Members report benefits as Recreational Gymnastics Australia grows

Gaining new members every week, Recreational Gymnastics Australia (RGA) has advised of the cost savings and other benefits that member clubs are experiencing.

RGA Coach Developer and Assessor Facilitator and Lead Moderator Laura Sereno said the positive feedback was reinforcing why the Belgravia Group made the choice to start RGA, commenting “this has always been about the clubs. We listened, we’ve learned through our own experiences and we’ve tried to design a model that’s more cost effective and just works.”

Vaughn Edmonds from Invert Sports Centre in Goulburn, NSW advised that as a regional club the cost savings have been significant, commenting “our registration costs are now approximately 20% of what we paid previously and more accurately reflect our active membership base.

“We’re only a small club with about 200 active gymnasts at any one time so this saving is huge for us - and it’s a saving we’ve been able to pass on to our members.

“We’re also discovering huge advantages because of the decrease in administration time. It’s so simple to register our members and keep our registration up to date - so now admin staff, who previously spent the majority of their time managing registrations, can actually do other things to help us build our business and improve our customer service. For example, we now have time to produce hand-written birthday cards for our members and also have the budget to offer free t-shirts to new members.”

Explaining that the training and accreditation process for staff has also been vastly improved for his club, Edmonds noted “being a regional club, it was very difficult to get staff trained up. It meant traveling to Sydney for a full day, and that was very difficult especially for our younger teenage coaches.

“We were so ready for a change and I’m so glad we did it. I love the sport and love supporting the kids and I feel like with RGA, there is a vibe of positivity and fun that has come back to the management of our club. That’s the way it should be. My phone has been ringing constantly with updates from the RGA team and they’ve been checking in to see how we’re travelling. It’s a very collaborative and supportive environment and we couldn’t be happier.”

David Hannan from Kids in Motion at Port Melbourne said his cost savings have been upwards of $45,000, primarily due to savings relating to insurance.

“In the last five years, insurance was becoming increasingly difficult to secure and premiums skyrocketed. This was directly related to the rise of trampoline parks and the correlating spike in accident and claims.”

Hannan commented “we were paying an exorbitant amount to be a free agent and options were limited. RGA is a god send. They are not only much cheaper, but more importantly, they understand our business philosophy and model and associated risks. We’re very happy with everything they provide.”

Going on to say that training was also more relevant now to his coaches, Hannan added “we’re not a traditional gymnastics centre - we focus on the art of movement and giving kids fundamental skills for other sports - so we found a lot of the courses in the past weren’t relevant to the learning my new coaches required.

“RGA however, provides us the flexibility to continue to run our training in-house, while meeting industry standards. It is obvious RGA was designed by those working in a Recreational club, because they understand the demands of running a recreational club and have thought about that when creating their products.”

Looking forward to seeing more clubs coming on board and making a real difference to clubs at the ground level, Sereno concluded “we want to hear to all the feedback from clubs, we want to work together with clubs and other industry bodies and make this sport even stronger in Australia and more kids have the opportunity to take part.”

Recreational Gymnastics Australia
The Belgravia Group backed RGA is an industry-focused organisation launched in 2022 to support the recreational gymnastics sector. Part of the Belgravia Group’s aims to get 1 million children active across Australia, RGA provides recreational gymnastics programs, training and insurance for club’s running recreational gymnastics programs.

It’s the first time in Australia such an alternative has been available to gymnastics clubs.

RGA recently welcomed former Olympian Brennon Dowrick OAM to the team.

Click here for more information.

Images: Recreational Gymnastics Australia (top) and Kids in Motion, Port Melbourne (below).