Coach Patrick Murphy provides a balancing hand to Melissa Narum as she prepares to jump to the higher bar on a set of uneven bars. (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Shannon Nebiolo shows missing the bar can still be fun when falling into a pit of foam cubes. (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Murphy was tentative teaching an adult class because the bulk of his coaching experience is with young kids. “It has been a lot of fun,” he said. “We laugh at ourselves.” (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Sarah Fielding claps and laughs as a fellow student completes a back rollover. She competed in high school. “I always watch my daughters and I would get so jealous,” she said. “I wanted to get back in there.” (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Their chalk on their hands and smiles on their faces as the class – including Megan Foster, left, Melissa Narum, Beverly Deck, Sarah Fielding and Shannon Nebiolo – learn uneven bars. (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Murphy, right, and Fielding, once a high school gymnast, instruct Deck where to place her hands on a floor exercise. (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Murphy said some students in the first class approached the beam with “training wheels,” a person at their side holding their hand. For this, the second class, students step more confidently. (David Pierini/staff photographer)
Young, lithe gymnasts take percussive runs across a spring floor at the new Oak Park Gymnastics & Recreation Center when the sound of laughter and clapping brings pause to the tumbling.
Nearby, a group of adults try out some of the same moves as the other gymnasts in the center. They range in age from late teens to 40-something and laughter comes easily when some discover surprising strength and flexibility believed long gone.
With the opening of the new center, the Park District of Oak Park offered an adult gymnastics program, which quickly attracted 12 to the Thursday night class, with a waiting list.
A couple of students were gymnasts in high school and their muscle memory quickly acclimated them to the various apparatuses. A few wanted to share in their daughters’ experience while others were looking to add to their fitness regimen.
“I always wanted to do this, but I was a girly-girl from an era when girls did not do sports,” said Beverly Deck, who stated her age as 40-plus. “I love it.”
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