Gymnastics strength & conditioning for young soccer players: introducing Athlete Extension
Before we welcomed our first children through the doors at Inner West Gymnastics, our owner, Mary Lou, sponsored Enfield Rovers’ Mini Tillies girls’ football program. Being involved in our community was something we wanted to make part of the gym from the beginning, and our relationship with the club has given us opportunities to explore how gymnastics could support local soccer players.
Through discussions with Enfield Rovers and interest from families whose sons play soccer, we started looking at a class that would bring our gymnastics knowledge into their existing training. We wanted to offer dedicated time to work on strength, balance, mobility and control, with exercises that could develop with the children as they became more capable.
This was how Foundations - Athlete Extension was born. The class offers gymnastics-based strength and conditioning for young soccer players, welcoming boys aged 10-14 to our Strathfield South gym in Sydney’s Inner West.
How gymnastics supports strength and conditioning for young soccer players
A lot goes into a gymnastics skill before you see the finished version. Vault involves running, jumping and landing, while floor brings together jumps, turns and rolls. Beam and balancing activities get children to adjust their position, shift their weight and stay steady as they move.
When we teach these skills, we break them down so children have time to practise each part, including where their feet are when they land, how they control their body through a turn and how they balance on one leg. As their ability develops, we can change the exercise or introduce a more challenging version.
Running, stopping, turning and landing are also part of soccer, and those movements are already embedded in football training. Our contribution is dedicated time to work on the strength and control behind them, using gymnastics exercises and coaching.
In Athlete Extension, that includes bodyweight strength, ankle and knee stability, mobility and controlled landings. Coaches can break an exercise into smaller steps, give feedback on how a child is moving and increase the challenge as they progress. We want the kids to understand what they’re working on and have something achievable to work towards, with room to keep improving.
A class to complement the football season
In a February 2025 interview, Manchester City’s academy director Thomas Kruecken described gymnastics as part of the younger players’ multisport program, alongside basketball and taekwondo. It’s an example of a football club incorporating different types of movement into its young players’ development.
Closer to home, Football Australia’s Perform+ program includes strength, balance and jumping exercises as part of football preparation. These are areas we spend a great deal of time working on in gymnastics, where children practise controlling their bodies in different positions and through different movements.
A peer-reviewed study involving researchers from Victoria University, Deakin University and the Australian Institute of Sport found that primary-school children who completed a 16-week gymnastics program improved their stability skills more than children taking standard PE. That finding supports our focus on stability as one part of children’s movement development.
For our class, the intention is to give young soccer players ongoing opportunities to work on these skills alongside their regular training. Athlete Extension runs during school terms, including throughout the football season, and offers a way to keep working on strength and movement during the off-season.
We want what children learn in our gym to be useful to them beyond their gymnastics classes. For some, the value will be in developing a particular skill; for others, it will be learning to persevere, feeling more confident in their body or enjoying a new challenge. Working with our football community gives us another way to put that thinking into practice.
Joining Foundations - Athlete Extension
Classes run for 1.5 hours, with a maximum of ten boys aged 10-14 who currently play soccer or have previous playing experience.
If your child falls outside the age group, you’re interested in a girls’ class or your child plays another sport, we’d love to hear from you. Groups of four or more looking for gymnastics-based training to complement their sport are also welcome to inquire.
Email info@innerwestgymnastics.com to tell us what you’re looking for. Hearing from local families helps us understand where there’s interest and what else we could offer.
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