To kick off our My Sport series, multiple world and European champion Beth Tweddle shared her thoughts on gymnastics with us. Take it away, Beth…

“I took up gymnastics because I was a hyperactive child. I was constantly upside down and hanging off trees, so my dad’s friend suggested gymnastics! I loved being able to run and jump around, and it was fun.

Although I found some things challenging, particularly the beam, I slipped into it quite easily. My coach spent a lot of time helping me with the beam. There’s no secret weapon to overcoming challenges like that, I just had to practice a lot, get on with it and keep going.

The hardest thing about gymnastics is the huge amount of hours you need to put in and the fact that it requires early specialisation (I began from the age of seven). There are many aspects of it that an average individual wouldn’t be able to do, at least to start with. It requires gaining physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, balance, grace and passion. It is hard, but no words can express my love for gymnastics.

If you want to try gymnastics for yourself, it’s a very enjoyable and rewarding exercise to do with friends. You’ll also build new friendships, and be able to exercise with an element of fun.

It’s good for you because it enables you to learn to control your own body and develop your agility and posture, even if you don’t take it to a high level.

Gymnastics is different to many sports because, at the level I am at especially, it’s not something that any individual can participate in. It takes years of training and coaching of the body, and to master some of the skills can take years. You must start with the basics, and slowly work upwards.”