About Us

We are Woodlands Gymnastics!

A Professional Club that runs Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, Trampolining, Freestyle, Acro, Tumbling and DMT classes. We are based in two Venues; one of which is in Woodlands Academy Broad Lane Coventry CV5 7FF, the only dedicated, professional gymnastics facility in Coventry, built in 2006 as a reserve training Gym for the 2012 London Olympics. It has Specialised Foam pits to maximise safety and speed up the learning process, Multiple bars (Parallel bars, High bars and Asymmetric Bars), Vaults, Rings, Pommel Horses and Mushrooms, a 25m tumble track, Trampolines and DMT’s (which go into foam pits), a floor and a Specialised Fast Track of which there are only 3 in the World (one is in Cirque du Soleil) - all of which cost more than 3.5 millions pounds to build.

Having over 30 hours a week means we can run classes for all abilities, from Beginners of all ages to British/English Champions and International Gymnasts who represent Great Britain. Our other main Facility is The National Sports Centre in Lilleshall, Which is where all the National Training Squads are held. We use this facility for our Elite Gymnasts as it is one of the best Equipped Gyms in the World (and a bonus is that the gymnasts may meet their idols there as well!)

We have had outstanding achievements over the past 13 years which are growing each day. Having over 500 medals from Regional, National and International competitions proves that we have very experienced and Highly Qualified Coaches.

Everyone is welcome to come and join in at any age.

How the club was born

 Milen and Stefka created the club in 2006 so that the community could benefit from their experience. Stefka has 3 Gold Medals in Acro Gymnastics from the 1987 World Cup in Batton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, a World Title in 1988, Antwerp Belgium and 3 European Medals from the same competition. She started gymnastics at the age of 8 in Bulgaria in 1981 with just one session a week. Her Coach Dimitr Plochiv saw her potential and invited her to the Gymnastics squad in Jambol (A small town in Bulgaria, where many famous gymnasts have come from). At the age of 9 she trained 5 days a week and had to live by herself as the gym was a few hours away from her Home town, Elhovo. She trained there for the following 8 years where she learned many new things and got selected as the top of a Trio. She was trained to do Handstands on 1 arm, on either arm because of her talent (a rarity between Hand-balancing Artists, Usually they can only do it on their preferred arm). She was also really talented in the Somersaulting side being able to do Roundoff Double back on the Sprung Floor (which wasn’t that springy back in those days). Later on she trained to do a Double Twisting double straight which was a first in the World for a Woman's Trio in 1987.

Milen holds many Medals from Acro Gymnastics in a Men”s four, which includes a Gold Team Medal from the 1988 World Championships in Antwerp Belgium, a Silver European Medal and a Bronze World Medal from the same competition. In the 1988 World Championships Milen, Stanimir, Ivan and Feodor impressed the whole World by performing 3 new skills, which were never performed before at the World Championships and one of which is still being used by the best Chinese and Russian Groups. These skills were performed for the first time in Britain in Newcastle at a International Competition in 1987. Milen started his sporting career in Moscow, Russia in 1970 at the age of 6 with Artistic Gymnastics in an Experimental School only for High Bar (At that time the Russians were trying to find out the maximum ability for each apparatus by focusing only on one apparatus). He trained there for a couple of years while his dad finished The Political Academy of Lenin and then returning to Bulgaria. His Artistic gymnastics career finished as the Artistic club in his town in Bulgaria Changed to Acro Gymnastics and because his dad was in the army he had to move clubs again, again and again. Milen settled down in Sofia’s Sport University and with Stanimir Sotirov, Ivan Panayotov and Feodor Tsvetcov and won the Bulgarian Title for 3 consecutive years 1986, 1987, 1988 with Emil Angelov as their coach and Daniela Nanova, Sofia Angleova and Vera as their Choreographers.

After the 1988 World Championships Milen and Stefka both created a private group, Tangra and joined the Circus where they showcased their amazing talent to Audiences across the entirety of Europe. They first performed in a Tv Show on Raiuno in Italy, Golden Circus in Rome. This was then followed by 63 more Circuses in 12 other Countries