Gymnastics Insurance For Gym Owners And Clubs

Gymnasts incite oohs and ahhs from crowds everywhere with their routines full of jumps, stunts, and acrobats. As parents and coaches of gymnasts, we understand these awe-inspiring routines don’t happen overnight and are the result of hard work, classes, practices, and a ton of dedication.

With any amateur or youth sport, injuries can happen, and that is why gym owners, gymnastics training programs, facilities, and organizations need to have gymnastics insurance to protect their business.

Gymnastics Insurance Protects Gym Owners and Clubs

Most gym owners don’t want to talk or think about gymnastics insurance because it is something they hope they never need. However, if something were to happen, gym owners need to be completely ready and covered to handle any situation.

Gymnastics insurance is special liability insurance designed exclusively for gymnastics and cheer clubs that specialize in tumbling, dance, cheerleading, and gymnastics-inspired events.

In general, any club or gym that offers gymnastics or cheerleading-specific clubs is eligible for this type of insurance and a variety of waivers that may apply.

Extra Gymnastics Insurance Coverages

Make sure you understand your gymnastics insurance coverage thoroughly. Some policies will only offer general liability insurance and nothing else, other policies will offer this plus a variety of waivers.

Not all available waivers will apply to your gym, so it is important to make sure you get the insurance you need, and to not overpay for specialty waivers that you don’t need.

Other activities that may be covered under gym liability insurance policies include martial arts classes and practices, swimming classes, practices, and events, clinics/camps, open gyms, child care operations, competitions, tournaments, and birthday parties.

You need to make sure your policy covers all of the activities that occur in your gym, so you don’t leave yourself open to a lawsuit or claim that can’t be covered under existing insurance.

Understanding, gymnastics liability insurance is important because it protects gym owners from claims or lawsuits as a result of unexpected incidents that could occur as a result of the activities that go on within the gym doors.

When shopping for an insurance policy for your gym, make sure the following events/activities are covered.

Trampoline activities
Outside the gym activities (ex. Outside running)
Child care
Adult workouts

If your gym offers many unique activities that aren’t covered in the topics above, make sure you discuss your situation with an agent to find the best coverage for your protection.

How Gymnastics Liability Insurance Works

When a gymnastics facility is covered by gymnastics liability insurance, the gym and owner can be protected against property damage and bodily injury claims, if they purchase the proper insurance claims.

Lawsuits or claims can arise from unexpected injuries during operation, on the premises, or due to advertising or personal injury.

Perks of Gymnasts Insurance

Depending on the type of gymnastics insurance your gym opts for, you may enjoy optional coverage to meet your gym’s specific needs, and low or no deductibles for liability claims.

Many policies also include participant’s legal liability and protection against abuse or molestation claims. Coverage of some gymnastics’ insurance policies can be extended to include booster clubs and fundraising events.

5 Types of Gymnastics Insurance Coverage

When considering gymnastics insurance, there are five main types of insurance to consider, including Owner Umbrella Insurance, Property Insurance, Participant Coverage, Catastrophic Insurance, and General Liability.

1. Participant Coverage

Participant coverage offers secondary medical insurance to any participant in a sanctioned event. Sanctioned events usually include classes, practices, and competitions.

Most participant coverage insurance policies are subject to deductible, and are meant to be secondary insurance to gymnast’s existing health insurance.

Many gymnastics insurance participant accidental coverage also covers participants who are traveling in a group, three or more, to a gymnastics class, practice, or competition, and extends to coaches, volunteer staff, owners, and special guests.

2. Catastrophic Gymnast’s Insurance

A catastrophic gymnastics insurance policy offers insurance protection from severe injuries, if the injuries occurred during a sanctioned event by a covered person (ex. Gymnast, judge, volunteer helper, coach)

3. Gym Property Insurance

If a gym owner owns the building or property their gym sets on, they need property insurance as well. Usually, property insurance is purchased separately from gymnastics insurance, but is just as important.

Property insurance will protect the gym and the contents of the gym, such as practice beams, parallel bars, vaults, trampolines, and much more. What this means is if the gym were to sustain injury due to a fire, storm, etc., property insurance can help decrease the loss.

4. General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance gymnastics policies protect against lawsuits or claims that arise because someone sues you. Usually these types of claims accuse the gym owner of someone working in the gym of causing their injury or damaging their property.

This type of insurance extends to the gym’s athletes, visiting athletes, coaches, managers, staff, team helpers, judges, referees, and any other personnel who is allowed to enter restricted areas of a gym.

General liability insurance is available at many different tiers, which allows you to customize it to meet your gym’s needs. It’s important to purchase enough insurance to cover your assets and liabilities.

5. Umbrella Liability Insurance

Many gym owners also purchase an umbrella liability insurance in addition to gymnastics insurance and property insurance. This type of policy is meant to cover gym owners personal assets.

For example, if a claim were brought against a gym and the claim exceeded the gym’s liability coverage, a lawyer could go after the owner personally. If the gym were to lose the lawsuit or claim, the gym owner could also lose personal assets or money.

Now that you know the reasons you need gymnastics insurance, we hope that you are ready to find and buy the policy and waivers that meet your needs best.

Luke

04.23.2021 at 1:29 am

Hi there,

I am looking for Gymnastics Cover for my clubs. We previously insured through Sportscover, but they have not accepted our renewal since the pandemic cancellation of our policy.

We have 30 coaches per week (10 per evening, or 7 at any one time). The combined turnover for my three venues before the pandemic was £110,000 with a wage roll of £50,000. The previous year it was £100,000 with a £40,000 wage roll.
I previously had:
Public liability £5m (but would consider £10m)
Employers liability £10m
Professional indemnity £1m

I am about to launch http://www.gymnasticsmentor.com . It has been 7 years in the making.
The Gymnastics Mentor platform comprises 1050 demonstrations and 1050 commentaries, with:
1. Twenty Apparatus sections with ten grades each (known as the ‘Library’).
2. Curated playlists where users can learn a specific skill; and where lesson plans (playlists) can be made by the more technical gymnastics user.
3. A video player offering slow motion, repeat play and casting. As well as downloading, adding to playlist and ticking.
4. A progress board where progression can be logged.
I set up Gymnastics Mentor, with the aim of offering a useful alternative to British Gymnastics. It became apparent that the scope was not just Education, Qualifications and Insurance, but also Badges, Competitions and merchandise. I already have a prototype ‘education’ app on iOS and Android and a badge app on windows.

Apart from my looking for cover for my current classes, I would be interested to hear what you could offer as a partnership scheme, although this part is less urgent right now (Our classes start next Friday and we have no insurance currently). Please can you let me know how long it will take to get a quote? We have made no claims in the 15 years i have been running classes, and despite 400 children attending (for an hour) each week, on average, we have only reported 3 minor fractures to Riddor in that time.

I have been coaching since 1992 and full time since 2005. Most top coaches move to become elite-level coaches, like my brother, who was a coach at the last two Olympics (seen here training Tom Holland), and my sister and mother, who train national level gymnasts). I stayed to manage at the recreational level (where more gymnasts train), whilst learning about coaching education. Realising this was an underdeveloped area. I left ‘British Gymnastics’ over ten years ago, due to a serious lack of support and started to create Gymnastics Mentor. Please see attached zip with details of the qualification structure under the ‘South Western’ name (before we transfer the name to ‘Gymnastics Mentor’). Currently, the certificates are signed off by Paul Gibbons (Level 5, high-performance coach) and myself (See attached certificate).

I would appreciate it if you could look into underwriting our clubs and also forward this to your partnership’s team.

Kind Regards,