Until recently, Christina Grady and her husband were like so many other Point Loma moms and dads who were driving outside the Peninsula area to take their daughters to gymnastics.
“That was really the first thing that started it, was we had all researched [facilities] and there was no place within 10 miles to take the girls,” Grady said.
Grady has made several of her own trips to Kearny Mesa with her 5-year-old daughter and had listened to the nightmarish stories of other moms who traveled to Poway ” always during the evening rush hour ” to involve their children in gymnastics programs.
A gymnast herself from age of 4 through high school, it was a no-brainer for Grady when she decided to establish San Diego Gymnastics, the new 7,000-square-foot facility scheduled to open March 1 in the upscale Liberty Station complex.
The club welcomes children from 18 months to 18 years.
“A lot of the gymnastics places, they’re all in industrial parks,” Grady said. “You obviously need a lot of square footage, so they tend to be in places where you wouldn’t generally go.”
Passing the time in the middle of nowhere while your child engages in two hours of gymnastics isn’t exactly a thrilling prospect for most parents, she said.
“There’s nothing to do, you’re sort of trapped there,” Grady said. “Liberty Station, not only is it close to everything and three schools are on the property, but it’s close
to all the other schools in our neighborhood. It has all the shopping now ” Starbucks, restaurants, parks. While my daughter’s doing gymnastics, I can pick my son up and take him to football or he can go run over and grab a soda at the smoothie place.”
Located in the health and wellness area on Roosevelt Road behind the new Vons supermarket ” and convenient to numerous other amenities ” Grady said Liberty Station is beneficial for everyone.
“We’re extremely excited to have them down here,” said project manager Ryan Hoover of McMillin Commercial. “It’s definitely a need and their use compliments that building very well, as well as the Point Loma community [as a whole]. I think they’re going to do great.”
He said San Diego Gymnastics’ flexibility and willingness to work within a historic building was a plus for everyone involved.
“I think they saw and see the value of Liberty Station, not only for today but for what it will be in a few years from now,” said Hoover.
Programs will focus primarily on gymnastics, though there will also be co-ed classes geared slightly more toward boys and sports.
“They work on muscles, speed and agility and there’s other ones (classes) that will kind of align with the sports season,” Grady said. “During baseball we’ll work
on different techniques to improve baseball skills, and we would do the same thing for basketball. It’s called Athletic Advantage, and it’s trying to get boys a little bit more at the top of their game.”
Three other non-gymnastics-oriented classes will still incorporate much of the philosophy of gymnastics, including balance and strength that help in every sport.
Another unique offering is the high school gymnastics class that meets nine hours a week and students may simultaneously compete for their high school.
“If there’s a cheerleader at Point Loma High who has done gymnastics her whole life but doesn’t anymore because she’s playing other sports, she can come to our club and do the class,” Grady said.
“(She) can have a uniform for her school and compete independently for her high school ” which gets her a varsity letter [and] lets her represent her own school “¦ ,” she said.
Other options available at San Diego Gymnastics include a computerized training system, online registration and once they get rolling, a competitive curriculum.
“We actually have some really top gymnasts in San Diego who have already submitted to moving over to this facility from another facility because it’s closer to their home,” Grady said.
However, she added that the goal of San Diego Gymnastics is to be a recreational program more than a competitive program.
“We’re trying to produce a program where anybody and everybody can be a part of it at any level,” Grady said.
San Diego Gymnastics is located at 2751 Roosevelt Road, Suite 205 at Liberty Station in Point Loma.
For more information, call (619) 247-1200.