Five-year-old Sophie Myers often flips when she's on the edge. And sometimes that cracks her up.
"I feel like a cartoon character, because I'm being so silly," Sophie said, giggling as she walked along a balance beam.
Her giggling jerked her body around, but Sophie somehow kept her balance and completed the gymnastics routine. After that, she stood in line behind five other girls to learn another routine.
She successfully walked on the balance beam and rolled over and even walked on the beam while repeatedly stepping through a hula hoop -- all balancing and coordinating skills that she learned at Columbia Gymnastics on Red Branch Road.
Since 1991, young people like Sophie have had a chance to learn gymnastics at the area's only parent-owned, not-for-profit gymnastics organization. Parents raised about $40,000 to open the gymnastics facility in a 20,000-square-foot vacant warehouse near Route 108.
Inside the spacious building, uneven bars, trampolines and other apparatus cover the floors.
The facility is funded through tuition fees generated from the gym's 57 classes. Fees range from $27 per month for a series of 18 half-hour classes to $46.80 per month for a series of 18 two-hour classes.
Head coach Andrew Neafie, who has coached at Atholton High School and Fairland Gym in Montgomery County, said it costs $12,000 monthly to keep Columbia Gymnastics open.
He said 215 youngsters are learning how to tumble, do cartwheels and jump on trampolines and other basics in the recreation programs. Thirty other youngsters are on five of Columbia Gymnastics' training or competitive teams.
At a state gymnastics competition in Churchville last month, Lindsay Derenberger of Columbia Gymnastics won first place in the all-around category among those age 9 to 11 in the second level of competition.
Teammate Tessa Laidig won first place in that same category among those age 7 and 8 in the beginners competition. Their trophies are among 10 on a table near the gym's entrance. The team will compete at a competition in Baltimore on Saturday and Sunday.
Competition, however, is not the only reason youngsters come to Columbia Gymnastics.
"There are about 400 reasons," Mr. Neafie, one of the facility's eight coaches, said. ". . . It keeps them out of trouble, but after a while it takes over. You put all of your time into it."
He added: "Physically fit, you can't top it. You're built like a refrigerator when you come out."
Gymnastics teaches youngsters balance, improves their motor skills and builds their self-confidence, the coach said.
Fun is probably the most popular reason why youngsters come to the gym. Sophie definitely had fun during the one-hour Kindergym class one recent afternoon. She and five other barefoot girls, dressed in mainly pink and purple clothing, sat on the blue spring floor and stretched.
When the girls finished stretching, they lined up to walk across a ladder and over a large blue cube. They then jumped on a mini-trampoline, flipped over, landed on a mat and finally stepped in the two yellow Hula Hoops that marked the finish.
"Are you ready, Fruity Pants?" Mr. Neafie asked Sophie, who was wearing pants covered with flowers. "Yes, [but] it's Flower Pants," she replied.
"You've got to like kids to do this, especially crazy kids like Sophie," Mr. Neafie later joked.
Jane Holcomb of Columbia said that she brings her daughter, Amy, to the gym to improve her coordination, balance and self-confidence.
Apparently the lessons are paying off.
"Amy just learned how to do the back-roll and is very proud of herself," her mother said. "My bed's been very messy ever since she learned to do the back-roll."