On Feb. 5, the Waynesburg Rec Center hosted a tumbling clinic for youth gymnastics. 

“We run this tumbling clinic with Chelsea Hoye and Olivia King, those are our two tumbling coaches,” Meghan Ricciuti, the event planner for the tumbling clinic said. “It is for beginner tumblers that are learning a back handspring, so anyone that has the basics of a back walkover or can do a backbend and can come up and they are just learning the first steps of a back handspring, and hopefully by the end of the clinic they are doing a lot better with that skill or have achieved that.” 

The tumbling clinic isn’t the only gymnastics centric event held at the Waynesburg Rec Center, or in Greene County as a whole. 

“Here at the rec center, we hold tumbling four nights out of the week,” Ricciuti said. “We hold clinics throughout the year, we have camps in the summer, we have private and duo classes all the way from our tot classes to our advanced classes. We accept tons of ages, and you can join anytime there are no year-long contracts.” 

Ricciuti said there are over 150 children in their tumbling program, which runs throughout the whole year. 

Ricciuti also states the importance of youth gymnastics and participation in the area. 

“We’ve learned so much as coaches that just doing gymnastics kind of centers around other sports,” Ricciuti said. “Like if you are a wrestler and take a few gymnastics classes, that helps in all aspects of balance and strength and flexibility. People also say gymnastics and tumbling is good for recovery if you are involved in other sports with stretch and recovery, so that helps a lot, but from what I have heard and seen, gymnastics helps in any sport you would be interested in.”