Aubrey Whittington wishes the Greenwood public had an opportunity to watch the city’s local gymnasts perform.
She also wishes in general that people would take gymnastics as seriously as any other sport.
Whittington, who has coached gymnastics in Greenwood since the 1970s, isn’t seeking the spotlight, however. She only wants others to bear witness to the art and beauty of gymnastics and realize the physical strength and mental rigor that is required for the sport.
“They’re so graceful and beautiful,” she said of her gymnasts’ performances. “To see them with that poise and flexibility, it’s just very gratifying that they have done it.”
Young gymnasts practice on the high beam during a practice session led by Aubrey Whittington Thursday. On the left beam, front, is Katherine Killebrew, with Allys Jackson at the back. At the front on the right beam is Marie Brock, and Karleigh Kent is at the back. (By Gerard Edic)
Before she started her decades-long gymnastics coaching career, Whittington in 1971 founded a classical and modern dance studio in downtown Greenwood.
As gymnastics competitions in the Olympics developed a growing international fan base, however, she found that the sport motivated children and realized she needed to make a transition from wearing toe shoes for ballet to performing on a beam.
She also found that skills utilized in ballet could also be used in gymnastics.
“It all starts with the floor. If you can do something on the floor technically correct, you can take that to the beam, the vault and the bars,” she said.
Whittington ran a gymnastics studio at various locations in Greenwood before settling on her current location on West Park Avenue, where she has operated Outer Limits Gymnastics for 15 years. She coaches a competitive team, which this year includes 11 girls ranging from ages 8 to 14, a recreational gymnastics class and a cheerleading class.
Both the recreational and the competitive gymnastics classes practice the four gymnastics events: the floor, bars, beam and vault.
Typically, you have children start gymnastics at age 3, right when they’re beginning to develop their motor skills. Most girls leave the sport by the time they turn 13, moving on to other sports such as soccer, tennis or basketball, Whittington said.
Gymnastics would be more popular in Greenwood, she said, if there was a local outlet for their peers and family to watch them perform. Instead, Whittington’s competitive team performs at venues in cities across the state.
Aubrey Whittington’s gymnastics studio, Outer Limits, is located on West Park Avenue. (By Gerard Edic)
Her philosophy of gymnastics, she said, is to see her girls succeed and that the best way they can learn is through failure.
“I don’t know anyone who has not failed at some point in their life, and the ability to cope with failure makes one stronger, determined, and to look out of the box for another option to solve the problem and gives you more self-confidence, and that’s to me just life,” she said.
She is also adamant that gymnastics is as tough as any other sport, and maybe tougher.
“It is one of the most extreme and hard sports in the world. It has lots of mediums in it. You have to have so many skills. You have to be a sprinter, a leaper, a jumper. It’s risk-taking, and it is a contact sport,” she said.
“People don’t think of it as a contact sport, but if you fall, you’re going to fall off something very high,” she continued. “You’re going to fall onto the equipment, which is even harder. And I’m going to ask the child to get back up.”
And then there is the mental fortitude required for the sport.
Whittington said that she has had psychiatrists tell her that the sport helps children with attention deficit disorder to focus.
Treasa Boldon, who has worked with Whittington coaching gymnastics for 19 years, said Whittington is “passionate about these kids, not just gymnastics. If she doesn’t feel good, she’s still here.”
Treasa Boldon, right, Aubrey Whittington’s gymnastics assistant, helps lead an exercise. (By Gerard Edic)
Boldon has had her own son and daughter take gymnastics under Whittington.
Whittington keeps herself busy with gymnastics, coaching at the studio from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on occasional Saturdays for rehearsals.
“My husband is very tolerant of this, bless his heart, because I don’t get home until 7 o’clock at night,” she said with a laugh.
“I don't know how to quit,” Whittington, who’ll turn 82 next month, said. “I think in honesty these kids have kept me alive. They inspire me every day to keep on, and that is truly my reward.”
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
