Fromeside Gymnastics Club head coach Karen Brewer has been awarded a level five men’s artistic gymnastics high performance coaching level by British Gymnastics.

Karen realised her dream of reaching level five back in September. Karen, along with the boy’s squad are now hopeful Fromeside will have a gymnast in the Great Britain national squad and compete at Olympic level. This year, the boy’s squad were featured in the CBBC series Gym Stars, following the lives of her gymnasts competing in the British Championships in Liverpool. CBBC has again asked to continue following Karen and the boys next year.

Karen has a long history with the Winterborne based club, starting at the gym in a youth training scheme in 1991. In 1996, Men’s International Performance Coach and Romanian national coach Jozsef Ferencz joined Fromeside, taking Karen on as his apprentice, mentoring her to become a Level five Men’s Artistic High Performance Coach. Karen continued to work with Ferencz for a further 10 years.

Unfortunately, shortly after achieving her level four award, Ferencz moved to New Zealand ending her apprenticeship.

Karen then had to deal with a life changing back injury, she thought, ending her dream of becoming a Men’s High Performance Coach, a position only a few women have held. Her recovery was slow, and she retrained as a Personal Trainer specialising in lower back pain and Pilates.

In 2014, Karen was contacted by Fromeside Gymnastic Club asking for help coaching in their boys Artistic Gymnastics program. Even with her fear of re-injury Karen accepted the offer hoping to fulfill her dream of becoming a Men’s High Performance Coach.

Over the last four years Karen and the Fromeside boys have been travelling all over the country gaining experience and mentoring from National GB coaches. With Karen as Head Coach, Fromeside currently has four boy’s competing at national level.

Fromeside Gymnastics Club currently run a young leaders programme, sponsored by British Gymnastics, which helps our gymnasts participate in the club outside of their gymnast role. The programme highlights, coaching, judging and the basic principles which are at the forefront of the club.