aldi entering the Australian supermarket duopoly, telling Code Sports "we now have choice, and RGA gives us all the bells and whistles."

RGA charges a peak enrolment fee of $17 per child, including insurance, while state fees range from $26 to $52 for similar services. Additionally, RGA provides free education and accreditation for casually employed coaches, compared to the over $250 per person per year charged by state associations - a cost, borne by club owners, that is seen as a barrier to participation.

Noting this, Ross Gage, Chief Executive of industry body Gymnastics Clubs Australia (GCA), told the Code Sports website “the fees charged are now a barrier to participation. In a time that we have growing levels of inactivity and obesity our system is stopping kids participating.”

Gage went on to say “the current practices of the sporting associations are also a barrier to private investment in the industry - further limiting the potential of this vital children’s development activity - and eventually the sport”.

State Associations Pushback
However, the state associations view the situation differently, wanting all clubs under their umbrella. This has led to a standoff where clubs that register their recreational and educational users with RGA claim they are being blacklisted by state bodies, facing fines or policy changes that disallow affiliation with another body.

Some clubs have even been disciplined by disqualification of their competitive athletes.

Current Governance Model Guarantees 'Oblivion'
The problems faced by gymnastics are not unique, and were addressed by Australian Sports Commission Chief Executive Kieren Perkins at the SportNXT conference in Melbourne in March.

Commenting on issue of governance, Perkins was highly critical of current models that relies on national and state sporting organisations, stating “leadership choices are key for sport” and that “the federated model for sport guarantees obstruction and oblivion”.

New Gymnastics Australia Chief Executive
Against this backdrop, Gymnastics Australia has announced the appointment of Alistair Edgar as its new Chief Executive.

Edgar joins the national body just eight months after becoming Chief Executive at Gymnastics Victoria.

Click here for more information on the GCA National Congress in the Australasian Leisure Management industry Calendar.

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