Gymnastics’ vaultface

In a cricket crazy country like ours, gymnast training academies are unheard of! Even though it’s a proven fact that gymnastics is one of the most comprehensive lifestyle exercise programmes for children, not many are keen and for the handful that are, facilities are abysmal! A burning urge to provide gymnastic training for children, integrating strength, flexibility, balance, coordination and discipline, prompted Vivienne Vidyasagar to start an academy of her own.  

“I have always been fascinated with gymnastics but have never heard of or come across facilities available to train kids for this sport,” begins Viv, as her teammates fondly call her!

“When I went to the US, after I got married, I got introduced to gymnastic academies for toddlers. It was very fascinating. I noticed gyms in distances of less than a few km, and all of them were packed with little gymnasts,” she elaborates, explaining how she learnt the importance of starting out young. “When I moved back to India in 2010, my daughter was all of two, and I was surprised that there were neither any music and movement programmes in Bengaluru, nor gymnastic programmes that would help develop gross and fine motor skills,” reminisces Viv.

Within six months of returning, she launched ‘Rhythm n Rhyme, the only music and movement programme in Bengaluru. Apart from circle time activities and action songs, the programme offered basic gymnastics. As the programme began to gain popularity, the next step naturally was to promote gymnastics. “When I took an office space for Rhythm n Rhyme, I had enough room to set up a small floor and promote gymnastics among the existing clientele,” she asserts. With the interests garnered by a lot of well-wishers and the growing popularity, her husband Ebenezer and she decided to set up their own gymnastic academy, and thus RnR fit (A gymnastics academy offering recreational and professional gymnastics to kids and adults) was launched in 2015.

Vivienne Vidyasagar

Working closely with trainers and kids, was a complete shift from her career as a market researcher. But her love for music and dance, paved way for her active involvement with kids. On her daughter’s first birthday, Vivienne conducted a party where she engaged the kids in music and dance. She realised how much she was enjoying it all and decided to take it up as her career now. Now she is fully involved with little children immersed in balancing beams and uneven bars and what not!

But things were not easy. “I recall the time when I had invested in a space and set it up, but had not sourced out the equipment. I had quotes from several resources, but had no idea about the quality. I needed guidance desperately,” she says as she recalls those sleepless nights wondering how to proceed. “One night, at about 2:30 am, as I was browsing the Internet for information, I came across ‘The Gymnast’, an academy for gymnastics, based in Mumbai, run by Harish Parab. Even now, I remember the moment when I called ‘Parab Sir’, and felt the enthusiasm in his voice, as I requested his guidance in setting up a gymnastics academy in Bengaluru!” she recalls. Even with Parab Sir’s help in sourcing equipment and setting it up, Viv had a long way to go. She now needed the right trainers and coaches. “The challenging part was to find coaches who would teach gymnastics professionally with a structured plan,” she asserts.

The first six months dragged by and they had several teething issues. But, once they managed to get quality trainers, things began to slowly take the right shape as envisaged by Viv. “It was important to have a structure. I was keen to have lesson plans in place so we know what we are teaching and what we want each child to achieve,” explains Viv. RnR fit Gymnastic Academy now has a team of 10 girls, who are part of their Gold team — the team that is gearing up to go competitive under the able guidance of their head coach, Viswajit. “We also have an under-10 boys team that is training to go competitive under the able guidance of Chandru Sir, as we fondly call him,” she adds.

With Dipa Karmakar having made it big at the Olympics, there’s a lot of curiosity and willingness among Indians. However, it is a challenge as Indians still prefer cricket! “Since the beginning, it has been a task to attract boys to gymnastics. I believe many have known about the sport but it’s always been foreign. Many get overwhelmed when they come to RnR fit and see the facility with the state of the art equipment,” explains Viv.

“However, with Dipa making it to the Olympics, the awareness about gymnastics has certainly increased and we too have noticed a steady rise in our graph,” she confesses.

Vivienne soon hopes to host open competitions inviting participants from across the country to promote gymnastics, and the RnR fit team dreams of entering the nationals in 2017, and within the next two years, participating internationally.

“In the pipeline is our attempt to build a team of coaches to implement our gymnastics development programme, so we can offer gymnastics to schools across the city to identify talent. Our goal is to have our students at the 2024 Olympics, and produce an Olympic gymnast!” says a proud Viv. We certainly await India bagging medals at the 2024 Olympics from RnR fit!