Meet James Jones | Boys Gymnastics Coach and Attorney

We had the good fortune of connecting with James Jones and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi James, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
In 2019, there were so many competitive gymnastics programs in the Atlanta area, but there were so few located in the South Metro area. Of the few that were located in the South Metro, none offered boys gymnastics. I became a volunteer coach that had a class for boys that was similar to gymnastics but didn’t incorporate all of the events of the sport. The boys came for an hour and flipped around. The boys had fun in this Rec center program but many of the boys were talented enough to do actual gymnastics and even compete. Several of the parents at the Rec center asked me about competitive gymnastics and how to get their son on a team. I approached the Director of the Rec center with a proposal to start a boys gymnastics team and the Director told me that I would not be able to find enough boys who were interested in being on a gymnastics team, even though there were over 20 boys already in the program. I wasn’t discouraged. I went to another rec center in the area and met with the coordinator and pitched a proposal for a boys gymnastics team. The coordinator at the second rec center also said that he didn’t think I could find boys who were interested in gymnastics and he instead suggested that I do a recreational style class like the previous rec center had. I declined and I took my proposal to the local school system. It seemed I was getting some headway with the school system and I even got a local Principal to agree to have the program in a school, but eventually the plans to start the team fell through. I did research on gyms in black areas of Atlanta and found that there had been several gymnastics centers but many of them closed over the years. So, clearly there was need for a new gym in the Jonesboro, Riverdale, College Park area, especially one that focused solely on boys gymnastics. Traditionally, black boys have not been huge participants in gymnastics, especially if the boys did not grow up middle class or had parents or siblings who were involved in gymnasts. I knew starting a boys gymnastics club in a predominantly black area of Atlanta would expose boys to a new sport and open their eyes to new opportunities. I also knew that since the gym would be in a predominantly black area, then cost would be a major factor so it was very important to me that the tuition was affordable. I wanted to find a way to help families afford the gymnastics tuition, so finding sponsors for the gym was a huge goal. In 2019, a few sponsors supported the program. Since then, several new sponsors have provided scholarships to the gym to allow boys to participate whose parents would not be able to afford the tuition otherwise. The scholarship program funded by sponsors was instrumental in opening the gym and sustaining the operation. Since 2019, more than 50 black boys have participated in gymnastics classes at our gym.

What should our readers know about your business?
I’m a lawyer. My practice focuses mainly on state foster care cases. I’ve been practicing in this area since 2016. By 2019, I really wanted to do something for kids in the community that didn’t center around traumatic court cases. This is when I decided to become a gymnastics coach. Coaching was a huge change from practicing law. Starting the gym had many challenges. A few months after we started our gym, the pandemic happened.  The courts went to virtual hearings due to Covid, however coaching gymnastics has to be in person and hands on, as coaches are the only thing that keeps the boys from falling and incurring serious injury. So, we had to continue practicing under strict covid guidelines. Also, it wasn’t easy becoming a certified gymnastics coach. The training classes are very long and expensive. Becoming a boys gymnastics coach is very different from becoming a boys football or basketball coach, as those coaches may not be required to undergo extensive certification and training classes. Finding our own location was also a challenge. There are a limited number of affordable locations that are big enough, as well as have a tall enough ceiling to accommodate the high flying moves in gymnastics. But eventually, we found a locatoin and have been in operation for three years now. I’ve learned so many lessons along the way, mainly to not just expect the unexpected but to prepare for it. In business, there is always a loop to be thrown and when one has a business dealing with kids, expect several loops per day. No matter the loops we’ve been thrown we are still here, even though many bigger and well-established gymnastics clubs closed down over the last 2 years due to the pandemic. We are still the only competitive boys gymnastics club in the South Metro Atlanta area and to our knowledge the first all black all boys gymnastics team in the country.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I don’t like driving around this city. It’s too big! I take my friends to the Camp Creek Marketplace- it’s is one of my favorite areas in town. People shouldn’t overlook this gem of a shopping plaza. It has everything; fast food and fine dining, night life, grocery shopping and clothing stores. You can even catch a movie in the plaza. For the same reasons, the Fayetteville Pavilion is also one of my favorite places to go. These two shopping plazas have interesting places to shop without the hustle of the downtown Atlanta traffic or the North Atlanta traffic.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Gina White, owner of Phenix Gymnastics in Sandy Springs has been a great contributor to our program’s growth. Our gym is small in comparison to other older, more established gyms. We also lack equipment to train upper level gymnastics. Gina has allowed me to train my advanced level athletes at her gym and it has helped my athletes grow in skills and move ahead in competitive levels.

Website: https://jjgymacademy.com

Instagram: @jjgymacademy

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jones-92b9ab231/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamesjonesesq

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jjgyma