An Olympian came to train. Senior coach Ashley had a front-row seat.

Earlier in the month, New Zealand Olympian and Hobsonville local Mikhail “Misha” Koudinov popped into Xpressions for a training session. Ashley, our Head of Recreational Gymnastics, was in the gym at the time.

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She watched Misha swing on the high bar, let go, flip, twist, and catch the bar again with absolute precision.

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"That particular skill is called a Kolman," Misha said, "and is one of my favourites to train."

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Boys gymnastics at Xpressions

Ashley also coaches nine year old Xavier at the club. If you check out this video of him training, you will see him working through some of the fundamentals of boys gymnastics - building strength, control, and spacial awareness across various apparatus including floor, rings, parallel bars and on the trampoline.

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Ashley is a practicing veteran gymnast herself, and had this to share about coaching boys gymnastics:

“It’s exciting to watch Xavier develop his skills over the last six months, and meeting and sharing Misha’s video has certainly inspired Xavier to achieve more. Whilst most boys won’t chase the Olympics -and they don’t need to - gymnastics gives them strength, confidence, discipline, and physical literacy that carries into every sport they play and every challenge they take on.”

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At Xpressions, we are passionate about gymnastics. We also love seeing how our sport helps young people thrive. Our focus is on skills, outcomes, resilience, and of course, fun.

Whilst our classes are structured around fundamental gymnastics skills, we aim to provide classes that are engaging, confidence‑building, and designed to help every child feel capable, supported, and proud of what they can achieve.

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Book a trial for your son

Book a trial class at Hobsonville or Kumeu as a start. As Misha will attest, you never know where it could take you ;).