OK, so they’re not quite pulling off double backflips or perfect dismounts just yet, but at the rate they’re going, the youngest members of the Jasper Gymnastics Club are well on their way to putting on some impressive performances in the near future.

“They’re the up-and-comers,” said head coach Nadia Wassef last Wednesday, as she took a break between teaching a group of two-year-olds the basics of gymnastics and prepared for her next group of even younger athletes.

The “Babynastics” class, as she calls it, is made up of little boys and girls who are mostly 19 or 20 months old. Not long ago they were just learning to walk. Now they’re walking along four-inch-wide balance beams and stepping over obstacles along the way.

Both groups of young gymnasts are also learning how to maintain specific body positions while jumping on a trampoline, how to roll over objects and crawl through small spaces, and even – with a little help – how to grab onto high bars and pull themselves up with their arms.

“They’re already, after a few weeks, becoming really independent and being able to do things like the rolls and stuff,” Wassef said. “They weren’t doing that three weeks ago. You see a really fast improvement at this age.”

Parents accompany the kids during these classes, holding their hands and helping them balance when necessary, but the youngsters manage to make it on their own to an impressive degree. Many seem determined to negotiate a difficult apparatus without help from mom or dad.

Training for specific gymnastics events, however, is still a while off for these kids. For the most part the goal of the classes is getting young children familiar with their own bodies and how to effectively move them through space in a controlled way.

“At the early ages it’s just basic gymnastics skills: body positions – examples of straddles, of pikes, of the tuck position,” Wassef explained. “And then it’s just becoming really aware of where they are when they are doing certain positions with their bodies and building gross motor skills and fine motor skills.”

The more advanced training comes at a later age, but starting young is particularly important in gymnastics since it doesn’t take long for kids to end up competing at the highest levels.

“We have a full women’s competitive team that competes throughout Alberta and B.C.,” Wassef said. “They’re all younger than 15. Gymnastics, the competitive block, is at a younger age for women.”

Some of the more advanced girls in the club will have the chance this weekend to train in Edmonton with Kelly Manjak, who was the coach for Olympic gold medal winner Kyle Shewfelt at the 2000 Olympics. Wassef said the chance to work with a coach like Manjak is a “huge opportunity” for the girls.

That kind of high-level training is something the youngest members of the club can look forward to if they choose to continue with the sport – the girls, at least. From the developmental level to the competitive level, the Jasper Gymnastics Club and the facilities at the Jasper Activity Centre cater only to female gymnasts.

“We have boys classes, though, on the recreational level,” Wassef said.

With about 150 members, the club has been growing “every year,” she added, and is starting to gain recognition well outside of Jasper thanks to the “very successful” group of girls at the competitive level.

“We’ve made our mark, I think, in Alberta now, so we’re well recognized,” Wassef said. “And we hosted a big competition last year so we kind of brought all of these Albertan gymnasts to Jasper and so now they kind of say: ‘OK, we have a good facility and we have things to offer here,’ which is really good.”

And while the club is heavily focused on its high-end athletes, Wassef said it is just as committed to the youngest participants, as well. She finds a certain kind of joy in seeing the little kids develop their skills and grow in to the next generation of gymnasts.

“And, of course,” she added, “the joy of just watching them jump on the trampoline.”