Dean Lambert admits he was skeptical when his wife, Heidi, talked to him about putting their 18-month-old daughter in gymnastics.
His daughter, Payton, had been walking for just a few months. Wasn’t it a bit too early to try Carly Patterson’s Arabian double-front dismount off the balance beam?
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
“At first, I opposed going,” said Lambert, an Everett resident. “I was worried that she would keep going and get into the unhealthy aspects of gymnastics.”
What Lambert found – along with many others who’ve put little ones in gymnastics classes in places such as The Little Gym, Gymboree or Leading Edge – was different than he expected.
The Little Gym of Everett wasn’t a gym full of parents with an eye on the 2016 Olympics. No talk of six-hour workouts accompanied by a diet of lettuce and twigs resonated off the gym walls. Bela Karolyi didn’t walk through the gym with Kerri Strug in his arms screaming at the miniature athletes to stick their landings.
A bit resistant at times during the first few sessions, Payton waddled away from the other kids and parents in the gym. Over the past couple of months, the fences have come down. She now anticipates the hour full of songs, games and parent-assisted rolling and traversing of the balance beam each week.
Lambert sees her making strides in both motor and social skills.
That’s exactly what Jodi Sides, the Everett franchise owner of The Little Gym likes to hear.
Sides isn’t exactly Remington shaver pitchman Victor Kiam, but in a sense she liked The Little Gym so much she bought the company – or more accurately, a piece of the corporation. Sides watched a friend’s child at the Bellevue location in the late 1990s. In early 2003, Sides and her husband, Craig Sides, opened a Little Gym franchise in Everett.
Jodi, who co-teaches during much of each day, offers classes (including sports skills development) in a variety of skill levels for children ages 4 months to 12 years. Starting at about age 3, the parents exit the gym area and observe class from behind glass. Parents seem to enjoy a little break and social-skill development of their own -interrupted only by children’s potty breaks, and in very rare cases, a “timeout” for naughtiness issued by one of the instructors.
The Little Gym in Everett is definitely a family business. Craig teaches a class on Monday nights. Jodi’s parents – Joe and Carol Smith – moved over from the Spokane area to help with the new business.
Jodi’s father, known by most as Papa-Joe, doesn’t teach classes at the gym but does just about everything else. Jodi said he’s the main reason the gym is always in immaculate condition. He answers phones, helps with the accounting and might be seen tossing a ball to a little boy or girl who is waiting for a sibling to finish a session. Her mother does everything from cleaning to making marketing brochures.
Sides was involved in competitive gymnastics for 11 years before a serious car accident during her senior year at Central Valley High School, but likes the non-competitive environment at Little Gym. She has referred a few parents to other gyms when she believes a child would thrive in a more competitive environment.
Most of the parents at Little Gym aren’t counting down to the 2016 Olympics. An occasional joke – unheard by the children and instructors because of the thick glass separating the gym from the seating area – is made by parents who often converse during the hour of stumbling and tumbling.
Things like, “Oh, that’s gonna cost him a couple of tenths” when a 3-year-old nearly face-plants after jumping off the balance beam, might be said with a chuckle.
In rare cases, Sides has had to have a conversation with a parent about the goals of the classes. This was especially true during and immediately after the Athens Olympics last year, when Americans Patterson and Paul Hamm won gold medals for the all-around competitions and the Little Gym phones were “ringing off the hook.”
“I always tell parents, ‘Let them be a child,’” Sides said. “Let them enjoy being a child day by day by day. … If they go off to be the next Olympian, then that’s fabulous. But, that’s not where our thoughts should be right now. It’s letting the child be a child, letting them enjoy physical fitness and introducing them to it.”
Heidi Walters of Everett has seen gains in confidence and “sense of body” from her daughter. Kira, she said, counts the days (now that she’s learned the days of the week) leading up to her Thursday, invitation-only “Mini Jets” class for children ages 5-6. Walters said they wouldn’t be there if Kira didn’t enjoy it.
“The child has to want to do it,” said Walters, who first brought Kira to the gym about a year and a half ago. “You have to keep it fun, and it has to be something they enjoy. I think self-esteem and confidence are two reasons for getting a child started so early.”
Everett resident Stephanie Stephens, whose 5-year-old daughter, Grace, also participates in the Mini Jets class, appreciates that The Little Gym is a “bright and well-maintained” gym designed just for kids.
“To be completely honest, it smells much better than any gym I’ve ever been in,” Stephens laughed. “Lack of scent – it’s a good thing.”
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