It started back in 2015 when Coach Jessica was coaching Dr. Alyssa’s children. Alyssa did a couple of injury prevention lectures at the gym and it became clear that they shared a desire to reduce injuries in gymnastics. They weren’t sure how they were going to do it, but they were determined to make an impact in the sport that they both loved.
Their first project was creating a gymnastics-specific movement screen to help gymnasts understand their movement habits, weaknesses, and range of motion limitations. They quickly realized that they needed a tool to speed up the process of screening an entire team. This is when the gymSAFE movement screen app was created.
The gymnasts loved having a physical therapy screen that highlighted their specific needs. Inspired by this, Jessica and Alyssa organized their first gymSAFE symposium bringing medical doctors, physical therapists, mental health coaches, dietitians, gymnastics coaches, and gymnasts together to share and learn gymnastics-specific health advice.
The following year, gymSAFE had its first Athlete Leadership Council, a board of current and retired gymnasts, to help organize and shape the symposium.
Wanting to see whether the gymSAFE screen was good enough to share with other clinicians, they sought to validate the screen.
Then, they started training clinicians on how to perform the movement screen. Now you can find gymSAFE Certified Screen Evaluators across the US and Internationally.
Today, gymSAFE brings the movement screen and the clinicians to gyms around the country through gymSAFE on Tour.