Practising gymnastics at home - low budget, tiny house, no garden!

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

DD (8) is loving gym club, she is quite fidgety active and is always moving and jumping around, she also does rock climbing and trampolining clubs. For Christmas, thanks to a recommendation on another thread, we got a chin up bar for the doorway and we attached the fixings lower down so she can flip over it etc. Went down very well and only £8.

Just wondering what else we could do. Sometimes I drag her mattress down and let the DCs leap about on it.

In an ideal world we would have a trampoline and climbing frame. We do have a little lawn out front, so we can put stuff there when it's being used, but nothing can be left there and there's not really any outdoor storage either. I'd love to get a little folding balance beam or something but they are really pricey. Considering a trampette but even that would be pushing it space-wise I think, and not sure if they could really do much beyond jumping up and down - the ones I've seen don't seem that bouncy really, so not sure she'd even get enough height to do pikes etc?

Does anyone have any ideas for cheaper/space saving alternatives please? It would make her so happy to have stuff to practise on. :)

Can she do kickovers yet? If not, handstand to bridge and kick over off the sofa.stick a line of tape on the floor for practising cartwheels on the beam and beam routines.Sofa arms for straddle holds and eventually straddle lever to handstand.Bar - is she going circle ups as well as down? Higher settings for chin ups and pull ups and leg lifts.We put a loop of rope around the bar and dd put her feet in it swung forward in apike shape and then up to front support on the back swing. You need faith in thw bar and space for this though at 8 she might be too big.trampette will be fine for pike jumps she just needs to develop leg strength. Also use as a spring board with hands on a stable object eg chest of drawers against a wall covered with a nonslip mat, to bounce up towards handstand support this.trampette in garden for putting hands on in roundoffs and handsprings (support shoulder and back)

IKEA do stuff you can drill into the ceiling rafters, like ladders, swing and trapeze.

IKEA do a great folding mat for floor exercises

Thanks everyone :)

Dolly your post has just shown me how little I know about gymnastics myself! :o I shall head to google/youtube for demos and see if DD can do them :)

Should've said we can't really do anything very structural as we rent so ceiling stuff is out sadly :( we have a big tree out front but annoyingly no big branches to hang anything from (and only one tree, if we had two we'd get a slackline!).

Good to know about the trampette being potentially more useful than I thought.

Also good about the mat, as the gym mats I saw elsewhere are very expensive. There was something else I meant to get from Ikea anyway so I'll add that to the list. And it'll save her mattress!

My daughter has the IKEA mat and loves it. Although its a bit boring the best thing that your daughter can do to improve her gymnastics at home is the warm up exercises that she will start her gym session with. Practicing every day will improve her subtleness no end.

We have a folding beam, but frankly its been a bit of a disappointment. It is not stable enough. Our beam is this one and its completely useless.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-2MTR-GYMNASTIC-FOLDING-BALANCE-BEAM-BY-SLIM-GYM-MOCCA-/111859725872?hash=item1a0b5bf630:g:S4gAAOSwYHxWIktT

dd has a door pull up bar

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exercise-Door-Bar-Pull-Chin-Ups-Home-Gym-Fitness-Strength-Training-Workout-100cm-/151645428952?var=&hash=item234ec59cd8:m:mYJGuuU7a87V8yzUzWCcJJA

Which she uses for leg lifts and chin up. I have to supervise her like a hawk as it would be very dangerous for her to attempt tricks.

I was given some useful suggestions on this thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/extra_curricular_activities/2379504-Gymnastics-at-home-what-can-a-child-do-SAFELY-to-help-progress-in-gymnastics